（) average 10 tons of coal are needed every month.

A．It will rise an average of 1 foot.

B．It will be worn down an average of 1 foot.

C．It will be worn down to sea level.

D．It will lose 730 million tons of solid matter.

Fresh Water Shortage

A water crisis is about to explode. Fresh water is a finite resource. The amount of fresh water supply provided by the hydrological cycle does not increase. Water everywhere on the planet is an integral part of the global hydrologic cycle. Precipitation (降水) originates as evaporation from land and the oceans. Soil moisture is used by plants, which return more moisture to the atmosphere, which then returns to the Earth as rain or snow. Barlow and Clark add, "Unless we dramatically change our ways, between one-half and two-thirds of humanity will be living with severe freshwater shortages within the next quarter-century."

Humans share the Earth with other creatures who also need water, therefore, a water shortage is also a crisis for wildlife. Of the 25-biodiversity hot spots designated by Conservation International, 10 are located in water-short regions.

Fresh Water in Man's Life

Seventy percent of all the fresh water is used for irrigation.

？ Agriculture uses the largest amount of freshwater (70%).

？ Forty percent of the world grain harvest is produced on irrigated land, therefore, a water shortage will become a food shortage.

？ Countries are importing grain as a way to import water. It takes 1,000 tons of water to grow one ton of grain. On the other hand, exporters of grain are exporting water. (The U.S. annual grain exports of 90 million tons of grain represent 90 billion tons of water, an amount that exceeds the 67-billion-ton annual flow of the Missouri River. )

？ Producing one ton of grain requires 1,000 tons of water, but producing one ton of beef requires 15,000 tons of water (and nearly that much is required to produce a ton of cotton). Producing wheat or soybeans requires only 2% of the water required by beef.

Twenty percent of fresh water is used by industry.

As water becomes scarce, demand for water in cities and by industry is satisfied by taking water from a country's agriculture, with imported grain offsetting the shortfall. Conservation programs are not applied to industry.

Ten percent of fresh water is used for residential purposes.

Residential use accounts for 10 percent of fresh water use and about three-fourths of the urban water demand. Each day in the U.S., more than 4.8 billion gallons of drinking water is flushed down toilets.

Showers account for about 20 percent of total indoor water use. The EPA says that by replacing standard 4.5-gallon-per-minute showerheads with 2.5-gallon-per-minute heads, which cost less than $5 each, a family of four can save approximately 20,000 gallons of water per year. Outdoor residential water use varies greatly, but on average, nationally, lawn care accounts for about 32 percent of the total residential outdoor use. Other outdoor uses include washing automobiles, maintaining swimming pools, and cleaning sidewalks and driveways.

Signs of Stress as the Demand for Fresh Water

Rivers are running dry.

Many major rivers—including the Colorado, Ganges, Indus, Rio Grande, and Yellow—are so over-tapped that they now run dry for part of the year. Freshwater wetlands have shrunk by about half worldwide. In 1972, the Yellow River in China failed to reach the sea for the first time in history. That year it failed on 15 days; every year since, it has run dry for a longer period of time, until in 1997, it failed to reach the sea for more than half a year.

Water tables are falling on every continent.

Aquifer (蓄水池) depletion is a new problem. Water tables are falling from the overpumping of groundwater in large portions of China, India, Iran, Mexico, the Middle East, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. India has the highest volume of annual groundwater overdraft of any nation in the world. In most parts of the country, water mining is taking place at

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

听力原文： The ordinary raindrop is a mighty earthmover with sufficient strength to cut rock. When rainwater collects on the surface of the ground, some of it evaporates and some of it sinks into the earth. The remainder begins to flow downhill, commencing its lengthy journey from brook to stream to lake, or to a river that will carry it to the sea.

As water flows along the ground, it picks up sand, pebbles, even boulders. It uses them to gnaw at the sides and bottoms of its channel, gradually loosening more earth.

By this process enormous amounts of mud and rock are moved from the land to the sea. Each year the Mississippi River carries 730 million tons of solid matter into the Gulf of Mexico.

This constant hauling of land into the sea is lowering the United States' average height above sea level at a rate of about one foot every 9,000 years. If erosion continues at the same rate, the United States will be worn completely down to sea level in about 23 million years.

What does erosion by water result in？

(30)

A．Wearing down the soil.

B．Building up land.

C．Enriching the soil.

D．Loosening more earth.

The passage is mainly about ______.

A．the average life expectancy

B．the situation of being old

C．the differences between the old and the young

D．the way to stay young when one is actually old

How Global Warming Works

Gases in the Earth's atmosphere act like glass in a greenhouse—trapping heat and making life on Earth possible. But there is a delicate balance. Burning coal, oil and natural gas increases atmospheric concentrations of these gases. Over the past century, increases in industry, transportation, and electricity production have increased gas concentrations in the atmosphere faster than natural processes can remove them leading to human-caused warming of the globe.

The Sources Of Global Warming

The major source of global warming is carbon dioxide pollution from power plants, automobiles, and industry. Another source is global deforestation.

Power plants are responsible for more than a third of U.S. CO2 emissions, yet there are no caps on CO2 emissions from power plants or any other industry.

Gas guzzling cars and light trucks are also responsible for a third of U.S. CO2 emissions. Current regulations allow for very inefficient vehicles which spew tons of CO2.

Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. When they are cut and burned CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. Massive deforestation around the globe is releasing large amounts of CO2 and decreasing the forests' ability to take CO2 from the atmosphere.

Solutions

The U.S., with only four percent of the world's population, is responsible for 22 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, solutions exist to cut our global warming emissions. Decision makers in the United States should take the following steps.

Increasing fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks would cut millions of tons of CO2 pollution as well as decreasing dependence on foreign oil.

Putting a cap on CO2 from power plants would cut millions of tons of CO2 pollution as well as decreasing pollution that causes acid rain, smog, and respiratory illness.

Shifting investment from fossil fuels like coal and oil to renewable energy and energy efficiency would allow cleaner, more sustainable sources of energy to take their rightful place as market leaders.

Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol would be a modest but important first step toward international emissions reductions.

The Evidence

Recently, alarming events that are consistent with scientific predictions about the effects of climate change have become more and more commonplace. The global average temperature has increased by about 0.5℃ and sea level has risen by about 10 inches(25 cm) in the past century. Official confirmation came in 1995, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an officially appointed international panel of over 2,500 of the world's leading scientific experts, found that evidence suggests a human influence on the global climate.

The following are events which consistent with scientists' predictions of the effects of global warming:

The past two decades have witnessed a stream of new heat and precipitation records. The 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1980, the hottest year ever on record is 1997, and the hottest January through July on record occurred in 1998.

Glaciers are melting around the world. Alaska's Columbia Glacier has retreated more than eight miles in the last 16 years while temperatures there have increased. A section of an Antarctic ice shelf as big as the District of Columbia broke off.

Severe floods like the devastating Midwestern floods of 1993 and 1997 are becoming more common.

Infectious diseases are moving into new areas as seen in the recent outbreaks of Dengue fever in Texas and Malaria in New Jersey.

The Opposition

The Global Climate Coalition, a powerful coalition of oil, power, and auto companies has followed the lead of tobacco companies by denyi

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

are closer relatives to us than these warm-blooded mammals. And how they got into the sea is one of the most fascinating stories of【C3】______ Most authorities believe that 60 million years ago ancestors of modern whales were four-legged, wolf-size animals living on the sea shores,【C4】______ an abundance of fish and shrimp tempted them to try wading.【C5】______ 10 to 15 million years, their bodies grew, forelegs shrank into flippers used for balance and steering and hind legs disappeared. As a result of some amazing transformations, they are now helpless on land. If stranded on a beach, they can barely breathe.

With abundant【C6】______ of food, whales grew into the largest creatures that lived,【C7】______ larger than dinosaurs. A blue whale can grow to 100 feet. Its tongue is ten feet thick and heavier than an elephant. Some arteries are big enough for a child to swim【C8】______ . The half-ton heart has walls two feet thick and pumps eight tons of blood.【C9】______ its size comes awesome strength. A blue whale swimming【C10】______ 15 knots generates 1 000 horsepower.【C11】______ their size, these giants move at a good speed. An 18-ton whale can even【C12】______ 12 m. p. h., over short distances. A whale can【C13】______ to 9 000 pounds of food a day. The world's biggest creature【C14】______ itself almost entirely on shrimp--like krill smaller than a person's thumb.

Maternal instincts are also【C15】______ . Because a calf is born underwater, the mother must get it to the surface before it【C16】______ Often another whale will help. The mother pushes it gently【C17】______ the baby is confident with its swimming--usually after about 30 minutes. If the calf is【C18】______ , she may support it on her back until it gradually rots away. Like all mammals, whale babies【C19】______ mother's milk. And the milk is more than 30-percent fat, over 10-percent protein, and the babies grow extremely fast. A blue whale calf lengthens【C20】 two inches a day and gains an average seven pounds per hour.

【C1】

A．with

B．to

C．for

D．in

听力原文：W: Tell me, Peter, what makes Harold's so famous？

M: Well, it's the biggest department store in the UK, and its food hall and Egyptian hall are very famous. People come to Harold's just to see them.

W: What is special about the food hall？

M: It sells many different kinds of food. For example, it has 250 kinds of cheese from all over the world, and more than 180 kinds of bread. Customers also love all the different kinds of chocolate. They buy 100 tons every year.

W: That's amazing, and why is the Egyptian hall so famous？

M: Well, when people see it they feel they're in another world. It looks like an Egyptian building from 4,000 years ago, and it sells beautiful objects. They are not 4,000 years old, of course.

W: Is it true that Harold's produces its own electricity？

M: Yes, it does. 70% ,enough for a small town. To light the outside of the building we use 11,500 light bulbs.

W: Really, tell me, how many customers do you have on an average day？ And how much do they spend？

M: About 30,000 people come on an average day. But during the sales, the number increases to 300,000 customers a day. How much do they spend？ Well, on average, customers spend about 1.5 million pounds a day. The record for one day is 9 million pounds.

W: 9 million pounds in one day？

M: Yes, on the first day of the January sales.

W: Harold's says it sells everything to everybody everywhere, is that really true？

M: Oh, yes, of course. Absolutely everything.

(23)

A．Enormous size of its stores.

B．Numerous varieties of food.

C．Its appealing surroundings.

D．Its rich and colorful history.

The rule changes are likely to.

A．provide $ 90 billion in financial aid

B．lower the amount of financial aid provided by the government

C．cost each family an average of $1,000 per year

D．have a ripple effect across federal income taxes

Many people like the gigantic whales. Human sympathy 【C1】______ whales is only natural of all the creatures in the sea. 【C2】______ are closer relatives to us than these warm-blooded mammals. And how they got into the sea is one of the most fascinating stories of 【C3】______ . Most authorities believe that 60 million years ago ancestors of modern whales were four-legged, wolf-size animals living on the sea shores, 【C4】______ an abundance of fish and shrimp tempted them to try wading. Over 10 to 15 million years, their bodies grew, forelegs shrank into flippers used for 【C5】______ and steering and hind legs disappeared. As a result of some amazing transformations, they arc now helpless on land. If stranded on a beach, they can barely breathe.

With abundant 【C6】______ of food, whales grew into the largest creatures that lived, 【C7】______ larger than dinosaurs. A blue whale can grow to 100 feet. Its tongue is ten feet thick and heavier than an elephant. Some arteries are big enough for a child to swim 【C8】______ . The half-ton heart has walls two feet thick and pumps eight tons of blood. 【C9】______ its size comes awesome strength. A blue whale swimming 【C10】______ 15 knots generates 1000 horsepower. 【C11】______ their size, these giants move at a good speed. An 18-ton whale can even 【C12】______ 12 m. p. h., over short distances. A whale can 【C13】______ up to 9000 pounds of food a day. The world's biggest creature 【C14】______ itself almost entirely on shrimp-like krill, smaller than a person's thumb.

Maternal instincts are also highly 【C15】______ . Because a calf is born underwater, the mother must get it to the surface before it 【C16】______ . Often another whale will help. The mother pushes it gently 【C17】______ the baby is confident with its swimming usually after about 30 minutes. If the calf is born 【C18】______ , she may support it on her back until it gradually rots away. Like all mammals, whale babies feed 【C19】______ mother's milk. And the milk is more than 30-percent fat, over 10-percent protein, and the babies grow extremely fast. A blue whale calf lengthens 【C20】______ two inches a day and gains an average seven pounds per hour.

【C1】

A．with

B．to

C．for

D．in

A.6

B.7

C.8

D.9