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Imagine a world in which children would be the rulers and could decide not only the outcom
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Recent research suggests that the warming trend (倾向) of the past hundred years or so may be coming to an end. During the past ten years, scientists tell us that the temperature of the world has dropped a little. This would have effects on wind and rain in the weather picture.
Scientists believe clouds may be an important factor (因素) in changing the amount of heat on the earth. Another possibility is that man's agriculture and industry ways may affect the natural weather.
The weather of the world seems to be getting ______.
A.hotter
B.colder
C.warmer
D.freezing
It must have taken a great prehistoric thinker to imagine two thin slices of log connected, at their centers by a string stick, this would roll along just as the logs did, yet be much lighter and easier to handle, thus the wheel and axle came into being and with them the first cart.
The wheel is important because ______ .
A.it was man' s first real invention
B.all transportation depends on it
C.every machine depends on it
D.both B and C
The figure of illiteracy in Europe makes up ______.
A.3.4% of the total population in the world
B.2.5 % of the total illiterate in the world
C.1.7% of the total population in the word
D.1.7 % of the total illiterate in the world
Scientists will have to___new approaches of increasing the world’s power supply.
A.put up with
B.catch up with
C.stand up for
D.come up with
A.it was man’s first real invention
B.all transportation depends on it
C.every machine depends on it
D.both B and C
Suppose the earth’s temperature rose by 3 degrees,________.
A.all the land in the World would be flooded
B.crops would be unable to grow on the earth
C.great harm would be done to mankind
D.the sea level would go by lo centimetres
The temperature of the world in the past ten years has dropped a little ______.
A.because wind and rain changed the weather
B.the drop in the temperature would have effects on wind and rain
C.because wind and rain did not change the weather
D.the drop in the temperature would not have effects on wind and rain
A different and not mutually exclusive ___3___ holds that the future will be a wasteland of a different sort ,one ___4___by purposelessness:Without jobs to give their lives ___5___ ,people will simply become lazy and depressed. ___6___today’s unemployed don ’t seem to be having a great time. One Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americanswho have been unemployed for at least a year report having depression,double the rate for ___7___ Americans. Also,some research suggests that the ___8___ for rising rates of mortality,mental-health problems,and addicting___9___poorly-educated middle-aged people is shortage of well-paid jobs. Perhaps this is why many ___10___ the agonizingdullness of a jobless future.
But it doesn ’t ___11___ follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with unease. Such visions are based on the ___12___ of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. Inthe ___13___ of work,a society designed with other ends in mind could ___14___ strikingly different circumstances for thefuture of labor and leisure. Today,the ___15___ of work may be a bit overblown. “Many jobs are boring ,degrading,unhealthy,and a waste of human potential,” says John Danaher ,a lecturer at the National University of Irelandin Galway.
These days,because leisure time is relatively ___16___ for most workers,people use their free time tocounterbalance the intellectual and emotional ___17___ of their jobs. “When I come home from a hard day ’s work ,Ioften feel ___18___ ,” Danaher says,adding,“In a world in which I don’t have to work,I might feel ratherdifferent ”— perhaps different enough to throw himself ___19___ a hobby or a passion project with the intensity usuallyreserved for ___20___ matters.
1____
A.boasting
B.denying
C.warning
D.ensuring
2A.inequality
B.instability
C.unreliability
D.uncertainty
3A.policy
B.guideline
C.resolution
D.prediction
7A.rich
B.urban
C.educated
D.working
14A.disturb
B.restore
C.exclude
D.yield
16A.tricky
B.lengthy
C.mysterious
D.scarce
19A.off
B.against
C.behind
D.into
20A.technological
B.professional
C.educational
D.interpersonal
4A.characterized
B.divided
C.balanced
D.measured
17A.demands
B.standards
C.qualities
D.threats
5A.wisdom
B.meaning
C.glory
D.freedom
15A.model
B.practice
C.virtue
D.hardship
9A.under
B.beyond
C.alongside
D.among
18A.ignored
B.tired
C.confused
D.starved
6A.Instead
B.Indeed
C.Thus
D.Nevertheless
8A.explanation
B.requirement
C.compensation
D.substitute
13A.absence
B.height
C.face
D.course
10A.leave behind
B.make up
C.worry about
D.set aside
11A.statistically
B.occasionally
C.necessarily
D.economically
12A.chances
B.downsides
C.benefits
D.principles
Will We Run Out of Water?
Picture a "ghost ship" sinking into the sand, left to rot on dry land by a receding sea. Then imagine dust storms sweeping up toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers from the dry seabed and spewing them across towns and villages.
Seem like a scene from a movie about the end of the world? For people living near the Aral sea (咸海) in Central Asia, it's all too real. Thirty years ago, government planners diverted the rivers that flow into the sea in order to irrigate (provide water for) farmland. As a result, the sea has shrunk to half its original size, stranding (使搁浅) ships on dry land. The seawater has tripled in salt content and become polluted, killing all 24 native species offish.
Similar largecale efforts to redirect water in other parts of the world have also ended in ecological crisis, according to numerous environmental groups. But many countries continue to build massive dams and irrigation systems, even though such projects can create more problems than they fix. Why? People in many parts of the world are desperate for water, and more people will need more water in the next century.
"Growing populations will worsen problems with water," says Peter H. Gleick, an environmental scientist at the Pacific Institute for studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a research organization in California. He fears that by the year 2025, as many as one-third of the world's projected (预测的) 8.3 billion people will suffer from water shortages.
WHERE WATER GOES
Only 2.5 percent of all water on Earth is freshwater, water suitable for drinking and growing food, says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project in Amherst, Mass. Two-thirds of this freshwater is locked in glaciers (冰山) and ice caps (冰盖). In fact, only a tiny percentage of freshwater is part of the water cycle, in which water evaporates and rises into the atmosphere, then condenses and falls back to Earth as precipitation (rain or snow).
Some precipitation runs off land to lakes and oceans, and some becomes groundwater, water that seeps into the earth. Much of this renewable freshwater ends up in remote places like the Amazon river basin in Brazil, where few people live, In fact, the world's population has access to only 12,500 cubic kilometers of freshwater—about the amount of water in Lake Superior(苏必利尔湖). And people use half of this amount already. "If water demand continues to climb rapidly," says Postel, "there will be severe shortages and damage to the aquatic (水的) environment."
CLOSE TO HOME
Water woes(灾难) may seem remote to people living in rich countries like the United States. But Americans could face serious water shortages, too especially in areas that rely on groundwater. Groundwater accumulates in aquifers (地下蓄水层), layers of sand and gravel that lie between soil and bedrock. (For every liter of surface water, more than 90 liters are hidden underground.) Although the United States has large aquifers, farmers, ranchers, and cities are tapping many of them for water faster than nature can replenish(补充) it. In northwest Texas, for example, overpumping has shrunk groundwater supplies by 25 percent, according to Postel.
Americans may face even more urgent problems from pollution. Drinking water in the United States is generally safe and meets high standards. Nevertheless, one in five Americans every day unknowingly drinks tap water contaminated with bacteria and chemical wastes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Milwaukee, 400,000 people fell iii in 1993 after drinking tap water tainted with cryptosporidium (隐孢子虫), a microbe (微生物) that causes fever, diarrhea (腹泻) and vomiting.
THE SOURCE
Where so contaminants come from? In developing countries, people dump raw (未经处理的) sewage(污水) into the same streams and rivers from which they draw water for drinking and co
A.Y
B.N
C.NG