When in Australia recently, I visited a eucalyptus...
When in Australia recently, I visited a eucalyptus forest that was once the scene of an appalling wildfire. Perhaps naively, I had expected to find that many trees had been killed .They hadn’t. They had blackened bark, but were otherwise looking rather well, many of them wreathed in new young leaves. This prompted me to consider fire and the role it plays as a force of nature.
Fossil charcoals tell us that wildfires have been part of life on the earth for as long as there have been plants on land. Fire was here long before such plants as grasses; it predated the first flowers. And without wanting to get mystical about it, fire is ,in many respects , a kind of animal, albeit an ethereal one .Like any animal, it consumes oxygen .Like a sheep, it eats plants. Sometimes, it merely nibbles a few leaves; sometimes it kills grown trees. Sometimes it is more deadly and destructive than a swarm of locusts.
The shape-shifting nature of fire makes it hard to study. Some fires are infernally hot; others, relatively cool. Some stay at ground level; others climb trees. Moreover, fire is much more likely to appear in some parts of the world than in others. Satellite images of the earth show that wildfires are rare in, say, Northern Europe, and common in parts of Central Africa and Australia.
Once a fire gets started, many factors contribute to how it will behave. The weather obviously has a huge effect: winds can fan flames, rains can quench them. The lie of the land matters, too: fire runs uphill more readily than it goes down. But another crucial factor is what type of plants the fire has to eat.
It’s common knowledge that plants regularly exposed to fire tend to have features that help them cope with it, such as thick bark, or seeds that only grow after being exposed to intense heat or smoke.
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第1題
When I visited the Netherlands last year, my first impression was that it was all too good to be true: a country where everyone is satisfied! So, ___46___ that young people everywhere are gifted social critics, I sought out some university students and ___47__ what issues young people were ___48___ . I was stunned to learn that the main problem students there see is with employment. IN a country that’s made good work conditions a(n) ___49___ , this came as a real surprise. Even more stunning was the fact that it wasn’t unemployment ___50___ these students were worried about --- it was a shortage of highly paid management positions ___51___ to fresh university graduates. As the students expressed their resentment toward the older generation for “ ___52___ all the good jobs” and their bitterness over the thought of struggling to ___53___ on an entry – level salary, I couldn’t help ___54___ my own early employment experiences. I had graduated with honors form. a good school, but my first job was doing door – to – door market research for a salary that just barely allowed me to get by. For some reason I never doubted that I’d ultimately ___55___ a better job. I simply accepted that a young person who was just starting out would have to struggle a bit at first. (216 words)
46. A. thinking B. to see C. knowing D. found
47. A. inquired after B. inquired of C. inquired into D. inquired
48. A. worrying B. concerned about C. concerned with D. cared about
49. A. priority B. choice C. must D. importance
50. A. which B. whom C. the D. that
51. A. preferred B. limited C. supplied D. available
52. A. taking on B. taking up C. taking over D. taking to
53. A. earn B. make ends meet C. survive with D. live with
54. A. calling back B. memorizing C. looking back on D. recalling on
55. A. end up with B. end with C. end in D. end on
第2題
Cubes aren"t usually the go-to shape when creating an object that"s meant to move around， but （1）in Switzerland have created one that can do just that—along with a（2）of other surprising talents. Called the Cubli， it measures nearly 6 inches oneach side and can walk around by （3） flipping itself over. Perhaps more impressively， itcan also balance on any of its sides or even just a single corner. As the research team fromETH Zurich"s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control（4）in a video， the cube caneven remain balanced while a surface is raised up at an angle beneath it.
Though it"s a moving cube， the Cubli still （5） on a series of spinning wheels to getgoing. Three internal wheels angled along a different axis each will spin faster or slower inorder to maintain enough momentum to keep the cube balanced. By quickly（6）a spinningwheel， the cube can also be caused to flip over，（7）allowing it to move around. Theresearchers say that Cubli"s system of spinning wheels is similar to what （8） satellitesout in space， and that other research groups have considered using this technology to buildrobots that could be used to explore other planets.
A group of researchers at MIT later demonstrated another use for（9）like this:allowing a robot to reassemble itself. MIT"s cubes had magnets embedded across theirsides and edges， which let them grip each other and form. different shapes. Though theyweren"t able to balance like the Cubli can， MIT"s "M-blocks" could move much（ 10）actually hopping offthe ground when getting around.
A．blocks
B．continually
C．delightful
D．demonstrates
E．effectively
F．further
G．halting
H．handful
I．hardly
J．preceding
K．relies
L．researchers
M．spheres
N．stabilizes
O．stronger
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第3題
W: Hi, Bill. So wonderful! I can't wait to hear about it!
M: Recently, I visited the La Chagire Cave in New Mexico, my dream has always been to discover a new passage way. I had a chance there, because La Chagire is so large that discoveries are frequently made there.
W: Was it newly discovered?
M: The cave was not even discovered until 1986.
However, people in that area had figured that there must be a cave nearby, because of the strong wind that blew from behind the huge rock that covered the entrance. Enormous amount of air enter and exit the cave in order to maintain balance of the pressure with the inside air.
W: You must have had to fight heavy wind when you were in the cave.
M: Exactly, I had to fight 45 mile per hour winds. After all that effort, I had to be extremely careful maintaining my energy level. People who are tired tend to be careless, and may be more concerned about getting out of the cave than taking care of it.
W: Anything interesting or thrilling in the cave?
M: There are formations in La Chagire that look like ocean waves, Christmas trees and other stuff no one has ever seen before.
W: Caves are normally created by carbonic acid, right?
M: But this cave sculpted out by very powerful sulfuric acid that swells up from below.
(23)
A．He was asked to leads group of inexperienced carets there.
B．It was the first cave that he had ever visited.
C．Clearly marked trails made it easy to explore.
D．lie hoped to make a discovery.
第4題
I wouldn't like you to think for one moment that I think education is about earning money, and I merely talked about the money education brings to Australia to reinforce what a big program it is and how important it is for Australia. and for Australian finances and there seems little doubt that governments really are obsessed by export dollars. I'm not saying that's wrong I'm just making a comment, but governments are obsessed by export dollars and therefore education is important. //
When I went to school, and I went to a government funded public school, there were about 750 boys at that school, and there were two Chinese students one of whom was me. Last year I spoke at a speech day. It is now a co-educational school, but 70 percent of the students were of Asian heritage, and of that 70 percent, about three quarters of them were Chinese. It's a selective school and therefore reflects, I think, the Chinese and the Vietnamese families' determination that education is important if they want their children to succeed. //I think that's great, but if any of you have visited the campus of my university you would notice one thing and that is it looks very Asian. At the present time, the University of NSW has about 34,000 students, 27 percent of whom are overseas students and the majority of those are ethnic Chinese but if you look at the campus you would think about 55 to 60 percent look Asian because the other quarter are like me, Asians who are Australians. And that's an interesting reflection of what's happened to Australia. //
(Excerpts from the speech delivered by Dr. John Yu, Chairman of the Australia-China Council, on the Australia-China Oration Series 2002, November 6, Beijing)
