It was once thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and/or heavy automobile traffic. Today, we know that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is actually worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the entire eastern half of the United States and led to health warnings even in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be affected by air pollution. Some scientists feel that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a “greenhouse effect" - holding in heat reflected from the earth and raising the world's average temperature. If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be under water.
Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particulate (废气排往空中而形成的微粒、颗粒) matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature ─ a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to new ice age and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. At present we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report prepared by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very likely). Perhaps, if we are very lucky, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now.
1. As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution ______.
A. caused widespread damage in the countryside
B. affected the entire eastern half of the United States
C. had damaging effects on health
D. existed merely in urban and industrial areas
2. As far as the greenhouse effect is concerned, the author ______.
A. shares the same view with the scientists
B. is uncertain of its occurrence
C. rejects it as being ungrounded
D. thinks that it will destroy the world soon
3. The underlined word “offset" in Para. 2 could best be replaced by______.
A. slip into B. make up for C. set up D. catch up with
4. This passage is mainly concerned with ______.
A. the greenhouse effect B. the burning of fossil fuels
C. the potential effect of air pollution D. the possibility of a new ice age
When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.
It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie’s basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.
“Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint.” She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted bit stripes (条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was fantastic!
The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn’t wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother’s face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.
My mother shut the car door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, “What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors’ trees, but this! Come inside right now!” I stood there glaring hack at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.
“Now go clean it up!” Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.
Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful.
1. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?
A. To introduce Stephanie to her.
B. To prevent her from seeing his painting.
C. To put the materials back in the yard.
D. To show his artwork to her.
2.In his mother’s eyes, the writer_______.
A. was a born artist B. always caused trouble
C. was a problem solver D. worked very hard
3. The underlined word “rainbow” in the last paragraph refers to ______.
A. the rainbow in the sky
B. the stripes on the pavement
C. something imaginative and fun
D. important lessons learned in childhood
4. It can be learned from the passage that parents should ________.
A. encourage children to paint
B. value friendship among children
C. discover the hidden talent in children
D. protect rather than destroy children’s dreams
When I got back home I saw a message pinned to the door, ____ “Sorry to miss you; will call later.”
A. read B. reads C. to read D. reading
The achievements we have made are largely ___ the hard work of our parents and teachers.
A. thanks for B. resulting in C. leading to D. due to
— It is said that the cycling race around the Qinghai Lake was very hard.
— So it was. Only a handful of cyclists made _______.
A. one B. it C. that D. them
The workers wouldn’t run the _______ in letting an unreliable person take charge of the factory.
A. risk B. danger C. chance D. trouble
