Ever wonder how this season’s celebrations affect the environment? Guest blogger Krista Fairles takes an amusing look at this very topic:
The holidays are a wonderful, cheerful time when most people wait for Santa to bring them presents. But I’m not like most people. I spend my time wondering just what the environmental impacts of Santa Claus and his reindeer are, and more importantly, how I can calculate those impacts.
Lately I’ve been particularly curious as to whether Santa’s old sled is a clean green flying machine, or if he should be replacing his 8 reindeer with an environmentally-friendly car.
I should mention that, surprisingly, I was unable to find statistics specific to Santa’s magical flying reindeer, so these calculations use numbers from various sources and may not represent actual pollution caused by Santa and his animals. In other words, don’t complain to the government about the damage Santa is causing to the environment based on this article.
Santa’s yearly trip around the globe is 44,000km long, twice the average of a North American driver. If we assume that the magic provides the altitude for this trip, then reindeer power only needs to push Santa’s sled forward. To complete the trip in 12 hours, I estimate they must travel at a speed of about 3100km/h. To travel at this speed, for this length of time, the reindeer need to eat an incredible 980 million calories each!
So the next question is: how much food is in 980 million calories? Well, if they’re eating corn, they’d need to eat 16,500 lbs each - or 1.6 acres of food. Growing 12.8 acres of corn has its own implications for the environment that we’ll leave for another calculation.
We now need to consider that during the global trip the reindeer are “letting out” some of that corn in the form of methane (甲烷，沼气). A resting cow produces 110 kg of methane per year, so flying reindeer would each let out about 4.8 tons. With methane causing 20 times the global warming damage of CO2, and the altitude increasing that damage by 1000% that another 20 times, we can put Santa’s round-trip emissions at 15,488 tons. This is much more than the 100 tons an environmentally-friendly car would release on the same trip!
Bad Santa.
1.Which aspect does the writer NOT mention in her analyses about reindeer’s influence on environment?
A.Distance covered. B.Money spent on food.
C.Tons of waste let out. D.Calories consumed.
2.According to the passage, how many acres of corn would Santa need to feed 12 reindeer?
A.12.8. B.16. C.19.2. D.128.
3.Which of the following words best describes the tone of the passage?
A.Humorous and concerned. B.Cheerful and friendly.
C.Academic and formal. D.Serious and boring.
4.Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
A.Santa, watch where you’re going! B.Let’s reduce waste on Christmas celebrations!
C.Santa Claus is coming to town! D.Is Santa driving clean and green?
By the mid-1920s, Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. had been one of the most celebrated men .In 1957, when Pablo Picasso was in his seventh decade, he joked that x-ray technology might one day reveal a lost work underneath one of his early paintings. Today, that prediction became reality although the technology involved goes far beyond x-rays.
Using hyper-modern tools to peer into one of his Blue Period paintings, researchers have not only shown a hidden piece of art history in astonishing new detail, they have revealed a striking amount of insight into Picasso's creative process and style.
The investigation focused on"La Miséreuse accroupie, "or" Crouching Woman, "painted in 1902 and currently owned by the Art Gallery. The painting, an oil on canvas (画布) piece drawing a crouching (蜷坐的) woman who wears a long coat, shows Picasso’s typical Blue Period colors: grey, green, blue and white. It shows that the innovative modernist was inspired by the lines of an underlying landscape painted by an unknown artist.
The analysis also exposes several changes to the woman described in the painting,many of which Picasso ultimately abandoned. Researchers released their findings on Saturday’s press conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas. “We think now it's a landscape painted by someone enrolled at the fine arts academy in Barcelona, someone in Picasso’s orbit but not in his close circle, ”says Kenneth Brummel, assistant curator of modern art for the Art Gallery of Ontario.
As to why Picasso would have “recycled” another artist’s canvas(油画布), reasons could range from economic necessity, as a young artist still establishing himself, to deep inspiration driven by the lines of the image already laid down there. Picasso often re-used canvases for this reason."
“He didn't shave off the canvas or put a preparatory layer over it,” Brummel says.“ Picasso saw this landscape, found inspiration, and decided he was going to paint it immediately."
1.According to the text ,the most likely process of Picasso's painting?
①Picasso reused another artist's canvas.
②Inspired by a landscape painting, Picasso decided to paint one too.
③Picasso painted a woman on the landscape painting.
④Not happy with the landscape, Picasso covered it totally.
⑤Picasso made changes to the woman
A.②③④ B.④②③
C.①③⑤ D.②①④
2.How did Picasso deal with the landscape painting?
A.He reused it because he hated wasting anything.
B.He hid his own paintings beneath the landscape.
C.He took the advantage of it and created a new one.
D.He kept it to himself with the permission of its owner.
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A.People often celebrated Picasso’s success.
B.Picasso was not well-off when he started his career.
C.Picasso became successful overnight.
D.Picasso was good at imitating other artists’ works.
4.Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A.Picasso's predication turned out to be joke.
B.High technology uncovered art mysteries.
C.Seeing is not always believing.
D.Lost Artwork Found Under Famous Picasso Painting.
Volcanic ash from Iceland’s volcano continues to cause disruptions to air travel across Northern Europe . As the nearly universal grounding of aircraft causes problems for 25 countries in Europe, the passengers are starting to run into secondary problems from the four days of being stranded. Additionally, the further effect of economic losses are beginning to pile up.
Already the chaos surrounding the volcanic ash is being compared to the days after 9/11. As the ash plume continues to ground air transport, it is estimated that nearly 17,000 flights a day have been canceled at the cost of nearly $2.7 million a day, according to a report filed by the Wall Street Journal. In the report, it was said that cost was for a single airline, and that the cost for other lines could be measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.
While the cost on the airline industry is significant , the cost on passengers is more significant. Airline cancellations have forced many travelers into hotels and more are looking to their travel insurance plans to cover the costs. The U.K.’s Independent reported that travel insurance plans have a rule that make claims from travelers invalid. In these policies , travel insurances which are purchased as a way to cover additional costs when travel plans are unexpectedly disrupted because the specific event like a volcanic eruption is not mentioned. Then the policy does not cover the event.
However, there is hope,though, as Air France and Dutch airline KLM both report positive test flights of aircraft at different altitudes to ensure the safety of flight. It is not known if these flights will be the beginning or just one-off chance flights. These flights were operated in a window of operations in the ash plume, but due to the erratic nature of the airflow, there is no guarantee that this will open up air operations over Europe. At this rate, the nations of Europe will be likely to see a significant impact on their pocketbooks, both in the corporations and the individual households.
1.The underlined word "stranded" probably means______.
A.struck. B.controlled. C.stuck. D.disturbed.
2.From this passage we can see that____________.
A.the volcanic ash caused more trouble than 9/11 did.
B.airlines suffered great losses due to the eruption.
C.travelers had to ask for help from the government.
D.nearly $.2.7 million was lost in all.
3.Why are claims about insurance from travelers unacceptable ?
A.Because volcanic eruption isn’t included in travel plans.
B.Because volcanic eruption companies don’t keep their word.
C.Because airlines haven’t bought insurance for travelers.
D.Because airlines didn’t expect the eruption .
4.This passage mainly tells us about __________.
A.the volcanic eruption in Iceland. B.the great trouble for air travels.
C.the unfavorable flight condition. D.the cost of European airlines.
Regarded as one of the English language’s most gifted poets, John Keats wrote poetry that concentrated on imagery, human nature, and philosophy (哲学). Although Keats didn’t receive much formal literary education, his own studies and passion brought him much success. Additionally, his own life situation influenced his poetry greatly.
Growing up as a young boy in London in a lower middle-class family, the young John didn’t attend a private school, but went to a public one. His teachers and his family’s friends regarded him as an optimistic boy who favored playing and fighting much more than minding his studies. After his father’s death in the early 1800s, followed by his mother’s passing due to tuberculosis (肺结核), he began viewing life differently. He wanted to escape the world and did so by reading anything he could get his hands on.
At around the age of 16, the teenage John Keats began studying under a surgeon so that he too might become a doctor. However, his literary appetite had taken too much of his fancy, especially with his addiction to the poetry of Ehmund Spenser. He was able to have his first full poem published in the Examiner in 1816, entitled O Solitude! If I Must With Thee Dwell. Within two months in 1817, Keats had written an entire volume of poetry, but was sharply criticized by a magazine. However, the negative response didn’t stop his love of rhythm .
John Keats’ next work was Endymion, which was published in May 1818. The story involves a shepherd who falls in love with the moon goddess and leads him on an adventure of one boy’s hope to overcome the limitations of being human. Following Endymion, however, he tried something more narrative-based (叙事体的) and wrote Isabella. During this time, John Keats began seeing his limitations in poetry due to his own limit in life experiences. He would have to have the “knowledge” associated with his poems. His next work was Hyperion that would attempt to combine all that he learned. However, a bout (发作) with tuberculosis while visiting Italy would keep him from his work and eventually take his life in 1821.
1.Why did John Keats’ change attitude towards life ?
A.Because his parents passed away.
B.Because he only received poor education.
C.Because Edmund Spenser’s poetry influenced him too much.
D.Because he received a lot of criticism from a magazine.
2.While trying to achieve his dream of becoming a poet, John Keats was_____.
A.experienced. B.impatient.
C.knowledgeable. D.determined.
3.What do we know from the passage?
A.Keats received little education at school.
B.Endymion was concerning a real love story.
C.In 1816 Keats spent two months writing a poem.
D.Keats once had a chance of becoming a doctor.
I first started writing in the summer of 1998. Back then I was a teacher. After years of dreaming, I decided it was finally time to write a book. For 10 years I wrote, __ four middle-grade novels and six pictures books almost only to editors. This was __ in the snail-mail age. Remember the ____ you experienced as a child waiting for birthday presents to arrive in the mail? That was me for the better part of a decade.
In Spring 2009, at the last minute, I decided to hand in a middle-grade historical novel-in-verse(韵文) to enter for a(n) __ at a local writing conference. I knew in my heart that it was my __ work, but I wasn’t sure how it would be __ alongside pieces meant for the adult market. But then ----I won. My prize __ a one-on-one interview with an editor who, after __ my manuscript(原稿), asked, “Why don’t you have a(n) __ yet?”
Not long after that, I __ with my first agent. Then in 2013, after parting with my first agent, I was again faced with the ___ for representation. This time I submitted to three agencies and got two __. Over the span of 20 years, I’ve got 18 completed manuscripts and was ___ almost 350 times. It took me 14 years to see my first book __ the shelf. You could look at these numbers and get pretty __. I can look at these numbers and feel the same. I know plenty of people with a __ apprenticeship(学徒期). I have friends who have been more __ and they have published far more than I have. But here’s the __ thing I’ve learned in the last 20 years: My process is mine. My journey is mine. Each book finds its way on its own.
The writing life is a long-term journey. There is no right way. There is no short _____. There is no easy road. There is a lot of frustration and ______, but there is joy and satisfaction, too.
1.A.rewriting B.introducing C.creating D.submitting
2.A.already B.soon C.back D.later
3.A.entertainment B.expectation C.appreciation D.embarrassment
4.A.reception B.publication C.competition D.interview
5.A.creative B.new C.casual D.concrete
6.A.praised B.criticized C.refused D.received
7.A.contained B.followed C.ensured D.included
8.A.polishing B.reviewing C.correcting D.adapting
9.A.agent B.instructor C.employer D.fan
10.A.argued B.signed C.discussed D.dealt
11.A.hunt B.research C.request D.interview
12.A.complaints B.prizes C.responses D.offers
13.A.teased B.rejected C.blamed D.replaced
14.A.under B.beside C.on D.off
15.A.moved B.amused C.inspired D.frustrated
16.A.longer B.harder C.happier D.shorter
17.A.famous B.creative C.productive D.enthusiastic
18.A.key B.funny C.concrete D.lively
19.A.race B.distance C.cut D.range
20.A.regret B.disappointment C.encouragement D.criticism
Look at the trouble you are in！_______your parents’ advice.
A.If only you would have followed B.If only you followed
C.If only you would follow D.If only you had followed
