画鸵萌宠网
排序题专项训练一
Directions：
The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 1—5, you are required to recognize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A-G to fill in each numbered box. The first and the last paragraphs have been placed for you in Boxes. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
一
[A] Any number of things can damage a work of art. Smog eats away at stone and metal. Insects chew wood. Moisture causes wood and canvas to swell, shrink and finally rot. For one art show, a painting was flown from England to Rome. During the flight, the canvas shrank so much that the paint lost its grip and began peeling. When the box was opened in Rome, there was a half bare painting——and a pile of tiny colored flakes.
[B] Paintings on wood are then carried into a boxcar sized room. The door is sealed shut. For 24 hours, a deadly gas seeps into all the cracks in the wood to kill hidden bugs and their eggs. Paintings on torn canvas go to a room where new cloth backings are glued and ironed on. Finally the paintings are ready to be given new life by one of the restorers.
[C]On the ground floor of a five story building in Rome, Italy, a lead aproned man carefully places a 400 year old painting on a table. Then he steps back and flips the switch of a 50,000 volt X ray machine. Nearby, another painting is being wheeled into a special oven. Elsewhere the buzz of a power saw is heard from behind a closed door. Two workers are cutting the back off a 500 year old wood panel painting.
[D]Doctor Urbani remembers,“The painting was rushed to us. It looked hopeless. But we never give up on a case.” After months of slow, careful work, every piece of paint had been puzzled back together and glued on a new canvas. The job was so well done that no damage could be seen.
[E]No wonder they did harm. They often cleaned paintings with strong black soap, or scrubbed them with raw onions and green apples. Instead of just touching up damaged spots, most early restorers painted over them with a heavy hand. Sometimes they even changed the picture.
[F]Such things happen every day at Rome’s Institute of Restoration. Headed by Doctor Giovanui Urbani, the men and women here work at keeping works of art in good health. In terms of art treasures, Italy is one of the richest countries in the world. Yet until 1939, when Italy’s government founded the Institute, the country’s museums had to hire private restorers for cleaning and repair jobs. Says Doctor Urbani, “Most of the restorers did not have proper training. They often did more harm than good.”
[G]When a painting arrives at the art hospital, it goes to the laboratory, where scientific work is done. Infrared and ultraviolet photographs are taken. These photographs make it possible to see through the thin top coats of paint to find out if the painting has been touched up or painted over in the past. Newer coats of paint stand out as dark spots against older coats of paint. If there seems to be a different picture beneath the one showing on the surface, the painting is finally X rayed.
答案及解析
1. F。 开篇的第一段向人们展示了一家“艺术品医院”内的三幅场景，那么这家“艺术”品医院究竟做的是什么，就由此段来回答。“Such things happen every day”不仅与上文衔接紧密，并且引起了下文，说明其具体的工作。
2. E。 如果顺利地选择了第二段，那么根据第二段后部分more harm than good，我们可初步选定是此项，因为“No wonder they did harm”与其前相呼应;再细看，此项是对上段的解释说明，由此可判断此项放第三段是正确的。
3. A。 由第三段最后一句“有时他们甚至改变了整幅作品”可知下面的文章可能会对其作进一步的阐述，经细看A项是对上段的解释，并且本段开始的damage 及句中的eats away, swell, shrink, rot 等词是上段中心词damage的重复及词义互换词，因此可知此项为正确项。
4. D。由上面两段介绍作品的破坏程度，让人们想到是不是这些作品就没办法修复了呢?带着这个疑问看到此项，“看上去没希望了，但我们每一次都不放弃”说明此项是一个承上启下的段落;同时由最后一句“no damage could be seen”与上文遥相呼应，此项一定是正确选项。
5. G。 由上段启出的下文必定是如何对一个看上去没希望的作品进行修复，即修复的过程，经过排除，可知此项是正确选项。
中心思想
本文向大家介绍了一家特殊的医院——艺术品医院，描述了如何对一些受损艺术品进行处理修复的方法和过程，也让人们了解了它存在的价值与重要性。
译文
在意大利罗马的一幢五楼建筑的一层，一个身系围裙的人小心翼翼地在桌上展开一幅有着四百年历史的油画。然后他后退几步，打开一台50000伏的X射线机。附近，另一幅作品正被送入一个特制的烤炉。一个紧闭着的门后传来电锯嗡嗡的声音，那里两个工人正在给一幅500年的木质画切边。
在罗马修复院里这些事情每天都会发生。在吉万内·阿巴尼博士的领导下，这里的人的主要工作即是使艺术品保持良好。就艺术珍宝而言，意大利是世界上最富有的国家之一。但直到1939年意大利政府成立这个机构前，博物馆只能雇佣私人修复者来清洗和保养这些文物。据阿巴尼博士说，“多数修复人员没有经过正规培训，与其说是修复，不如说实际上他们破坏的更为严重。”
难怪会损坏文物，他们经常用肥皂清洗画，用生洋葱和青苹果去擦拭作品。大多数早期修复者不是对损坏的部分进行修整，而是大笔一挥在上面重画一气，有时甚至会改变整幅作品。
任何东西都可能破坏艺术品。烟雾会腐蚀宝石和金属，昆虫能够蚕食木头，湿气导致木头和画布膨胀、萎缩以致最后腐烂。对画展而言，艺术品从英格兰空运到罗马。在航运过程中，画布萎缩得很严重以至于颜料松散并开始剥落。到罗马把箱子打开后，只剩半幅作品，以及一堆细小的油彩碎片。
阿巴尼博士回忆说，“这幅作品很快被送到我们这里，看上去没有任何希望了，但我们每次都不放弃。经过几个月耐心、细致的工作后，作品中的每一片都被重新放回，粘在一个新画布上。修复做得如此之好，甚至看不出曾被破坏过。”
当作品被送到艺术品医院，它就会进入一个具有科学流程的实验室，在那里对其拍摄红外线和紫外线照片。这些照片可以使人们透过上面一层薄薄的油彩来判断这幅作品以前是否被修复或是被重绘过。新的油彩相对于旧油彩而言是一些比较明显的暗点。如果看上去表面下似乎还有一个不同的画面，这幅作品最终会用X射线修复。
画在木板上的作品接下来会被送到一个很大的房间。屋门关的严严实实。大约24个小时，一种致命的气体渗入木板中的所有裂隙来杀死蛀虫及虫卵。画布损坏的作品被送到一个可以装裱新画布的房间。最后修复人员都会让这些作品获得崭新的生命。
二
[A] In studies of interpersonal argument, for example, when subjects were
asked to deal with contradictory information stemming from conflict between a mother and a daughter or a student and a school, Peng found that Americans were “non
compromising, blaming one side—usually the mother—for the causes of
the problems, demanding changes from one side to attain a solution and offering no compromise” in dealing with the conflict.
[B]Americans wear black for mourning. Chinese wear white. Westerners think of dragons as monsters. Chinese honor them as symbols of God. Chinese civilization has often shown such polarities with the West, as though each stands at extreme ends of a global string. Now a University of California, Berkeley, Psychologist has discovered deeper polarities between Chinese and American cultures—polarities that go to the heart of how we reason and discover truth.
[C]Dialectical thinking also has a Western version, which Americans often consider the highest, most sophisticated form of reasoning, said Peng. This type of reasoning allows people to proceed from thesis to antithesis, to synthesis. In Chinese folk wisdom, by comparison, people do not attempt to work through the contradictions, following a cultural tradition which holds that reality is “multilayered, unpredictable and contradictory,” and is in a constant state of change, Peng said.
[D]“Americans have a terrible need to find out who is right in an argument.” said Peng. “The problem is that at the interpersonal level, you really don’t need to find the truth, or may be there isn’t any.” Chinese people, said Peng, are far more content to think that both sides have flaws and virtues, because they have a
holistic awareness that life is full of contradictions. They do far less blaming of the individual than do Americans, he added.
[E]“It can hardly be right to move to the middle when you have just read evidence for a less plausible view. Yet that is what the Chinese subjects did,”said Peng. He believes that this tendency to find the middle way has hampered Chinese efforts to seek out scientific truth through aggressive argumentation, the classic Western method for forging a linear path through contradictory information, which results in identifying right and wrong answers.
[F]His findings go far toward explaining why American cultures seem so contentious and Chinese cultures so passive, when compared to each other. More importantly, the research opens the way for the peoples of the East and the West to learn from each other in fundamental ways. The Chinese could learn much from Western methods for determining scientific truth,and Americans could profit enormously from the Chinese tolerance for accepting contradictions in social and personal life. said Kaiping Peng, a former Beijing scholar, who is now a UC Borkeley assistant professor of psychology.
[G]Compared to this angry, blaming American stance, the Chinese were paragons of compromise, finding fault on both sides and looking for solutions that moved both sides to the middle. In tests of scientific thinking, however, the Chinese came up short. Asked to determine which statement was true—whether, for instance, smoking makes people gain or lose weight—Chinese respondents took the middle road, even when they believed one statement to be less true than
another.
答案及解析
1. F。文章开头即指明中西文化宛如地球的两个端点，并讲述了Berkeley 教授关于中西文化差异的观点。[F]部分“His findings”正好与[B]部分的“discovered”相呼应，补充说明Berkeley 教授这一发现的研究意义。
2. D。前文提出了Berkeley 教授的发现后，后3段则通过彭开平对中国人和美国人在人际关系方面的不同态度进行比较分析，对应2段最后一句“the chinese could learn much from Western…in social and personal life”.
3. A。在分析中国人和美国人在处理人际关系方面的不同观点后，作者随即给出一个例子加以说明“In studies of interpersonal argument for example…”与[D]段中提及的interpersonal level 相对应，以此展开中美两国人在此level 上的不同看法。
4. G。上一段举例表明美国人在人际关系中互相指责，第5段话作为对比，显示了中国人的中庸之道。“Compared to this angry”承接第4段中“American were noncompromising blaming one side…in dealing with the conflict.”
5. E。第5段中肯定了中国人在处理人际关系中的优势后，作者随即指出其在Scientific thinking 上中庸主义的劣势，从末段中hamper 可看出，作者认为在科学问题上也用中庸这种方法是不行的，因此此段应接第5段后。
中心思想
本文论述了中美文明在社会关系和科学问题上的差异，美国人在人际关系中比较好斗，而中国人倾向寻求折中的解决方案，在科学问题中，中国人也经常采用中间路线，美国人的直线前进的方法往往可以辨明正确和错误的答案，作者主张生活中采用中国方式，科学上采用美国方式。
译文
美国人哀悼的时候穿黑衣服，中国人则穿白色衣服。在西方人的眼里龙是怪物，中国人则把龙看作是神的象征;中西方文化宛如地球的两个端点。目前，加利福尼亚大学的心理学教授Berkeley发现中西方文化的差异关键在于推理和发现真理方法的不同。
他的发现进一步说明了中西方文化相比较的时候为什么美国文化如此受争议而中国文化如此消极。更重要的是，这个研究开创了中西方相互学习的基本途径，一位前北京学者彭开平(他目前是Berkeley教授心理学的副教授)说，中国可以从西方检验科学真理的方法上学到很多，美国也可以从中国在社会和个人生活方面接受矛盾的忍耐中受益颇多。
彭开平说，美国人极需要在争论中找出谁是正确的。问题是在人际关系中，你没有必要去找真理，或许根本就不存在真理。彭开平还说，中国人则认为争论双方都有缺点和优点，因为他们总的意识是生活充满着矛盾。他接着说，中国人比美国更少地去责备个人。
例如，在人际关系争议的研究中，当主题是处理来自母女之间或学生与学校之间冲突的矛盾时，彭开平发现美国人在处理冲突中不会妥协，会责备一方(通常是母亲一方)，原因是要求一方做出改变而得到解决而不是妥协。
与充满愤怒责备的美国人相比较，中国人则充满中庸之道，他们会找各自的错误，寻求一个双方都能接受的解决方法。然而在科学问题上，中国人显示了其劣势。当被问及哪个表述是正确的时候，比如，吸烟可以让人增肥还是减肥，中国人的回答是折中主义，即使他们认为其中一个表述不比另一个表述更有道理。
彭开平说，当你仅仅看到一个极不具说服力的观点的证据时就采取折中主义是错误的，然而中国人就是这样做的。他认为折中主义的趋势妨碍了中国人通过激烈的争论去寻找科学真理，而争论是在矛盾信息中创造直线前进的经典的西方方法，可以区分正确和错误的答案。
彭开平说，美国人认为最高明、最复杂的推理是西方的辩证思维模式。这种模式的推理是由正题推出反题，进而推出合理性。彭开平说，在中国的智慧寓言中，人们不会试图通过矛盾去解决问题，而是遵循一个文化传统，那就是现实是“多层次的、不可预测和充满矛盾的”，并且是不断变化的。
三
[A]Some volcanoes have stopped throwing out hot rock, but they still smoke a little now and then. They are “sleeping”volcanoes. Sometime they may “wake up”. A volcano named Vesuvius slept for a thousand years. But it woke up and threw out so much hot melted rock that it buried the buildings of two cities.
[B]There are different kinds of volcanoes. Some explode so violently that the rock goes high into the air and falls miles away. A volcano may shoot out ashes so high that they float all the way around the world. They have made the sunsets
green and the snow purple.
[C]A new volcano was being born. The volcano in the corn field grew until it was bigger than the corn field! Black smoke puffed out. Hot ashes fell like black snowflakes. Hot rock and fire and lava shot out.People called the volcano the Little Monster because it grew so fast. Scientists came from all over the world to study it and watch it grow. It is not often that people get a chance to watch a volcano from the very beginning. Most of the volcanoes have been here for a very long time. Some have been here so long that now they are cold. They are called dead volcanoes. They have stopped throwing out fire and melted rock and smoke. It is safe to walk on them. Farms are plowed on the quiet slopes, and people have built houses there.
[D]People used to think dragons under the earth caused volcanoes. They said the smoke that puffed above the ground was the dragon’s breath. They said the earthquakes were caused by the dragon’s moving around down in the earth. Now we know that this is not true.
[F]Another thing we know about volcanoes is that they don’t happen just anywhere. There are certain places under the earth where the rock is broken in a way that lets the steam and hot rock escape to the outside more easily. Scientists know where these places are, and maps have been made to let everybody know.
[G]Today volcanoes are not so dangerous for people as they were a long time ago. Now we know more about why volcanoes do what they do, and we can
usually tell when they are going to do it . Before a sleeping volcano wakes up, it usually makes a noise like faraway thunder, and the ground shakes in small earthquakes. People are warned and have time to get away safely.
[E]Other volcanoes are more gentle. The hot lava rises in their cones and overflows, rolling slowly down the mountainside, where it becomes cool and hard.
One very tall volcano stays fiery red at the top all the time. It is lucky that the volcano is near the ocean. Sailors can use it for a lighthouse.
答案及解析
1. A。 此处应结合前文来分析。上一段讲述火山类型，并介绍了其中之一的“dead volcanoes”(死火山)，下一段很自然就会联想到应再介绍另一种类型的火山即“sleeping volcanoes”同时此段“Some volcano have……”与上一段“Some have been here so long”相呼应，也是选择此段的依据之一。
2. G。选择此段时也应结合前几段来理解，文章开头介绍火山萌发了，并说人们把火山称为“Little Monster”，以显示人们，对其有恐惧心理紧接着此段话锋一转，讲述火山不再让人类感到那么恐惧，因为已经可以预知它的发生了，本段中“as they were a long time ago”也与前文中“for a very long time”形成对应。
3. D。前段从声音、地面振动等情况描述了火山苏醒时的情景，提到人们“know more
about why…they do”，本段则承接上段讲述了古时候人们对火山爆发的看法。
4. F。 对应上段“Now we know”，本段中的“Another thing we know”是很好的选择提示。
5. B。 根据最后一段中“It is lucky that…”可看出火山爆发的危险性还是让人害怕，因此可联想到具体描述火山爆发时的情景的画面，因此此段为最佳选择。
中心思想
本文从火山喷发的过程。火山的种类、以及目前人类对火山的了解等诸多方面，较为详尽地向我们展示了火山这一奇妙的自然景观。
译文
新的火山正在形成。麦田下的火山会慢慢长到比麦田还大!黑烟从火山口喷出，炙热的火山灰如同黑色雪花一样从空中徐徐飘落，火红的岩石、熊熊烈焰、炽热的岩浆也从火山中喷射而出。火山成长得很快，因此人们称其为小怪兽。来自世界各地的科学家齐聚一堂来研究它并观察它的成长。观察火山成长过程的机会千载难逢。该地的大部分火山已存在了很长时间。一些已慢慢冷却，此类火山即为死火山。死火山已不再喷出烈火、岩浆、黑烟，行走其上也没有危险。人们在宁静的山坡上开垦了农场，构筑了房屋。
有些火山虽然已不喷射岩浆，但仍会时不时地冒点烟。此类火山称之为休眠火山，休眠火山有时会突然“醒来”。维苏威火山在沉睡千年之后突然爆发，它喷出的岩浆埋葬了两座城市。
今日之火山已不如很久以前那么危险。如今，人类已知晓火山的机理，并且可以预测火山何时会爆发。因为，活火山在爆发之前，通常会发出类似来自远方的雷鸣声，同时还伴有轻微的地震。有此警示，火山周遭的居民就可安全疏散。
过去人们曾认为火山起源于深藏地底的恶龙，并且认为火山喷出的烟气是由恶龙呼出的，人们还认为地震是因为恶龙在地底行走造成的。现在，我们知道这些说法不过是无稽之谈。
另一已知之事是，火山不会随地都可爆发。某些地方的深层地底处的岩层已被破坏;因此，地底深处的岩浆就可轻易地从此处喷出地表。科学家知道这些地方在哪，并且已经将其绘制成图以便让所有人都能知道。
火山的种类繁多。有些火山喷出的岩浆可落在距火山数英里远的地方。有的火山可喷出弥漫全球的烟尘，这将使得落日变成绿色，天空也会飘起紫色的雪。
另一些火山则会温和许多。它们喷出的岩浆只能到达火山口，然后顺延山坡缓缓流下，最终慢慢变冷变硬。
一座海拔很高的火山，其顶部通常都呈现出极为亮丽的红色。若在沿海地区有座此类火山，那它不就是海员的灯塔吗?这岂不妙哉!
四
If the 20th century has been the American century, then there are plenty of people saying watch this space: the twenty first century will be different. The
distinguishing characteristic of the post cold war world is that there is only one superpower. And there’s only one candidate on the horizon to challenge the US — China.
[A]Africa, I fear, is going to remain a disaster area ,simply because it does not figure on people’s mental maps. Currently there is war raging in six countries around the Congo, yet there’s very little sense the international community will do anything about it. There is, though, some good news. If you look back a year ago to Algeria, it was drowning in its own flood. Now it seems to be back on the right track.
[B]Europe is already the largest trading block in the world, but while the euro could help it become an economic giant, and even challenge the dollar, it looks likely to remain a political and military pygmy. It’s worth remembering that while Europe spends 60 percent of what the USA does in defence, it has only 10 per cent of the Americans’ firepower.
[C]I do think arms control will be a big item on the agenda in future. For many years the non
proliferation regime actually worked surprisingly well, but India
and Pakistan going nuclear has been a great blow to the status quo. And now there are new biological and chemical weapons—undreamed
of horrors—not to
mention the whole legacy of the cold war which hasn’t been cleaned up, such as Russian nuclear waste in the Arctic.
[D]The military muscle flexing we have seen from China over the last few years
could be an indication of how things are likely to go, although it has to be said that to many people’s surprise the Chinese have been quite constructive over East Timor. But I think we must assume that the main struggle in the 21st century will be with China, already the world’s largest nation. Happily, the Chinese seem to have no global pretensions. One can’t see them interfering in some far
distant
conflict, and in both military and economic terms they are still light years behind America.
[E]The fundamental problem is that there are countries that are simply being left behind by the onward march of globalisation. Global issues such as the environment and drugs—and perhaps even human rights — are going to come much more to the fore. As the world shrinks, so we shall have an increasing sense of the need for an international humanitarian order. Globalisation may be a good thing, but it has a dark underbelly.
[F]We must also assume the continued decline of Russia. It shows how far things have gone (and how quickly) when what was once the second most powerful country in the world is being battered by Islamic rebels from the Caucasus. Now we have a Russian state which simply cannot cope.
[G]In the Middle East, in a relatively short space of time, bubbling conflicts have moved closer to resolution. The Arab Israeli dispute has been reduced to its core essentials, while agreement between Syria and Israel remains the strategic prize for peace. Iran is undergoing a slow transformation but the outstanding political issue here is Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s extraordinary survival. The
international community remains bitterly divided about what to do.
答案及解析
1. F。 通过粗略阅读全文内容，我们可以基本判断是在评价冷战后，除美国之外影响世界的各种不同的力量，从上一段对中国的介绍来看，“in both military and economic terms they are still light years behind America.”按照逻辑顺序来说接下来的自然应是另一个对世界影响很大的力量，可能的有俄罗斯和欧洲，而从对欧洲的叙述来看，它缺乏军事方面的优势并且是后起的力量，同时，俄罗斯虽然经济发展落后了，但它毕竟是冷战后对世界影响巨大的力量，从基本叙述思路来看，应选俄罗斯。
2. B。在确立了第三段为对俄的叙述之后，根据当今世界力量的对比，接下来应是经济发展迅速，对世界影响越来越大的欧洲“the largest trading block in the world.” 这样我们基本可以看出全文叙述的一条线索，即根据政治经济军事实力的强弱和对世界的影响力来排序。
3. G。在掌握了叙述线索之后，接下来自然是“对世界发展影响巨大的中东问题”，从这段中的最后一句“The international community remains bitterly divided about what to do.”也可以看出这是一个重大问题。
4. A。接下来是应讨论非洲问题，还是讨论军备问题，根据全文叙述线索来看应该是首先按照国家地区来编排，而且从叙述来看，对于非洲的战患“There’s very little sense
the international community will do anything about it ”. 因此这个问题对世界影响巨大，应位于“arms control”前面，由此可知此项为正确选项。
5. C。从全文的结构框架来看，在讨论了中东和非洲的战患后，转入军备问题也是合理的，这也是影响世界发展的主要因素。
中心思想
本文主要讨论了在二十一世纪，什么才是影响人类社会发展的主要因素，在分别否定了美国一擎撑天，中国不愿称霸，俄罗斯与欧洲发展不平衡以及中东、非洲的战祸连连后，作者认为，在大力控制军备问题的同时，一定要着重关注全球化的进程问题，全球化是一把悬在人类头上的达摩克利斯之剑。
译文
如果20世纪是美国的世纪，会有很多人说：21世纪将会有所不同。冷战后的世界最鲜明的特点是只有一个超级大国而且只有一个国家有可能挑战美国，那就是中国。
尽管许多人对中国在远东地区的建设性作用感到惊奇，但从过去几年中国裁军情况我们可以看出事情的发展趋向。我们必须承认，21世纪最主要的斗争就是与中国这个世界上人口最多的国家的斗争。幸运的是，中国没有全球野心。而且中国的军事力量和经济实力都要落后美国许多年。
我们也必须承认俄罗斯的继续下滑。它说明自从俄罗斯遭受高加索伊斯兰教叛乱之后，曾经的世界第二号军事强国衰落如此之快。现在我们面临俄罗斯现状束手无策。
欧洲已经成为世界上最大的贸易区，尽管欧元可以使欧洲成为一个经济巨人，甚至可以挑战美元，但欧洲仍是政治和军事上的侏儒。我们清楚欧洲国防开支只有美国的60%，军事力量只有美国的10%。
在中东，相对短的一段时期内矛盾接近解决。阿以争端已经缩小到其核心问题，然而叙利亚和以色列的和平协议仍然遥遥无期。伊朗已经开始缓慢改革，但政治焦点仍然是伊拉克和萨达姆·侯赛因的政权，国际社会对此感到束手无策。
我认为非洲仍将是一个多灾地区，仅仅是因为它没有弄清楚人们的精神世界。刚果周边六个国家经常发生战乱，国际社会也无法解决这个问题。尽管如此，有时也会有好的消息，比如：阿尔及利亚一年前被洪水侵吞，现在已经回到正常轨道。
我认为军备控制是将来最大议程。虽然不扩散制度在很多年里都运行地很好，但印度和巴基斯坦的核竞赛却给了它致命一击。现在有新的难以想象的可怕的生化武器，更不用说冷战遗留下来的问题了，比如说俄罗斯在北极残留的核废料。
根本问题在于有很多国家没有跟上正在前进中的全球化。诸如环境、毒品甚至人权等全球问题越来越显得重要。世界正在变小，我们有更强烈的感觉需要国际人道主义秩序。全球化是一件好事，但它也是一把悬在人类头上的达摩克利斯之剑。
五
[A]Antarctica has nine tenths of all the world’s ice. If all this ice melted, the level of the world’s oceans would rise 250 feet. Most cities along the coast would be drowned. In New York Harbor, water would almost cover the Statue of Liberty’
s head. But the ice in Antarctica does not melt. The temperature stays well below freezing the year round in most places. Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. The temperature there has been known to drop to more than 100 degrees below zero.
[B]If you flew in an airplane over the continent of Antarctica, you would look down on a great sheet of snow and ice. The snow and ice slopes gently from a central plateau around the South Pole toward the sea. Along the coasts of Antarctica, sharp mountains rise up from the snow. Huge masses of ice called glaciers slide between the mountain ridges toward the sea. At the sea’s edge, tremendous icebergs break off the glacier and float away. They are often enormous in size.
[C]A number of birds live in Antarctica, and fly over the water and ice. The Arctic tern has been called the long distance champion of the world. Each year it migrates between the northernmost islands of the Arctic (the region around the North Pole) and the shores of Antarctica —— a distance of about 11,000 miles.
[D] Antarctica does not have much plant life. Only a few simple plants, such as mosses, lichens, and algae, can grow there. The climate is so harsh, and food so scarce, that people cannot settle in Antarctica. But along the coasts of the continent there are many birds, fish, and animals.
[E]Beneath the snow and ice of Antarctica lies land. Snow piles deeper and deeper on top of the land and hardens into ice. In some places, it is three miles deep. Most of the land beneath the snow is a great land mass. A chain of smaller
islands is nearby. The islands and the land mass are joined into one continent by a thick blanket of ice.
[F]Most of the world’s whaling takes place in Antarctic waters. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. It may weigh as much as 150 tons and be 95 feet long. Smaller whales include the bottlenose, the humpback, the sperm, and the finback.
[G]Thousands of whales and millions of seals swim in Antarctic seas. Six kinds of seals are found. The fur seal, the smallest, has long been hunted for its silky fur. The tough skinned elephant seal is the largest. It can weigh as much as four tons.
答案及解析
1.E。选此段时，应根据上下文来理解，在文章第一段曾经出现过“the snow and ice”这个词，当然这是一个很好的启发。第一段中说的是这些雪和冰从南极点向海里运动的过程，那么进入第二段时，我们很自然就会想，当这些雪和冰移到海里之后，它们下面是什么，第二段提到了这些(beneath the snow ...)，正好与第一段相呼应。
2.A。上一段描述了南极洲是由大量的雪和冰构成的陆地，并且那些冰终年不化，因此温度也是非常之低了。
3.D。填选此段时，也应结合上文来看，前一段讲述南极洲“has ninetenths of all
the world’s ice”.与此相对应地说明南极洲“does not have much plant life.” 二者形成对比。在介绍完南极洲的地理风貌后开始介绍这片土地上的动植物。
4.G。承接上一段“there are many birds, fish and animals”本段开始对生活在南极洲的动物进行详细描述。
5.F。填写这段时，应该看到它的前一段，说有成千上万的鲸以及几百万之多的海豹在南极游嬉。而接下来的文字，却仅仅只是描述了海豹的种类及特征，那么很明显，剩下的文字，就应该比较具体地来描述鲸了。
中心思想
本文主要介绍了南极洲的自然风光，通过描述巨大的冰川、寒冷的天气以及稀有的动植物，向我们较为全面地展示了南极洲的与众不同。
译文
若你身处一架在南极上空的飞机之中，向下俯视就会看到漫无边际的冰雪。冰雪从以南极点为中心的大平原上向四周蔓延至海。沿着南极大陆的海岸线，一座座峻峭的山峰矗立在冰雪之中。冰川便从山脊之间滑向大海。海岸附近，巨大的冰山将冰川撞碎后漂浮而去，其体积大令人咋舌。
冰雪之下便是南极大陆，雪在这块大陆上愈积愈厚，最终化成坚冰。在有的地方，可达三英里深，坚冰所覆盖的陆地一望无际，陆地周围点缀着一串串岛屿;而厚厚的冰层将这块大陆与周围的岛屿连成一体。
地球上的冰雪约有九成集中于此块大陆。倘若这些冰雪消融为水，海平面就会上升大约250英尺。如此一来，许多位于沿海的城市将被淹没;以纽约为例，纽约港的自由女神像也将被淹没。不过，南极的冰川不会消融。因为，这里的气温常年都低于冰点;这里也是地球上最寒冷的地方，有时气温会低至零下一百多度。
除了能生存在这种环境中的少数植物之外，如苔藓、地衣、藻类，南极大陆上再无其他植物。这里的气候恶劣、食物匮乏，人类根本无法在此生存。但在南极大陆海岸附近仍有不少海鸟、鱼类和动物。
成千上万的鲸鱼和数以百万的海豹在南极的海域里遨游。至今，已发现六种海豹。最小的皮毛海豹，它有着丝般光滑的毛皮，因而也常常被猎杀;最大的是毛皮粗糙的象豹，成年象豹可重达四吨。
世界上很多种鲸鱼大都可在南极水域里发现其踪影，如已知最大的动物蓝鲸，成年蓝鲸重达150吨，长约90英尺。小一点的鲸鱼包括槌鲸、座头鲸、抹香鲸、长须鲸。
有很多鸟类也生活在南极，它们飞翔于水面和冰面之上。其中，南极燕鸥堪称长距飞行之冠，每年它都从北极的岛屿上，飞越11000英里后抵达南极海岸。
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容