试题库在线考试题库-历年真题模拟试题及答案-考博英语在线试题测试中心-希赛网

海南大学

People living on parts of the south coast of England face a serious problem. In 1993, the owners of a large hotel and of several houses discovered, to their horror, that their gardens had disappeared overnight. The sea had eaten into the soft limestone cliffs on which they had been built. While experts were studying the problem, the hotel and several houses disappeared altogether, sliding down the cliff and into the sea.Erosion of the white cliffs along the south coast of England has always been a problem but it has become more serious in recent years. Dozens of homes have had to be abandoned as the sea has crept farther and farther inland. Experts have studied the areas most affected and have drawn up a map for local people, forecasting the year in which their homes will be swallowed up by the hungry sea.Angry owners have called on the Government to erect sea defenses to protect their homes. Government surveyors have pointed out that in most cases, this is impossible. New sea walls would cost hundreds of millions of pounds and would merely make the waves and currents go further along the coast, shifting the problem from one area to another. The danger is likely to continue, they say, until the waves reach an inland area of hard rock which will not be eaten as limestone is. Meanwhile, if you want to buy a cheap house with an uncertain future, apply to a house agent in one of the threatened areas on the south coast of England. You can get a house for a knockdown price but it may turn out to be a knockdown home.1. What is the cause of the problem that people living on parts of the south coast of England face?2. The erosion of the white cliffs in the south of England ______.3. The experts’ study on the problem of erosion can ______.4. It is not feasible to build sea defenses to protect against erosion because ______.5. According to the author, when buying a house along the south coast of England, people should ______.

If an animal is moved from its home in the tropics to cold climate, it will die if it is not kept warm. And animals accustomed to cold climates will die if they are moved to the tropics. Many plants, too, will die if they are removed from the place where they normally grow and are transplanted into an unfamiliar soil. Almost every species is adapted to life in a particular place by its organs and their functions and by its permanent habits. The specialized adaptation has great advantages. For it enables many organisms to survive under different conditions. It also has disadvantages, for it means that the life of most species is controlled by local conditions.Living things are not scattered over the earth at random; most species have definite habits for living places. Ecology is the study of how organisms live in their environment. This means finding out how an organism survives and reproduces in certain surroundings. By environment we mean not only the soil and the climate but the living things of the same species and other species, plant or animal.Most living things are slaves to their environment. Some can alter certain features of their environment to suit themselves; a beaver(海狸), for example, can make ponds by building dams; many birds and insects can build elaborate nests to provide shelter for their young. But these skills are restricted and highly specialized. Most organisms must adapt their bodies to fit in with their surroundings, and since they can adapt only for particular surroundings, they are found only in places where they can live successfully with the least effort.Plants find these favorable places by trial and errors. The wind carries their seeds and spores (芽胞) great distances. If the seeds land in a favorable environment they grow and reproduce. If they are deposited in an unfavorable environment they die. Animals, on the other hand, search until they find a favorable environment.1. The main idea of this passage can be summarized as: ______.2. What is meant by adaptation?3. Living things can adapt themselves to their surroundings mainly through ______.4. Animals are different from plants mainly in that ______.5. Implied but not stated: ______.

Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with some questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words on the Answer Sheet.Motorways are, no doubt, the safest roads in the country. Mile for mile, vehicle for vehicle, you are much less likely to be killed or seriously injured than on an ordinary road. On the other hand, if you do have a serious accident on a motorway, fatalities are much more likely to occur than in a comparable accident elsewhere on the roads.Motorways have no sharp bends, no roundabouts or traffic lights and thus speeds are much greater than on other roads. Though the 70 mph limit is still in force, it is often treated with the contempt that most drivers have for the 30 mph limit applying in built-up areas in Britain. Added to this is the fact that motorway drivers seem to like travelling in convoys with perhaps barely ten metres between each two vehicles. The resulting horrific pileups (involving maybe a hundred vehicles) when one vehicle stops for some reason—mechanical failure, driver error and so on—have become all too familiar through pictures in newspapers or on television. How many of these drivers realize that it takes a car about one hundred metres to brake to a stop from 70 mph? Drivers also seem to think that motorway driving gives them complete immunity from the caprices(反复无常)of the weather. However wet the road is, whatever the visibility in mist or fog, on they plough at ludicrous speeds oblivious of police warnings or speed restrictions until their journey comes to a premature conclusion.Perhaps one remedy for this motorway madness would be better driver education. At present, learner drivers are barred from motorways and are thus, as far as this kind of driving is concerned, thrown in at the deep end. However, much more efficient policy is required, for it is the duty of the police not only to enforce the law but also to protect the general public from its own folly.

Organic farming is basically a holistic management system which promotes and improves the health of agro-ecosystem related to biodiversity, nutrient biocycles, soil microbial and bio-chemical activities. It emphasizes management practices involving substantial use of organic manures, green manuring and management of pests and diseases through the use of non-synthetic pesticides and practices. Thus, organic farming prohibits the use of harmful chemicals and promotes the use of renewable organic resources to maintain the soil productivity and to control the crop diseases and pests.

Several hundred thousand tons of dangerous, useless pesticides currently plague several countries around the globe, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. No one wants to pay good money to burn old chemicals. They would much rather give development aid to build hospitals, roads and schools and fund other sustainable development options. What they overlook is that as long as the toxic legacy of obsolete pesticides remains, sustainable development is effectively impossible because water, soil and air continue to be poisoned.

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