华联学院英文报刊阅读十套习题及参考答案

1、Global Warming Threatens DesertsAssociated Press By Danika KirkaLondon The worlds deserts are under threat as never before, with global warming making lack of water an even bigger problem for the parched regions, says a UN report released Monday.The first comprehensive look at deserts round the worl

2、d said these areas, their wildlife and, most of all, their scarce water supplies are facing dramatic changes.“Deserts are the last great wildernesses and the Cinderellas of the conservation world out of sight, out of mind,” said Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nation Environment Program. “E

3、verybody cares about the mountains. Everybody is worried about the oceans. But nobody has really thought about the deserts before. They need help.”Desert areas make up almost one-quarter of Earths surface33 million square kilometerand are home to some 500 million people, more than previously thought

4、.Most of the 12 desert regions whose future climate was studied face a drier future, the report said. Experts predicted that rainfall would drop as much as 20 percent by the end of the century because of human-induced climate change.Compounding the threat is the melting of glaciers. A large portion

5、of water used for agricultural and domestic purposes in deserts in the southwestern United States, Central Asia and South America comes from rivers that originate in glaciers and snow-covered mountains, the report said.The glaciers on the Tibetan plateau, for example, may decline by as much as 80 pe

6、r cent by the end of the century, according to the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists advising the United Nations.“When the glaciers disappear, you are in serious trouble,” said Andrew Warren, one of the reports authors and a professor of geography at University College

7、London.The report warned that renewable water supplies fed to deserts by large rivers are also in danger because of climate change and booming growth. It cited the Rio Grande and Colorado River in North America, the Tigris and Euphrates in Southwestern Asia and the Amu Darya and Indus in Central Asi

8、a as being under threat.The reports authors urge more comprehensive water policies to manage the worlds limited supplies more effectively. The report warned that Chad, Iraq, Niger and Syria, for example, could experience scarcity in water supplies by 2050 if nothing is done.Mr. Warren also said urge

9、nt action is needed to protect wildlife in deserts, noting that increasing wealth in Arab lands has led to convoys of hunters sweeping through the acid landscapes of Arabia, Kazakhstan and Sudan in search of prey, “shooting what they can or running it down in jeeps.”Several species of gazelle, Barba

10、ry sheep and a type of bird called the houbara are among the species considered under threat, Mr. Warren said.Reading ComprehensionThe worlds deserts are under threat .Because of the global warmingBecause of the lack of waterBecause of the bigger problem for the parched regionBecause of the first co

11、mprehensive look at deserts round the worldWhich of the following is incorrect according to the author?Deserts are the last great wildernesses.Deserts are the Cinderellas of the conservation world out of sight.Deserts are the Cinderellas of the conservation world out of mind.Somebody has really thou

12、ght about the deserts before.Which of the following is not true?Desert areas make up almost one-thirds of earths surface.Desert areas make up almost one-quarter of earths surface.Desert areas make up almost 33 million square kilometers.Desert areas are home to some 500 million people.What is true ac

13、cording to the UN report?Compounding the threat is the melting of glaciers.A Large portion of water used for agriculture is coming from the river.A large portion of water used for domestic purpose is coming from snow-covered mountains.Most of 12 desert regions whose future will face a die future.The

14、 reports authors urge more comprehensive water policies to manage the worlds limited supplies more effectively, because that .renewable water supplies fed to deserts by large rivers are also in dangerthe Rio Grande and Colorado River in North America the Tigris and Euphrates in Southwestern Asia and

15、 the Amu Darya and Indus in Central Asia as being under threatChad, Iraq, Niger and Syria could experience scarcity in water supplies by 2050 if nothing is doneAll of the above.Urgent action is needed to protect wildlife in deserts because .Wildlife in deserts area are fewer and fewerHunters are sho

16、oting what they can or running it down in jeeps in search of prey in deserts areaSeveral species of gazelle, barbary sheep a type of bird called the houbara are among the species considered threatAll of the above.Out of the Comfort ZoneAt 51, Rona Cant, an unhappy divorcee, decided to become an adve

17、nturer. Since then, shes sailed round the world and dog-sledded to the Arctic.Celia Dodd Is ImpressedUntil her early forties, Rona Cant was a stay-at-home mother of two who remained well within her comfort zone. For years she put her familys lives before her own, choosing instead to help her husband

18、 and children to achieve their goals rather than dreaming about what she would like to accomplish.Yet, by her early fifties, Cant had transformed herself from housewife to adventurer. She faced death several times while taking part in the worlds toughest yacht race and joined a dog-sledding expediti

19、on to the Norwegian Arctic that other explorers had said was impossible.The dramatic change began with Cants divorce at the age of 42, when her children were 14 and 10. Cant, now 57, left her husband because she wanted the freedom to fulfill her own potential. She had already run a successful soft-f

20、urnishings business from home but always felt the desire to push her boundaries further.Even so, when independence finally arrived it was daunting. “Walking away with two children, not knowing whether I would be able to cope financially, was scary,” she remembers. “My husband used to take care of ev

21、erything to do with the house and out finances, and suddenly I had to take on all of thatbuy a new house, deal with solicitors and so on. I made mistake but thats how you evolve.”Cant moved from West London to Oxford and, despite having no A levels, embarked on a combined English literature and geog

22、raphy degree at Oxford Brookes University. She took a sailing course, almost by chance, because a friend said it was a good way to meet people. Cant is scared of water and had never been on a yacht before, but she was hooked. “I love the freedom of sailing so much that I didnt want to go home. I ask

23、ed the skipper if we could sail due south and when he told me that would mean we wouldnt hit dry land, I said fantastic. He said, if you feel like that, you should think about a round-the-world yacht race thats open to amateurs. So I applied for the BT Global Challenge.”The Global Challenge is a rac

24、e between 12 identical yachts, each crewed by a professional and 17 amateurs, sailing 32, 000 miles around the world the “wrong” way against the prevailing winds and currents, and starting and ending in Southampton. There were more than 4, 000 applicants for 180 places but Cant was chosen for the 20

25、00 challenge. She had plenty of time to get fit and find 25,000 to fund the trip, largely from savings and living frugally on her earnings as a PA in an Oxford college.“I trained hard because I knew that, at 51, Id be the oldest woman on board with a crew mainly made up of people in their thirties,

26、and I wanted to be considered an equal. Ive always played tennis and hockey but I hate the gym. However, I made appoint of going three times a week to work on my upper-body strengthnecessary to winch up heavy sailand I used to run up and down Shotover Hill, a steep escarpment outside Oxford. My son

27、would run in front saying: “Come on Mum, you can do it”.Leaving the children in September 2000 was the hardest part of the ten-month voyage. Simon, then 19, was about to start university and Cant worried about not being around to offer emotional support; financial support came from their father. “ A

28、 lot of people, including my mother, thought I was being selfish. But I think going away was the best thing I could have done for the children. I felt they would benefit from traveling out to meet me in the ports where we stopped and I thinkthrough my adventuresIve given them an attitude, an impetus

29、, to go for whatever they want to achieve in life.”Cant asked her sister to stand in as surrogate mother. She gave power of attorney to her daughter Nicola, then 23 and just starting her PhD. Looking back, Cant recognizes it may have been too much. Nicola agrees: “Looking after someone elses finance

30、s and a house 170 miles away was a nightmare. The consensus was that Mum was mad, and there was definitely times when I agreed, although I also thought she was amazing and extremely courageous.”Both Nicola and Simon hit a low point when their grandfather died. Simon remembers: “There were times when

31、 all I wanted was a hug from Mum. When youre off to University, you think youre braver and more adult than you are, so it caught me by surprise how much I missed her. I felt Id lost my rock.”“But I never felt resentful. You could never be angry with someone for living their life properly. If you can

32、t do that stuff at her age, when can you do it? Now I work nine-to-five myself I realize what a brave thing it was to give up her job and spend her life savings with no clue as to what she was going to do when she returned.Cant admits that before the race she hadnt given much thought to the possibil

33、ity her children could be left without a mother, “There were several times during the race when I really thought I was going to die. At Christmas we were going round Cape Horn and the weather was so bad that the boat was blown right over on its side. I wrote an e-mail to my children which was basica

34、lly my farewell.”The lowest point followed a crash off New Zealand that damaged the boat, “The crash was a big shock,” Cant says. “Back on shore I thought, I cant do this anymore, I just couldnt face going back into the Southern Ocean. I phoned my sister and told her I wanted to give up. She shouted

35、: Get back on the boatif you cant do it for you, do it for us. It was what I needed to hear. If Id given up then Id have regretted it, and I would never have gone on to do the other expeditions.“I Wanted to Be Free to Do Different Things”To help get through the low points she pinned photos of her ch

36、ildren and a poem by her son by her bunk: she never read the poem as it made her cry, but it helped. At times she felt her age was a disadvantage, “They were more prepared to put younger girls up the mast or to the end of the spinnaker pole, although I had done it many times in training. However, th

37、ere were total equality on the boat, which was very refreshing; if something dirty, heavy or difficult needed doing and you were there, you did it.” Even though her boat finished last. Cant is overwhelmingly positive about the experience: the bad times taught her as much as the good, she says. “Im f

38、ar, far more confident now than I ever was before, and it taught me to trust my gut instincts.”Back on dry land, Cant was keen to push her boundaries even further. She was aware that it would be too easy to slip back into her comfort zone. So within days of her return she flew to Vancouver Island fo

39、r one of the toughest treks in the world, and had to be rescued when her legs gave way. A year later she raced the first Round Britain and Ireland Yacht Challenge, and her boat won.Then in 2004 she set herself a very different challenge; dog-sledding to the northernmost tip of Europe with two compan

40、ions in their thirties. Cant hates skiing but that didnt put her off. “People think dog-sledding is easy, but its not,” she insists. “We would sled for 12 hours a day, and sometimes had to push the sled, which weighed twice my body weight, up mountains. At one point I nearly broke my leg when my sle

41、d went over. An accident like that in the middle of nowhere would have been catastrophic.”Cant now draws on her experience of six big adventures to give motivational talks on overcoming obstacles and challenges in the workplace. She says, “While I was on the boat I decided that I never wanted to go

42、back to working in an office again because I wanted to be free to do different things. Now I make the choices, and that is a lovely feeling.”“I would advise any woman who wants to do something badly enough to go for it, otherwise you can feel very resentful. You should never get to the end of your l

43、ife thinking: I wish Id We all take risks all the time; sometimes youve got to take a bigger risk. Parting from your children is always tough, it was for me. But the good it did far outweighed the bad.”Rona Cants book, A Challenge Too Far? (Book Guild, 20) is available from her website: HYPERLINK Re

44、ading comprehension;Rona Cant decided to be adventurer, because she .was unhappy and preferred to take part in the expedition to the Norwegian Arcticgot tired of familys lives and wanted to travel to the Norwegian Arcticfelt in her bones that she could challenge the unimaginable expedition to the No

45、rwegian Arcticwas getting old and felt free from the unimaginable expedition to the Norwegian ArcticWhen Rona Cant left her husband, .she felt shrunk from dealing with financial problemsshe was released to walk away with two childrenshe inherited a large sum of money from her parentsshe had finished

46、 all her courses from high schoolRona Cant tried, through her expedition to the Norwegian Arctic, to .show her children her strengthset an example to fulfill ones ambition in life conceal her miseryavoid offering emotional support to SimonCants boat won .in the BT Global Challenge in 2000in the BT G

47、lobal Challenge in 2001in the first Round Britain and Ireland Yacht Challenge in 2000in the first Round Britain and Ireland Yacht Challenge in 2001Rona Cant .would advise any woman who wants to do something badly enough to go for itnever make the choices to challenge the Norwegian Arcticnever wanted

48、 to be free to do different thingswanted to go back to working in an office againThe Gay-Marriage Flap; The Government Is out of Step with Public OpinionAt the Begles town hall, near Bordeaux, Stephane Chapin and Bertrand Charpentier stepped out of a chocolate-colored Rolls-Royceone in a pinstripe b

49、lack suit, the other in white. Watching uneasily was the local mayor, Noel Mamere. He had presided over many weddings, but never one like this. Riot police faced off against protesters. The wedding vows, closed with a kiss, played repeated on the nightly news. Mamere himself wept openly.The first ga

50、y marriage in French history, earlier this month, has highlighted a cultural chasm, revealing that touchstone religious and social issues can still flare up in strikingly secular France. Since announcing that he would oversee the wedding, Mamere has been condemned by angry churchgoers, ben sent a pa

51、ckage of feces and received so many death threats that the Interior Ministry assigned him a bodyguard. Serge Dassault, owner of the conservative French daily le Figaro, penned an op-ed piece accusing people like Mamere of trying to “destroy the basis of our society” and the concept of family. The Ju

52、stice Ministry launched efforts to nullify the marriage, and last week Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin signed a disciplinary measure suspending Mamere from his mayoral duties for one month.While even some socialist leaders have come out against gay marriage, they see the governments sanction

53、ing of Mamere as extreme. The respected center-left daily le Monde, which has expressed reservations about gay marriage, last week called the suspension a “government blunder” and mocked Villepin for using such measures against a man who has not taken bribes, pilfered state money or been linked to f

54、inancial scandalsas have a member of top government officials. And by progressive European standards, Mamere is hardly pushing the envelope.Belgium and the Netherlands already celebrate gay marriages. Sweden and Spain are expected to do so by the end of the year. A Gallup poll of the 15 European Uni

55、on nations last year found 57 percent support, with virtually identical numbers in France. The bottom line is that its Frances government which is out of step with society, not gays who wish to marry, says Mamere, who received 5 percent of Frances presidential vote as the Green Party candidate in 20

56、02.As is often the case in France, the future may be found in the past. The cultural battle over civil unions that roiled France in the 1990s saw religious and conservative groups screaming that such unions, whether straight or gay, threatened the sanctity of marriage, family values and even French

57、national identity. Before civil unions became legal, the nation endured seven years of legal drafting, two years of parliamentary arguments and the protests of 100,000 angry conservatives and/or pious Roman Catholics in front of the National Assembly. “They completely missed the point,” says sociali

58、st M.P. Patrick Bloche, who coauthored the legislation. “ We just wanted to offer a new legal framework within which a couple could organize its life. They accused us of killing marriage.”In a historically Catholic country, such passions might have been expected. The real surprise is the progress si

59、nce then. The year before civil unions became law, in 1999, just 49 percent of French people were supportive. Two years later, with French civilization still on its feet, 70 percent backed them. Today even conservative French leaders who once lambasted the unions have discovered their merits, though

60、 chiefly as a bulwark against gay marriage. Frances 71-year-old President Jacques Chirac recently felt the need to acknowledge the inadequacies of civil unions with an eye toward improvingnot getting rid of such pacts. “Experience show,” Chirac told journalists, that the civil-union legislation “has