Beekeeper Pablo Alvarez sits near his hives (...

Beekeeper Pablo Alvarez sits near his hives (蜂箱) and points up into a cloudless, blue Chilean sky. This season, Alvarez says, there is much less bee traffic than usual. Spring rains once led to fields of flowers in Casablanca, a town on the Chilean Pacific coast. Now, there is just dry earth. He says he lost half of his hives by early spring. “At the end of winter, bees need flowers to grow and make honey,” he told Reuters reporters. No flowers means no food, he added.

His story is common among beekeepers across much of central Chile. A severe, years-long lack of rain is making life difficult for honey bees. Concern over how the changing environment has affected bees has reached the highest levels of government in Chile. The country has already provided large amounts of money for farmers suffering from the drought. In August, it said it would include the “costs” of climate change in future agency budgets.

"We all know the importance that bees have in agricultural production," Agriculture Minister Antonio Walker recently told reporters. Honey bees pollinate (授粉) many of Chile’s major export crops, including blueberries, apples and cherries.

Already, agriculture officials have ordered a state of emergency in more than 100 farm communities throughout central Chile. Though dry periods are normal from time to time, officials say climate change has made the current dry period longer and more severe. Rainfall in September in Santiago was down nearly 80 percent compared to the historical average.

Alvarez has begun taking care of an organic bee yard filled with native, drought-resistant plants. Yet even as he describes those efforts, the horn of a water truck sounds. His well has run dry. Now he must pay for water, too.

1.It can be inferred from the passage that　　　　　　 .

A.100 farm communities are now in an urgent situation in Chile

B.the government has provided beekeepers with agency budgets

C.beekeepers can use the water for free if their wells have run dry

D.the decreasing number of bees will affect the agricultural production

2.Which best describes the writer’s tone in the passage?

A.Disapproving. B.Enthusiastic.

C.Concerned. D.Doubtful.

3.What can be a suitable title for the text?

A.Years-long Drought Threatens Honey Bees in Chile

B.Climate Change Makes the Dry Period More Severe

C.The Decrease in Number of Beekeepers Has Drawn Attention

D.The Drought Calls for the Government to Take Immediate Action

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

All across California, honeybees are flying away from their hives(蜂箱) and dying. Empty hives are causing a lot of worry about some important food crops.

Bees give us a lot more than delicious honey. They are pollinators（授粉者）—they enable plants to produce the fruits and nuts we enjoy by carrying pollen from one plant or flower to the next. The wind pollinates oats, corn, and wheat, but many other plants (like apple and cherry trees and melon vines) depend on insects, bats, and birds. In the U.S., millions and millions of bees kept by human beekeepers fly around doing a lot of this important work for food crops. “Bees are worth protecting because their work adds so much to our diet,” says Dr. Jeff Pettis of the Bee Research Laboratory.

California’s almond (杏仁) crop alone depends on about half the bees in the country. But now the almond crop and many others could be in trouble with so many bees dying.

Researchers at government and university labs all over the country are trying to figure out why so many bees are dying. However, bees are hard to study. Most die away from the hive, so researchers don’t have dead bodies to examine. And when researchers return to a hive after two weeks, about half the bees they studied on their first visit will be dead, replaced by new ones in the natural life cycle of bees. “It isn’t like studying a large animal like a cow that doesn’t move around much and is easy to find out in the cow field,” says Pettis.

Researchers have some ideas about what could be affecting bee health. They could be sick from poisons widely used to kill insects, or they might not be getting enough good food to stay strong. Also, tiny insects called mites feed on bees. “A virus or bacteria could also be doing the killing.” explains Pettis.

1.What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A. The wind helps pollinate.

B. Bees are important in food crops.

C. Bees give us a lot of delicious honey.

D. Cherry trees are pollinated by bees.

2.Bees are hard to study because ____________.

A. they move around too much

B. new bees soon replace all the bees studied by researchers

C. they are too tiny

D. they never return to hives

3.What could cause so many bees to die?

A. Poisons to kill birds.                                                               B. Eating too much.

C. Large insects.                                                                          D. Some virus.

4.What can we learn from the article?

A. A large number of bees have died in the hive.

B. Without bees, some foods would disappear from our diet.

C. Only researchers in California want to know what kills bees.

D. Large animals are easier to study than tiny insects.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

A beekeeper has a 　　　　 to motivate the bees by leaving some honey in the hive—not so much in case that the bees stop working.

A. trick　　　　　     B. tool　　　　　　

C. talent　　　　     D. desire

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

A beekeeper has a 　　　　 to motivate the bees by leaving some honey in the hive—not so much in case that the bees stop working.

A. trick　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　 B. tool　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　 C. talent　　　　 　　　　　　　　　 D. desire

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

We’re just trying to reach a point ____ both sides will sit down together and talk.

A. where   B. that   C. when   D. which

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

We are just trying to reach a point ______ both sides will sit down together and talk.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

I got on the bus and found a seat near the back, and then I noticed a man　 ________ (sit) at the front.

高三英语完成句子中等难度题查看答案及解析

His feature story opens and closes with descriptions of two new reports, each _____ one major point in contrast with the other.

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Language learning，________ the expert pointed out in his lecture，is more than remembering words and phrases.

A．as　     B．which

C．that　     D．what

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Jeremy Lin has scored 166 points in seven games and his fame is sweeping the US, which means that his career has _______.

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析