In the frozen continent of Antarctica scienti...

In the frozen continent of Antarctica scientists fear an alien invasion — not from outer space, but carried in people’s pockets and bags.

Seeds and plants accidentally brought to Antarctica by tourists and scientists may introduce alien plant species which could threaten the survival of native plants in the finely balanced ecosystem.

“The people that were carrying the most had lots and lots of seeds. They really were real threats,” said Dana Bergstrom, from the Australian Antarctic Division.

“When we take things in through hitchhiking（搭车旅行） then we get species which are competitive. The plants and animals there are not necessarily competitive, so we’d start losing various precious biodiversity（生物多样性） on the (Antarctic) continent”, Bergstrom told Reuters.

Amongst the alien species discovered were the Iceland Poppy, and Annual Winter Grass — all from cold climates and capable of growing in Antarctica.

The Antarctic Peninsula, where most tourists travel, is now considered a “hot spot” on the frozen continent and the warmer the climate, the easier for seeds to grow. “The peninsula(半岛) is warming at some of the greatest rates on the planet,” said Bergstrom.

The study, the first continent-wide assessment of invasive species in Antarctica, surveyed about 1,000 passengers during 2007-2008, the first year of the International Polar Year, an international effort to research the polar areas.

Bergstrom said the one alien seed that had gained a foothold is Annual Winter Grass. It is a strong weed in the sub-Antarctic and is on the Antarctic island of King George. It has also made its way to the tail part of the Antarctic continent.

1.What does the passage focus on?

A. The human influence on the native plants.

B. The development of native plants.

C. The discovery of new plants.

D. The promising future of tourism.

2.What is the effect of alien plant seeds to Antarctica?

A. They contribute to the biodiversity.

B. They lead to the warming up of Antarctica.

C. They make the native plants more competitive.

D. They break the balance of the natural environment of plants.

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A. The International Polar Year started in 2007.

B. Visitors to Antarctica are mainly scientists.

C. Visitors to Antarctica bring seeds on purpose.

D. Tall Fescue Velvet grass grows well in warm places.

4.What is the purpose of writing the passage?

A. To introduce the native environment of Antarctica.

B. To warn people of the danger of alien plant seeds to Antarctica.

C. To explain the relationship between plants and climate.

D. To give visitors some tips on how to explore Antarctica.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Antarctica holds 90% of the world’s ice, and most of its fresh water (70%) is in a frozen ________.

A. state                B. condition            C. situation            D. solution

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Antarctica, the great white continent and one of the last true wilderness areas on earth – largely unchanged since the early explorers, is home to the world’s greatest concentration of wildlife.

We offer an extensive list of trips to Antarctica at the best price. You may choose between our various trips which you like best, according to your needs, in terms of price, duration and type of excursion(游览).

The Antarctic season goes from late October to March.

Antarctica Expeditions

If you’re looking to experience one of the most magnificent, exquisite, untouched regions of the world in an intimate, unhurried way away from the crowds, have we got a trip for you!

1.According to the passage, which type of excursion might take the longest time?

A.CRUISES. B.FLIGHTS. C.AIR-CRUISES. D.SAILBOATS.

2.What’s the main purpose of this article?

A.To introduce some geographical knowledge about Antarctica.

B.To help you compare the price of traveling to Antarctica.

C.To give you advice on how to choose from different trips.

D.To appeal to potential travelers to Antarctica.

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A.The Antarctic season goes from March to late October.

B.It might take more than two days to go across the Drake Passage in a regular cruise.

C.A sailboat can carry no more than 40 passengers.

D.A cruise to Antarctica is the cheapest.

高三英语完形填空简单题查看答案及解析

Scientists in Antarctica have recorded,for the first time,unusually warm water beneath a glacier (冰川)the size of Florida that is already melting and contributing to a rise in sea levels.

The researchers,working on the Thwaites Glacier,recorded water temperatures at the base of the ice of more than 2℃,above the normal freezing point.Critically,the measurements were taken at the glacier's grounding line,the area where it transforms from resting wholly on bedrock to spreading out on the sea as ice shelves.It is unclear how fast the glacier is getting worse:Studies have forecast its total collapse in a century or in a few decades.The presence of warm water in the grounding line may support estimates at the faster range.

That is worthy of attention because the Thwaites,along with the Pine Island Glacier and several smaller glaciers, acts as a brake on part of the much larger West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which , if melted, would raise the world's oceans by more than a meter over centuries,an amount that would put many coastal cities underwater.

“Warm waters in this part of the world,as remote as they may seem,should serve as a warning to all of us about the potential terrible changes to the planet brought about by climate change,” said David Holland, director of New York University's Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

Glaciologists have previously raised alarm over the presence of warm water melting the Thwaites from below.This is the first time,though,that warm waters have been measured at the glacier's grounding line.

To observe activity beneath the glacier,Dr.Holland's team drilled a hole -about 30 centimeters wide and 600 meters deep-from the surface to the bottom and then placed equipment that measures water temperature and ocean turbulence,or the mixing of freshwater from the glacier and salty ocean water.Collecting the data took about 96 hours in subzero weather.Warm waters beneath the Thwaites are actively melting it, the team found.

While scientists may not yet be able to definitively predict how soon glaciers like the Thwaites will melt, human-caused climate change is a key factor.The biggest predictor of “how much ice we will lose and how quickly we will lose it,”Dr.Holland said,”is human action.”

1.What does warm water found in the glacier's grounding line indicate?

A.Sea levels should be remeasured.

B.It may take a century for the glacier to melt.

C.The grounding line is getting shorter.

D.The glacier might disappear sooner

2.The Thwaites and other glaciers are important because ______.

A.they hold back ice

B.they are extremely large

C.they are located at bedrocks

D.they are collapsing

3.What can be inferred from the passage about the researchers’ viewpoints?

A.We can predict how much ice can be kept.

B.Human beings are to blame for the loss of ice.

C.Glaciers serve a more important purpose than expected.

D.More data needs to be collected to support the estimates.

4.What is the passage mainly about?

A.The efforts made to avoid the presence of warm water.

B.The alarm voiced on the worsening situation of glaciers.

C.The tools employed to measure the temperature of Antarctica.

D.The prediction based on a scientific study of the grounding line.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The sixth mass extinction of life on the Earth is unfolding more quickly than feared, scientists have warned. More than 30 percent of animals with a backbone — fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals — are declining in both range and population, according to the first comprehensive analysis of these trends.

Around a decade ago, experts feared that a new range wipeout of species was appearing. Today, most agree that it is underway — but the new study suggests that the die-out is already growing fast.

The loss of biodiversity has recently accelerated. Several species of mammals that were relatively safe one or two decades ago are now endangered, including cheetahs, lions and giraffes, the study showed.

There is no mystery as to why: our own ever-expanding species — which has more than doubled in number since 1960 to 7.4 billion — is eating, crowding and polluting its planetary cohabitants out of existence. By comparison, there are as few as 20,000 lions left in the wild, less than 7,000 cheetahs, 500 to 1,000 giant pandas.

The main drivers of wildlife decline are habitat loss, over-consumption, pollution, other species, disease, as well as hunting in the case of tigers, elephants, rhinos and other large animals prized for their body parts.

Climate change is thought to become a major threat in the coming decades, with some animals — most famously polar bears — already in decline due to rising temperatures and changing weather patterns.

1.What does the underlined word “accelerated” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A. Made up.　　 B. Put up.

C. Sped up.　　 D. Used up.

2.Why has the loss of biodiversity sped up?

A. The mankind’s population is growing fast.

B. The air pollution is too severe.

C. There are fewer species in larger areas.

D. Man causes wider water pollution.

3.Which is not the main driver of wildlife decline?

A. Outside animals.

B. Loss of living areas.

C. Various illnesses.

D. Lack of water.

4.How is the future of polar bears?

A. Uncertain.　　 B. Hopeful.

C. Doubtful.　　 D. Unsatisfying.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Scientists warn us _____ the need to keep an eye ____ the greenhouse effect.

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Little Tom was frozen with fear when the accident happened, so he just gave some ________ answers when asked about what he witnessed.

A. concrete            B. abundant            C. apparent            D. vague

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Little Tom was frozen with fear when the accident happened, so he just gave some ________answers when asked about what he witnessed.

A. concrete　　 B. abundant

C. apparent　　 D. vague

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

A college student has turned the act of telling someone off into an art form. Lama Ali, who attend school in Virginia, had three final assignments due on the same day for her fashion drawing class. Exhausted after working on painting for seven hours straight, the 20-year-old decided to include a message in American Sign Language to her professor:

When your drawing teacher assigns 3 finals so you secretly write “you got me fucked up” in sign language on your final piece.

——Shawty Arabia(@LemAli23) December 7,2016

“You got me fucked up,” a bunch of hands in the painting spell out in ASL, in a form of sign known as finger spelling(聋哑字母表), which uses signs for each letter, rather than for the words themselves.

“Honestly the idea just came to me while I was finishing up the piece,” Ali told The Huffington Post.” I was looking at it and thought, ‘This could really use something else’. And then the idea struck me: Why not secretly express how I was feeling while struggling at the library at 4 a. m.?”

Once the fashion design major had finished her masterpiece, she posted it to Twitter on Dec. 7, where it has received over 113,000likes and 48,000 retweets (转发).

Ali, who does not know ASL, told HuffPost she taught herself a little bit just for this particular assignment.

“You know it’s bad when you have to learn a whole other language to express how done you are,” she said. “I remembered seeing a post on Tumblr long ago with a similar phrase by the post, she decided to look up the letters in ASL to spell out the message. Someone on Twitter even did the good work of circling them in the painting.

Ali told HuffPost that when she finally presented the piece to her professor in her class, he absolutely loved it.

“Most of my friends in class actually knew about the secret message, so I was really surprised when no one laughed or blew my cover during critique(评论).” She also admits that her professor still doesn’t know about the message, despite her post getting so much attention.

1.Which of the following is closest in meaning to “You got me fucked up”?

A. I was greatly astonished.

B. You really worn me out.

C. I felt much appreciated.

D. You left me impressed.

2.What was it that gave Ali the inspiration to use ASL to express her feeling?

A. Her professor’s assignment.

B. Being too exhausted.

C. A post on Tumblr with ASL.

D. Her classmates’ encouragement.

3.Which of the following can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A. Her professor is not so clever as her classmates.

B. Her professor pretended not to understand.

C. Her professor is still in the dark about the message.

D. Her professor had been informed by her classmates.

4.How did Ali know about American Sign Language?

A. She learned it in middle school.

B. She majored in it at college.

C. She taught herself when prepared for the assignment.

D. Someone taught her on Twitter.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The drill in Antarctica dragged on slowly because of lack of money, equipment breakdowns, environmental_________ and severe cold.

A. concerns    　　 B. assumption

C. occupations    D. ignorance

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析