首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A scorching sun, an endless sea of sand and a waterless, forbiddingly lonely land—that is the image most people have of deserts.
A scorching sun, an endless sea of sand and a waterless, forbiddingly lonely land—that is the image most people have of deserts.
admin
2015-01-09
54
问题
A scorching sun, an endless sea of sand and a waterless, forbiddingly lonely land—that is the image most people have of deserts. But how true is this picture? Deserts are dry lands where rainfall is low. This is not to say rain never falls in deserts: it may fall once or twice a year in a fierce torrent that fades almost as soon as it has begun, or which evaporates in the hot air long before it has got anywhere near the earth. It may fall in a sudden sweeping flood that carries everything in its path. Rains may only come once in five or six years or not fall for a decade or more. The Mojave desert in the United States remained dry for twenty-five years.
Without water no living thing can survive, and one feature of the true desert landscape is the absence of vegetation. With little rain and hardly any vegetation the land suffers under the sun. There are virtually no clouds or trees to protect the earth’s surface and it can be burning hot. Under the sun, soils break up and crack. Wind and torrential rain sweep away and erode the surface further. Eight million square kilo-meters of the world’s land surface is desert. Throughout history deserts have been expanding and re-treating again. Cave paintings show that parts of the Sahara Desert were green and fertile about 10,000 years ago, and even animals like elephants and giraffes roamed the land. Fossil and dunes found in fer-tile and damp parts of the world show that these areas were once deserts. But now the creation of new desert areas is happening on a colossal scale. Twenty million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Canada, is at a high to very high risk of becoming desert. With a further 1.25 million square kilometers under moderate risk, an area covering 30% of the earth’s land surface is desert, becoming desert, or in danger of becoming desert. The rate of growth of deserts is alarming. The world’s dry lands which are under threat include some of the most important stock-rearing and wheat-growing areas and are the homes of 600~700 million people. These regions are becoming deserts at the rate of more than 58,000 square kilometers a year or 44 hectares a minute. In North Africa at least 100,000 hectares of cropland are lost each year. At this rate there is a high risk that we will be confined to living on only 50% of this planet’s land surface within one more century unless we are able to do something about it.
What do we learn about deserts from this text?
选项
A、Deserts can change into green and fertile areas.
B、Certain areas have always been desert.
C、Deserts were once the home of elephants and giraffes.
D、Deserts have been growing since the beginning of the world.
答案
A
解析
答案在文章第二段第五行“Throughout history deserts have been expanding and retreating a-gain.”,从这段可知,一些肥沃的地方以前曾经是沙漠,而现在的沙漠以前也曾经是沃土和绿洲,所以A项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Z2LO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
DuringMcDonald’searlyyearsFrenchfriesweremadefromscratcheveryday.RussetBurbankpotatoeswere【1】,cutintoshoestrin
DuringMcDonald’searlyyearsFrenchfriesweremadefromscratcheveryday.RussetBurbankpotatoeswere【1】,cutintoshoestrin
Shouldwecareifover150knownspeciesofanimalshave【1】fromtheearthinthelastfiftyyears?Shouldwebeconcernedthatt
Geneticallymodified(GM)foodstuffsareheretostay.That’snottosaythatfoodproducedby【1】agriculturewilldisappear,【2】sim
Takingphotographsisstrictly______here,asitmaydamagethepreciouscavepaintings.
Theprogrammeaimstomakethecountry______infoodandtocutenergyimports.
Thesizeoftheaudience,______wehadexpected,waswelloveronethousand.
Today,theTowerofLondonisoneofthemostpopulartourist【1】andattractso-verthreemillionvisitorsayear.Itwasoccasio
Youmustletmehavetheannualreportwithout______byteno’clocktomorrowmorning.
Mostpeoplewouldbe【71】bythehighqualityofmedicine【72】tomostAmericans.Thereisalotofspecialization,agreatdealof【
随机试题
绩效评估
导致血液黏滞度降低的是
慢性肾盂肾炎治疗原则哪项是错误的
砌体结构设计时,必须满足下列中的哪些要求?①满足承载能力极限状态;②满足正常使用极限状态;③一般工业和民用建筑中的砌体构件,可靠性指标β≥3.2;④一般工业和民用建筑中的砌体构件,可靠性指标β≥3.7。
下列事项中,属于或有事项的有()。
税务规章的适用规则包括()。(2013年)
下列说法正确的有()。
法人依法享有的人身权是()。
权力制约是法治思维的基本内容之一。权力制约原则的要求可以概括为()
WhatisaGreenhouseEffect?
最新回复
(
0
)