Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the world. About three million people visit it each year. Its great nat

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问题     Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the world. About three million people visit it each year. Its great natural beauty has made it one of the most popular national parks.
    Most visitors like to see "Old Faithful," the world’s most famous geyser. A geyser shoots hot water high into the air. There are more than three hundred geysers in Yellowstone.
    Old Faithful is not the biggest or the most beautiful geyser. But it is the most popular. Visitors gather around Old Faithful before each eruption. Experts at the park are able to predict when these will happen. The average time between eruptions is about ninety minutes. Old Faithful shoots water an average of forty meters into the air. This eruption lasts between two and five minutes. Old Faithful releases up to about thirty thousand liters of water into the air each time.
    The hot spot deep under the ground produces geysers like Old Faithful. Old Faithful is evidence of the volcanic activity at Yellowstone. But will the Yellowstone volcano erupt again? Most experts think the answer is yes. But no one knows when. The most recent of the three extremely powerful eruptions was about six hundred fifty thousand years ago.
    Experts say at least thirty smaller volcanic eruptions have taken place at Yellowstone. Some of these were perhaps as big as the nineteen ninety-one eruption at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Several are believed to have been much larger. The most recent of these smaller eruptions took place about seventy thousand years ago.
    Volcano experts say it is extremely difficult to tell when Yellowstone might become an active volcano again. However, earthquakes near a volcano are usually good evidence that a volcano might become active again. For example, Mount Saint Helens in the northwestern state of Washington exploded in nineteen eighty. Several earthquakes took place near the volcano before that time. On the morning that it exploded, Mount Saint Helens experienced an earthquake of five point one on the Richter scale.
    Yellowstone National Park experiences several thousand earthquakes each year. Most are very small. They cannot be felt. They can only be measured by scientific instruments. However, in August of nineteen fifty-nine, an earthquake at Yellowstone measured seven point five on the Richter scale. Twenty-eight people were killed.
    It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the United States. But Yellowstone’s sleeping giant volcano did not erupt.
    In two thousand one, the United States Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park and the University of Utah signed an agreement.
    That agreement established the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Under the agreement, the park, the Geological Survey and the university are responsible for improving efforts to study the volcanic system of Yellowstone.
    The observatory uses information from many different instruments on the ground and from satellites to study the volcano. The information will help officials decide if Yellowstone’s huge volcano is becoming a danger. Then they could warn the public quickly if necessary.
    Experts at the observatory say Yellowstone represents some danger to the public. It always has. However, its natural beauty also makes it a treasure that could not be possible without the sleeping giant volcano that is under Yellowstone National Park.
What do the experts find out about the volcano at Yellowstone?

选项 A、Its eruption is closely related to the earthquakes nearby.
B、The stronger an earthquake nearby is, the more possibly it erupts.
C、Earthquakes nearby are useless in regard to the prediction of its eruption.
D、Its eruption has nothing to do with the earthquakes nearby.

答案C

解析 本题考查volcano与earthquake的关系,定位到第6至8段。第7段最后一句和第8段表明黄石公园的火山是否爆发与地震没有关系。虽然第6段第2句表明地震和火山密切相关,但要注意本题询问的只是“黄石国家公园的火山”。
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