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
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage q
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage q
admin
2010-04-30
28
问题
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)
Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1.
For questions 1~7, mark
Y (for YES ) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for NO ) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.
For questions 8~10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
Hurricane (飓风)
Hurricane is a name given to violent storms that originate over the tropical (热带的) or subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, or North Pacific Ocean east of the International Date Line. Such storms over the North Pacific west of the International Date Line are called typhoons (台风); those elsewhere are known as tropical cyclones (热带气旋), which is the general name for all such storms including hurricanes and typhoons. These storms can cause great damage to property and loss of human life due to high winds, flooding, and large waves crashing against shorelines. The deadliest natural disaster in the United States history was caused by a hurricane that struck the coast of Texas in 1990. The costliest natural disaster in U.S. history stemmed from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
How hurricanes form
Oceans can become warm enough in the summer for hurricanes to develop, and the oceans also retain summer heat through the fall. As a result, the hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin, which comprises the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico, runs from June 1 through November 30. At least 25 out-of-season storms, however, have occurred from 1887 through 2003, and 9 of these strengthened into hurricanes for at least a few hours.
Hurricanes weaken and die out when cut off from warm, humid air as they move over cooler water or land but can remain dangerous as they weaken. Hurricanes and other tropical cyclones begin as disorganized clusters of showers and thunderstorms. When one of these clusters becomes organized with its winds making a complete circle around a center, it is called a tropical depression (热带低气压)
When a depression’s sustained winds reach 63 km/h or more, it becomes a tropical storm and is given a name. By definition, a tropical storm becomes a hurricane when winds reach 119 km/h or more.
For a tropical depression to grow into a hurricane, winds from just above the surface of the ocean to more than 12,000 m in altitude must be blowing from roughly the same direction and at the same speed. Winds that blow in opposite directions create wind shear--different wind speeds or direction at upper and lower altitudes (海拔)--that can prevent a storm from growing.
Characteristics of hurricanes
A hurricane consists of bands of thunderstorms that spiral (盘旋) toward the low-pressure center, or "eye" of the storm. Winds also spiral in toward the center, speeding up as they approach the eye. Large thunderstorms create an "eye wall" around the center where winds are the strongest. Winds in the eye itself are nearly calm, and the sky is often clear. Air pressures in the eye at the surface range from around 982 hectopascals (百帕) in a weak hurricane to lower than 914 hectopascals in the strongest storms.
In a large, strong storm, hurricane-force winds may be felt over an area with a diameter of more than 100 km. The diameter of the area effected by gale winds and torrential rain can extend another 200 km or more outward from the eye of the storm. The diameter of the eye may be less than 16 km in a strong hurricane to more than 48 km in a weak storm. The smaller the diameter of the eye, the stronger the hurricane winds will be. A hurricane’s strength is rated from Category 1, which has winds of at least 119 km/h, to Category 5, which has winds of more than 249 km/h. These categories, known as the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, were developed in the 1970s.
In the tropics, hurricanes move generally east to west, steered by global-scale winds. Hurricane, typhoons, and cyclones usually "recurve" in the direction of either the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere or the North Pole in the Northern Hemisphere. Eventually the storms move toward the east in the middle latitudes, but not all storms recurve. Hurricanes travel at varying rates. In the lower latitudes the rate usually ranges from 8 to 32 kin/h, and in the higher latitudes it may increase to as much as 80 km/h.
In addition to generating large weaves that travel out in all directions, hurricane winds pile up water. This piling up of water is known as a storm surge, and it can raise the sea level more than 6 m when the storm hits land. The deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history was the 1990 Galveston Texas hurricane, which killed an estimated 8,000 people. The storm surge accounted for most of the deaths. The costliest natural disaster in U.S. history wag caused by the storm surge created by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The hurricane’s storm surge burst levees protecting New Orleans, Louisiana, flooding the city and forcing a complete evacuation. The worst tropical storm disaster since the 20th century began was a 1970 cyclone that struck East Pakistan when a storm surge killed an estimated 300,000 people.
Since the last third of the 20th century, floods and landslides from heavy rain were the leading cause of hurricane and tropical storm deaths. In October 1998 Hurricane Mitch’s torrential rain caused floods and landslides that killed more than 9,000 people with another 9,000 missing and presumed dead in Central America, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Although the hurricane death toll steadily declined in the United States during the 20th century and at the start of the 21st century, the costs of damage soared as coastal populations grew and the value of property exceeded population growth. Before Hurricane Katrina, the costliest U.S. natural disaster was Hurricane Andrew, which hit the Miami, Florida, metropolitan area in 1992, causing $ 26.5 billion in damages, including both insured and uninsured losses. Some estimates of Hurricane Katrina’s damages ran as high as $125 billion. In addition, federal relief efforts were expected to cost in the hundreds of billions.
Hurricanes and global warming
In recent years concerns have arisen that a general warming of the Earth’s climate could increase the numbers or strength of hurricanes and tropical cyclones. In a January 2001 report the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it had found no evidence that peak wind speeds or amounts of precipitation (降水量) in tropical cyclones had increased in the last half of the 20th century.
Long-term records do not provide enough information to conclude whether the global total of tropical cyclones increased during the 20th century. But detailed records of Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico hurricanes show that the numbers of storms increase and decrease in cycles.
Many hurricane researchers think the cycles are related to changes in Atlantic Ocean temperatures that last decades. From the late 19th century through the 1980s about one-third of the major hurricanes that formed in the Atlantic hit the United States, which means around ten such hurricanes could have been expected to hit from 1995 through 2003. Yet for reasons atmospheric scientists do not understand, only three such hurricanes hit the United States from 1995 through 2003.
Researchers who study hurricanes and climate say that the computer models used to predict global climate changes do not look at weather in the detail needed to forecast whether a warmer world would increase the number or strength of hurricanes. On the other hand, scientists have no reason to expect fewer or weaker hurricanes to form than has occurred in the past. They also have no reason to think that many storms will miss the United States as they did in the 1990s and early 2000s. This means that no matter how global climate change affects hurricanes, increased population along the coasts places more people and property in harm’s way.
Despite the decline of the death toll in a hurricane, the costs of the damage are increasing greatly in the 20th century.
选项
答案
Y
解析
尽管飓风导致的死亡人数下降,其破坏带来的损失在20世纪日益增加。在characteristics of hurricanes部分最后一段,作者指出死亡人数稳步下降,但是由于海岸人口剧增,由飓风带来的损失也剧增。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/oyOK777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Itwouldhaveabadeffectonthelocalpeople.B、Thelocalpeopledonotwanttosellanyland.C、Thegovernmentdoesn’tallo
Thinktwicenexttimesomeoneasksyoufor"fiveminutesofyourtime"itcouldcostyoumorethanyouthink.ABritishprofesso
A、Heshouldlistenmoretotheteacher.B、Heshouldtakepartinsomesocialactivities.C、Heshouldmakeanappointmentwithhi
A、Waristheonlywaytosolveinternationaldisputes.B、Warwillbelessdangerousbecauseoftheimprovementofweapons.C、It
A、Heremembersthathedoesnothavethevideoinhisoffice.B、HerealizesthatthewomandoesnothaveaVCR.C、Heisworried
A、Towireheroffice.B、Tofixthetransformer.C、Towireherbuilding.D、Tofixthewires.CWhatdoesthewomanwantthemanto
1.举例说明水对人类的重要性2.举例说明我国所面临的水资源问题3.为了自下而上和发展人们要……PreciousWater
Therearetwobasicwaystoseegrowth:Oneasaproduct,theotherasaprocess.Peoplehave【B1】viewedpersonalgrowthasanex
A、Claytiles.B、Slateorstone.C、Woodenshingles.D、Reedsorstraw.D
____________(如果受难者早些知道消息),manylivescouldhavebeensaved.
随机试题
有诊断价值的肉芽肿是
铣削矩形齿离合器时,为了保证铣出的齿侧是一个通过工件轴线的径向平面,必须使铣刀()的旋转平面通过工件的轴线。
携带胆固醇最多的脂蛋白是
A.乙基纤维素B.羧甲基淀粉钠C.山梨醇D.喷雾干燥乳糖E.硬脂酸镁上述可供粉末直接压片的是
土路基施工包括挖土、填土、( )、修整、压实等工序。
《反不正当竞争法》行为的种类包括()。
下列关于或有事项的处理中,不正确的是()。
阅读以下文字,完成下列题。教育的目的是什么?教育的目的就是帮助人获得生存与生活的本领。不管一个人将来从事什么工作,都必须能继续自己的生活,解决日常生活中的问题。但我们的教育一直有一种忽视和轻视日常生活的倾向,在教育中一直将知识的学习与日常生活相脱
马克思的《资本论》中有段饶有风趣的话,“蜘蛛的活动与织工的活动相似,蜜蜂建筑蜂房的本领使人间的许多建筑师感到惭愧。但是,最蹩脚的建筑师从一开始就比最灵巧的蜜蜂高明的地方,是他在用蜂蜡建筑蜂房前,已经在自己的头脑中把它建成了”。这段话说明()
信息安全的基本要素包括()。
最新回复
(
0
)