精英家教网 > 高中英语 > 题目详情

In a natural disaster—a hurricane,flood,tornado,volcanic eruption,or other calamity—minutes and even seconds of warning can be the difference between life and death.Because of this,scientists and government officials are working to use the latest technological advances to predict when and where disasters will happen.They are also studying how best to analyze and communicate this information once it is obtained.The goal is to put technology to effective use in saving lives and property when nature unleashes its power with devastating results.
On September 29,1998,Hurricane Georges made landfall in Biloxi,Mississippi,after devastating Haiti,the Dominican Republic,Puerto Rico,and several islands of the Caribbean with torrential rains and winds up to 160 km/h (100 mph).Few people lost their lives along the Gulf Coast of the United States,although hundreds died in the Caribbean.
This was a very different outcome from 1900,when a powerful Gulf Coast hurricane made an unexpected direct hit on Galveston,Texas,killing at least 6 000 people.Vastly improved hurricane warnings explain the different circumstances at either end of the 20th century—residents of Galveston had no advance warning that a storm was approaching,while residents of Biloxi had been warned days in advance of Georges’s approach,allowing for extensive safety precautions.
At the same time that people in Biloxi were thankful for the advance warning,some residents of New Orleans,Louisiana,120 km to the west,were less satisfied.A day before Georges made landfall,forecasters were predicting that the hurricane had a good chance of striking New Orleans.Because much of New Orleans lies below sea level,the city is at risk for flooding.In addition,because New Orleans has a large population in vulnerable locations,emergency management officials must begin evacuations well before a storm strikes.But evacuation costs money:Businesses close,tourists leave,and citizens take precautionary measures.The mayor of New Orleans estimated that his city’s preparations for Georges cost more than 50 million.After the full fury of Georges missed New Orleans,some residents questioned the value of the hurricane forecasts in the face of such high costs.
The differing views on the early warnings for Hurricane Georges illustrate some of the complexities involved in predicting disasters.Disaster prediction is more than just forecasting the future with advanced technology—it is also a process of providing scientific information to the government officials and other decision makers who must respond to those predictions.
In general,the process has three phases.First,there is the challenge of forecasting the event itself.In the case of Georges,scientists worked to predict the future direction and strength of the hurricane days in advance.
A second important challenge is communicating the forecast to decision-makers.Because forecasts are always uncertain,a central factor in disaster predictions is communicating this uncertainty.Uncertainty is usually described in terms of odds or probabilities,much like daily weather forecasts.The media plays an important role in communicating predictions and their uncertainty to the public.
The third part of the process is the use of predictive information by decision makers.Even the most accurate information is of little value if the decision maker does not use it appropriately,for example in deciding whether to order an evacuation.If there is a breakdown in any of these three phases of prediction,the result is increased danger and a higher risk of loss of life

  1. 1.

    The underlined word“calamity”refers to ______

    1. A.
      nature
    2. B.
      thunderstorms
    3. C.
      disaster
    4. D.
      dangers
  2. 2.

    According the passage,the purpose of disaster prediction is to______

    1. A.
      demonstrate the power of advanced technology
    2. B.
      bring out the truth between life and death
    3. C.
      prevent such natural disasters from happening
    4. D.
      reduce human casualties and loss of property
  3. 3.

    Which of the following areas suffered the most severe damage?

    1. A.
      Biloxi,Mississippi
    2. B.
      Gulf Coast of U. S
    3. C.
      Galveston,Texas
    4. D.
      New Orleans
CD
1.根据该词所在句子可知calamity 应该与前面的disaster同义。
2.灾害预报的目的可以在第一段中找到:“The goal is to put technology to effective use in saving lives and property when nature unleashes its power with devastating results.”。A、B两项的内容不符合事实,C项说是预防灾害的发生,现在实际上还做不到。D项的内容较接近原文的意思。
3.试题问哪个地方遭受过最严重的灾害。A、B两项所说的地方由于有了预报,损失不大。D项是新奥尔良,根本没有遭受灾害。C项所指的地方,1900年在没有得到预报的情况下,突遭飓风,造成6000多人死亡,因此损失最大。
练习册系列答案
相关习题

科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解

Passage Sixteen (Mules)

Although the top men in smuggling business must work together, most of a syndicate’s small fry, especially the mules, know only their immediate contacts. If caught there is little they can give away. A mule probably will not even know the name of the person who gives him his instructions, nor how to get in touch with him. Usually he even does not know the person to whom he has to make delivery. He will be told just to sit tight in a certain hotel or bar until someone contacts him. In this way if he is blown, coming through airport customs he cannot unwittingly lead agents to the next link in the chain. All the persons at the receiving end do is to hang around the airport among the waiting crowd, and see that the mule comes through safely. If he does not, he is dimply written off as a loss. To make identification of mules easier, several syndicates have devised their own “club ties” so that a mule wearing one can immediately be picked out.

Mules often receive careful training before embarking on their first journey. One Beirut organization, for example, uses a room with three airline seats in it. There the trainee mules sit for hours on end wearing weighted smuggling vests beneath their clothes, so that they become accustomed to standing up after a long flight in a natural way, and without revealing what they are carrying. An outfit in Brussels maintained a comfortable apartment where the mules could relax and get a firm grip on themselves on the night before their first journey; they were helped to dress before setting out for the airport in the morning. More often than not a courier will not know precisely where he is going or what flight number is until he is actually handed his tickets at the airport. This prevents the careless boast in some bar or to a girl friend the night before.

Mules occasionally run off with the goods to keep the profit themselves. As insurance against this, a syndicate often sends a high-up on the same plane to keep a wary eye on couriers, particularly new ones. Even then things can go badly wrong. One international currency smuggler who was having trouble getting money out of Britain was offered help by a group of men who said they were in a position to “fix thing” – for a fee of course. Foolishly, the smuggler agreed to accept their help. When he got to London’s Heathrow Airport, he handed over to one of the men a black suitcase containing nearly $90,000 in cash, destined for Frankfurt. Just to keep an eye on things, the smuggler went along on the same plane. When they landed at Frankfurt he was handed back his suitcase. He beat a straight path to the men’s toilet, opened the case, and found only old clothes. The courier had switched suitcase en route, but the smuggler could hardly run to the police and complain that “the man who was smuggling money out of England for me has stolen it.”

1.What is a “mule”?

A.A person who sends smuggling goods for a syndicate is called mule.

B.A person in charge of smuggling goods is called mule.

C.A person who makes delivery for a syndicate is called mule.

D.A person who receives instructions from a smuggler is called mule.

2.The sentence “if he is blown” in line (6) is closest in meaning to

A.if he is arrested.

B.if he is recognized, but not necessarily arrested.

C.if he is recognized and arrested.

D.if he runs away.

3.Why does the author give an example in the last paragraph?

A.To show how a smuggler is caught.

B.To show a smuggler is afraid of the police.

C.To show to keep a wary eye on couriers is useless.

D.To show mules may keep the profit for themselves.

4.how does a mule work?

A.Jointly.

B.Independently.

C.consciously.

D.Separately.

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英语 来源:2010届高考二轮复习英语阅读理解二十篇精读 题型:阅读理解


Passage Sixteen (Mules)
Although the top men in smuggling business must work together, most of a syndicate’s small fry, especially the mules, know only their immediate contacts. If caught there is little they can give away. A mule probably will not even know the name of the person who gives him his instructions, nor how to get in touch with him. Usually he even does not know the person to whom he has to make delivery. He will be told just to sit tight in a certain hotel or bar until someone contacts him. In this way if he is blown, coming through airport customs he cannot unwittingly lead agents to the next link in the chain. All the persons at the receiving end do is to hang around the airport among the waiting crowd, and see that the mule comes through safely. If he does not, he is dimply written off as a loss. To make identification of mules easier, several syndicates have devised their own “club ties” so that a mule wearing one can immediately be picked out.
Mules often receive careful training before embarking on their first journey. One Beirut organization, for example, uses a room with three airline seats in it. There the trainee mules sit for hours on end wearing weighted smuggling vests beneath their clothes, so that they become accustomed to standing up after a long flight in a natural way, and without revealing what they are carrying. An outfit in Brussels maintained a comfortable apartment where the mules could relax and get a firm grip on themselves on the night before their first journey; they were helped to dress before setting out for the airport in the morning. More often than not a courier will not know precisely where he is going or what flight number is until he is actually handed his tickets at the airport. This prevents the careless boast in some bar or to a girl friend the night before.
Mules occasionally run off with the goods to keep the profit themselves. As insurance against this, a syndicate often sends a high-up on the same plane to keep a wary eye on couriers, particularly new ones. Even then things can go badly wrong. One international currency smuggler who was having trouble getting money out of Britain was offered help by a group of men who said they were in a position to “fix thing” – for a fee of course. Foolishly, the smuggler agreed to accept their help. When he got to London’s Heathrow Airport, he handed over to one of the men a black suitcase containing nearly $90,000 in cash, destined for Frankfurt. Just to keep an eye on things, the smuggler went along on the same plane. When they landed at Frankfurt he was handed back his suitcase. He beat a straight path to the men’s toilet, opened the case, and found only old clothes. The courier had switched suitcase en route, but the smuggler could hardly run to the police and complain that “the man who was smuggling money out of England for me has stolen it.”
1.What is a “mule”?
A.A person who sends smuggling goods for a syndicate is called mule.
B.A person in charge of smuggling goods is called mule.
C.A person who makes delivery for a syndicate is called mule.
D.A person who receives instructions from a smuggler is called mule.
2.The sentence “if he is blown” in line (6) is closest in meaning to
A.if he is arrested.
B.if he is recognized, but not necessarily arrested.
C.if he is recognized and arrested.
D.if he runs away.
3.Why does the author give an example in the last paragraph?
A.To show how a smuggler is caught.
B.To show a smuggler is afraid of the police.
C.To show to keep a wary eye on couriers is useless.
D.To show mules may keep the profit for themselves.
4.how does a mule work?
A.Jointly.
B.Independently.
C.consciously.
D.Separately.

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英语 来源:2012-2013学年山东省高三11月阶段性测试英语试卷(解析版) 题型:阅读理解

IMAGINE if there was a device that could do everything for you – wake you up every morning, chat with you and type your e-mails.

The piece of technology in question would be smart, able to tell you about the weather and where the nearest restaurants are.

The good thing is you no longer need to wonder, because something like this already exists. And its name is Siri.

Siri is a voice recognition application designed for Apple products and the concept has been around for almost a year.

When Siri first came out it could only speak English, but now it has “learned” lots of new languages, including Chinese, Cantonese and Taiwanese, reported The Wall Street Journal. So, you can give it orders in your mother tongue.

But how could a cell phone or a computer “hear” what you are saying and understand it? This is all because of voice recognition technology.

When you speak, your voice creates vibrations (振动) in the air – a bit like waves in the water when you throw a rock into the lake. The microphone receives the vibrations and the computer changes them into digital data that is then divided into many parts. They are analyzed one by one to see what pronunciations each part stands for. The computer then puts these pronunciations together into possible words according to its built-in dictionary.

But figuring out the words is far from enough; building words into meaningful sentences is the most difficult part. The computer has to compare what it hears to a large library of known phrases and sentences to determine what the user is saying.

However, people don’t always talk in the most standard way and sometimes make grammatical mistakes. This is why traditional voice recognition software always requires you to remember keywords and to speak in a certain way.

Fortunately, Siri isn’t like that. It’s not just “voice recognition”; it’s “natural language understanding (NLU)”. You can ask it things like “Do I need an umbrella today?” and it will know that you are asking about the weather, according to ABC News.

“The key thing is NLU – understanding what you mean and what you want,” Neil Grant from Nuance, a software company in the US, told The Guardian. “Historically, you had to learn a huge long list of commands . As NLU progresses, you can say what you want in a way that’s natural to you.”

1.What is the function of the first two paragraphs?

A.To show that invention usually results from need.

B.To clear doubts about voice recognition technology.

C.To introduce something that offers these helpful services.

D.To show how the voice recognition works.

2.Which step is the most complicated in the process of voice recognition according to the article?

A.Changing the received vibrations into digital data.

B.Analyzing the digital data to see what pronunciations it represents.

C.Putting the pronunciations together into possible words.

D.Figuring out meaningful sentences based on the words.

3.How can you get Siri to respond according to the article?

A.You can speak in a natural way as you would to a person.

B.You can only speak English and Chinese.

C.You have to say things in a certain way.

D.You have to remember keywords and speak specific commands.

4.What can be concluded from the article?

A.Siri can record and save what you say frequently into a computer dictionary.

B.Siri will fail to understand what you say if you make grammatical mistakes.

C.The biggest advantage of Siri is that it’s NLU is rather than just voice recognition.

D.Since first applied to Apple products a year ago, Siri has made great improvements.

5.The text is mainly about ________.

A.the convenience of future life.

B.an introduction to the Apple products.

C.the working system of voice recognition

D.the introduction to Siri

 

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英语 来源:2012-2013学年黑龙江双鸭山一中高一上学期期中测试英语试卷(解析版) 题型:信息匹配

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项是多余选项。

Learning English online is an effective way to improve your English. But with any type of learning you need to be prepared. This passage will give you advice and tips on how to get the most out of your online lessons.

    76     

This is an obvious point but also the most important one. A computer, a good Internet connection and a headset are what you will need to take classes online. A web camera is also pretty important. Make sure that your computer is turned on, that everything is plugged in correctly and that you have tested the connection. Doing this before the class means that you will be ready when the lesson starts

Take the classes somewhere quiet.

      77    Trying to listen and participate(参与) in English classes is very difficult when there is noise around you. So find a quiet room and make sure that no one disturbs you while you are taking your lesson.

      78     

When grammar or anything else is being taught, make sure that you understand it. You won’t need to practice it at this time; just make sure that everything is clear. If you don’t understand what is being taught, ask your teacher to explain it again. Your teacher will be more than happy to deal with whatever puzzles you.

Practice speaking English.

Every class is an opportunity to practice your English speaking with a native and qualified teacher. Try to allow the conversation to flow by listening and talking in a natural way.   79 The teacher should note the mistakes and correct them at a later time.

Relax.

Come to class feeling relaxed and excited.    80    Come into the class excited about learning English. You will be able to get more out of the class this way.

A.Review after the lesson

B.Make sure everything is ready.

C.Understand what is being taught.

D.Get away from everything that may be going on in your home

E. Language learning should be enjoyable especially in online classes.

F. You will meet many problems when you are learning English online.

G. This is your chance to speak English without worrying about too many mistakes.

 

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英语 来源:2010-2011学年江西省高三六校联考英语卷 题型:阅读理解

Vans, Keds, Dollies—they sound like the names of rock bands, but if you have teenagers, you'll know they're actually the latest in teenage footwear.

But experts are now warning that the current shoe fashions will be causing teenagers discomfort in the short term and storing up years of foot, knee and back pain in the future.

Here, the experts identify the problems caused by teenagers' shoe choice.

KEDS/VANS

Slip-on shoes with elastic (弹性的)sides are particularly popular among teenage boys - with Keds and Vans the most sought-after brands.

The main problem is that they are just too flat—so flat that the heel, which strikes the ground first, also becomes damaged and painful.

BALLET PUMPS

The worst shoes of all are such light and thin dolly shoes. The problem is partly their flatness, as with Keds and Vans. However ballet pumps, which have no string or heel, have other specific problems.

“As the shoe has no fastening device, it relies on the toes to keep the shoe on, causing an awkward gait(步法), this leads to short- and long-term problems such as calluses(茧子), heel and knee pain.”

WEDGES AND STILETTOS

These shoes can also cause problems with gait. They may look good, but the heels on these are so high they can force the wearer's body weight forward, making them very unstable.

Teens who wear these shoes regularly are also in danger of joining those millions of women with constant back pain.

SCHOOL SHOES

So what do podiatrists(足科医生)have on their wish list, especially for everyday wear?

Something in a natural, breathable fabric, with a string to hold it on, with a small heel and a deep toe-box that does not press the toes, such as Clark's, Marks & Spencer or Rhino.

If your teen insists on wearing 'bad' shoes, get them some simple foot orthotics(矫形器) in the shoes. These support and correct the movement of the foot and, properly fitted by a podiatrist, can often transform their walk and halt the damage.

 

1. Of all the shoes mentioned in the passage, which can cause the worst problems?

  A. Marks & Spencer.                       B. Wedges & Stilettos.   

C. Keds and Vans.                     D. Ballet Pumps.

2. Which pair of shoes may not be found on the podiatrists’ wish list?

 

                                         

 

3. The underlined word “halt” in the last paragraph probably means _______.

A. increase           B. worsen           C. stop           D. cure

4. From this passage we can infer _______.

  A. trendy shoes may ruin teenagers’ health

B. fashionable shoes all have orthotics in them

  C. experts are strongly against wearing popular shoes

  D. podiatrists are expert at producing branded shoes

5. In which column of Mail Online can you find this passage?

  A. Sports.          B. Science.           C. Health.             D. Shopping.

 

查看答案和解析>>

同步练习册答案