类别:环境类 真题 140427CN-P2
Title:The Climate of Japan
Paragraph 1 At the most general level, two major climatic forces determine Japan’s weather. Prevailing westerly winds move across Eurasia, sweep over the Japanese islands, and continue eastward across the Pacific Ocean. In addition, great cyclonic airflows (masses of rapidly circulating air) that arise over the western equatorial Pacific move in a wheel-like fashion northeastward across Japan and nearby regions. During winter months heavy masses of cold air from Siberia dominate the weather around Japan. Persistent cold winds skim across the Sea of Japan from the northwest, picking up moisture that they deposit as several feet of snow on the western side of the mountain ranges on Honshu Island. As the cold air drops its moisture, it flows over high ridges and down eastern slopes to bring cold, relatively dry weather to valleys and coastal plains and cities
1. According to paragraph 1, all of the following are true of the cold air from Siberia EXCEPT:
It gathers moisture as it moves across the Sea of Japan.
It is responsible for the snow that falls on the western side of Honshu Island.
It is warmed by the cyclonic airflows from the south that mix with it.
It is responsible for the cold, dry weather of the eastern valleys and coastal plains and cities.
Paragraph 1 is marked with an arrow [→].
Paragraph 2
In spring the Siberian air mass warms and loses density, enabling atmospheric currents over the Pacific to steer warmer air into northeast Asia. This warm, moisture-laden air covers most of southern Japan during June and July. The resulting late spring rains then give way to a drier summer that is sufficiently hot and muggy, d espite the island chain’s northerly latitude, to allow widespread rice cultivation
2. The word “enabling” in the passage is closet in meaning to
preparing
requiring
allowing
distributing
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类别:天文类 真题 140412CN-P1
Title:Surface Fluids on Venus and Earth
A fluid is a substance, such as a liquid or gas, in which the component particles (usually molecules) can move past one another. Fluids flow easily and conform to the shape of their containers. The geologic processes related to the movement of fluids on a planet’s surface can completely resurface a planet many times. These processes derive their energy from the Sun and the gravitational forces of the planet itself. As these fluids interact with surface materials, they move particles about or react chemically with them to modify or produce materials. On a solid planet with a hydrosphere and an atmosphere, only a tiny fraction of the planetary mass flows as surface fluids. Yet the movements of these fluids can drastically alter a planet. Consider Venus and Earth, both terrestrial planets with atmosphere.
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类别:文化艺术类 真题 140628CN-P2
Title:The Development of Printing
Paragraph 1 Printing with movable type, a revolutionary departure from the old practice of copying by hand, was invented in the 1440s by Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith. Mass production of identical books and pamphlets made the world of letters more accessible to a literate audience. Two preconditions proved essential for the advent of printing: the industrial production of paper and the commercial production of manuscripts.
1. The word ¯advent‖ in the passage is closet in meaning to
success
increase
arrival
practice
Paragraph 2 Increased paper production in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the first stage in the rapid growth of manuscript books—hand-copied works bound as books—which in turn led to the invention of mechanical printing. Papermaking came to Europe from China via Arab intermediaries. By the fourteenth century, paper mills were operating in Italy, producing paper that was much more fragile but much cheaper than parchment or vellum, animal skins that Europeans had previously used for writing. To produce paper, old rags were soaked in a chemical solution, beaten by mallets into a pulp, washed with water, treated, and dried in sheets—a method that still produces good-quality papertoday
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