D) Scientists can successfully predict earthquakes.
17. A) There were fatal mistakes in its design.
B) The builder didn't observe the building codes of the time.
C) The traffic load went beyond its capacity.
D) It was built according to less strict earthquake-resistance standards.
Passage Three
Questions 18 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.
18. A) By judging to what extent they can eliminate the risks.
B) By estimating the possible loss of lives and property.
C) By estimating the frequency of volcanic eruptions.
D) By judging the possible risks against the likely benefits.
19. A) One of Etna's recent eruptions made many people move away.
B) Etna's frequent eruptions have ruined most of the local farmland.
C) Etna's eruptions are frequent but usually mild.
D) There are signs that Etna will erupt again in the near future.
20. A) They will remain where they are.
B) They will leave this area for ever.
C) They will turn to experts for advice.
D) They will seek shelter in nearby regions.
Part ll Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this Part. Each passage is followed by some questions or Unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
When global warming finally came, it stuck with a vengeance (异乎寻常地). In some regions, temperatures rose several degrees in less than a century Sea levels shot up nearly 400 feet, flooding coastal settlements and forcing people to migrate inland. Deserts spread throughout the world as vegetation shifted drastically in North America, Europe and Asia. After driving many of the animals around them to near extinction, people were forced to abandon their old way of life for a radically new survival strategy that resulted in widespread starvation and disease. The adaptation was farming: the global-warming crisis that gave rise to it happened more than l0,000 years ago.
As environmentalists convene in rio de Janeiro this week to ponder the global climate of the future, earth scientists are in the midst of a revolution in understanding how climate has changed in the past —— and how those changes have transformed human existence. Researchers have begun to piece together an illuminating picture of the powerful geo1ogical and astronomical forces that have combined to change the planet's environment from hot to cold, wet to dry and back again over a time Period stretching back hundreds of millions of years.
Most important, scientists are beginning to realize that the climatic changes have had a major impact on the evolution of the human species. New research now suggests that climate shifts have played a key role in nearly every significant turning point in human evolution: from the dawn of Primates (灵长类动物) some 65 million years ago to human ancestors rising up to walk on two legs, from the huge expansion of the human brain to the rise of agriculture. Indeed, the human history has not been merely touched by global climate change, some scientists argue, it has in some instances been driven by it.
The new research has profound implications for the environmental summit in Rio. Among other things, the findings demonstrate that dramatic climate change is nothing new for planet Earth. The benign (宜人的) global environment that has existed over the past l0,00O years - during which agriculture, writing, cities and most other features of civilization appeared —— is a mere bright spot in a much large pattern of widely varying climate over the ages. In fact the pattern of climate change in the past reveals that Earth's climate will almost certainly go through dramatic changes in the future —— even without the influence of human activity
2l. Farming emerged as a survival strategy because man had been obliged ——
A) to give up his former way of life
B) to leave the coastal areas.
C) to follow the ever-shifting vegetation
D) to abandon his original settlement.
22. Earth scientists have come to understand that climate ——
A) is going trough a fundamental change
B) has been getting warmer for l0, 000 years
C) will eventually change from hot to cold.
D) has gone through Periodical changes
23. Scientists believe that human evolution -
A) has seldom been accompanied by climatic changes
B) has exerted little influence on climatic changes
C) has l
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