A green house is a building made of glass which is used for keeping warm when the outside temperature is low. In a similar way there are several gases in the atmosphere (mixture of gases that surround the earth) which trap the heat produced by the sun and prevent it from escaping. These gases are known as "greenhouse gases". And the way in which they trap heat in the atmosphere is called the "greenhouse effect". This is not simply air pollution. Most of the main greenhouse gases exist naturally in small amounts in our atmosphere, and without them the earth would be 30 degrees colder and human life would not exist. In other words, the greenhouse effect is a natural course which is to some degree helpful to us. The problem is that in the last century and a half, we have been putting too many of these gases into the earth's atmosphere by burning large quantities of coal and oil and by cutting down forest. The rapid increase in greenhouse gases is making the world warmer. The world's temperature has already gone up by half a degree this century, and the sea level has risen by 10 centimetres. If the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubles, there will probably be a rise in the earth's temperature of between I and 4degC;. This may seem a small increase, but it would be enough to cause major changes in geography and agriculture. Large areas of the world would be flooded, and some areas would become dry and unable to produce crops. It is important, too, to consider that there may be a delay of about 30 years in the greenhouse effect. This means that we are probably experiencing only now the effect of the gases put into the atmosphere before the 1960s. Since then, our use of these gases has greatly increased. This passage mainly deals with _ . A) the concept and the harm of the greenhouse B) the relation between greenhouse gases and man C) the concept and change of greenhouse effect D) the effect of the rise of the earth's temperature
A
Recently, one of my best friends, whom I'd shared just about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the weekend with me. Since I moved to a new town several years ago, we'd both always looked forward to the few times a year when we could see each other. Over the weekend, we spent hours and hours, staying up late into the night, talking about the people she was hanging around with. She started telling me stories about her new boyfriend, about how she experimented with drugs and was into other bad habits. I was blown away! She told me how she had been lying to her parents because they didn't want her around him. I tried to convince her that she was ruining her future and heading for big trouble. But she didn't believe me. Her self-respect seemed to have disappeared. I just couldn't believe that she really thought it was acceptable to hang out with such a loser. By the time she left, I was really worried about her. It had been so discouraging, and I had come close to telling her several times during the weekend that maybe we had just grown too far apart to continue our friendship--but I didn't. I put the power of friendship to the ultimate test. We'd been friends for far too long. I had to hope that she valued me enough to know that I was trying to save her from hurting herself. I wanted to believe that our friendship could conquer anything. A few days later, she called to say that she had thought long and hard about our conversation,and then she told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend.I just listened on the other end of the phone with tears of joy running down my face. It was one of the truly rewarding moments in my life. Never had I been so proud of a friend. From the beginning of the text,we can learn that the author _ . A) lost touch with the girl several years ago. B) used to spend weekends with the girl. C) moved to the same town as the girl. D) kept in touch with the girl.
D
(Q).
Drawing is a universal language. It was probably our first form of self-expression when we were babies: long before we start writing, we're painting and scribbling , both in order to make sense of the world and because we enjoy it. In the history of human culture, too, painting and image making came before writing or even simple mathematics: 30,000 years ago compared to 5,000. Yet after we leave school most of us never pick up a pencil again--willingly. If asked to draw something, most adults and many older children will shake their heads and say, " Not me! I can't draw. I'm hopeless at it." When you think about it, this is very strange. Drawing involves coordinating the hand and the eye with the pencil. It's a basic skill, no more difficult to learn than other amazing things that humans do, such as hitting a tennis ball over the net or writing our own name. there's no special talent involved. Anybody who can learn to write can learn to draw. So, there you are - no excuse not to get out your pencil, pencil sharpener and rubber and take part in the Big Draw, a nationwide series of free art events taking place all over Britain next October. Everyone's welcome: all you need is a willingness to express yourself through drawing. The Big Draw, now in its fifth year, has already achieved two world records: one for the longest drawing in the world (1km) and the other for the greatest number of people drawing at the same time (7,000). This year, there will be an attempt to create a new Guinness World Record for the longest visitors'book: people will be invited to leave their name and a drawing on a three-kilometer piece of paper. The theme this year is Inside\Outside--People, Structure( ) and Spaces, and other events planned include drawing on a three-kilometer piece of paper. The Big Draw is not about turning the nation into artists, it is about helping people to acquire this universal language of communication. Its greatest achievement next October will be to bring hundreds of thousands of people... When we were babies we expressed ourselves by _ . A) enjoying language B) learning to write. C) making marks on paper. D) painting pictures of the world.
(A).
C