Each winter, the rugged North Shore serves up some of the largest and most impressive ocean waves on the planet.Giant waves make their long journey across the northern Pacific to the area’s shoreline.For many island residents, this means only one thing: surf up.

The exact origin of surfing is unknown, but most historians believe that the Polynesians were already very good at the sport by the time they migrated to the Hawaiian Islands some 2 000 years ago.Early Hawaiians called surfing “He’e nalu”, which literally translates to “wave sliding”.During this time, only high-ranking officials and nobles had access to the best surf spots.King Kamehameha himself was said to be a keen and skilled surfer.
Surfing really took off in the early 1990s.Riding boards made from redwood and balsa wood, early surfers risked their lives to take on these giant waves.
Today, thanks to a number of modern innovations and inventions, the surfing population on the North Shore has exploded.Wave riders and spectators from around the world gather here from November to February, hoping to catch that perfect wave.Winter wave heights can get as high as 20 feet, with faces up to 50 feet! This extreme surf is for experts only, and even then conditions are considered highly dangerous.
World-known surf contests are held here from early November to late December.The Van’s Triple Crown of Surfing, which includes the Vans Hawaiian Pro at Ali’ i Beach Park in Hale’ iwa, the Rip Curl Cup at Sunset Beach, brings together the world’s best professional surfers.Watching them surfing on the grand waves is really a feast for the eyes.
Although winter on the North Shore may not be the best time and place to learn how to surf, the summer months provide safer and more favorable conditions.
64.The passage is most probably from ________.
A.a(chǎn) guide book                                                     B.a(chǎn) magazine                 
C.a(chǎn) government report                                               D.a(chǎn) geography textbook
65.What can we learn from the passage?
A.High officials were the best surfers in the past.
B.Surfing dates back to at least 2 000 years.
C.The best time for surfing is from November to February.
D.Surfing is a sport for professionals and experts.
66.Which of the following is NOT true to the passage?
A.The Polynesians were among the earliest people who took up surfing.
B.Modern inventions make surf boards safer for the surfers.
C.It is a perfect chance for spectators to watch the competitions.
D.More and more people on the North Shore go in for surfing.
67.It’s suggested that a surf learner should ________.
A.make use of the summer time to learn how to surf
B.meet the challenge of the perfect waves on the North Shore
C.take the chance to win a prize in the world-known competitions
D.watch the professional suffers surfing whenever possible

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科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源: 題型:閱讀理解

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.

     An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill(鉆孔) deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0??C. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.

     The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will e from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0??C. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The project is meant to ______.

    A.increase the world’s food output in the future

    B.carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes

    C.build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

    D.protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

    A.The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

    B.Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.

    C.Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever.

    D.Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

We can infer from the text that _______.

    A.Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before.   

B.The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture

    C.People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

    D.There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.

What is probably the best title of the passage?

    A.The Best Place to Store Seeds    

    B.Noah’s Ark(諾亞方舟)of Plant Seeds in Plan

    C.Concerns of World Food Supply  

    D.A New Way to Feed the World

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科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源: 題型:閱讀理解

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.

An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0??C. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high-security door.

The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present al the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0??C. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s most secure gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the 1980s. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The project is meant to ______.

A.increase the world’s food output in the future      

B.carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes   

C.protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

D.build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

A.The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

B.Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.    

C.Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the threat unclear war forever.   

D.Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

We can infer from the text that _______.

A.People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

B.The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture   

C.Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before. 

D.There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.

What is probably the best title of the passage?

A.The Best Place to Store Seeds B.Noah’s Ark(諾亞方舟)of Plant Seeds in Plan

C.Concerns of World Food Supply    D.A New Way to Feed the World

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科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2013-2014學(xué)年浙江省五校高三第一次聯(lián)考英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解

On his bench in Madison Square Soapy moved uneasily, and he realized the fact that the time had come for him to provide against the coming winter.

The winter ambitions of Soapy were not of the highest. In them there were no dreams of Mediterranean voyages or blue Southern skies. Three months on the Island was what his soul desired. Three months of assured board and bed and good company, safe from north winds seemed to Soapy the most desirable thing.

Just as the more fortunate New Yorkers had bought their tickets to Palm Beach each winter, Soapy had made his arrangements for his annual journey to the Island. And now the time had come.

There were many institutions of charity in New York where he might receive lodging and food, but to Soapy’s proud spirit the gifts of charity were undesirable. You must pay in humiliation of spirit for everything received at the hands of mercy. So it was better to be a guest of the law.

Soapy, having decided to go to the Island, at once set about accomplishing his desire. He left his bench and went up Broadway. He stopped at the door of a glittering cafe. He was shaven and his coat was decent. If he could reach a table in the restaurant, the portion of him that would show above the table would raise no doubt in the waiter’s mind. A roasted duck, with a bottle of wine, a cigar and a cup of coffee would be enough. Such a dinner would make him happy, for the journey to his winter refuge.

But as Soapy entered the restaurant door, the head waiter’s eye fell upon his shabby trousers and old shoes. Strong hands pushed him in silence and haste out into the street.

Some other way of entering the desirable refuge must be found.

At a corner of Sixth Avenue Soapy took a stone and sent it through the glass of a glittering shop window. People came running around the corner, a policeman at the head of them. Soapy stood still, with his hands in his pockets, and smiled at the sight of the policeman.

“Where is the man that has done that?” asked the policeman.

“Don’t you think that I have had something to do with it?” said Soapy, friendly.

The policeman paid no attention to Soapy. Men who break windows don’t remain to speak with policemen. They run away. He saw a man running and rushed after him, stick in hand. Soapy, disgusted, walked along, twice unsuccessful.

On the opposite side of the street was a restaurant for people with large appetites and modest purses. Soapy entered this place without difficulty. He sat at a table and ate beefsteak and pie. And then he told the waiter he had no money.

“Go and call a cop,” said Soapy. “And don’t keep a gentleman waiting.”

“No cop for you,” said the waiter. “Hey!”

Then Soapy found himself lying upon his left ear on the pavement. He arose with difficulty, and beat the dust from his clothes. Arrest seemed a rosy dream. The Island seemed far away.

After another unsuccessful attempt to be arrested for harassing a young woman, Soapy went further toward the district of theatres.

When he saw a policeman standing in front of a glittering theatre, he thought of “disorderly conduct”. On the sidewalk Soapy began to sing drunken songs at the top of his voice. He danced, cried, and otherwise disturbed the peace.

The policeman turned his back to Soapy, and said to a citizen, “It is one of the Yale boys celebrating their football victory. Noisy, but no harm.”

Sadly, Soapy stopped his useless singing and dancing. The Island seemed unattainable. He buttoned his thin coat against the north wind.

In a cigar store he saw a well-dressed man who had set his silk umbrella by the door. Soapy entered the store, took the umbrella, and went out with it slowly. The man with the cigar followed hastily.

“My umbrella,” he said.

“Oh, is it?” said Soapy. “Well, why don’t you call a policeman? I took your umbrella! Why don’t you call a cop? There stands one on the corner.”

The umbrella owner slowed his steps. Soapy did likewise. The policeman looked at them curiously.

“Of course,” said the umbrella man, “well, you know how these mistakes occur…if it’s your umbrella I hope you’ll excuse me – I picked it up this morning in a restaurant – if it’s yours, I hope you’ll…”

“Of course it’s mine,” said Soapy.

The ex-umbrella man retreated. The policeman hurried to help a well-dressed woman across the street.

Soapy threw the umbrella angrily. He was angry with the men who wear helmets and carry clubs. They seemed to regard him as a king who could do no wrong.

At last Soapy stopped before an old church on a quiet corner. Through one window a soft light glowed, where, the organist played a Sunday anthem. For there came to Soapy’s ears sweet music that caught and held him at the iron fence.

The moon was shining; cars and pedestrians were few; birds twittered sleepily under the roof. And the anthem that the organist played cemented Soapy to the iron fence, for he had known it well in the days when his life contained such things as mothers and roses and ambitions and friends.

The influence of the music and the old church produced a sudden and wonderful change in Soapy’s soul. He thought of his degraded days, dead hopes and wrecked faculties.

And also in a moment a strong impulse moved him to battle with his desperate fate. He would pull himself out of this pit; he would make a man of himself again. Those sweet notes had set up a revolution in him. Tomorrow he would be somebody in the world. He would…

Soapy felt a hand on his arm. He looked quickly around into the broad face of a policeman.

“What are you doing here?”

“Nothing.”

“Then come along,” said the policeman.

“Three months on the Island,” said the Judge the next morning.

1.Soapy regarded the Island as his winter ambition because _____.

A. he wanted to go on Mediterranean voyages and enjoy blue Southern skies

B. he wanted to spend the cold winter somewhere warm other than New York

C. he wanted to be put into prison to survive the coming winter

D. he wanted to buy a ticket to the Island to spend the cold winter

2.Which of the following is the reason for Soapy’s not turning to charity?

A. His pride gets in the way.

B. What the institutions of charity offer isn’t what Soapy needs.

C. He wants to be a citizen who obeys the law.

D. The institutions of charity are not located on the island.

3. How many times did Soapy try to accomplish his desire?

A. 4.                                       B. 5.                                       C. 6.                                       D. 7.

4. From the passage, we can see what the two restaurants have in common is that _____.

A. they are both fancy upper class restaurants

B. neither of them served Soapy

C. they both drove Soapy out of the restaurant after he finished his meal

D. neither of them called cops

5.Hearing the Sunday anthem at the church, Soapy _____.

A. was reminded of his good old days and wanted to play the anthem again

B. was reminded of his unaccomplished ambition and was determined to get to the Island

C. was reminded of his disgraceful past and determined to transform himself

D. was reminded of his rosy dream and wished to realize it

6.By ending the story this way, the author means to _____.

A. show that one always gets what he/she wants with enough efforts

B. make a contrast and criticize the sick society

C. surprise readers by proving justice was done after all

D. put a tragic end to Soapy’s life and show his sympathy for Soapy

 

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科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2011湖北華師一附中荊州高三5月模擬考試英語(yǔ)試題 題型:閱讀理解

This year Canada’s navy is one hundred years old. To mark the occasion, military ships from six different countries around the Pacific Ocean came to Canada for a four-day celebration. There were parades, parties and demonstrations of navy search and rescue aircraft and a show put on by the Snowbirds.

The Snowbirds, Canada’s aerobatic team, fly Tudor jet aircraft that are not particularly fast or particularly new but with amazing and sometimes hair-raising precision. They put a formation of nine aircraft into a space that would normally hold only one and they change the information in flight, roll it, loop it, break it and reform it in a dizzying ballet in the sky. The Snowbirds are one of the best aerobatic flying teams in the world and they are a readily recognized symbol of Canada just as the Great Wall is a recognized symbol of China. For a Canadian, watching the Snowbirds fly can bring tears. They make us very proud.

The Snowbirds have been flying since 1971. All of the pilots are serving members of the Canadian Air Force. They are all very young, all are highly-skilled and each is attached to the Snowbirds for two or three years. Each winter they practice in the cold, clear skies and each summer they put on more than fifty air-shows across the country and sometimes abroad. What they do is highly specialized. They often fly less than two meters from each other at speeds of about seven hundred and fifty kilometers an hour.

Flying is, by its nature, inherently risky and what the Snowbirds do increases that risk. While the pilots are all highly trained professionals, eight Snowbird pilots have been killed over the years. I have been fortunate enough to watch the Snowbirds fly probably fifteen or twenty times and if I know they are going to be flying I will go to see them again and again. This is not because I want to see someone do something dangerous, it is because I want to see something done so well—it is almost unbelievably precise and beautiful. I want to watch nine aircraft in an incredibly tight formation, each one painted in the red and white of my country’s flag, soaring through the cloudless blue sky. I want to feel that pride and that tear just behind my eyelids that comes from watching something uniquely and wonderfully Canadian.

1..

 Which of the following is TRUE about the Snowbirds?

  A. The aircraft they fly are particularly fast and new.

  B. They are the best aerobatic flying team in the world.

  C. They are regarded as a symbol of Canada.

  D. Every year they put on more than fifty air-shows across the country.

2..

. The underlined word “inherently” in the last paragraph refers to         .

  A. naturally          B. truly         C. entirely           D. nearly

3..

Why does the author like to watch the Snowbirds fly?

  A. Because he wants to see someone do something dangerous.

  B. Because the flying is unbelievably precise and beautiful.

  C. Because his country’s flag is painted on each one.

  D. Because watching them fly can make people cry.

4..

 Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

  A. Air-shows of the Snowbirds

  B. A Four-day Celebration of Canada

  C. The Training of Highly-skilled Pilots

D. A National Symbol -- the Snowbirds

 

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