英语阅读A.docVIP

试卷编号：7113 座位号 浙江广播电视大学2006年春季学期期末考试 《英语阅读》（3）试题 2006年7月 题 号 一 二 总 分 得 分 得 分 评卷人 一、阅读理解I（每小题3分，共60分） Passage 1 Read passage 1 carefully and complete items 1-5 as required (15 points, 3 points) Most scientists are now certain that global warming is taking place. Gases such as carbon dioxide produced by burning of coal, oil, wood, together with industrial pollution, are creating a warm blanket around the earth. This blanket is trapping heat in the atmosphere (the process known as “the greenhouse effect”), and so raising the temperature of the earth (global warming). The evidence for global warming can now be seen in the world’s changing climate statistics. In Europe, eight of the last ten years have seen record high temperatures. For northern Europe, this has generally been a change for the better. Gardeners can now even grow some tropical plants in England, though London may never see a “White Christmas” again. On the other hand, the countries around the Mediterranean sea, and those south of the Sahara desert are receiving even less rain than before. In sub-Saharan Africa the crops are drying out in the fields and people are dying of starvation. In the Americas, the climate is becoming more extreme-the summers are getting hotter and the storms are becoming more violent. In 1999 the southern United States was struck by a series of destructive hurricanes, while the end of 1999 saw the worst floods ever in Venezuela. Meteorologists expect such trends to continue, and indeed to worsen, if global warming cannot be halted. In addition to worrying about rising global temperatures and more extreme weather conditions, scientists are closely are closely monitoring sea levels around the world. These are slowly rising, as the northern and southern polar ice caps start to melt. This will have serious consequences for low-lying countries near the sea, such as the coral islands in the Pacific, and Bangladesh where the River Ganges already