[不定项选择题]共用题干 第三篇

Egypt Felled by Famine

Even ancient Egypt's mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped
bring down their civilization around 2180 B C. Now evidence gleaned（搜集）from mud deposited by the River
Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blame一and the
same or worse could happen today.
The ancient Egyptians depended on the Nile's annual floods to irrigate their crops.But any change in
climate that pushed the African monsoons（季风）southwards out of Ethiopia would have diminished these
floods.
Dwindling（逐渐变少；使变少）rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to
establish the soil.When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into
Egypt,along with sediment（沉积；沉积物）from the White Nile.
The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope（同位素；核素）signature from that of the White Nile. So by
analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta,Michael Krom of Leeds University worked
out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river.
Krom reasons that during periods of drought,the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be
relatively high.He found that one of these periods,from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago,immediately predated the
fall of the Egypt's old Kingdom.
The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians."Changes that affect food supply
don't have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies,"says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth
Observatory（天文台）in New York.
"Similar events today could be even more devastating,"says team member Daniel Stanley,a
geoarchaeologist（地质考古学家）from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington , D. C. " Anything humans
do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system because the populations
have increased dramatically." The word"devastating"in the last paragraph could be best replaced by_______________.
A.frustrating
B.damaging
C.defeating
D.worrying

[不定项选择题]共用题干 第三篇

Egypt Felled by Famine

Even ancient Egypt's mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped
bring down their civilization around 2180 B C. Now evidence gleaned（搜集）from mud deposited by the River
Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blame一and the
same or worse could happen today.
The ancient Egyptians depended on the Nile's annual floods to irrigate their crops.But any change in
climate that pushed the African monsoons（季风）southwards out of Ethiopia would have diminished these
floods.
Dwindling（逐渐变少；使变少）rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to
establish the soil.When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into
Egypt,along with sediment（沉积；沉积物）from the White Nile.
The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope（同位素；核素）signature from that of the White Nile. So by
analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta,Michael Krom of Leeds University worked
out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river.
Krom reasons that during periods of drought,the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be
relatively high.He found that one of these periods,from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago,immediately predated the
fall of the Egypt's old Kingdom.
The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians."Changes that affect food supply
don't have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies,"says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth
Observatory（天文台）in New York.
"Similar events today could be even more devastating,"says team member Daniel Stanley,a
geoarchaeologist（地质考古学家）from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington , D. C. " Anything humans
do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system because the populations
have increased dramatically." According to Krom,Egypt's Old Kingdom fell_______________.
A.immediately after a period of drought
B.immediately after a period of flood
C.just before a drought struck
D.just before a flood struck

[不定项选择题]共用题干 Egypt Felled by Famine
Even ancient Egypt's mighty pyramid builders were powerless in the face of the famine that helped bring down their civilization around 2180 B C.Now evidence gleaned（搜集）from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blame-and the same or worse could happen today.
The ancient Egyptians depended on the Nile's annual floods to irrigate their crops.But any change in climate that pushed the African monsoons（季风）southwards out of Ethiopia would have diminished these floods.
Dwindling（使减少）rains in the Ethiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to establish the soil.When rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into the Blue Nile and into Egypt,along with sediment（沉积物）from the White Nile.
The Blue Nile mud has a different isotope（同位素）signature from that of the White Nile.So by analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the Nile Delta,Michael Krom of Leeds University worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river.
Krom reasons that during periods of drought,the amount of the Blue Nile mud in the river would be relatively high.He found that one of these periods,from 4,500 to 4,200 years ago,immediately predated the fall of the Egypt's old Kingdom.
The weakened waters would have been catastrophic for the Egyptians."Changes that affect food supply don't have to be very large to have a ripple effect in societies,"says Bill Ryan of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory（天文台）in New York.
"Similar events today coald be even more devastating,"says team member Daniel Stanley,a geoarchaeologist from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.0."Anything humans do to shift the climate belts woulld have an even worse effect along the Nile system because the populations have increased dramatically." The word"devastating"in the last paragraph could be best replaced by______.
A.frustrating
B.damaging
C.defeating
D.worrying

[不定项选择题]共用题干 第三篇

Almost Human?

Scientists are racing to build the world's first thinking robot.This is not science fiction:
some say they will have made it by the year 2020.Carol Packer reports.
Machines that walk,speak and feel are no longer science fiction.Kismet is the name
of an android（机器人）which scientists have built at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology(MIT).Kismet is different from the traditional robot because it can show
human emotions.Its eyes,ears and lips move to show when it feels happy,sad or bored.
Kismet is one of the first of a new generation of androids一robots that look like human
beings一which can imitate human feelings.Cog,another android invented by the MIT,
imitates the action of a mother. However,scientists admit that so far Cog has the mental
ability of a two-year-old.
The optimists（乐观主义者）say that by the year 2020 we will have created humanoids
（机器人）with brains similar to those of an adult human being. These robots will be
designed to look like people to make them more attractive and easier to sell to the public.
What kind of jobs will they do?In the future,robots like Robonaut,a humanoid invented by
NASA,will be doing dangerous jobs,like repairing space stations.They wi}{also be doing
more and more of the household work for us.In Japan,scientists are designing androids
that will entertain us by dancing and playing the piano.
Some people worry about what the future holds:will robots become monsters（怪物）?
Will people themselves become increasingly like robots?Experts predict that more and more
people will be wearing micro-computers,connected to the Internet,in the future.People
will have micro-chips in various parts of their body,which will connect them to a wide variety
of gadgets（小装置）.Perhaps we should not exaggerate（夸大）the importance of
technology,but one wonders whether,in years to come,we will still be falling in love,
and whether we will still feel pain.Who knows? What is the writer's attitude to robots in the future?
A.Critical.
B.Hostile.
C.Objective.
D.Enthusiastic.