Stephen invited me to dinner the day before yesterday and I______his invitation with pleasure.
A. accepted
B. promised
C. permitted
D. received
According to a weather expert's prediction, the atmosphere will be 3℃ warmer in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn fuels at the present rate. If this warming up took place, the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt, thus raising sea level several meters and severely flooding coastal cities. Also, the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate of the northern hemisphere, possibly resulting in an alteration of the earth's chief food-growing zones.
In the past, concern about a man-made warming of the earth has concentrated on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet. But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic, which may be affected by only a few degrees of warming, in other words, by a warming on the scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty years from the burning of fuels.
Satellite pictures show that large areas of Antarctic ice are already disappearing. The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place. This fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth.
However, most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere, where temperatures seem to be falling. Scientists conclude, therefore, that up to now natural influences on the weather have exceeded those caused by man. The question is. Which natural cause has most effect on the weather?
One possibility is the variable behavior. of the sun. Astronomers at one research station have studied the hot spots and "cold" spots (that is, the relatively less hot spots) on the sun. As the sun rotates, every 27.5 days, it presents hotter or "colder" faces to the earth, and different aspects to different parts of the earth. This seems to have a considerable effect on the distribution of the earth's atmospheric pressure, and consequently on wind circulation. The sun is also variable over a long term: its heat output goes up and down in cycles, the latest trend being downward.
Scientists are now finding mutual relations between models of solar-weather interactions and the actual climate over many thousands of years, including the last Ice Age. The problem is that the models are predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age and it is not. One way of solving this theoretical difficulty is to assume a delay of thousands of years while the solar effects overcome the inertia of the earth's climate. If this is right, the warming effect of carbon dioxide might thus be serving as a useful counterbalance to the sun's diminishing heat.
It can be concluded that a concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would______.
A. prevent the sun's rays from reaching the earth's surface
B. mean a warming up in the Arctic
C. account for great changes in the climate in the northern hemisphere
D. raise the temperature of the earth's surface
SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.
听力原文: Six years ago he was the Queen's equerry. This afternoon he became her son-in-law and from now on, technically at least the Princess Royal's dayman, Laurence. Never before has there been a royal wedding on Deeside, and one or two hardy souls had claimed their places not long after dawn. It was seven hours later that the first of the royal guests set off on the short drive to the church.
Outside Commander Laurence posed briefly for the privately-commissioned film company. The Queen Mother braved the bitter highland winds to join the rest of the family for the service. They had lunch together at Balmoral after the Queen and others had driven from Edinburgh. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York followed, their estranged wives the only noticeable absentees.
The Princess Royal used her bride’s prerogative to be a few minutes late, her father at her side and her daughter Zara behind.
The weather on the wedding day was______.
A. cold
B. warm
C. foggy
D. rainy
At present______than doing well in our socialist economic construction.
A. nothing is more important
B. nothing is less important
C. much is more important
D. anything is more important