The recovery and ______ of the country' s economy has also been accompanied by increasing
A. renewal
B. revival
C. recession
D. relief
Single-cell marine organisms referred to as "foraminifera" as mentioned in the text might
A. a proof against the existence of oxygen-16.
B. a testimony to sediment formation processes.
C. a valid record justifying glacial periodic cycles.
D. an indicator of the ratio of the two oxygens.
The idea of Euro creep appeals to both sides of the Euro argument. According to the pros, as Britons become familiar with the Euro, membership will start to look inevitable, so those in favor are bound to win. According to the antis, as Britons become familiar with the Euro, membership will start to look inevitable, so those opposed must mobilize for the fight.
Dream or nightmare, Euro creep envisages the single currency worming its way first into the British economy and then into the affections of voters. British tourists will come back from their European holidays laden with Euros, which they will spend not just at airports but in high street shops. So, too, will foreign visitors. As the Earn becomes a parallel currency, those who make up the current two-o-one majority will change their minds. From there, it will be a short step to decide to dispense with the pound.
Neil Kinnock, a European commissioner and former leader of the Labor Party, predicts that the Euro will soon become Britain's second currency. Hans Eichel, the German finance minister, also says that it will become a parallel currency in countries like Switzerland and Britain. Peter Hain, the European minister who is acting as a cheerleader for membership, says the Euro will become "a practical day-to-day reality and that will enable people to make a sensible decision about it". As many as a third of Britain's biggest retailers, such as Marks and Spencer, have said they will take Euros in some of their shops. BP has also announced that it will accept Euros at some of its garages.
But there is less to this than meet the eye. British tourists can now withdraw money from cashpoint from European holiday destinations, so they are less likely than in the past to end up with excess foreign money. Even if they do, they generally get rid of it at the end of their holidays, says David Southwell, a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
According to the writer, once the British get used to the Euro, ______
A. there will be no obstacle for it to be a currency in Britain.
B. it will take the place of pound in whatever aspects in Britain.
C. the British will accept it as a cash currency gradually.
D. it will become a symbol of reunification for European countries.
Then in the early 1950's Emiliani produced the first complete record of the waxings and wanings of first glaciations. It came from a seemingly odd place, the seafloor. Single-cell marine organisms called "foraminifera" house themselves in shells made from calcium carbonate. When the foraminifera die, sink to the bottom, and become part of seafloor sediments, the carbonate of their shells preserves certain characteristics of the seawater they inhabited. In particular, the ratio of a heavy isotope of oxygen (oxygen-18) to ordinary oxygen (oxygen-16) in the carbonate preserves the ratio of the two oxygens in water molecules.
It is now understood that the ratio of oxygen isotopes reflects the proportion of the world's water locked up in glaciers and ice sheets. A kind of meteorological distillation accounts for the link. Water molecules containing the heavier isotope tend to condense and fall as precipitation slightly sooner than molecules containing the lighter isotope. Hence, as water vapor evaporated from warm oceans moves away from its source, its oxygen- 18 returns more quickly to the oceans than does its oxygen-16. What falls as snow on distant ice sheets and mountain glaciers is relatively depleted of oxygen-18. As the oxygen-18-poor ice builds up, the oceans become relatively enriched in the isotope. The larger the ice sheets grow, the higher the proportion of oxygen-18 becomes in seawater--and hence in the sediments
Analyzing cores drilled from seafloor sediments, Emiliani found that the isotopic ratio rose and fell in rough accord with the Earth's astronomical cycles. Since that pioneering observation, oxygenisotope measurements have been made on hundreds of cores. The combined record enables scientists to show that the re-cord contains the very periodicities as the orbital processes. Over the past 800, 000 years, the global ice volume peaked every 100,000 years, matching the period of the orbital eccentricity variation. In addition, "wrinkles" superposed on each cycle--small decreases or surges in ice volume--have come at intervals of roughly 23,000 and 41,000 years, in keeping with the precession and tilt frequencies of the Earth's spin axis.
In opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by ______
A. unfolding a phenomenon.
B. posing a contrast.
C. refuting a speculation.
D. testifying a hypothesis.