听力原文:W:The charity appeal raised only half of what it expected.
M:One quarter of a million is respectable,however.
Q:How much money did they expect to raise?
(14)
A. $1 million.
B. $1/4 million.
C. $1/2 million.
D. $2 million.
Himalaya' s Receding Glaciers
The great majority of the world's glaciers appear to be declining at rates equal to or greater than long-established trends, according to early results from a joint NASA and United States Geological Survey (USGS) project designed to provide a global assessment of glaciers. At the same time, a small minority of glaciers are advancing.
Scientists monitor only a few of India's vital glaciers, which are receding by as much as 100 feet each year.
Billions of people in China and the Indian subcontinent rely on South Asia's Himalayan glaciers the world's largest store of fresh water outside the polar ice caps. The massive ice floes feed seven of the world's greatest Asian rivers in one of the world's most densely populated regions.
Yet as global climate change slowly melts glaciers from Africa to the Andes, scientists say the glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating air a rate of about 33 to 49 feet each year—faster than in any other part of the world.
In the Himalayas, the Gangotri Glacier, one of India's largest, is entitled to an even more dubious distinction. Recent studies reveal that the Gangotri, which forms a mass of ice about 18 miles long, is retreating at a rate of more than 100 feet a year. But according to government officials and environmental groups like Greenpeace, very little has been done in the way of a rigorous scientific study. Scientists are monitoring glacial melting on only a handful of the 7,000 glaciers that cover the Indian Himalayas.
While ice reflects the sun's rays, lake water absorbs and transmits heat more efficiently to the underlying ice, kicking off a feedback that creates further melting. And at such a rapid retreat, a gradual increase in droughts, flash floods, and landslides are not the only issue to worry about, say environmentalists. Glacier changes in the next 100 years could significantly affect agriculture, water supplies, hydroelectric power, transportation, mining, coastlines, and ecological habitats. Just when
power companies are planning more energy sources to power India's growing economy, a rising level of sediment in regional rivers is creating havoc for many grids.
"The power grid in Uttarkashi is constantly breaking down and that's because of the rise in sediment in the water being used at the hydro-power projects," says Joseph Thsetan Gergan from the WADIA Institute of Himalayan Glaciology, a part of the Indian Department of Science and Technology. "When the power breaks down, the people blame the Geological Survey of India or the Central Water Commission for not doing its work properly, but that's like thinking of digging a well when your house is already on fire."
While the Gangotri has been retreating since measurements began in 1842, the rate of retreat, which was around 62 feet per year between 1935 and 1971, has almost doubled. Global warming is causing Himalayan glaciers to rapidly retreat, threatening to cause water shortages for hundreds of millions of people who rely on glacier-dependent rivers in China, India and Nepal. In northwest China, the Qinghai Plateau's wetlands have seen declining lake water levels, lake shrinkage, the absence of water flow in rivers and streams and the degradation of swamp wetlands
An added difficulty, says Mr. Gergan, is the lack of a sustained research effort since the 1970s. The Indian government's own recommendations, issued in March 2002 by the standing committee on Science and Technology, noted that glacial melting required immediate implementation of a program to measure and monitor the changes to the Gangotri and its impact on the Ganges river systems.
"It's not enough to just note the fact that the glaciers are melting," Gergan says. "The impact of that is not being focused on at all." Melting ice may cause serious problems and all these impacts will change with time.
A. Y
B. N
C. NG
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
As colleges and universities send another wave of graduates out into the world this spring, thousands of other job seekers with liberal-arts degrees like Martin's find themselves in a similarly difficult situation. True enough, this is an era of record-breaking lows in unemployment. But technology companies, which are contributing the lion's share (最多的部分) of new jobs, are simultaneously declaring a shortage of qualified workers.
It's no surprise that high-tech companies rarely hire liberal-arts graduates. The need for technical expertise is so universal that even retailers are demanding such skills. "Company-wide, we're looking for students with specific information-systems skills", says David McDearmon, director of field human resources at Dollar Tree Stores. "Typically we avoid independent-college students who don't have them".
Fortunately for Martin, some invaluable help was at hand when he needed it. The Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, a network of 15 liberal-arts colleges in the state, has teamed up with local companies to bridge the learning gap faced by its members' graduates. VFIC invited 30 companies to link the needs of businesses with the skills being taught in college classrooms. With grants from corporate sponsors VFIC asked 20 information-technology managers to help its members create an exam, based on the work students will be expected to do in the real world, to test and certify their technological proficiency.
The result, Tek. Xam, is an eight-part test that requires students to design a website, build and analyze spreadsheets (电子数据表), research problems on the Internet and demonstrate understanding of legal and ethical issues. Says Linda Dalch, president of VFIC: "If an art-history major wants a job at a bank, he needs to prove he has the skills. That's where this certificate can help". This year 245 students at VFIC's member colleges have gone through the program. The long-term hope is that Tek. Xam will win the same kind of acceptance as the LSAT or CPA for law or accounting students. "To know a student has taken the initiative and passed could mean that less training is needed", explains John Rudin, chief information officer at Reynolds Metals, one of the corporations that helped create the test.
All this begs an important question: Has the traditional liberal-arts curriculum become outdated? College presidents naturally argue that the skills their schools provide are invaluable. A B.A. degree, says Mary Brown Bullock of Atlanta's Agnes Scott Collage, "gives graduates the ability to reinvent themselves time and time again ... and the knowledge and thinking skills that transcend a particular discipline or time frame".
Martin is finding that to be the truth. "It would be nice to have computer classes on my transcript. (成绩单)", he says, but Tek. Xam has armed him with the power to learn those skills on his own — and a certificate to show he has done so. He's now waiting to hear when his job as a network-support assistant for a large Boston firm will start.
What can be the best title for this article?
A. Competition in Talent Market
B. Elimination of Independent Collages
C. A New Certificate for Liberal-Arts Students
D. A Job Hunting Course