Question

Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it is steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you had been around 15, 000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have been the same? For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how rainforests like the Amazon might have reacted (反应) to the cold, dry cli­mates of the ice ages, but until now, no one has reached a satisfying answer.

Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO₂ from the atmos­phere and helping to slow global warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO₂ each year: equal to the total amount of CO₂ giving off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to future climate change? If it gets drier, will it still survive and continue to draw down CO₂? Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past.

Unfortunately, getting into the Amazon rainforest and collecting information are very difficult. To study past climate, scientists need to look at fossilized pollen, kept in lake muds. Going back to the last ice age means drilling deep down into lake sediments (沉淀物) which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery. There are very few roads and paths, or places to land helicopters and aero-planes. Rivers tend to the easiest way to enter the forest, but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers com­pletely unsampled (未取样). So far, only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon rainforest reacts to climate change.

1.The underlined phrase “mopping up” in the second paragraph means ____.

A. cleaning up        B. taking in

C. wiping out         D. giving out

2.How will the Amazon rainforest react to future climate change?

A. It’ll get drier and continue to remove CO2.

B. It’ll remain steamy, warm, damp and thick.

C. It’ll get warmer and then colder and drier.

D. There is no exact answer up to present.

3.What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?

A. It’s important to drill deep down into lake sediments to collect information.

B. It’s impossible to prove how climate changes in the Amazon rainforest.

C. It’s hard to collect information for studies of the past climate in the Amazon

rainforest.

D. It’s necessary to have specialized equipment and machinery to study the past

climate.

4.The best title for this passage may probably be _____.

A. Studies of the Amazon

B. Climates of the Amazon

C. Secrets of the Rainforests

D. Changes of the Rainforests

Answer

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.C

【解析】

试题解析：漫步亚马逊热带雨林你会感受到潮湿、温暖、雾气缭绕，亚马逊热带雨林如何回应巨大的气候变化的？这仍然是个谜。

1.猜测词义题。通过划线句后面Currently the trees in the Amazon take in …可以推测出每年亚马逊热带雨林都会吸收5亿吨二氧化碳。mopping up此处为take in 吸收之意。选B。

2.细节推断题。根据文章最后一句So far, only a handful of cores …none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon rainforest reacts to climate change.可以确定亚马逊热带雨林如何回应气候变化还未知。答案是D。

3.主旨大意题。段落的主题句往往出现在句首和句尾，所以要特别留意。根据本段第一句Unfortunately, getting into the Amazon rainforest and collecting information are very difficult.可以归纳本段大意去亚马逊热带雨林收集信息相当困难。选C。

4.最佳标题。通读文章，然后最后一段去亚马逊热带雨林收集信息相当困难，这里还有很多未知的秘密。排除B、D可以确定标题是C 。

考点：地理探索类文章