No man can change the weather. Nobody can control the weather. But if we read the signs correctly we can tell what the more important changes in the weather will be. This way of telling what the weather will be like on the following day or two is called weather forecasting. People who do this are not making the weather. They are merely using their knowledge of the weather today, to tell us what the weather may be like tomorrow.
People for many centuries and in all countries have studied the weather and tried to make weather forecasts.
Sometimes distant objects such as hills and tall trees seem to be very clear and near. This is a sign of much water-vapor in the air, and therefore rain will probably come. When distant sounds are very clearly heard, then wet and stormy weather is on the way. Rings round the sun are a sign of coming rain.
Many people feel in their bones the coming of wet weather. Their joints ache. Some birds fly high if fine weather is coming, but they fly very near the ground if rainy weather or a storm is on the way. This is probably because the insects, which they are hunting, then fly low.
If the stars twinkle clearly at night, then fair weather will continue. If a mist appears in the early morning, just about sunrise, then the day will be warm. If the sunset is mostly red in color, then the following day will be fine.
Most of the above sayings have been made up by people who have used their eyes and their brains to forecast the weather. Some of the popular beliefs about the weather, however, are quite untrue. For example, many people say they can forecast the weather by looking at the moon. The state of the moon has nothing to do with the weather. The weather may happen to change with changes in the moon, but that is only chance.
Many people think they can tell what the weather is going to be like. But they hardly ever agree with each other. One man may say, "Do you see how cloudy it is in the east? It's going to have fine weather tomorrow." Another man will say, "Yes, it's cloudy in the east. We 're going to have fine weather tomorrow."
People often look for the weather they want. When a farmer needs water, he looks for something to tell him it's going to rain; he won't believe anything else. When friends have a picnic, they are so sure the weather is going to clear up quickly that they sit eating their lunch while it rains.
Almost everyone listens to what the weatherman says. But he doesn't always tell us what we want, and once in a while he makes a mistake. Still, he probably comes closer to being correct than anyone else.
Some men spend their whole lives trying to forecast the weather. Such people collect exact information about the weather from all parts of the world. Each place sends its information at certain times each day to a central office where the weather information from all these places can be examined. The information received is put on to a map of the world, called a weather chart.
As scientists discover more and more about the weather in every part of the world, and satellites and computers are used to gather and analyze weather data, weather forecasting will become more and more certain. And we are quite certain sooner or later we will be able to change the weather !
36. People who tell us what weather will be like on the following day or two can .
A. make the weather we like
B. hardly control the weather
C. know when to plant
D. do something about the weather
37. When distant sounds are very clearly heard we will .
A. wave rainy days
B. see swallows flying high
C. perhaps see a rainbow
D. have fine days
38. What is not mentioned in the text ?
A. The weatherman can read weather signs.
B. People often look for the weather they want.
C. In many places people are collecting weather data.
D. Weathermen will make mistakes in their weather forecasting.
39. A weather chart is a map .
A. showing what kind of weather we are going to have
B. drawn by the weatherman
C. marked with weather data
D. sent to the radio and TV stations
40. To control the weather .
A. we need more computers and satellites
B. we still have a long, long way to go
C. we have to send a lot of people to collect information
D. we should be more certain about weather forecasting
Section B
Directions: Read the following passage and then give short answer to the five questions. Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.
The search for freedom of worship has brought people to American from the days of the Pilgrims to modern times. In 1620, for example, the Mayflower carried a cargo of 102 passengers who "welcomed the opportunity to advance the gospel of Christ in these remote parts." A number of other groups such as the Jews and Quakers came to America after the Pilgrims, all seeking religious freedom. In more recent times, anti-semitic persecution in Hitler's Germany has driven people from their homes to seek refuge in America. However, not all religious sects have received the tolerance and understanding for which they came. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony showed as little tolerance for dissenting beliefs as the Anglicans of England had shown them. They quickly expelled other religious groups from their society. Minority religious sects, from the Quakers and Shakers through the Catholics and Jews to the Mormons, have at various times suffered both discrimination and hostility in the United States.
But the diversity of religious belief has made for religious toleration. In demanding freedom for itself, each sect had to permit freedom for others. The insistence of each successive wave of immigrants upon its right to practice its religion helped make freedom of worship a central part of the American Creed. People who gambled their lives on the right to believe in their own God would not easily surrender that right in a new society.
The second great force behind immigration has been political oppression. America has always been a refuge from tyranny. As a nation conceived in liberty, it has held out to the world the promise of respect for the rights of man. Every time a revolution has failed in Europe, every time a nation has succumbed to tyranny, men and women who love freedom have assembled their families and their belongings and set sail across the seas. This process has not come to an end in our own day. The terrors of Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy, the terrible wars of Southeast Asia--all have brought new thousands seeking safety in the United States.
The economic factor has been more complex than the religious and political factors. From the very beginning, some have come to America in search of riches, some in flight from poverty, and some because they were bought and sold and had no choice.
41.What is the passage mainly about?
42.What was the first great force behind immigration?
43.What does "the world of the promise" in the third paragraph refer to?
44.What are the other two chief motives for the mass migration to America?
45. What does the author try to tell us through the whole text?
Part Ⅲ English-Chinese translation (15%)
The intelligent person, young or old, meeting a new situation or problem, opens himself up to it. He tries to take in with mind and senses everything he can about it. He thinks about it, instead of about himself or what it might cause to happen to him. He grapples with it boldly, imaginatively, resourcefully, and if not confidently, at least hopefully; if he fails to master it, he looks without fear or shame at his mistakes and learns what he can from them. This is intelligence. Clearly its roots lie in a certain feeling about life, and one's self with respect to life. Just as clearly, unintelligence is not what most psychologists seem to suppose, the same thing as intelligence, only less of it. It is an entirely different style of behavior, arising out of entirely different set of attitudes.
Part Writing(15%)
Directions: In your opinion, what is the most dangerous threat the world faces today? Discuss some reasons for its existence. Give some possible ways of preventing its occurrence.
You should write about 200 words on ANSWER SHEET 2.
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