【正文】 the problems. On the Brussels route, the railway pany had less success, and the airlines report anything from around a 5% drop to no visible decline in traffic.The airlines’ optimism on returning traffic levels is based on historical precedent. British Midland, for example, points to its experience on Heathrow Leeds Bradford service which saw passenger numbers fold by 15% when British Rail electrified and modernized the railway line between London and Yorkshire. Two years later, travel had risen between the two destinations to the point where the airline was carrying record numbers of passengers.1. British airlines confide in the fact that__.A. they are more powerful than other European airlines.B. their total loss won’t go beyond a drop of 5% passengers.C. their traffic levels will return in 23 years.D. traveling by rail can never catch up with traveling by air.2. The author’s attitude towards the drop of passengers may be described as__.A. worried.B. delightedC. puzzled.D. unrivaled.3. In the passage, British Rail (Para 6) is mentioned to__.A. provide a parison with Eurostar.B. support the airlines’ optimism.C. prove the inevitable drop of air passengers.D. call for electrification and modernization of the railway.4. The railway’s Brussels route is brought forth to show that__.A. the Eurostar train service is not doing good business.B. the airlines can well pete with the railway.C. the Eurostar train service only caused little damage.D. only some airlines, such as Air France, are suffering.5. The passage is taken from the first of an essay, from which we may well predict that in the following part the author is going to__.A. praise the airlines’ clearmindedness.B. warn the airlines of highspeed rail services.C. propose a reduction of London/Paris flights.D. advise the airlines to follow British Midland as their model.第六篇(Unit 2 Passage 2)Without regular supplies of some hormones our capacity to behave would be seriously impaired。Passage 3)The discovery of the Antarctic not only proved one of the most interesting of all geographical adventures, but created what might be called “the heroic age of Antarctic exploration”. By their tremendous heroism, men such as Shakleton, Scott, and Amundsen caused a new continent to emerge from the shadows, and yet that heroic age, little more than a century old, is already passing. Modern science and inventions are revolutionizing the endurance, future journeys into these icy wastes will probably depend on motor vehicles equipped with caterpillar traction rather than on the dogs that earlier discoverers found so invaluable and hardly parable.Few realize that this Antarctic continent is almost equal in size to South America, and enormous field of work awaits geographers and prospectors. The coasts of this continent remain to be accurately charted, and the maping of the whole of the interior presents a formidable task to the cartographers who undertake the work. Once their labors are pleted, it will be possible to prospect the vast natural resources which scientists believe will furnish one of the largest treasure hoards of metals and minerals the world has yet known, and almost inexhaustible sources of copper, coal, uranium, and many other ores will bee available to man. Such discoveries will usher in an era of practical exploitation of the Antarctic wastes.The polar darkness which hides this continent for the six winter months will be defeated by huge batteries of light, and make possible the establishing of airfields for the future intercontinental air services by making these areas as light as day. Present flying routes will be pletely changed, for the Antarctic refueling bases will make flights from Australia to South America paratively easy over the 5,000 miles journey.The climate is not likely to offer an insuperable problem, for the explorer Admiral Byrd has shown that the climate is possible even for men pletely untrained for expeditions into those frozen wastes. Some of his parties were men who had never seen snow before, and yet he records that they survived the rigors of the Antarctic climate fortably, so that, provided that the appropriate installations are made, we may assume that human beings from all countries could live there safely. Byrd even affirms that it is probably the most healthy climate in the world, for the intense cold of thousands of years has sterilize this continent, and rendered it absolutely germfree, with the consequences that ordinary and extraordinary sickness and diseases from which man suffers in other zones with different climates are here utterly unknown. There exist no problems of conservation and preservation of food supplies, for the latter keep indefinitely without any signs of deterioration。3)TheAntarcticoneinterestingadventures,mightheroicexploration”.heroism,Shakleton,causedtoshadows,heroicthanissciencerevolutionizingjourneyswastesonwiththanthatsoparable.FewAntarcticequalSouthfieldgeographerscoastsremaincharted,oftheformidablecartographerswork.arebethewhichfurnishlargestmetalsworldandofandwillman.usherofthedarknesscontinentwinterdefeatedofpossibleairfieldsintercontinentalmakinglightflyingpletelyAntarcticmaketoeasymilesnotanthehasclimateforforfrozenhiswhosnowhesurvivedthesothemade,thatallthereaffirmsprobablyclimateforofhasandgermfree,thatsicknesswhichotherclimatesunknown.problemspreservationforindefinitelyofmaylatertoasforaretobasesofwhatagoapromisesmosthumandidexploreago.B. Inbeginningcentury.D. Inexplorerstheyandandandclimateis___.A. inArcticContinent.D. inkindmineralsinanduranium.C. Silver,uranium.D. Aluminum,gas.5. Whatthethesummercoasts.C. Mappingwholebases2inmaydesirestrangechancesdon’timpulse,passthatactionsomeotheracceptmostthebehaviorcanyearssociety,andtaboo16