相关试卷

On September 7, 1991, the costliest hailstorm (花暴) in Canadian history hit Calgary's southern suburbs. As a result, since 1996 a group of insurance companies have spent about $2million per year on the Alberta Hail Suppression Project. Airplanes seed threatening storm cells with a chemical to make small ice crystals fall as rain before they can grow into dangerous hailstones. But farmers in east-central Alberta — downwind of the hail project flights — worry that precious moisture (水分) is being stolen from their thirsty land by the cloud seeding.

Norman Stienwand, who farms in that area, has been addressing public meetings on this issue for years "Basically, the provincial government is letting the insurance companies protect the Calgary-Edmonton urban area from hail, " Mr. Stienwan d says, "but they're increasing drought risk as far east as Saskatchewan. "

The Alberta hail project is managed by Terry Krauss, a cloud physicist who works for Weather Modification Inc. of Fargo, North Dakota. "We affect only a very small percentage of the total moisture in the air, so we cannot be cousing drought. " Dr. Krauss says. "In fact, we may be helping increase the moisture downwind by creating wetter ground. "

One doubter about the safety of cloud seeding is Chuck Doswell, a research scientist who just retired from the University of Oklahoma. "In 1999, I personally saw significant tornadoes (龙卷风) form from a seeded storm cell in Kansas, " Dr. Doswell says. "Does cloud seeding create killer storms or reduce moisture downwind? No one really knows, of course, but the seeding goes on. "

Given the degree of doubt, Mr. Stienwand suggests, "it would be wise to stop cloud seeding. " In practice, doubt has had the opposite effect. Due to the lack of scientific proof concerning their impacts, no one has succeeded in winning a lawsuit against cloud-seeding companies. Hence, private climate engineering can proceed in relative legal safety.

When was the last time you used a telephone box? I mean to make an actual phone call — not to shelter from the rain. Ages ago, right? The last time I used a phone box for its intended purpose was…2006. I was conducting auditions (试演) for my play in my tiny old shared house in London. Hoping to impress some talented actors to come and work for me for nothing, I spread some throws over the sofas and lit candles to make it seem a bit more "young professional".

As I rushed outdoors to empty the wastepaper baskets, the door swung shut behind me. Suddenly I was locked outside. My mobile phone was inside, but luckily there was a telephone box across the street. So, I called Directory Assistance, got put through to our landlady's managing agent, and had a spare key sent to me with just enough time to get back in before the actors arrived.

As it has been many years since I last used one, I should hardly be surprised that then are no longer any public telephones near my house. The last one standing has just been turn into a "mini community library": any passer-by can "borrow" a book from its shelves return it later, or replace it with another title from their own collection.

For a few months after the "library" opened, I didn't bother taking a look, as I had assumed that it would be stuffed full of cheese love stories. Then I noticed fork conducting spring cleans dropping boxes of voluminous books on various subjects there. And these books were free. This unbeatable price-point encouraged me to experiment with dozens of titles that I would never normally consider buying. And I've discovered some great books!

If I ever get trapped outside my house again, my local telephone box will, sadly no longer be able to connect me with my keys. But it can certainly keep me entertained while I wait for my wife to rescue me. 

Tom Sawyer Play Is an Adventure

A 35-minute hand-clapping, foot-stomping musical version of a Mark Twain favorite returns with this Tall Stacks festival. 

"Tom Sawyer: A River Adventure" has all the good stuff, including the fence painting, the graveyard, the island and the cave. It is adapted by Joe McDonough, with music by David Kisor. That's the local stage writing team that creates many of the Children's Theatre of Cincinnati's original musicals, along with the holiday family musicals at Ensemble Theatre.

This year Nathan Turner of Burlington is Tom Sawyer, and Robbie McMath of Fort Mitchell is Huck Finn. 

Tumer, a 10th-grader at School for Creative and Performing Arts, is a familiar presence on Cincinnati's stages. He is a star act or of Children's Theatre, having played leading roles in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "The Wizard of Oz, " and is fresh from Jersey Production "Ragtime".

McMath is a junior at Beechwood High School. He was in the cast of "Tom Sewyer" when it was first performed and is a Children's Theatre regular, with five shows to his credit. This summer he attended Kentucky's Governor's School for the Arts in Musical Theatre.

Note to teachers: Children's Theatre has a study guide demonstrating how math and science can be taught through "Tom Sawyer. " For downloadable lessons, visit the official website of Children's Theatre.

假如你是李华，请给21st Century写一份倡议书，倡议大家关注野生动物的保护。内容包括:1. 野生动物减少或灭绝的原因；2. 需要采取的措施；3. 提出倡议。

注意：词数80左右。

If you go out to the fields at night in spring or summer, you can hear frogs singing   (happy) here and there. It seems as if they were performing a field group singing.

The frog is a good and useful creature that benefits human beings. They can catch fast-moving (insect). Each frog eats a large number of pests that are harmful to crops. This little creature is regarded "the natural enemy of pests".

But now frogs (get) fewer and fewer. This is because they are killed and put the table as a delicious dish by their chief enemy—human beings. It is a shameless and cruel act, isn't it?

The cause that is  (responsibility) for the rapid reduction of frogs is that farmers use insect killers to kill pests and frogs get killed as a result of drinking poisoned water while  (eat) poison-killed insects.

Something must be done as soon as possible (save) frogs. If we don't punish those sell and kill frogs to make money, then one day all of us (punish) by nature for failing to keep them.

When Crystal was riding a bike to the local Wildlife Center last December, she was scheduled to go bird-watching. Just a mile into her walk, she saw a female 1 near the water's edge. Crystal had worked at a wild bird rehabilitation(康复) center and 2 that swans can be aggressive. But as she approached this one, it didn't 3. She was certain that the bird needed 4 attention. Crystal put her jacket over the bird's head to keep it calm, 5 picked it up and held it in her arms. And then a thought 6 her: What should I do now?

Her best7 was the rehab center, but that was on the other side of town. How was she going to transport a 17-pound swan on her 8 all that way. Luckily, some 9 driving by offered her, her bike and the swan a(n) 10 to the rehab center.

Staff members at the rehab center11 that the swan might have lead(铅) poisoning. They got the swan back up on her feet. 12, the swan had a bacterial infection. Two months after Crystal came to her 13, she passed away.

It's a(n) 14 ending, but the story shows just how far people are willing to go to 15 animals.

A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to clean up floating(浮动的) plastic from the Pacific Ocean. He has developed a floating device(设备) to trap plastic waste moving into rivers before it reaches the oceans.

Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he invented a system for catching waste in the ocean. He also founded an environmental group called "The Ocean Cleanup". Its purpose is to develop the system. Last year, Slat showed the next step:a floating device called Interceptor. It removes plastic out of rivers. The device is powered by energy from the sun. "The 1, 000 rivers are responsible for about 80% of plastic going into the world's oceans, " said Slat. Three of the machines have already been used. Each machine costs about $775, 660, but the cost might drop as production increases.

Since they were used, the machines have been doing very well, collecting the plastic bottles and all the rubbish in the rivers. According to Slat, it is necessary to close "the tap", which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place. He wanted to clean them all in the next five years. "This is not going to be easy, but if we do get this done, we could truly make our oceans again, " said Slat.

The device is designed to be safe in rivers. Its nose is shaped to change directions to keep it away from larger floating things. It works by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the device. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers. The device sends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full.

In some countries, the rich are becoming richer, and .

As I know, he spends at least as much time .

for a long time about a painting you weren't that interested in?