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Although earthquakes can happen anywhere in the world, really big quakes occur only in certain areas. The largest ones register a magnitude 8 or higher and happen, on average, only once each year. Such big ones typically occur along the edges of Earth’s tectonic plates.
Tectonic plates are huge pieces of Earth’s crust, sometimes many kilometers thick. These plates cover our planet’s surface like a jigsaw puzzle. Often, jagged edges of these plates temporarily lock together. When plates jostle and scrape past each other earthquakes occur. On average, tectonic plates move very slowly — about the same speed as your fingernails grow.
But sometimes earthquakes rumble through portions of the landscape far from a plate’s edges. Although less expected, these “mid-plate” tremors can do substantial damage. Some of the biggest known examples rattled the eastern half of the United States two centuries ago. Today, scientists are still puzzling over why the quakes occurred and when similar ones might occur.
16. Oklahoma is an area often experiencing natural disasters.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【答案】：B
17. The earthquake is the most unpredictable natural disaster.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【答案】：C
18. Few earthquakes happen without people's awareness.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【答案】：B
19. Seismometers can identify and locate most of the earthquakes in China.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【答案】：C
20. Big earthquakes of a magnitude 8 0r higher seldom happen far from the edges of tectonic plates.
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A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【答案】：A
21. Whenever tectonic plates move, earthquakes happen.
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【答案】：B
22. The earthquake that hit the eastern half of the United States two centuries ago is the biggest \
A. Right B. Wrong C. Not mentioned
【答案】：C
第三部分：概括大意和完成句子（第23~30题，每题1分，共8分）
下面的短文后有2项测试任务：（1）第23~26题要求从所给的6个选项中为指定段落每段选择1个小标题；（2）第27~30题要求从所给的6个选项中为每个句子确定一个最佳选项。
Learn about Light
1 Ancient civilizations were amazed by the existence of light for thousands of years. The Greek philosophers believed that light was made up of countless, tiny particles that enter the human eye and create what we call vision. However, Empedocles and a Dutch scientist named Christian Huygens believed that light was like a wave. According to them, light spread out and travelled like a straight line. This theory was accepted during the 19th century.
2 ln 1905, Albert Einstein published a research paper in which he explained what is referred to as the photoelectric effect. This theory explains that particles make up light. The particles Einstein was referring to are weightless bundles（束）of electromagnetic（电磁）energy called photons（光子）. Today, scientists agree that light has a dual（二重） nature — it is part particle and part wave. It is a form of energy that allows us to see things around us.
3 Things that give off light are known as sources of light. During the day, the primary source of light is the sun. Other sources of light include stars, flames, flashlights, street lamps and glowing gases in glass tube.
4 When we draw the way light travels we always use straight lines. This is
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because normally light rays travel in a straight line. However, there are some instances that can change the path and even the nature of light. They are reflection, absorption, interference （干扰）, etc.
5 Physicists have attempted to measure the speed of light since the early times. In 1849, Hippolyte Fizeau conducted an experiment by directing a beam of light to a mirror located kilometers away and placed a rotating cogwheel（旋转齿轮）between the beam and the mirror. From the rate of rotation of the wheel, number of wheel’s teeth and distance of the mirror, he was able to calculate that the speed of light is 313 million meters per second. In a vacuum（真空）,however, the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second. This is about a million times faster than the speed of an airplane.
23. Paragraph 2 ___A___
24. Paragraph 3 ___B___
25. Paragraph 4 ___D___
26. Paragraph 5 ___C___
A. How is the nature of light explained today?
B. What are sources of light?
C. How did physicists measure the speed of light?
D. How does light travel?
E. How did people think of light years ago?
F. What causes a shadow?
27. Objects are visible to the human eye as light is __D____
28. Stars, flames, flashlights are some examples of ___A___
29. Some instances such as reflection and absorption can change ___C___
30. Hippolyte Fizeau conducted an experiment to measure ___E___
A. sources of light
B. the speed of light
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C. the path of light
D. a straight line
E. a beam of light
F. a form of energy
第四部分：阅读理解（第31~45题，每题3分，共45分）
下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题。请根据短文内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。
第一篇
Graphene's Superstrength
Big technology comes in tiny packages. New cell phones and personal computers get smaller every year, which means these electronics require even smaller components on the inside. Engineers are looking for creative ways to build these components, and they've turned their eyes to graphene, a superthin material, made of carbon, that could change the future of electronics.
This year's Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov from the University of Manchester, UK. for the discovery of graphene. Graphene isn't just small, it's \thinnest possible material in this world.\says Novoselov. He calls it a \material.\It's so thin that you would need to stack about 25,000 sheets just to make a pile as thick as a piece of ordinary white paper. If you were to hold a sheet of graphene in your fingers, you'd have no idea because you wouldn't be able to see it.
Carbon is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. Every known kind of life contains carbon. Graphene is a sheet of carbon, but only one atom thick. You don't have to look far to find graphene—it's all around you.
If you want this high-tech wonderstuff, all you need is a pencil, paper and a little adhesive tape. Use the pencil to shade a small area on the paper, and then apply a small piece of adhesive tape over the area. When you pull up the tape, you'11 see that it pulls up a thin layer of some of the shading from your pencil. That layer is called graphite, one of the softest minerals in the world.
Now stick the same piece of tape on another sheet of paper and pull the tape up---there should be an even thinner layer, this time left on the paper. Now imagine that you do this over and over, until you get the thinnest possible layer of material
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on the paper. This layer would be only one atom thick, and you wouldn't be able to see it. Graphite is made of layers of graphene. So when you get to the thinnest possible layer, you've found graphene.
31. What would change the future of electronics according to engineers?
A. Personal computer.
B. Big technology.
C. Graphene.
D. Creative ways.
【答案】：C
32. Which of the following statements about graphene is true ?
A. It is visible to the human eye.
B. It is possibly the thinnest material in the world.
C. It can be used to make paper.
D. Finding it demands time and money.
【答案】：B
33. The word “apply” in paragraph 4 could be used to replaced by ?
A. push.
B. find.
C. collect.
D. put.
【答案】：D
34. What does the writer tell in the last two paragraph ?
A. An easy way to find graphene.