Across the Deserts

　　The SaharaDesertis the largest desert in the world. It stretches across Africa fromSenegaltoEgypt. TheSaharaDesertis an unfriendly environment. During the day it"s very hot, and at night it’s sometimes very cold. It is also difficult to find water in theSahara.

　　In 2006, Kevin Lin, Ray Zahab, and Charlie Engle decided to do something very difficult. They made the decision to run across the Sahara Desert 4,300 miles (6,920km). It seemed impossible to do, but they wanted to try. The three men liked to test themselves, and this would be a very big test.

　　On the morning of November 2, Kevin, Ray, and Charlie started their trip across theSahara. Every morning they began running at 5:00. At11 a.m. they stopped and rested until 5 p.m. Then they ran again until 9:30 in the evening. Each day they ran about 40 miles (64 km). Every day it was the same thing. They got up and ran. They listened to music on their iPods, and they ran and ran.

　　Kevin, Ray, and Charlie needed to eat a lot of food during their trip. Most people need about 2,000 calories of food each day. Kevin, Ray, and Charlie needed between 6,000 and 9,000 calories every day. That"s a lot of food! They also needed to drink a lot of water.

　　The three men had some problems on their trip, and many times they wanted to quit and go home. It was often very hot (140°F/60°C) during the day, and the heat made them sick. Their legs and feet hurt. Sometimes it was very windy, and they couldn"t see. One time they got lost. But they didn"t quit. After 111 days, Kevin, Ray; and Charlie successfully finished their trip across theSaharaDesert. They hugged each other and put their hands in the water of theRed Sea. Then they ran to a hotel to take a long shower.

　　词汇：

　　Stretch / strɛtʃ / v. 延伸，伸展

　　Calorie / "kælərɪ / n. 卡(路里)，小卡，大卡

　　Quit / kwɪt / v. 停止，放

　　注释：

Sometimes they couldn"t see the road because it was windy.

A:Right B:Wrong C:mentioned

It was a foolish question to ask. It (1) more sense for me to have learned if she had (2) or a point of view, but it was (3) for that now and I supposed that the (4) Relations Office had (5) her before granting the interview. I didn’t have time this week to read (6) pieces about corporate rainmakers, and their golden parachutes or women at mid- town law firms (7) six times my salary but whining about breaking the (8) ceiling.
"I won’t waste your time," she (9) , "If the details on your (10) are accurate and the articles Laura (11) me have correct background, we won’ t have to (12) that." I (13) in approval. She was obviously a (14) , and an intelligent one (15) . It was always (16) to sit for a (17) when the questioner spent the first hour asking what schools I had (18) , how long (19) , and whether I liked my job.
"Is it all right (20) you if we start with some information about the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit" "I’d like that," I replied.

A:rushed B:windy C:puff D:blowing

A:rushed B:windy C:puff D:blowing

Cheerleaders for renewable energy are fond of pointing out that patches of desert receive enough energy each year from sunlight to power the entire world. But few could explain how the construction of the millions of solar cells required to convert that energy into electricity would be financed. Public utility bosses and policymakers tend to dismiss wind and solar power as noble but expensive distractions, sustainable only through huge subsidies. But new studies suggest that renewables might not be as dear as skeptics suspect.
In a report that was due out on July 6th, Greenpeace, an environmental group, argues that public utilities would save money by investing in renewables. Windmills may cost more to build, the logic runs, but they do not require the purchase of fuel, unlike coal or gas-fired power plants. Those future fuel costs, Greenpeace says, massively outweigh the extra investment costs of renewables. If nuclear power were phased out and renewables’ share of electricity generation rose dramatically, it calculates the average annual savings between 2004 and 2030 would be $180 billion.
These figures, of course, rely on all sorts of questionable assumptions. In Greenpeace’s picture, the prices of gas and coal will rise, despite stagnating consumption of the former, and a steep drop in demand for the latter. It also helps that the future as Greenpeace sees it includes a big dose of energy efficiency, although its business-as-usual projections do not. Public utilities, at any rate, must not be making the same assumptions, since they continue to invest in power plants run on fossil fuels.
Other studies make a slightly less sweeping claim: that adding wind power to the electricity network can reduce the overall cost of electricity. The cost of producing wind power is almost nothing, since the fuel—wind—is free. So on a windy day, the cheapest power comes from wind turbines. That power, in turn, displaces electricity generation from sources with higher fuel costs, such as gas-fired plants. So power prices tend to fall when the wind is blowing. Nuon, a Dutch utility, calculates that in 2005 the average power price on the local spot market was over Euro 45 per megawatt hour when there was no wind, but under Euro 30 when the average wind-speed topped 13 metres per second.
Researchers in Denmark have gone a step further and put a value on this effect. They believe that wind power saved 1 billion kroner ($ 167m) off Danish electricity bills in 2005. On the other hand, Danish consumers also paid 1.4 billion kroner in subsidies for wind power. But this year, reckons Rune Moesgaard of the Danish Wind Industry Association, wind power will actually save consumers’ money for the first time, as the benefits resulting from lower power prices outweigh the falling cost of the subsidy.
According to the passage, wind power

A:could actually cost consumers a lot of money. B:will replace gas-fired power plants on windy days. C:will lower the price of fuel shortly. D:can lower the power prices at any time.

The weather was crisp and clear and you could see the mountains fifty miles away.（　）

A:fresh B:hot C:heavy D:windy

The weather was {{U}}crisp{{/U}} and clear and you could see the mountains fifty miles away.

A:fresh B:hot C:heavy D:windy

The weather was (crisp) and clear and you could see the mountains fifty miles away.

A:hot B:heavy C:fresh D:windy

The weather was crisp and clear and you could see the mountains fifty miles away.

A:hot B:heavy C:fresh D:windy

The weather was {{U}}crisp{{/U}} and clear and you could see the mountains fifty miles away.

A:hot B:heavy C:fresh D:windy