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Scientists from the University of East Anglia have identified four new man-made gases that are contributing to the damage to the ozone(臭氧) layer. Two of the gases are accumulating at a rate that is causing concern among researchers.
Worries over the growing ozone hole have seen the production of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases restricted since the mid 1980s. But the precise origin of these new, similar substances remains a mystery.
Lying in the atmosphere, the ozone layer plays a critical role in blocking harmful UV rays, which cause cancers in humans and reproductive problems in animals.
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey were the first to discover a huge "hole" in the ozone over Antarctica in 1985. The evidence quickly pointed to CFC gases, which were invented in the 1920s, and were widely used in refrigeration. Extraordinarily, global action was rapidly agreed to deal with CFCs and the Montreal Protocol to limit these substances came into being in 1987. A total global ban on production came into force in 2010.
Now, the newly discovered four new gases can destroy ozone and are getting into the atmosphere from as yet unidentified sources. Three of the gases are CFCs and one is a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), which can also damage ozone.
The research has shown that four gases were not around in the atmosphere at all until the 1960s, which suggests they are man-made. The scientists discovered the gases by analyzing polar snow pack. Air from this snow is a natural archive of what was in the atmosphere up t0 100 years ago. The researchers also looked at modern air samples, collected at remote Cape Grim in Tasmania.
They estimate that about 74,000 tonnes of these gases have been released into the atmosphere. Two of the gases are accumulating at significant rates. However, they don't know where the new gases are being released from and this should be investigated. Possible sources include chemicals for insecticide（殺蟲劑） production and solvents（溶液） for cleaning electronic components. The three CFCs are being destroyed very slowly in the atmosphere - so even if emissions（散發(fā)） were to stop immediately, they will still be around for many decades to come.
Of the four species identified, CFC-113a seems the most worrying as there is a very small but growing emission source somewhere, maybe from agricultural insecticides. We should find it and take it out of production.
63. What do we know about the newly discovered gases?
A. Some are surely produced by the development of agriculture.
B. The CFCs will have a long impact once they are released.
C. They gather together in the atmosphere at a medium speed.
D. Their amounts are not large enough to cause damage to us.
64. The underlined word "archive" in Paragraph 6 is closest to the meaning of"____ "
A. state B. resource C. phenomenon D. storeroom
65. What will the scientists probably attempt to do about the gases next?
A. Find out what can replace things like insecticides and put them into use.
B. Find out how they destroy ozone and get rid of those in the atmosphere.
C. Find out where they are exactly from and stop them from being released.
D. Find out if HCFC is more harmful than CFCs and take proper measures.
D
Charles Dickens was one of the most beloved storytellers in the English language. His novels made him famous in his own time, and continue as classics in ours.
Dickens began his literary career with almost no formal education. He was born in Landport, on Feb. 7, 1812, the second of eight children. When he was 12, his father was sent to debtor's prison. Dickens was forced to quit school and work in a London blacking factory. He would rework that terrible experience into his fiction for the rest of his life.
"He was a social reformer," says actor Simon Callow, author of a new biography called Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World. "He knew what poverty was. He knew what it was to be rejected, to be cast aside, to live in squalor (悲慘)."
And so Dickens wrote with great sympathy for the suffering of innocent and vulnerable (易受攻擊的) children - characters like David Copperfield, Little Dorrit and the orphan, Oliver Twist:
With his slice of bread in his hand, and his little brown parish cap on his head, Oliver was now led away from the wretched home, where one kind word or look never lighted the gloom of his infant (幼兒) days.
Yet he burst into an agony of childish grief as the cottage gate closed after him. Wretched as were the little companions in，misery he was now leaving behind him, they were the only friends he had ever had.
His first book Sketches by Boz came out in 1836. With the appearance of Oliver Twist in London periodicals in 1837, the 25-year-old Dickens became the most popular writer in England. But his first love was theater, and he considered becoming an actor.
"When he was actually writing, he became his characters," says Peter Ackroyd, author of Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion. "He would get up from his desk, go over to the mirror and mouth the words - do the expressions, grimaces (鬼臉), whatever, and then laugh, chuckle to himself, then go back to his desk and write it down."
Dickens created 989 named characters, which increased his popularity. Every one of his major works has been adapted for either stage or screen. A Christmas Carol inspired more than a dozen films, from Alistair Sims' Scrooge in 1951 to Jim Carrey's voicing of the same character in Disney's 2009, 3-D animated film.
The original 1843 manuscript（手稿） of A Christmas Carolis on display at the Morgan Library. Dickens wrote everything by hand, in tiny script, with a quill pen. Remarkably, the manuscript is both the first and the final draft, says Kiely, the curator. You can see where Dickens has changed the name of the first chapter from "Old Marley's Ghost" to "Marley's Ghost". Further down the page, he has canceled an entire section.
"He realizes he's not writing a novel, and he only has a very short time in which to write this," Kiely explains. "He's got to keep it tight, in order for it to be published in time for Christmas."
Dickens wrote all the time. He traveled with a portable inkwell and a supply of quill pens. He was working on his last novel, Our Mutual Friend, en route from France to London when the train he was on crashed.
Dickens died five years later in 1870, after a stroke at age 58. As a comic talent and a social reformer, Dickens' achievement was extraordinary, says novelist T.C. Boyle, who earned a doctorate in Victorian literature.
"He achieved what any great artist achieves - a body of work that has entertained and delighted and instructed people down through the ages. That's what we all hope for," says Boyle. But Dickens' greatest fiction was his own character, says Callow, the biographer: "People think of him as a cheerful man ... but he was increasingly suffering from depression and a sense of hopelessness. And that's worth knowing. I think it's always good to know that great creative individuals have their struggle, their drama."
66. What can probably be reflected in Dickens' works?
A. His love for his family. B. His childhood sufferings.
C. His desire for formal education. D. His reason to choose literary career.
67. The author quotes Dickens' description of Oliver Twist mainly to show
A. that Dickens was full of pity for poor children
B. that Dickens knew well about poor children
C. what real poverty was like in his days
D. what kind of life Oliver Twist lived
68. It can be inferred from the passage that _
A. Sketches by Boz is nothing but a complete failure
B. Oliver Twist made Dickens first known to the public
C. A Christrwas Carol proved Dickens an efficient writer
D. Our Mutual Friend came into being on a train
69. We can learn from the passage that
A. all the characters created by Dickens are popular
B. people prefer films based on Dickens' novels to his works
C. Dickens were more interested in performing than in writing
D. the films and plays based on Dickens' novels raise his popularity
70. What did Dickens intend to do by telling his stories?
A. To amuse his readers and change society.
B. To analyze the nature of society he was m.
C. To make an attack on the upper class of the time.
D. To get rid of his depression and sense of hopelessness.
