职称英语考试

【单选题】第二篇　　　　　　　　　　　AncientEgyptBroughtDown by Famine Even ancientEgypt’s mighty pyramid(金字塔)builders were powerless in the face of the　famine(饥荒)that helped bring down their civilization around 2180
B、C．．Now evidence collected from mud deposited by the River Nile suggests that a shift in climate thousands of kilometers to the south was ultimately to blame--and the same or worse could happen today．The ancientEgyptians depended on the Nile’s annual floods to irrigate their crops．But any change in climate that pushed theAfrican monsoons(季风)southwards out ofEthiopia would have reduced these floods． Declining rains in theEthiopian highlands would have meant fewer plants to stabilize the soil．W．1len rain did fall it would have washed large amounts of soil into theBlue Nile and intoEgypt，along with sediment(沉积)from the White Nile． Blue Nile mud has a different isotope(同位素)signature from that of the white Nile．So by analyzing isotope differences in mud deposited in the NileDelt
A、Michael Krom of LeedsUniversity worked out what proportion of sediment came from each branch of the river．Krom reasons that during periods of drought，the amount ofBlue Nile mud in the river　would be relatively high．He found that one of these periods，from 4500 to 4200 years ago。immediately came before the fall of theEgypt’s old Kingdom．The weakened waters would have been disaster for theEgyptians．‘‘Changes that affect food supply don’t have to be very large to have a ripple(波浪)effect in societies，”saysBill Ryan of the LamontDohertyEarth Observatory in New York．Similar events today could be even more devastating，says team memberDaniel Stanley．ascientist from the Smithsonian Institution in WashingtonD．C．“Anything humans do to shift the climate belts would have an even worse effect along the Nile system today because the　populations have increased dramatically．”The word “devastating” in the last paragraph could be best replaced by
A、“frustrating’’．

B、“damaging’’．
C．“defeating”．
D．“worrying’’．

网考网参考答案：B
网考网解析：
devastate是及物动词。意思是：使荒芜；破坏。devastating既是现在分词，又是形容词。此处devastating不是现在分词，因为它后面不跟名词短语，它只能是形容词。它的意思是：破坏性的。frustrate是动词。意思是：使受挫；受挫。frustrating是现在分词，同时也是形容词。作形容词时，它的意思是：失望的。可以看出，它跟devastating的意思相差很远。damage：破坏，毁灭。damaging是它的现在分词，但它本身也是形容词，意思是：破坏的或毁灭的。跟devastating意思相近，是合适的选择。defeat：击败。worry：担忧，发愁。worrying：令人担忧的，令人发愁的。 document.getElementById("warp").style.display="none"; document.getElementById("content").style.display="block"; 查看试题解析出处>>