托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Wet and Dry Periods on the Great Plains

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Wet and Dry Periods on the Great Plains

Paragraph 1: By and large, the climate of the North American prairie is unreliable. As rival air masses interact with each other over the plains, they keep the atmosphere in a state of more-or-less constant flux, so that the weather oscillates from extreme to extreme. But there are also times when the climate system seems to get stuck — wet spells (periods) for example, when the rain refuses to stop; or dry spells of months — or years — when the clouds seem dry as parchment and the air fills with dust.

1. The word “rival” in the passage is closest in meaning to

O unstable

O competing

O rising

O growing

2. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

O But the dry spell following a particularly rainy period can last for months, or even years.

O Extended periods of rain are called wet spells while prolonged periods of drought are called dry spells.

O Although dry periods can last for months or even years, the wet periods seem to go on even longer.

O At times, however, the weather stays very wet or very dry for long periods of time.

Paragraph 2: These persistent weather patterns also tend to be widespread, affecting significant parts of the Great Plains for prolonged periods. The droughts of the 1930s, for example, occasionally flared out to singe the entire continent, but they were at their most intense across the Great Plains grasslands. Some parts of the High Plains in Oklahoma and Texas experienced eight consecutive years of drought, from 1933 to 1940. More recently, in the late 1980s, a three-year drought parched the entire northern plains and fuelled disastrous forest fires in Yellowstone National Park. Yet five years later, some of these same areas were in full flood, as torrential rains pounded the western Midwest and sent both the Missouri and upper Mississippi rivers spilling over their banks.

3. According to paragraph 2, all of the following statements about the persistent weather patterns that affect the Great Plains region are true EXCEPT:

O They usually affect more than a small portion of the region.

O They are limited to the Great Plains region.

O They are characterized by either very little or very heavy rainfall.

O They can have disastrous effects on the region.

。。。。余下托福阅读真题及题目省略。

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Wet and Dry Periods on the Great Plains，10元有偿下载完整版