Passage 20
（2014 廣東 D）

Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents （洋流）.Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment.However, ocean expert curtis Ebbesmeyer does it in a special way—by studying movements of random floating garbage.A scientist with many years' experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States.There were so many shoes that people were setting up swap meets to try and match left and right shoes to sell or wear.

Ebbesmeyer found out in his researches that the shoes—about 60,000 in total—fell into the ocean in a shipping accident.He phoned the shoe company and asked if they wanted the shoes back.As expected, the company told him that they didn't.Ebbesmeyer realized this could be a great experiment.If he learned when and where the shoes went into the water and tracked where they landed, he could learn a lot about the patterns of ocean currents.

The Pacific Northwest is one of the world's best areas for beachcombing （海灘搜尋）because winds and currents join here, and as a result, there is a group of serious beachcombers in the area. Ebbesmeyer got to know a lot of them and asked for their help in collecting information about where the shoes landed. In a year he collected reliable information on 1,600 shoes.With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.

as the result of his work, Ebbesmeyer has become known as the scientist to call with questions about any unusual objects found floating in the ocean.He has even started an association of beachcombers and ocean experts, with 500 subscribers from West africa to New Zealand. They have recorded all lost objects ranging from potatoes to golf gloves.

1.The underlined phrase swap meets in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.

A. fitting rooms

B. trading fairs

C. business talks

D. group meetings

2.Ebbesmeyer phoned the shoe company to find out ______.

A. what caused the shipping accident

B. when and where the shoes went missing

C. whether it was all right to use their shoes

D. how much they lost in the shipping accident

3.How did Ebbesmeyer prove his assumption?

A. by collecting information from beachcombers.

B. by studying the shoes found by beachcombers.

C. by searching the web for ocean currents models.

D. by researching ocean currents data in the library.

4.Ebbesmeyer is most famous for ______.

A. traveling widely the coastal cities of the world

B. making records for any lost objects on the sea

C. running a global currents research association

D. phoning about any doubtful objects on the sea

5.What is the purpose of the author in writing this Passage?

A. To call people's attention to ocean pollution.

B. To warn people of shipping safety in the ocean.

C. To explain a unique way of studying ocean currents.

D. To give tips on how to search for lost objects on the beach.

【重點(diǎn)詞匯】

satellite n.衛(wèi)星

random adj.任意的，隨機(jī)的

floating adj.流動(dòng)的，漂浮的

athletic shoes 運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋

shore n.岸邊，海濱

swap meet 舊物交換/買賣會(huì)

match v.使配對

track v.監(jiān)測；追蹤

pattern n.形態(tài)；類型

reliable adj.可靠的

golf gloves 高爾夫球手套

【疑難長句】

1.A scientist with many years' experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States.

本句結(jié)構(gòu)較為清楚，a scientist with many years' experience為he的同位語，主句后面的when引導(dǎo)定語從句，修飾1990s。

（參考譯文）作為一位有著多年經(jīng)驗(yàn)的科學(xué)家，他在20世紀(jì)90年代初開始進(jìn)行此類研究，當(dāng)時(shí)他聽說有數(shù)百只運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋被沖到了美國的西北海岸。

2.With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.

句子的開頭處是with引導(dǎo)的狀語，主干是he and a colleague were able to test and improve…and publish…。designed to model ocean currents做后置定語，修飾a computer program。

（參考譯文）有了這些數(shù)據(jù)，他和一位同事就能夠測試和改進(jìn)一個(gè)用于模擬洋流的計(jì)算機(jī)程序，并將他們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)公之于眾。