style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/A） Librarians today will tell you their job is not so much to take care of books but to give people access to information in all forms. Since librarians, like so many people, believe that the entire universe of commerce, communication and information is moving to digital form, they are on a reform to give people access to the Internet—to prevent them from becoming second-class citizens in an all-digital world. Something funny happened on the road to the digital library of the future, though. Far from becoming keepers of the keys to the Grand Database of Universal Knowledge, today’s librarians are increasingly finding themselves in an unexpected, overloaded role: They have become the general public’s last-resort providers of tech support. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/B） It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Today’s libraries offer a variety of media and social-cultural events—they are “blended libraries. ” to use a term created by Kathleen Imhoff, assistant director of the Broward County Library of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At the newly remodeled San Francisco Public Library, the computers are prominently displayed in the center of the library building while the books are all but hidden on the periphery(外围). Irnhoff's own library has word processing and other types of software for visitors to use, Internet access, audio CDs, videotapes, concerts, lectures, books and periodicals in three forms(print, microfiche and digital). Many libraries have found that this kind of “blending” is hugely popular in their communities, and librarians explain the changes in their institutions’ roles by pointing to the public demand for these new services. But other trends are at work, too. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/C） For some time, libraries have been automating their back-end, behind-the-desk functions for reasons of cost and convenience, just like any other business. Now, the computers have moved out from behind librarians’ desks and onto the floor where the visitors are. This means that, suddenly, library-goers will have to know how to use those computers. This sounds reasonable enough until you take a close look. Unfortunately, the same technology that cuts costs and relieves librarians of work behind the scenes increases it for the public—and for the librarians at the front desk who have to help the public figure out how to use the technology. The unhappy result: People are simply not finding the information they seek. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/D） If you are just coming to the library to read a book for pleasure and you know what a card catalog is and you have some basic computer skills, then you are going to be OK. But if you are trying to find some specific information—say, whether software in the classroom helps kids learn better or the causes of lung cancer or the basic procedure for doing a cost-benefit analysis of computer systems (three topics I have actually tried to look up in the San Francisco library)—then you’re in trouble. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/E） To begin with, library visitors must now be able to type, to use a mouse and a menu and to understand the various types of computer interfaces(terminal text, windows and browsers). It’s also nice if you know 17 different ways to quit a program, which electronic databases you should look in for what kinds of information, the grammar necessary to define your search and the Library of Congress’ controlled vocabulary. After I had been to the new San Francisco library three times, I started keeping a folder of instructions on how to do a keyword search(for an author, for example), since l would forget between visits. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/F） Probably half the population has never used a computer, fewer know how to type and almost nobody knows anything about electronic databases or searching grammar. As a result, the public library is now engaged in a massive attempt to teach computer literacy to the entire country. Some librarians compare it to the adult literacy programs the library also sponsors, but this is on a far larger scale—and less closely tied to the library’s traditional mission. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/G） The response at each library system has been different. Some libraries actually give courses in word processing, accounting program and so on. But even at libraries where the staff has resisted becoming computer trainers, they are still forced to devote significant resources to the problem. Such has been the case in San Francisco where people with disabilities can sign up to use the voice-recognition program Dragon Dictate—but only if they can prove they already know how to use the software. The librarians have neither the time nor the peculiar skill(nor the time to develop the skill)to teach it to them. At the reference desks, librarians try not to spend a lot of time teaching people the basics of how to use the computer, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. “We try to get them started, ” says business librarian John Kenney. “We let them do as much as they call on their own and they come get us. It’s certainly a big problem. ”
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/H） The San Francisco library offers classes on its own electronic catalog, commercial periodical indexes and the Internet twice a week as well as occasional lectures about the Internet. Although it seems odd to me that people now need to take a two-hour class before they can use the library, the classes are always full. But despite the excellent teachers, two hours is simply not enough to meet the needs of the students, many of whom have never used a computer before in their lives and many of whom simply can’t type. When I took the class one Tuesday, the man sitting next to me said he has used the library’s computer catalog many times, but he keeps making typing mistakes without knowing it. This unexpectedly throws him into the wrong screens and he doesn’t know how to get back. On the floor, he repeatedly has to ask a librarian for help. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/I） “Providing technology does not mean people can use the technology, ” says Marc Webb, a San Francisco librarian and one of the teachers. “Half the voters are still trying to read English. ” The library has also had to deal with the practical difficulties of making its catalog accessible via the Internet, a new service many libraries are starting to offer. “It’s absolutely overwhelming, ” Webb says. “Everyone is getting to us with multiple transports, they’re all using different software, they have Winsock or Telnet set up differently, and suddenly the library is forced to become a hardware and software help desk. When you’re trying to tell someone over the telephone how to set up Winsock through AOL when this is the first time they’ve ever used a computer, it’s very difficult. ”

style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/　　The warming of the ocean has far-reaching effects. The hot,humid(潮湿的)air over the ocean causes severe style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/　　E1 Nino usually lasts for about 18 months. The 1982-83 E1 Nino brought the most  style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/　　Nowadays, weather experts are able to forecast when an E1 Nino will A. estimate
B. strength
C. delibrately
D. notify
E. tropical
F.phenomenon
G.stable
H.attraction
I. completely
J. destructive
K. bringing
L. starvation
M. O. strike

style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/A）Compared to the rest of the universe, the Earth is very small. Our planet and seven others orbit the Sun, which is only one of about 200 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of the universe, which includes millions of other galaxies and their stars and planets. By comparison, the Earth is microscopic. Compared to a person, on the other hand, the Earth is enormous. It has a diameter of 7,926 miles (12,756 kilometers) at the equator, and it has a mass of about 6 × 1024 kilograms. The Earth orbits the Sun at a speed of about 66,638 miles per hour (29.79 kilometers per second). Don’t dwell on those numbers too long, though; to a lot of people, the Earth is inconceivably, mind-bogglingly big. And it’s just a fraction of the size of the Sun. From our perspective on Earth, the Sun looks very small. This is because it’s about 93 million miles away from us. The Sun’s diameter at its equator is about 100 times bigger than Earth’s, and about a million Earths could fit inside the Sun. The Sun is inconceivably, mind-bogglingly bigger. But without the Sun, the Earth could not exist. In a sense, the Earth is a giant machine, full of moving parts and complex systems. All those systems need power, and that power comes from the Sun.
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/B）The Sun is an enormous nuclear power source—through complex reactions, it transforms hydrogen into helium, releasing light and heat. Because of these reactions, every square meter of our planet’s surface gets about 342 Watts of energy from the Sun every year. This is about 1.7×1017 Watts total, or as much as 1.7 billion large power plants could generate. You can learn about how the Sun creates energy in How the Sun Works. When this energy reaches the Earth, it provides power for a variety of reactions, cycles and systems. It drives the circulation of the atmosphere and the oceans. It makes food for plants, which many people and animals eat. Life on Earth could not exist without the Sun, and the planet itself would not have developed without it. To a casual observer, the Sun’s most visible contributions to life are light, heat and weather.
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/C）Some of the Sun’s biggest impacts on our planet are also its most obvious. As the Earth spins on its axis, parts of the planet are in the Sun while others are in the shade. In other words, the Sun appears to rise and set. The parts of the world that are in daylight get warmer while the parts that are dark gradually lose the heat they absorbed during the day. You can get a sense of how much the Sun affects the Earth’s temperature by standing outside on a partly cloudy day. When the Sun is behind a cloud, you feel noticeably cooler than when it isn’t. The surface of our planet absorbs this heat from the Sun and emits it the same way that pavement continues to give off heat in the summer after the Sun goes down. Our atmosphere does the same thing--it absorbs the heat that the ground emits and sends some of it back to the Earth. The Earth’s relationship with the Sun also creates, seasons. 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/D）The Earth’s axis tips a little—about 23.5 degrees. One hemisphere points toward the Sun as the other points away. The hemisphere that points toward the Sun is warmer and gets more light--it’s summer there, and in the other hemisphere it’s winter. This effect is less dramatic near the equator than at the poles, since the equator receives about the same amount of sunlight all year. The poles, on the other hand, receive no sunlight at all during their winter months, which is part of the reason why they’re frozen. Most people are so used to the differences between night and day (or summer and winter) that they take them for granted. But these changes in light and temperature have an enormous impact on other systems on our planet. One is the circulation of air through our atmosphere. For example: 
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/E）The Sun shines bly over the equator. The air gets very warm because the equator faces the Sun directly and because the ozone layer is thinner there. As the air warms, it begins to rise, creating a low pressure system. The higher it rises, the more the air cools. Water condenses as the air cools, creating clouds and rainfall. The air dries out as the rain falls. The result is warm, dry air, relatively high in our atmosphere. Because of the lower air pressure, air rashes toward the equator from the north and south. As it warms, it rises, pushing the dry air away to the north and the south.
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/F）The dry air sinks as it cools, creating high-pressure areas and deserts to the north and south of the equator. This is just one piece of how the Sun circulates air around the world—ocean currents, weather patterns and other factors also play a part. But in general, air moves from high-pressure to low-pressure areas, much the way that high-pressure air rashes from the mouth of an inflated balloon when you let go. Heat also generally moves from the warmer equator to the cooler poles. Imagine a warm drink sitting on your desk--the air around the drink gets warmer as the drink gets colder. This happens on Earth on an enormous scale.
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/G）The Coriolis Effect, a product of the Earth’s rotation, affects this system as well. It causes large weather systems, like hurricanes, to rotate. It helps create westward-running trade winds near the equator and eastward-running jet streams in the northern and southern hemispheres. These wind patterns move moisture and air from one place to another, creating weather patterns. (The Coriolis Effect works on a large scale—it doesn’t really affect the water draining from the sink like some people suppose.).The Sun gets much of the credit for creating both wind and rain. When the Sun warms air in a specific location, that air rises, creating an area of low pressure. More air rushes in from surrounding areas to fill the void, creating wind. Without the Sun, there wouldn’t be wind. There also might not be breathable air at all.
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/ style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/H）The Sun has a huge effect on our water. It warms the oceans around the tropics, and its absence cools the water around the poles. Because of this, ocean currents move large amounts of warm and cold water, drastically affecting the weather and climate around the world. The Sun also drives the water cycle, which moves about 18,757 cubic miles (495,000 cubic kilometers) of water vapor through the atmosphere every year.
style=margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 宋体; font-size: 14px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);/I）If you’ve ever gotten out of a swimming pool on a hot day and realized a few minutes later that you were dry again, you have firsthand experience with evaporation. If you’ve seen water form on the side of a cold drink, you’ve seen condensation in action. These are primary components of the water cycle, also called the hydrologic cycle, which exchanges moisture between bodies of water and land masses. The water cycle is responsible for clouds and rain as well as our supply of drinking water.