Part III         Reading Comprehension           (40 minutes)

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

　　The ocean is heating up. That’s the conclusion of a new study that finds that Earth’s oceans now ____26___ heat at twice the rate they did 18 years ago. Around half of ocean heat intake since 1865 has taken place since 1997, researchers report online in Nature Climate Change.

　　Warming waters are known to ___27___ to coral bleaching（珊瑚白化)and they take up more space than cooler waters, raising sea ____28___. While the top of the ocean is well studied,its depths are more difficult to ____29____. The researchers gathered 150 years of ocean temperature data in order to get a better ____30____ of heat absorption from surface to seabed. They gathered together temperature readings collected by everything from a 19th century ____31___ of British naval ships to modern automated ocean probes. The extensive data sources, ___32_____ with computer simulations(计算机模拟), created a timeline of ocean temperature changes, including cooling from volcanic outbreaks and warming from fossil fuel ____33____.

　　About 35 percent of the heat taken in by the oceans during the industrial era now resides at a ___34____ of more than 700 meters, the researchers found. They say they’re ___35___ whether the deepsea warming canceled out warming at the sea’s surface.

　　A) absorb                                          I) heights

　　B) combined                                   J) indifferent

　　C) contribute                                   K) levels

　　D) depth                                           L) mixed

　　E) emissions                                 M) picture

　　F) excursion                                   N) unsure

　　G) explore                                      O) voyage

　　H) floor 责任编辑：LY