Objects of sheerest beauty,they have been called.Appearing in an endless variety of shapes,they may be dazzlingly white,or they may be glassy blue,green,or purple,tinted faintly of darker hues(顏色).They are graceful,stately(宏偉的),inspiring in calm,sunlit seas.

　　But they are also called frightening and dangerous,and that they are-in the night,in the fog,and in storms.Even in clear weather one is wise to stay a safe distance away from them.Most of their bulk is hidden below the water,so their underwater parts may extend out far beyond the visible top.Also,they may roll over unexpectedly,churning(劇烈攪動)the waters around them.

　　Icebergs are parts of glaciers that break off,drift into the water.float about awhile and finally melt.Icebergs afloat today are made of snowflakes that have fallen over long ages of time.They embody snows that drifted down hundred,or many thousand,or in some cases,maybe a million years ago.The snows fell in polar-regions and on cold mountains,where they melted only a little or not at all and so collected to great depths over the years and centuries.

　　As each year's snow accumulation lay on the surface,evaporation and melting caused the snowflakes slowly to lose their feathery points and become tiny grains of ice.When new snow fell on top of the old,it too turned into icy grains.So blankets of snow and ice grains mounted layer upon layer and were of such great thickness that the weight of the upper layers compressed the lower ones.With time and pressure from above,the many small ice grains joined and changed to larger crystals,and eventually the deeper crystals merged into a solid mass of ice.

　　測試題

　　1.The author states that icebergs are rarely seen as they appear in_______________of the world.

　　2.From the passage,we can know that the shape of icebergs is___________________.

　　3.According to the passage,icebergs are scary and dangerous because they are likely to_______________________suprisingly.

　　4.What glaciers become when they break off and drift into the water?

　　5.What are the major factors in the process of the many small ice grains being merged into icebergs?

　　答案詳解

　　1.[faraway(distant/remote)waters(regions/areas)]

　　[定位]根據icebergs are rarely seen查找到第1段笫3句。

　　解析：題目中的appear in與of the world表明空格處需填入表地點的名詞。原文開篇提到大部分人都沒有見過冰山，從第3句可知，冰山形成于faraway, frigid waters，因此答案為faraway waters，也可以把faraway同義改寫成distant或remote，或者把waters(水域)用regions或areas代替。

　　2.[in an endless variety of shapes/various/different]

　　[定位]根據shape查找到第2段第2句。

　　解析：題目需要表語成分。從原文該句可知冰山的形狀各異，因此題目的答案可用appearing后的介詞短語作答，也可以簡要概括為various或different。

　　3.[roll over//turn over]

　　[定位]根據scary and dangerous和surprisingly查找到第3段第1句及最后一句。解析：題目需填入動詞原形，表明冰山可怕的原因。原文第3段介紹了冰山的可怕之處，最后兩句是原因所在。題目空格前的are likely to與原文最后一句的may是同義表達，所以答案為may后的動詞詞組。

　　4.[Icebergs.]

　　[定位]根據when從句的內容定位到第4段第1句。

　　解析：題目中的when從句是原文that定語從句的部分內容，原文句首的“Icebergs are parts of glaciers...”表明了冰山是由冰川的一部分形成，因此可知答案是Icebergs。

　　5.[Time and pressure(from above).]

　　[定位]根據small ice grains和merged into icebergs查找到最后一段最后一句。

　　解析：原文用With短語表達了眾多小冰粒是怎么樣形成大塊堅冰的，也就是題目所詢問的主要因素，因此答案為with后的賓語。

　　參考譯文

　　冰山是大自然最壯觀的杰作之一，而大多數人卻從未見過。它們被一層神秘的面紗所籠罩。[1]冰山產生于某些遙遠的冰冷水域中，生成時發出雷鳴般的響聲，濺起巨浪，而在多數情況下沒人聽到或見過。它們曇花一現并漸漸消失無蹤。

　　它們被譽為最美麗的物體。[2]其形狀變化多端，呈現出耀眼的白色或透亮的藍色、綠色或紫色，帶著絲絲淡淡的深色。在風平浪靜、灑滿陽光的海面上，它們是那么優雅、宏偉、激動人心。

　　[3]然而在夜晚、在霧里以及在風雨中，它們也被認為是可怕和危險的，即使是在天氣晴朗的日子，與其保持安全的距離也是明智之舉。冰山的大部分體積都隱藏在水下，因此它們水下的部分遠比水上可見的部分大。[3]它們還可能會出乎意料地滾動，引起周圍水域的劇烈翻騰。

　　[4]冰山是斷裂的冰川滑入水中的一部分，它們漂浮一段時間，最終融化。現在漂浮著的冰山是由以往漫長歲月里飄落的雪花形成。它們承載的雪是數百年乃至數千年前落下的，有的還可能是100萬年前的。雪飄落在極地和寒冷的高山上，僅僅融化一點或根本就不融化，年深日久逐漸達到了很深的厚度。

　　覆蓋在表面的雪年復一年地累積，蒸發和融化使雪花逐漸失去了羽狀邊角，變成細小的冰粒。當新雪落在舊雪上時，也變成了冰粒。就這樣，雪和冰粒層層重疊，變得非常厚，以致上層的重量緊緊壓住了下層。[5]隨著時間的推移以及來自上層的壓力，眾多細小的冰粒互相結合并轉變為更大的水晶，最終深層的水晶融合成巨大的堅冰。