Icebergs are among nature’s most impressive creations, and yet most people have never seen one. They come into being somewhere in faraway, freezing waters, amid thunderous noise and splashing turbulence （漩渦）, which in most cases no one hears or sees. They exist only a short time and then slowly melt away just as unnoticed.

They have been called objects of complete beauty. Appearing in an endless variety of shapes, they may be dazzlingly white, or they may be glassy blue, green or purple, in light colors or in dark colors. They are graceful, stately, 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 main part is hidden below the water, so their underwater parts may extend out far beyond the visible top. Also, they may roll over unexpectedly, stirring the waters around them.

Icebergs are parts of glaciers that break off, drift into the water, float about awhile, and finally melt. Icebergs floating today are made of snows that have fallen over long ages of time. They include snows that drifted down hundreds, or many thousands, 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 become tiny grains of ice. When new snow fell on top of the old, it too turned to 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 pressed 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.

1．The underlined word “dazzlingly” in Paragraph 2 probably means “          ”.

       A．brilliantly            B．a(chǎn)bundantly         C．beautifully          D．a(chǎn)pproximately

2．The author states that icebergs are rarely seen because they are           .

       A．broken by waves soon after they are found

       B．hidden under the mountains

      C．located in remote regions of the world

     D．surrounded by fog

3．The underlined phrase “from above” in the last paragraph refers to “        ”.

       A．sunlit seas                              B．polar regions

       C．weight of mountains                      D．layers of ice and snow

4．According to the passage, icebergs are dangerous because they           .

       A．usually melt quickly                     B．can turn over suddenly

       C．may create large snowdrifts             D．may float and hit the ships suddenly

Icebergs are among nature’s most impressive creations, and yet most people have never seen one. They come into being somewhere in faraway, freezing waters, amid thunderous noise and splashing turbulence（漩渦）, which in most cases no one hears or sees. They exist only a short time and then slowly melt away just as unnoticed.

  They have been called objects of complete beauty. Appearing in an endless variety of shapes, they may be dazzlingly white, or they may be glassy blue, green or purple, in light colors or in dark colors. They are graceful, stately, 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 main part is hidden below the water, so their underwater parts may extend out far beyond the visible top. Also, they may roll over unexpectedly, stirring the waters around them.

Icebergs are parts of glaciers that break off, drift into the water, float about awhile, and finally melt. Icebergs floating today are made of snows that have fallen over long ages of time. They include snows that drifted down hundreds, or many thousands, 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 become tiny grains of ice. When new snow fell on top of the old, it too turned to 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 pressed 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.

1．The underlined word “dazzlingly” in Paragraph 2  probably means “           ”.

       A．brilliantly             B．a(chǎn)bundantly           C．beautifully           D．a(chǎn)pproximately

2．The author states that icebergs are rarely seen because they are           .

       A．broken by waves soon after they are found

       B．hidden under the mountains

       C．located in remote regions of the world

       D．surrounded by fog

3．The underlined phrase “from above” in the last paragraph refers to “           ”.

       A．sunlit seas                                           B．polar regions

       C．weight of mountains                            D．layers of ice and snow

4．According to the passage, icebergs are dangerous because they           .

       A．usually melt quickly                             B．can turn over suddenly

       C．may create large snowdrifts                  D．may float and hit the ships suddenly