If you make a five-day trip across the Atlantic Ocean (大西洋), your ship enters a different time zone every day. As you enter each zone, the time changes one hour. Traveling west, you set your clock back, traveling east, you set it ahead. Each day of your trip has either twenty-five or twenty-three hours.
If you travel by ship across the Pacific Ocean (太平洋), you cross the International Date Line (国际日期变更线). By agreement, this is the point where a new day begins. When you cross the line, you change your calendar one full day, backward or forward. Traveling east, today becomes yesterday. Traveling west, it is tomorrow.
1.Strange things happen to time when you travel because ______.
A. no day really has twenty-four hours B. no one knows where time zones begin
C. the earth is divided into time zones D. in some places one day always has twenty-five hours
2.The difference in time between zones is ________.
A. one hour B. more than seven days C. seven days D. twenty-four hours
3.If you travel across the Atlantic Ocean, going east, you set your clock _____.
A.one hour ahead in each time zone B. one hour ahead for the whole trip
C. one full day back for each time zone D. one hour back in each time zone
4.From this passage, it seems true that the Atlantic ______.
A.is in one time zone B. is divided into twenty-four zones
C. is divided into five time zone D. is in four time zones
5.The International Date Line is the name for ______.
A.the beginning of any new time zone
B.any point where time changes by one hour
C.the point where a new day begins
D.the end of any new time zone
【答案与解析】
这是一篇涉及地理方面的知识性小品文。地球上共划分了二十四个时区，两个相邻的时区之间时间正好相差一个小时。因此，我们环球旅行时，就会遇到时差问题。国际日期变更线是新的一天开始的地方。穿越这条线向东去，今天就变成了昨天，向西去，今天就成了明天。
1.C 由句首的那一句话可知，导致这种奇怪现象的原因就是因为时区的划分。
2.A 根据首句，再联系地理方面的知识，可知时区与时区之间的时间差为一个小时。
3.A 根据第二段的介绍，自西向东横渡大西洋时，因每增加一个时区，就早一个小时。即"…traveling east, you set it ahead."，所以答案为A。
4.C 段首一句说得非常清楚，"横渡大西洋做五天的旅行"，段落末尾又说"每一天你的旅行不是二十四小时，就是二十五小时"。由此可以判断大西洋跨五个时区。
5.C "…this is the point where a new day begins."是答案的出处。