单选题
Scattered around the globe are more than 100 small regions of isolated volcanic activity known to geologists as hot spots. Unlike most of the world's volcanoes, they are not always found at the boundaries of the great drifting plates that make up the earth's surface; on the contrary, many of them lie deep in the interior of a plate. Most of the hot spots move only slowly, and in some cases the movement of the plates past them has left trails of dead volcanoes. The hot spots and their volcanic trails are milestones that mark the passage of the plates... That the plates are moving is now beyond dispute. Africa and South America, for example, are moving away from each other as new material is injected into the sea floor between them. The complementary coastlines and certain geological features that seem to span the ocean are reminders of where the two continents were once joined. The relative motion of the plates carrying these continents has been constructed in detail, but the motion of one plate with respect to another cannot readily be translated into motion with respect to the earth's interior. It is not possible to determine whether both continents are moving in opposite directions or whether one continent is stationary and the other is drifting away from it. Hot spots, anchored in the deeper layers of the earth, provide the measuring instruments needed to resolve the question. From an analysis of the hot-spot population it appears that the African plate is stationary and that it has not moved during the past 30 million years. The significance of hot spots is not confined to their role as a frame of reference. It now appears that they also have an important influence on the geophysical processes that propel the plates across the globe. When a continental plate comes to rest over a hot spot, the material rising from deeper layer creates a broad dome. As the dome grows, it develops deep fissures (cracks); in at least a few cases the continent may break entirely along some of these fissures, so that the hot spot initiates the formation of a new ocean. Thus just as earlier theories have explained the mobility of the continents, so hot spots may explain their mutability (inconstancy).
单选题
We can learn from the first paragraph that _______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节辨认题。文章第一段第二句提到“many of them lie deep in the interior of a plate”。故选项B正确。
单选题
The author believes that _______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节辨认题。文章第二段的开头指出That the plates are moving is now beyond dispute。beyond dispute意为“毋庸置疑”，故选项B正确。
单选题
That Africa and South America were once joined can be deduced from the fact that _______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节辨认题。文章第二段的第三句提到“The complementary coastlines and certain geological features that seem to span the ocean are reminders of where the two continents were once joined”，B项符合后者，故选项B正确。
单选题
The hot spot theory may prove useful in explaining _______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】细节辨认题。关于hot spot theory的作用，文章第三段论及它的一个重要作用在于它能够推动板块在地球表面漂移(propel the plates across the globe)，从而引发了新海洋的形成(initiates the-formation of a new ocean)。故选项D正确。