单选题   Most of us know to stay low .to the floor if we're caught in a fire, or head to the basement if a storm's coming, or board up the windows in a hurricane. But because relatively few of us live along fault lines, the massive earthquake that hit Haiti was a reminder that we're far less experienced in what to do when the ground below us shakes. If we're in a house or building, for example, our first impulse might be to run outside—but, counterintuitive (与直觉相反的) as it might sound, experts warn against that since people are too often killed by falling or fallen objects as they try to escape.
    Of course, just as the best way to survive car crashes is to make safer cars, the best way to reduce the risk of being killed in an earthquake is to enact stronger building codes. But given how many of us travel in quake-prone regions today—including, tragically, the four students and two professors from Lynn University in Florida who perished in the Haiti quake—even folks who don't reside in California should know how to survive an earthquake. But there are two different, and at times competing, schools of thought on the matter—both of which are considered valid but perhaps not always in the same situations.
    The most conventional and widely accepted practice by the disaster-response community is the 'drop, cover and hold on' approach, which urges people to take cover beneath something like a heavy table to avoid falling objects. The newer method—and less researched—is known as the 'triangle of life.' It recommends lying down in a fetal position not under but next to furniture; as roofs and walls collapse on the top of those sofas and desks, buffer (缓冲) spaces are created that protect people from being crushed.
    Over the past decade, a consensus has been building that  'drop, cover and hold on' is a more appropriate method for developed countries like the U.S., where improved construction has greatly reduced the likelihood of structures collapsing inwards. The triangle of life is thought to be more suitable in developing nations like Haiti, where inferior building codes make finding a 'survivable void' inside collapsed buildings more important than shielding yourself from falling pieces. 'You have to think about the hazard level of the area you're in,' says Gary Patterson, a geologist and director of education and outreach at the Center for Earthquake Research & Information at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. 'ff you're going to play the odds, drop and cover may be the best way to go, but a lot of emergency responders might say triangle of life because they're the ones who see the fatalities in buildings that do collapse.'
单选题     By saying 'relatively few of us live along fault lines' (Lines 2-3, Para. 1), the author means that most of us ______.
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第1段第2句。 根据题干引述内容所在句可知，fault lines与massive earthquake有关，即使不知道具体意思，也可通过其后的内容确定大致范围。由于我们当中生活在断层带的人甚少，所以对地震的应对经验缺乏，言外之意是我们很少受到大型地震的困扰，可见，C正确。 选项A和选项B都在原文的fault一词上做文章，mistakes和proper与fault构成同义或反义的关系，但文中的fault lines是一个词组，不能分开单独理解。选项D是题干导致的结果，而不是题干要表达的意思。 [参考译文] 我们大多数人都知道遇到火灾时要让身体贴近地面，遇到暴风雨时要往地下室躲，或者飓风来时要用木板钉紧窗户。但相对而言，由于我们当中生活在断层带的人甚少，所以发生在海地的强烈地震让我们意识到：当地面震动时，我们的应对经验还十分缺乏。例如：地震时当我们身处室内或建筑物中，我们的第一个反应可能是向外跑——但是，与我们的直觉正好相反，专家警告人们不要这么做，因为人们常常在逃跑时被下落或落下的碎片击中身亡。 正如车祸中最好的幸存之道是制造出更安全的汽车一样，在地震中减少死亡风险的最好办法当然是制定更强硬的建筑规范。但考虑到现在我们有很多人会去地震多发带旅游——包括佛罗里达林恩大学在海地地震中不幸丧生的4名学生和2名教授——所以即使那些不住在加利福利亚的人也应该了解如何在地震中求生。但对于这一问题，人们提出了两种不同的、有时甚至是相互矛盾的应对措施——两者都被视为有效，但针对的情况也许有所不同。 最传统并且被应灾机构广为接受的办法是“蹲下、掩护和抓牢”，这个办法建议人们躲在诸如结实的桌子等物体之下以避开下落的物体。新出现的一种办法——还没怎么被研究过——被人们称之为“生命三角”。它建议人们以婴儿在母体中的姿垫蜷缩在家具旁边而不是躲在家具下面，因为屋顶和墙面倒下来时常砸在沙发和凳子上，这样就形成了缓冲的空间，待在这个空间里便可以让人们免遭砸压。 过去10年里，人们一致认为“蹲下、掩护和抓牢”的办法在美国等发达国家更为适用，因为这些国家经过加强的建筑结构极大地降低了建筑物向内崩塌的可能性。“生命三角”的方法则被认为更适合像海地这样的发展中国家，因为这些国家的建筑规格要差一些，所以在倒塌的房屋内找到“生存空间”比躲避掉落的碎片更为重要。田纳西孟菲斯大学地震研究和信息中心教育拓展主任兼地质学家加里·帕特森说：“你得考虑所处区域的危险程度，如果你想抓住一线生机，那么蹲下并寻找掩护可能是最好的办法，但是许多应灾人员可能会选择生命三角的办法，因为他们亲眼看到过倒塌的建筑物里的死亡悲剧。”
单选题     What do most people take as 'counterintuitive' when there is an earthquake? ______
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】第1段最后一句。 弄明白题干中的短语take sth. as...之后可知。此题考查sth. 的具体内容。在原文该句中，counterintuitive as it might sound作为补充，插在了but和experts warn之间，可见，其后专家警告的内容便是答案，即B。 A是对our first impulse might be to run outside的同义改写，这是正常直觉的反应，并非counterintuitive，故A不正确；C“专家警告我们不应尝试逃生”不合逻辑，专家只是警告我们在逃生时不能用错方法，逃生当然还是必要的；关于地震时常有人被落物砸死，这是事实，与counterintuitive无关，D不符合题意。
单选题     What did the four students and two professors from Lynn University in Florida go to Haiti for? ______
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第2段第2句。 该句破折号中的内容是为了举例说明句子开头的内容，即有很多人会去地震多发带旅游，可见，这些师生去海地的目的很简单，就是去旅游，因此，选C。 其他选项都是无中生有的，其中A和B只是试图与“地震”这个话题扯上关系，但却缺乏原文依据。
单选题     The new method differs from the conventional method in that the former believes that ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第3段最后一句。 第3段第1句介绍了传统方法，第2句和第3句介绍新方法，传统的方法建议人们躲在家具下面，而新方法则建议人们躲在家具旁边，最后一句中as引出的原因从句揭示了为什么要躲在家具旁边：因为落下的屋顶和墙面可能会被家具顶住，形成“生命三角”，D是对这个原因的近义改写，为本题答案。 两种方法均未提到无需遮掩的建议，也没有具体说明是否需要厚重的家具，A和B不选；C与题意无关。
单选题     As for which method to choose in an earthquake, Gary Patterson suggests basing the choice on ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】最后一段第3句。 该句表明Gary Patterson建议，地震时应选用哪种方法，应先考虑the hazard level of the area，即应先考虑身处的地方可能造成什么危险，再决定用“蹲下、掩护和抓牢”的办法还是“生命三角”的方法，由此可见，本题应选A。 根据该段最后一句可以知道Gary Patterson在“蹲下、掩护和抓牢”的2-法和“生命三角”的方法之间，并没有更喜欢哪一个，因此C和D均不能选；最后一段只指出了不同的国家建筑规格不相同，没有讨论“地震强度”的问题，B不能选。