精品学习网教师频道编辑为参教师资格考试的考生搜集整理了：2012托福考试阅读素材：Ice Quake等信息，祝愿广大考生取得满意的成绩。
Over a hundred quakes have happened in the last decade. But they didn't occur near fault lines(断层线). What were they near? Find out on this Moment of Science.
We’re used to thinking of earthquakes as (1)tremors(震动，颤抖) that happen along fault lines when tectonic plates ((地球表面的)构造板块)shift. They’re dramatic(吸引人注目的) events: a good-sized(相当大的，大型的) earthquake can bring buildings and bridges (2)toppling down(推翻;倒塌).
Those destructive energy bursts are high frequency(高频) ground vibrations(震动), and that’s the range of vibrations seismologists(地震学家) most actively study. Just recently, though, a geophysicist(地球物理学者) at Harvard University named G?ran Ekstr?m studied low-frequency(低频的) vibrations instead, and discovered something interesting.
He found over a hundred quakes have happened in the last decade that aren’t along any fault line. What are they near instead? Ice.
A glacier(冰川) can be thought of as a very (3)slow-moving(动作缓慢的) stream. It’s made of solid ice, but over long periods of time it can flow gradually over the land, sometimes carving deep (4)trenches(沟，沟渠) and (5)bulldozing(推土) up rock and soil. Just because it takes centuries to rearrange(重新排列) things, though, doesn’t mean a glacier isn’t enormously powerful at any given moment.
By carefully measuring seismic(地震的) signals, Ekstr?m was able to spot numerous low-frequency quakes in Greenland that hadn’t been identified. He also found that they mostly occurred during July, August, and September. Those warmer months melt lots of glacial ice.
Ekstr?m suspects that liquid water is (6)pooling(淤积) underneath the glacial ice to the point where the thin (7)veneer(外表) of water at the base of the glacier allows the whole mass to slip(滑动) a little, the way your foot can skid(打滑) on a slick(光滑的) road.
The quakes he recorded, he believes, are the vibrations set up by all that ice–in one case, six cubic(立方的) miles of it–skidding as much as forty-two feet in under a minute. When that much ice scrapes(刮掉，擦掉), the earth itself shakes.
Notes:
(1)tremors ['trem?z] n.震动;颤抖(tremor的复数)v.颤动(tremor的三单形式)
1.They got only blushes, ejaculations, tremors, and titters, in return for their importunity.
她们只是用脸红、惊叫、颤抖和傻笑来回答他们的要求。
2.Rescuers are continuing into a third day the hunt for survivors of the earthquake that hit Peru's central coast, as fresh tremors shake the area.
救援一直持续到了第三天，搜寻发生在秘鲁中部海岸的地震后的幸存者，这次地震又引起了这个地区的震动。
(2)topple down 推翻;倒塌
The wounded soldier toppled down time after time.
伤兵一次又一次地跌倒。
(3)slow-moving ['sl?u'mu:vi?] adj.滞销的;动作缓慢的
We looked like a bunch of awkward kids riding a slow-moving carousel.
我们看起来就像一群骑在旋转木马上的笨拙的孩子。
(4)trench [trent?] n.沟,沟渠;战壕;堑壕 vt. 掘沟 vi.挖战壕;侵害
1.The soldiers trenched an outpost.
士兵们用战壕防御前哨。
2.A long narrow trench or furrow dug in the ground, as for irrigation, drainage, or a boundary line.
沟渠，排水沟，''。'水道'。''在地面上狭长的沟渠或细沟，用于灌溉、排水或用作分界线。
(5)bulldoze ['buld?uz] vt. 强迫;恫吓;用推土机清除 1.The workers bulldozed the building site.
工人们用推土机把建筑工地推平。
2.His normal style when confronted with an obstacle was to bulldoze it into submission.
在前进的道路上碰到障碍时，他通常的做法是铲平障碍，继续前进。
(6)pooling n.联营，合并;池化 v.积水成池;淤积(pool的ing形式)
1.The road was deeply rutted and pooled with rain.
道路坎坷不平，到处是坑坑洼洼的雨水。
2.Object pooling is a good example.
对象池就是一个很好的例子。
(7)veneer [v?'ni?] n.外表;虚饰;饰面;胶合板的一层;薄木片 vt.胶合;虚饰;给…镶以饰片
1.Civilization is a thin veneer over a very ancient structure.
文明是建立在古老结构上的一层薄薄的外表。
2.Book-matched and quartered cherry veneer recessed panel in base.
预订匹配和驻扎樱桃饰面休会小组在基地。