Chasing the Northern Lights追逐北极光

黄舒伟

极光是一种绚丽又迷人的自然光现象，它一般出现在南北极的高纬度地区的夜空中。

题材：旅游 体裁：记叙文 文章词数：356 建议用时：7分钟

By the time I walked into the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife， it was 9 pm. Outside， on the black Canadian winter night， four yellow school buses pulled up to pick us tourists up and drove onto the dark highway.

Our guide was Céline， a French woman. “The prediction is clouds tonight，” she told us. But a prediction was just a prediction. So we would be hopeful. After about 20 minutes， the buses were on a narrow road toward Aurora Village， where we could see a collection of tents and small buildings beside a frozen lake. After getting off the buses， we followed Célines headlamp， the only way we could tell her apart from the crowd.

More than a hundred people were walking along hard snowy trails between dark trees.We found our tents at the edge of a field—a place to warm up and rest， but not to stay. The clouds lifted. I shifted from foot to foot. All that winter， Portland， Oregon， my hometown， had been unseasonably warm. I longed for cold， the kind that would make me sit up and pay attention. I went north not only for the aurora （北极光）， but also the dark， the sky and the ice.

“Is that it？” somebody asked， pointing at a pale flash on the opposite horizon. But it was just headlights from the highway. We didnt really know what we were seeking or what we would see. The aurora followed its own subtle schedule. Over about 20 minutes， a cloud grew into a fine white arc （弧形） stretching across the lower half of the sky， brightening until it was a river of pearl. Céline and I lay back on a pile of packed snow， watching the glowing track cross the sky like a painters brush. The entire sky was filled with moving light. A hundred voices shouted from the darkness all around.

When I first arrived in Yellowknife， I kept reminding myself that the aurora would be less than I expected. But I was wrong. I am not sorry that I couldnt see what is in the photos. I am sorry that the photos dont capture what I could see.

1. How did the tourists feel about the weather prediction in paragraph 2？

A. Curious. B. Interested. C. Disappointed. D. Skeptical.

2. In what way did the tourists distinguish their tour guide from the others？

A. By hearing her voices. B. By watching her headlamp.

C. By speaking French. D. By observing her dress.

3. What can we know about the weather in Oregon all that winter？

A. It was windy. B. It was wet. C. It was warm. D. It was cold.

4. The fourth paragraph mainly focuses on .

A. the description of the aurora

B. why aurora appeared

C. how tourists reacted to the aurora

D. the differences between the aurora and headlights

Difficult sentence

“Is that it？” somebody asked， pointing at a pale flash on the opposite horizon. “那是北極光吗？”有人指着对面地平线上一道白色的闪光问道。

【点石成金】该句中的pointing at...horizon为现在分词作伴随状语。