1. What do storm chasers do before beginning their storm chasing?______
2. Why is storm chasing so popular in the Midwest in the US?
3. What does the writer advise beginners to do?______
4. What does Jasper Morley, one of the storm chasers, think of storm chasing?
5. What do you think of storm chasing? And why? (本小题词数不限)

1. Search latest weather reports.
2. Many storms there.
3. Join a group.
4. The greatest show on Earth.
5. I think it's exciting but dangerous. Because it can bring us close to the power of nature, but also has many risks. (答案不唯一，合理即可)

五、首字母填空
Until the beginning of July, there has been no rain in northern Italy for over 100 days. There are also high (1). This is the most serious dry spell (干旱期) for that area in the past 70 years. Because of this (2), the country's longest river, the Po River is drying up!
This is bad (3) for several different reasons. The fresh water of the Po provides drinking water for northern Italy. Besides, farmers in this area need the water of the Po to keep their crops (4). What's more, the flowing river water is used to (5) about half of the hydroelectric power (水力发电) for Italy. Its drying up (6) that more natural gas will be used, which is bad for the environment.
There have been some interesting discoveries from this lack of rain, (7). Between Florence and Milan, a long ship sunk (沉没) in 1943 appeared because of the (8) water levels of the river. Now many (9) and locals come to see this ship. A German tank has also appeared out of water near Mantua. At other places (10) the river, people can even walk on the sandy river bed. Although this may be interesting, people in Italy and around the world are hoping for the return of rain to refill the Po!

1. temperatures
2. situation
3. news
4. growing
5. create
6. means
7. however
8. low
9. tourists
10. along

1. 第一个空，根据前文“there has been no rain in northern Italy for over 100 days”可知，意大利北部已经100多天没有下雨了，结合首字母“t”，可以推断出此处应该是指“高温”，因此填“temperatures”。
2. 第二个空，根据前文描述的高温和干旱情况，结合首字母“s”，可以推断出此处应该是指“情况”，因此填“situation”。
3. 第三个空，根据后文“The fresh water of the Po provides drinking water for northern Italy”以及“farmers in this area need the water of the Po to keep their crops...”可知，此处是在描述干旱带来的坏消息，结合首字母“n”，可以推断出此处应该是指“消息”，因此填“news”。
4. 第四个空，根据前文“farmers in this area need the water of the Po”可知，农民需要波河的水来保持庄稼的生长，结合首字母“g”，可以推断出此处应该是指“生长”，因此填“growing”。
5. 第五个空，根据后文“about half of the hydroelectric power (水力发电) for Italy”可知，此处是在描述波河的水被用来产生水力发电，结合首字母“c”，可以推断出此处应该是指“产生”，因此填“create”。
6. 第六个空，根据前文“Its drying up”以及后文“that more natural gas will be used”可知，此处是在描述波河干涸意味着将使用更多的天然气，结合首字母“m”，可以推断出此处应该是指“意味着”，因此填“means”。
7. 第七个空，根据前文“There have been some interesting discoveries from this lack of rain”以及后文“Between Florence and Milan, a long ship sunk (沉没) in 1943 appeared...”可知，前后文之间存在转折关系，结合首字母“h”，可以推断出此处应该是指“然而”，因此填“however”。
8. 第八个空，根据前文“a long ship sunk (沉没) in 1943 appeared”以及后文“water levels of the river”可知，此处是在描述由于河流水位低，一艘沉没的船出现了，结合首字母“l”，可以推断出此处应该是指“低的”，因此填“low”。
9. 第九个空，根据后文“and locals come to see this ship”可知，此处是在描述许多游客和当地人来看这艘船，结合首字母“t”，可以推断出此处应该是指“游客”，因此填“tourists”。
10. 第十个空，根据后文“people can even walk on the sandy river bed”以及前文提到的波河干涸的情况，可以推断出此处是在描述沿着河流的其他地方，人们甚至可以在沙质的河床上行走，结合首字母“a”，可以推断出此处应该是指“沿着”，因此填“along”。