Half of the world’s population is affected by Asian monsoons (季风), but monsoons are difficult to predict. American researchers have put together a 700-year record of the rainy seasons, which is expected to provide guidance for experts making weather predictions.
Every year, moist (潮湿的) air masses, known as monsoon, produce large amounts of rainfall in India, East Asia, Northern Australia and East Africa. All this wet air is pulled in by a high pressure area over the Indian Ocean and a low pressure area to the south.
According to Edward Cook, a weather expert at Columbia University in New York, the complex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict. In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use. Therefore, he and a team of researchers spent more than fifteen years traveling across Asia, looking for trees old enough to provide long-term records. They measured the rings, or circles, inside thousands of ancient trees in more than 300 places.
Rainfall has a direct link to the growth and width of rings on some kinds of trees. The researchers developed a document they are calling a Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. It shows the effect of monsoons over seven centuries, beginning in the 1300s.
Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. “If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability.” With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve computer climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons.
“There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive flooding.” said Eugene Wahl, a scientist with America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So, to get a sense of what the regional moisture patterns have been, dryness and wetness over such a long period of time in great detail, I would call it a kind of victory for climate science.”
1. What’s the passage mainly about?| A．The effects of Asian monsoons. | B．The necessity of weather forecast. |
| C．A breakthrough in monsoon prediction. | D．The achievements of Edward cook. |
| A．it is hard to keep long-term climate records |
| B．there is heavy rainfall in Asia |
| C．they influence many nations |
| D．they are formed under complex climate systems |
| A．The trees affected by monsoon grow fast if the monsoon is weak. |
| B．The Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas has a monsoon record for about 1,300 years. |
| C．Long and detailed climate records can offer useful information for monsoon research. |
| D．The rainfall might be low although the monsoon is strong in monsoon-affected areas. |
| A．It will help people prevent droughts and floods. |
| B．It should include information about human life in the past. |
| C．It has analyzed moisture models worldwide. |
| D．It is a great achievement in climate science. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Matter-of-fact. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Friendly. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】At this very moment you’re thirsty and hunting for something to drink. So you start walking towards the drinks machine at school. As you drink you hear your teacher say those frightening words: “Could I see you for a moment in the classroom, please?”
You can almost feel your blood pressure rise as you walk to your English class. She’s always picking on you. What can it be this time? You think of the test you did last Friday. Now your mind is racing, your heart is pounding, and your forehead is pouring with sweat. In situations like this you will often feel like running away but you may also feel like hitting someone on the nose.
Your teacher asks you to go into the class. “Here it comes,” you think. But what you hear is: “Well done. Your test was excellent.” You can hardly believe your ears.
Our fight or flight response is designed to protect us from tigers that would have once hidden in the woods around us, threatening(威胁) our survival. At times when our survival is threatened, there is no greater response to have on our side. When activated(刺激), the response causes stress hormones to pump through our body.
When we face very real dangers to our survival, it is invaluable. However, few of the “tigers” we face in our lives cause a serious physical threat to our existence. They cause us no end of stress, triggering(引发) the full activation of our fight or flight response. They tend to cause us to overreact to the situation in a counterproductive (事与愿违的) way. It is counterproductive to hit someone (the fight response) or run away (the flight response).
By recognizing the symptoms, we can begin to take steps to handle the stress overload. By learning to recognize the signals of fight or flight activation, we can avoid reacting excessively (过度地) to events and fears that are not life threatening. In doing so, we use this extra energy to help ourselves, borrowing the beneficial effects in order to change our emotional environment and deal productively with our fears, thoughts and potential dangers.
1. You feel nervous when walking to the classroom because ________.| A．you broke the school rules | B．you failed the test last Friday |
| C．your teacher spoke to you loudly | D．your teacher always blames you |
| A．The power of our fight or flight response. |
| B．How our fight or flight response works. |
| C．The benefits of our fight or flight response. |
| D．How we control our fight or flight response. |
| A．fierce tigers | B．real dangers |
| C．dangers we face | D．serious physical threats |
| A．get rid of unnecessary stress | B．face real dangers bravely |
| C．find hidden dangers | D．take threats seriously |
【推荐2】Smart TVs and other Internet-connected household devices will be made to carry labels setting out how secure they are, under proposals being put forward by the government.
Ministers want the labels introduced on a voluntary basis at first, but propose that they are eventually made compulsory. The labels will help consumers identify which products are more and which are less secure. Under the plans, announced by the digital minister Margot James on Wednesday, merchants will only be able to sell products that carry the label, which will indicate to consumers whether the device observes the principal three security standards set out by the government practice in February.
The move is designed to deal with the problems caused by insecure connected household devices, such as TVs, doorbells and locks, which can be hijacked by malicious (恶意的) actors. There have also been warnings that governments could use them to spy on people in their homes. James said, “Many consumer products that are connected to the Internet are often found to be insecure, putting consumers’ privacy and security at risk. Our code of practice was the first step towards making sure that products have safety features built in from the design stage.”
Prof Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey, said the proposals represented a good start, but added, “The problem is what happens to those who don’t follow the guidelines. Or, more importantly, who is going to check that a device does follow whatever the eventual guidelines are. “
Woodward said the government would need to “put some teeth behind whatever standards they set out”, suggesting a watchdog along the lines of the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The plan will form part of a wider government consultation into improving general cybersecurity in the UK, with three key requirements in a code of practice for device manufacturers. The requirements include ensuring passwords of devices are not resettable to a universal factory setting, and ensuring they provide a public point of contact as part of a policy for disclosing any discovered weaknesses. It also calls for device makers to explicitly state the minimum length of time a device will receive security updates, never making users puzzled.
1. How does the government expect the labels to be introduced at the beginning?| A．On a compulsory basis. | B．On a voluntary principle. |
| C．By making laws. | D．By educating consumers. |
| A．The potential risks of smart household devices. |
| B．The responsibilities of the government. |
| C．The popularity of illegal Internet access. |
| D．The measures of avoiding being attacked. |
| A．Smart devices need strict and clear guidelines. |
| B．Related departments are necessary to be set. |
| C．The government should take tough measures. |
| D．Some people are strongly against the proposal. |
| A．Happily. | B．Roughly. |
| C．Confidently. | D．Clearly. |
【推荐3】From changes in daylight across seasons to the artificial lighting choices in workplaces, it’s clear that the quantity and quality of light that a person encounters can significantly impact mood. Now, scientists at Brown University think they know why.
In a new study published in a science magazine, the research team used functional MRI(磁共振) to reveal how light-intensity signals reach the brain, and how brain structures involved in mood process those signals. The study demonstrated that some regions of the cerebral cortex(大脑皮层) involved in cognitive(认知的) processing and mood show sensitivity for light intensity.
The discovery has implications for understanding mood problems like seasonal affective disorder and major depressive disorders, as well as how to treat them, said lead study author Jerome Sanes. “Identifying this pathway and understanding its function might directly promote development of approaches to treating depression,” Sanes added.
The findings build on previous research by study co-author David Berson, a neuroscience professor, who in 2002 discovered special light-sensing cells in the eye. To determine whether light intensity adjusts the human prefrontal cortex, the researchers used functional MRI to explore whole-brain activation patterns in 20 healthy adults.
In a relatively simple experiment, according to Sanes, participants viewed four different levels of light intensity through glasses. They viewed light intensities ranging from dark to bright, for 30 seconds each. To keep them alert, they concurrently performed a task requiring them to state the difference between two tones.
They found that light suppressed(压制) activity in the prefrontal cortex in proportion to the light intensity. In this study, the researchers also showed that the prefrontal regions of the human brain have light-sensitive signals, which, Sanes said, may explain the effects of light intensity on complex emotional and cognitive behaviors.
1. What might be a potential application of the research findings?| A．A method of making artificial light. |
| B．A possible treatment for depression. |
| C．A way to do research on new areas about light. |
| D．A possible further research on light-sensing cells. |
| A．Somehow. | B．Passively. | C．Suddenly. | D．Meanwhile. |
| A．People are alert to different visual light. |
| B．Complex emotional behaviors depend on light. |
| C．Parts of the brain involved in mood are sensitive to light intensity. |
| D．Some regions of the cerebral cortex can adjust light-sensing cells. |
| A．Health. | B．Education. | C．Lifestyle. | D．Culture. |
【推荐1】Edgar Degas, J. M. W. Turner and other painters captured centuries of atmospheric records as they decorated canvases with sunset scenes.
Greek Scientists worked with an artist to confirm that the ratio of red to green in sunset painting, both old and new, increased when particles filled the air, such as after major volcanic eruption（火山喷发）or dust storms. The atmosphere physicists also found a gradual shift in artistic sunset hues over centuries, possibly due to ever-increasing air pollution during the Industrial Revolution.
An earlier study, led by atmospheric physicist Christos Zerefos of the Academy of Athens in Greece, discovered that the amount of red relative to green in sunset descriptions increased after eruptions, including Tambora, Indonesia in 1815, Coseguina, Nicaragua in 1835 and Krakatau, Indonesia in 1883.
Zerefos’ team analyzed 554 paintings created between 1550 and 1990. For up to three years after eruptions, sunsets reddened as sunlight bounced off dust and gas from the volcanoes. The latest study, also by Zerefos, used improved scanning and analysis techniques to confirm the earlier results.
A modern painter, Panayiotis Tetsis, unknowingly repeated the artistic atmospheric observations of classical masters. In the artists’ description of sunsets light over the Greek island of Hydra, the color ratio shifted towards red in paintings done both before（June 19,2010）and after（June 20,2010）a dust cloud from Sahara Desert filtered the sunset’s light.
Zerefos’ team connected the timing of classical paintings’ red shift to other records of the atmosphere trapped in ice cores from Greenland, in the recent study published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The ice cores recorded spikes（尖刺）in sulfur-containing chemicals likely from volcanoes. These spikes corresponded in time to artists’ increasingly dark red sunsets.
The comparison of ice and art also revealed a slow shift in the coloring of the sunset. As the factories of Europe roared into production in the 19th and early 20th century, painting described a steady increase in the red to green ratio. The ice cores recorded a steady rise in airborne particles from industrial pollution during the same time.
1. The underlined word“hues”in the second paragraph probably means_____.| A．angles | B．colors |
| C．locations | D．times |
| A．Both modern and ancient artists describing sunset are involved in the research. |
| B．It confirmed an obvious increase in the ratio of green to red in sunset paintings. |
| C．The shift from green to red also existed in the records of ice cores trapped items. |
| D．The team used traditional techniques to confirm the earlier results of the research. |
| A．By analyzing classical paintings. |
| B．By connecting time to color. |
| C．By comparing art with ice. |
| D．By working with an artist. |
| A．A modern research of ancient art and ice with pollution. |
| B．Art Masterpiece and pollutants trapped in ice cores. |
| C．An increase in the ratio of red to green in paintings. |
| D．Art Masterpiece Recorded Centuries of Pollution. |
【推荐2】After the summer break, Delhi’s children returned to school this month and found a new class added to their schedules: happiness.
It wasn’t a welcome-back joke. In a country where top universities require average test scores above 98 percent and where cheating on final high school exams is organized by a “mafia” that includes teachers and school officials, the Delhi government's new scheme marks a change of emphasis(强调)from student performance to well-being.
“We have given best-of-the-best graduates of ability to industry,” said Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s education minister, “…But have we been able to supplied best-of-the-best human beings to society, to the nation? “
Sisodia’s happiness classes represent a major experiment in a country known for its overstrict, bookish education system, which has helped cement a new middle class over the past thirty years but is also poorly thought of for encouraging rote(死记硬背的) learning and causing high pressure levels. Under the program, 100,000 Delhi students spend the first half-hour of each school day without opening a textbook, learning instead through inspirational stories and activities, as well as such thinking exercises as meditation.
Some teachers, though, remain uncertain. Some of them say, the public schools are too crowded for a course based so heavily on classroom interaction(互动). Others doubt that the happiness classes can change the culturally deep-rooted emphasis on exams and memorization. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, chair of education, economics and international development at University College London, said that there haven’t been any studies to value their workability. “As far as I know, in some schools they are just another box-ticking exercise,” she said.
1. What’s the author’s purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To tell a welcome-back joke. | B．To introduce a new program. |
| C．To argue against the testing system | D．To emphasize studies mixed with happiness |
| A．preview | B．attend | C．destroy | D．increase |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By following time order. | D．By listing data |
| A．confident | B．hopeless | C．doubtful | D．indifferent |
| A．Delhi’s children return to school |
| B．Delhi offers “ happiness “ classes |
| C．Happiness classes become Welcome in Delhi |
| D．Happy classes prove another box-ticking exercise |
【推荐3】Welcome to Sight Word Tales-the fun, motivating way to learn sight words! These delightful stories teach the top 100 Dolch words-long recognized as the most important words to learn in order to form a basis for reading success-all in an appealing, engaging context. ① What are sight words? Reading research shows that 50 to 75 percent of text is made up of common, repeated words. Knowing these words by sight-that is, being able to recognize them immediately and without thought-greatly increases reading fluency and comprehension. The Sight Word Tales program includes the 100 most frequently repeated words children are likely to meet in their reading material.
Take a look at these sentences: We like to read. Some books are very good. It's likely that you were able to take in the meaning of each sentence as a whole, simply because words such as we, like, to, some, are, very, and good are so familiar that they hardly require a glance to tell meaning. As adult readers, we may take this lightning-fast process for granted. But to a child who is just beginning to read, these sentences look quite different. Children who need to analyze each letter in order to sound out the words we, like, and to may have already forgotten their meaning by the time they get to the word read. In order to comprehend the sentence, they would then need to go back to the beginning and read it a second time. Now imagine going on to the next sentence and going through the same process all over again. How likely is it that you would remember the first sentence once you'd figured out the second? ②
It's clear that learning sight words-also called high-frequency words-is important to reading success. The ability to recognize a word immediately is called automaticity, and it is particularly important in English because many of the most commonly repeated words do not follow regular phonetic (语音) rules. ③ Of course, phonics is a basic part of any balanced learning program, but words such as come, would, and what cannot be truly made out and therefore require memorization.
Research has shown that only depending on context and exposure to language, hoping children will simply “pick up” sight words at their own pace, is a losing strategy. Sight words must be taught directly. On the other hand, studying and memorizing lists of words is unlikely to engage children.
④ With this program, you get the best of both words-an opportunity to provide direct, targeted instruction while addressing meaning, context, and children's need for fun, all at the same time. So open up a Sight Word Tale and open the door to reading success!
1. “Dolch words” in Paragraph 1 probably refers to ______.| A．familiar words | B．high-frequency words | C．reading words | D．long words |
| A．To explain why teach sight words. | B．To prove that sight words are familiar. |
| C．To compare the meaning of each sentence. | D．To explain why children must read books. |
| A．① | B．② | C．③ | D．④ |
| A．To teach children reading. | B．To tell children fun stories. |
| C．To instruct us to repeat words. | D．To introduce Sight Word Tales. |
