Two and a half months before the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins, and almost six months before it enters its peak (高峰), weathermen are already predicting (预测) that it could be particularly active.
Officially, hurricane season begins from June 1 and runs through November. One reason is that sea surface temperatures in the tropical (热带的) Atlantic are already at record highs.
Meanwhile, another significant potential factor in this year’s hurricane season is taking shape thousands of miles away in the Pacific. Over periods ranging from three to seven years, the waters of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean warm and cool in turn as a result of a repeating climate pattern called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). El Niño makes Atlantic hurricanes less likely to form but La Niña does.
During the 2023 season, ENSO was in an El Niño period. However, by the time the 2024 season starts, it will have changed into a “neutral(中立)” period, but that by the peak months, it is likely to have changed fully into a La Niña.
“How quickly that change occurs can affect everything as well,” says DaSilva, a lead hurricane weatherman. “There’s a lag time. So, while we expect the change to occur in mid-summer, it may not be until late summer or fall where we really see those effects across the Atlantic basin.” As a result, he says, this year’s hurricane season could remain particularly active deep into November.
Of course, no report can predict when individual storms will come or the paths they will take, but DaSilva warns that those who live in areas likely to suffer hurricanes, especially around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, should prepare. “If a tropical storm system comes into this area, it could rapidly strengthen, potentially close to land,” he also warns. “And that’s why people need to be careful and have their hurricane plans ready. Because any system with these kinds of conditions can explode very quickly. That’s what we’re concerned about.”
1. What is the function of Paragraph 1?| A．To give advice. | B．To explain the season. |
| C．To introduce the topic. | D．To inform a weather report. |
| A．The hurricane season has entered its peak. |
| B．A repeating climate has changed weather in summer. |
| C．The sea surface temperatures are the highest of all time. |
| D．El Niño makes Atlantic hurricanes more likely to form. |
| A．A time delay. | B．A time in a zone. |
| C．A time waste. | D．A time in advance. |
| A．It can be exactly predicted ahead of time. |
| B．People needn’t worry about hurricane season. |
| C．It may be eventually controlled by weathermen. |
| D．People can’t be more careful about hurricane season. |
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【推荐1】Children born in 2020 will experience extreme climate events at a rate that is two to seven times higher than people born in 1960, according to a new study in the journal Science.
With the current rate of global warming and national policies that fail to make necessary cuts in pollution, climate events such as heat waves will continue to rise, scientists say. That leaves children of younger generations facing “a severe threat” to their safety, according to the study’s authors.
The study researched extreme climate events such as heat waves, droughts, crop failures, floods, and wildfires. Researchers used recent data from a 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that included information on global life expectancy(寿命), population trends and possible changes of global temperatures.
The forecasts for how these events could completely affect younger generations were rather surprising. The scientists compared a person born in 1960 with a child who was 6 years old in 2020. The 6-year-old will experience twice as many typhoons and wildfires, three times as many river floods, four times as many crop failures and five times as many droughts. Heat waves, though, will be the most extreme climate event, with 36 times as many occurring for the 6-year-old.
The study also shows that extreme weather events could affect younger generations in various places of the world differently. People who were younger than 25 years old by 2020 in the Middle East and North Africa will likely experience more exposure(暴露) to extreme climate events compared with other places. The researchers say overall, younger generations in lower-income countries will experience the worsening climate at a higher rate than those in wealthier countries.
The data from the study shows how limiting the increase in global warming and adapting the Paris climate accord(协议) are beneficial, the researchers argue. But even then, younger generations are still left with “extreme event exposure that never happen before,” they write.
1. What does “a severe threat” in Para 2 probably mean?| A．An unexpected event. |
| B．A tough struggle. |
| C．An urgent action. |
| D．A serious danger. |
| A．By making a comparison. |
| B．By interviewing people of all ages. |
| C．By giving examples. |
| D．By sharing their own experiences. |
| A．Younger generations in lower-income nations will be most affected. |
| B．Young people under 25 are less likely to experience extreme climate events. |
| C．Climate in lower-income countries will be worse than that in wealthier countries. |
| D．Extreme climate will definitely destroy the life of people in lower-income countries. |
| A．Fighting global warming at any cost. |
| B．Making use of energy resources without limitation. |
| C．Adapting international policies concerning climate. |
| D．Letting go of the development of lower-income countries. |
【推荐2】Climate change will bring greater extremes in weather, the Government’s chief scientific adviser warned as he called for action to deal with global warming. Professor Sir John Beddington says the effects of climate change on the weather are already being felt in the UK.
“In a sense we have moved from the idea of global warming to the idea of climate change, and that is rather important. Temperatures are increasing and there are more changes in our weather, ” he said.
Even if effective action is taken now on global warming, he says there will be great climate change over the next 20 to 25 years as a result of past global problems.
“We have serious problems in the world — in 12 years there will be another billion people on the planet and we have big issues of food security, water security and energy security, and many people will start to be living in cities, ” he said. “ These are serious problems; climate change is just going to make it worse.”
He said there were some “ uncertainties ” in the analysis of climate and climate change. “ But those uncertainties are completely unimportant in comparison with a great deal of evidence that shows it is happening in the sort of ways climate models would expect, ” he said. “ For example, the Arctic is heating up faster than other parts of the world — this is exactly what the climate scientists are predicting. ”
Sir John said those words as Britain experienced freezing cold weather and snow, with thousands of homes across the UK without power. England and Wales experienced 10 separate flooding events between April and December last year after widespread drought gave way to the wettest summer in a century, with unusually high rainfall totals and river levels around the country.
1. Which of the following is NOT one of the things that Sir John says?| A．We need more action to deal with global warming. |
| B．Climate change will make some big problems worse. |
| C．Climate change will cause greater extremes in weather. |
| D．England will experience more extremes in weather than Wales. |
| A．25 years. | B．20 years. | C．12 years. | D．10 years. |
| A．Puzzled. | B．Trusting. | C．Uncertain. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．To call for effective action on climate change. |
| B．To introduce Professor Sir John and his opinions. |
| C．To prove that the UK has experienced a series of disasters. |
| D．To show how correct the climate scientists’ predictions are. |
【推荐3】The UN Environment Programme says that raising temperatures could mean the end of some migrating (迁徙) animals.
Migrating animals move through several environments as they travel away from the cold area into winter to warmer ones. Birds may fly from one part of the world to another, perhaps stopping at feeding grounds on the way. Whales and turtles travel through huge areas of ocean. A report says that changes in any one of the places where these animals stay can cause serious problems. “Obviously these animals have developed their traveling ways over thousands of years. But weather changes much greater over the next 25 to 50 years. And it is impossible for these animals to change their habits fast enough,” said the report writer Dr. Robert Hepworth.
Turtles are hit hardest by rising temperatures. Scientists have found that at higher temperatures, Turtles have far more female eggs than male ones. In parts of Malaysia, Turtles are only giving birth to female babies. And some turtles are more probable to develop cancer as the waters get warmer.
With birds, the main problem is the harm to important areas at the end of their travels or at resting places along the way. About one-fifth of immigration birds are now in danger because of these changes, including rising sea levels, land loss and more strong storms.
Some other animals are now in great danger. For example , the North Atlantic Right Whale is losing their food because of the changing ocean flows; The White-Nose Dolphin is out-competed (淘汰) by other kinds in warmer waters.
The report is not all bad news. Even with the temperature changing, protecting the environment can still help migrating animals return. "We need governments to start taking action all over the world. The clock is ticking. We should make full use of every minute. " said Dr. Hepworth. And now some projects are already working! Whales are changing their feeding habits , finding new feeding grounds and new foods to eat.
1. Why does this raising temperature mean the end of some migrating animals?| A．They stop moving through several environments. |
| B．They can't suit the changes during their travelling. |
| C．Their travelling habits will be changed fast enough. |
| D．They keep flying from one part of the world to another. |
| A．The North Atlantic Right Whale may find new food. |
| B．Some turtles may develop cancer with the warm waters. |
| C．1/5 of migrating birds change their feeding habits. |
| D．The White-Nosed Dolphin may have only female babies. |
| A．It takes time to achieve the project. |
| B．It may be too late to save the world. |
| C．It's time to solve the problems at once. |
| D．It's important to stop animals from returning. |
| A．Ways to prevent world warming. |
| B．Steps to save the animals in danger. |
| C．Animals' competition with others for food. |
| D．Effect of rising temperatures on migrating animals. |
【推荐1】There have been fires in every Australian state, but New South Wales has been hardest hit. Fires have torn through bushland (未开垦的丛林地带), wooded areas, and national parks. Some start and are controlled in a few days, but the biggest fires have been burning for months.
Each year there is a fire season during the Australian summer, with hot, dry weather making it easy for fires to start and spread. Natural causes are responsible for fires most of the time, like lightning hits in drought-affected forests. Dry lightning was to blame for starting a number of fires in late December, which then traveled more than 20 kilometers in just five hours. Humans can also be responsible. Police have charged(指控) at least 24 people with starting bushfires on purpose, and have taken action against 183 people for setting fire since November.
The fire season in Australia is always dangerous — the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people in Victoria, making it the deadliest bushfire disaster on record. But conditions have been unusually bad this year, making fires burn more strongly and making firefighting conditions particularly difficult. Australia is experiencing one of its worst droughts over the years. Meanwhile, a heatwave in December broke the record for the highest nationwide average temperature, with some places under temperatures well above 40 degrees Celsius. Strong winds have also made the fires and smoke spread more rapidly, and have led to deaths.
About half a billion animals have been affected by the fires across NSW, with millions possibly dead — and that’s lower than what is probably the real number. That number of total animals influenced could be as high as one billion nationwide. Almost a third of koalas in NSW may have been killed in the fires, and a third of the places where they live have been destroyed.
Some animals, like koalas, aren’t in any immediate danger of extinction (灭绝) because they are spread out across the country. But others that live in more suitable environments with lower populations, including certain types of frogs and birds, could be destroyed entirely if their home is hit by the fires.
1. What do we know about fires in Australia?| A．They may last a long time. |
| B．They often happen in winter. |
| C．They only happen in NSW. |
| D．They are easily controlled in a few hours. |
| A．Big fire. |
| B．Strong wind. |
| C．Serious drought. |
| D．A period of hot weather. |
| A．They can run fast. |
| B．They live far and wide. |
| C．Their home is well protected. |
| D．They have a lower population. |
| A．Deadly bushfires affect the life of humans and animals. |
| B．Many causes have contributed to the bushfires in Australia. |
| C．Some species are endangered because of the frequent fires. |
| D．More firm measures should be taken to control the fires. |
【推荐2】It was 3:34 in the morning. Suddenly the bed moved a little. I woke up. That bed used to move a lot so l just thought it was my wife rolling (翻) over. I looked over to her and she was fast asleep. So I thought it was just another small tremor (轻微地震). We used to get many small tremors in Chile. But then everything in the room started making noise. The tremor got a bit stronger. My wife woke up.
I went to open the front door to make sure it wouldn’t get stuck while my wife went to see how the kids were. They were still fast asleep.
I got to the front door and left it open. When I turned around to go back to the bedroom, the full force of the earthquake started to hit. I couldn’t move forward. While I was trying to hold myself up against the wall, I looked out the window. It was frightening, some buildings coming in and out of view and some already falling down. Then the earthquake made a strong push and our lights went out. In the darkness, I thought, “This is it! We’re not coming out of this alive.”
Luckily, the violent shaking gradually slowed down and then stopped. I could finally walk to our children’s room. My wife had been standing over them during the strongest part of the earthquake, making sure nothing fell on them.
After such a big earthquake, we expected the “smaller” aftershocks to be still very strong. There was still a chance that the building could collapse. So we woke the kids up , got some basic things and started to walk down the emergency (紧急情况) stairs…all 22 floors of them.
When we finally arrived at the ground floor many other people had already arrived , some in pajamas (睡衣), some half-dressed. The good news was everyone got out of the building safe and sound.
1. What woke the author up?| A．The crying of his children. | B．The movement of his bed. |
| C．The movement of his wife. | D．The noise of things shaking. |
| A．the author’s wife woke up |
| B．the author looked out the window |
| C．the author was opening the front door |
| D．the author was on his way to the bedroom |
| A．People were crying and running around. |
| B．The city ’s electricity was suddenly cut off. |
| C．Buildings outside were all falling down. |
| D．The building he lived in was moving from side to side. |
| A．Fall down. | B．Go silent. | C．Heat up. | D．Tum over. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
If the crust (外壳) of the earth were not pretty solid (坚固的), it would be shaking about and moving up and down frequently. However, there are places in the rocks of the earth’s crust where it isn’t strongly held together—where faults exist. Along the faults, one rock might push against another with great force. The energy is changed to vibration in the rocks, so they begin to shake and we have an earthquake!The most famous one in North America was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Seven hundred people died and property (财产) damage amounted to about $425,000,000.The greatest destruction came from the fires that followed the quake.
One of the most famous earthquakes in Europe took place in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755. The city was destroyed and at least thirty thousand people were killed. In 1908, in Calabria and Sicily, a quake killed about seventyfive thousand people. In 1915, in central Italy, hundreds of towns and villages were damaged and thirty thousand people were killed.
Two great earthquakes that caused great damage in Asia took place in Tokyo, Japan, and in Gansu Province in China. The Tokyo quake of 1923 killed more than one hundred thousand people and destroyed the city and the city of Yokohama, too. The Chinese quake in 1920 covered more than three hundred square miles and killed about two hundred thousand people.
1. The first paragraph mainly tells us ________.
| A．where earthquakes happen |
| B．how earthquakes happen |
| C．the damage caused by earthquakes |
| D．famous earthquakes in the world |
| A．shaking | B．force | C．energy | D．losing |
| A．The San Francisco earthquake. |
| B．The earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal. |
| C．The earthquake in Calabria and Sicily. |
| D．The earthquake in central Italy. |
| A．the earth’s crust in Europe is weaker than that in other places |
| B．there were 75,000 people killed in the San Francisco earthquake |
| C．the city of Yokohama was not greatly influenced by the Tokyo quake |
| D．the fires following the San Francisco earthquake caused more damage than the earthquake did |
【推荐1】Born in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, 30-year-old Dong Yaxue, a Chinese researcher working for NASA is currently a member of NASA's MAVEN(Mars Atmosphere and Volatile E-volution) team.
On Nov 5, Dong was invited to speak at a NASA news conference, in which the organization said the atmosphere on Mars can be stripped by solarwinds. She is the first Chinese female scientist to participate in a NASA news conference.
Dong graduated from Chengdu's Shishi High School in 2003 and was later admitted by University of Science and Technology of China. She g other master's and doctor's degree in astrophysics from Rice University in the United States.
Last year, Dong joined the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado and began working for MAVEN after handing in her resume and taking part in a phone interview. Now her main job is to analyze satellite data and compare the results to theoretical predictions.
“The findings released during the new conference are very important and may change the content of school textbooks.” Dong told Chengdu Business Daily.
“It has also provided new information and guidance for future Mars exploration.”
Interested in technical work, Dong said she was never bored at work and will continue focusing on data analysis next year.
“This is the first time that my job got so much attention.” She also added that she found great pleasure in both exploring Mars and eating hotpot.
He Jianming, Dong's high schoolteacher, said that physics is difficult for many girls but not for Dong Yaxue. As a middle school student, she won first prize in the national physics contest.
He said Dong was not the top student in her school. “She never got first in the class, usually ranking tenth to twentieth. But her scores of all subjects were even.”
1. Which of the following statements is NOT right according to the passage?| A．Dong is the first Chinese scientist who appeared in a NASA news conference. |
| B．Dong devotes herself to analyzing data and comparing the theoretical predictions. |
| C．The findings released are landmarks, which may change what we are learning. |
| D．Dong's outstanding performance does great credit to his mother school. |
| A．Excellent. | B．Embarrassing. | C．Balanced. | D．Awful. |
| A．The introduction of NASA's MAVEN. |
| B．Dong Yaxue, a Chinese female scientist working for NASA. |
| C．The latest and important findings on Mars. |
| D．The NASA news conference. |
【推荐2】Practice doesn’t always make perfect when it comes to becoming the next Mozart, a new study suggests. Researchers compared pairs of identical twins, and found that no matter how hard one twin had practised, the other twin who had practiced much less still had an equal level of ability in certain musical skills. This may be because some aspects of musical talent are built into the genes (基因), the researchers said.
Miriam Mosey, a scientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and her team looked at the DNA of 1, 211 pairs of adult identical twins, who share almost 100 percent of their genes. Identical twins are born from the same single egg and often look very similar in appearance. They also examined the DNA of 1,358 pairs of fraternal twins (异卵双胞胎), who share an average of 50 percent of their genes. Those who played a musical instrument or sang reported how many years they practiced, and for how many hours a week.
Mosey then tested their musical abilities to see if practice had an effect on ability. She looked at how well people could tell differences in pitch (音调).
Like most people, Mosey used to think that those who put in more practice time would earn higher scores on their ability than those who practiced less. But when she compared lifetime practice scores with musical abilities between identical twins, Mosey found no relationship between the amount of practice time and her level of musical ability. Two twins could have an equal level of musical ability, no matter how much more one twin practiced compared with the other.
The researchers concluded that genetics play a larger role than practice in certain aspects of musical talent.
Mosey and her colleagues made another interesting finding: Genes may determine a person’s motivation (动机) to practice. The majority of participants who reported practicing a lot also shared a high percentage of the same genes.
1. What do you know about identical twins?| A．They often look different. | B．They are usually very alike. |
| C．They share same interests. | D．They share 100 percent of their genes. |
| A．Those who practice more will have higher musical ability. |
| B．Fraternal twins have more musical talent than identical twins. |
| C．Those who practice more are likely to have similar genes. |
| D．Twins may obtain similar musical ability if they practice enough. |
| A．education magazine | B．scientific magazine | C．social report | D．medical report |
【推荐3】People who have got rhythm might have an advantage when it comes to language and reading skills. A new study shows the brains of people who can move to a musical beat react to speech on a more consistent basis than those who can't. Researchers also find that musical training can sharpen the brain's response to language.
The researchers say their discovery provides the first biological link between the ability to keep a beat and how the brain responds to speech, something that can have important value for reading skills. To gather materials for their research, the team got more than 100 teenagers who lived in Chicago, Illinois. The teens were given two tests. First, they were instructed to listen to and tap their fingers along to the beat. The researchers calculated how accurately their young volunteers were able to tap along to the musical timekeeper. Second, the teen subjects were linked to an EEG device, which measures electrical activity in the brain. The EEG device was focused on an area of the brain that not only processes sound, but is also connected to parts of the brain responsible for motor-movement. The researchers recorded the brainwaves as their teen subjects listened to the synthesized speech sound, which was repeated irregularly for half an hour. The researchers were able to find out how the nerve cells in that particular region of the brain responded every time the synthesized sound was played. a Across this population of adolescents, the more accurate they were at tapping along to the beat, the more consistent their brains' response to the letter unit was," said Nina Kraus.
While past studies have showed the links between reading skills and a person's ability to keep a beat, the researchers said their new findings show the hearing system is what provides a common basis for those links. “Rhythm is naturally a part of music and language." Nina said.
1. According to the first paragraph, what can get the brain's reaction to language more effectively?| A．Rhythm. | B．Musical training. |
| C．Language. | D．Reading skills. |
| A．areas of knowledge studied in a school, college, and so on |
| B．things that are being discussed in a conversation or a book |
| C．persons or things that are the main features of works of art |
| D．persons or animals that are studied in an experiment or a research |
| A．reading skills may make language learners keep a beat |
| B．the hearing system may be useless while a person is learning to read |
| C．the hearing system may separate sound from meaning while a person is reading |
| D．the hearing system may be used while a person is reading or taking musical training |
| A．Experts are expanding their studies on rhythm. |
| B．Rhythm might help us improve our reading skills. |
| C．Moving to a musical beat is more popular nowadays. |
| D．Experts find the links between the hearing system and reading. |
