1 . As the effects of climate change become more disastrous, well-known research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on an idea: artificially cooling the planet, in the hopes of buying humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
That strategy, called solar climate intervention (干预) or solar geoengineering, involves reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space — abruptly reducing global temperatures in a way that imitates the effects of ash clouds flowing out from the volcanic eruptions. The idea has been considered as a dangerous and fancied solution, one that would encourage people to keep burning fossil fuels while exposing the planet to unexpected and potentially threatening side effects, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters.
But. as global warming continues, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters, some researchers and policy experts say that concerns about geoengineering should be outweighed by the imperative to better understand it, in case the consequence of climate change become so terrible that the world can’t wait for better solutions.
One way to cool the earth is by injecting aerosols (气溶胶) into the upper layer of the atmosphere. where those particles reflect sunlight away from the earth. That process works, according to Douglas MacMartin, a researcher at Cornell University.
“We know with 100% certainty that we can cool the planet,” he said in an interview. What’s still unclear, he added, is what happens next. Temperature, MacMartin said, is an indicator for a lot of climate effects. “What does it do to the strength of hurricanes?” he asked, “What does it do to agriculture production? What does it do to the risk of forest fires?”
Another institution funded by the National Science Foundation will analyze hundreds of simulations of aerosol injection, testing the effects on weather extremes around the world. One goal of the research is to look for a sweet spot: the amount of artificial cooling that can reduce extreme weather events without causing broader changes in regional rainfall patterns or similar impacts.
1. Why do researchers and government agencies work on cooling the earth?| A．To prevent natural disasters. | B．To win more time to reduce gas emissions. |
| C．To imitate volcanic eruptions. | D．To encourage more people to bur fossil fuels. |
| A．More volcanoes will throw out. |
| B．More solar energy will go into space. |
| C．More disasters will endanger the future of the world. |
| D．People will keep burning fossil fuels to keep warm. |
| A．He thinks more research remains to be done. |
| B．He is optimistic about the effect of cooling the earth. |
| C．He is concerned about the reduction in agriculture production. |
| D．He disapproves of the practice of solar climate intervention. |
| A．The rainfall pattern of a region. |
| B．The modest drop in temperature. |
| C．The number of extreme weather events. |
| D．The injection amount of aerosol. |
2 . “Instagram(a social networking app) will cut out many users’ accounts on December 20. To protect your account, repost this warning #KeepMyAccountSafe.” Every few months, it happens again-a dozen of annoying posts from my kids’ friends suddenly start to appear on my Instagram news feed.
According to a new study by Stanford University, most kids don’t know what news is fake. Researchers asked more than 7,800 middle school and high school students to complete 56 tasks, like distinguishing an advertisement from a real news story on a website and determining which blog in a series was most reliable. They found that students judged the credibility of blogs based not on the source of the material, but on how much detail they contained, or whether a large photo was attached.
“Many people assume that because young people are fluent in social media, they can distinguish fake news, but our work shows the opposite to be true,” wrote lead study author Sam Wineburg, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education.
Both Google and Facebook are now taking steps to control misleading news from making its way on their platforms, but they won’t be able to eliminate it completely. That is why it’s now more important than ever to teach our kids to think critically when it comes to believing various information sources.
“In the coming months, we look forward to sharing our assessments and working with educators to create materials that will guide young people in the sea of disinformation they encounter online,” said Wineburg.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the passage?| A．By stating opinions. | B．By showing findings. |
| C．By quoting sayings. | D．By citing a post. |
| A．The source of the material. | B．The popularity of the website. |
| C．The amount of details. | D．The size of relevant photos. |
| A．Digest. | B．Update. | C．Estimate. | D．Remove. |
| A．Stronger Together: The Internet Changes Our Life |
| B．Be Careful: Kids Are Bad at Identifying Fake News |
| C．Reliable News Has No Place on Social Media |
| D．Educators Have a Long Way to Go to Guide the Young |
