1. How is the weather this morning?
| A．Windy. | B．Snowy. | C．Rainy. |
| A．At the top of Mount Raven. | B．In the newsroom. | C．On a ski slope. |
| A．-7℃. | B．-12℃. | C．-20℃. |
| A．Stay indoors. | B．Dress warmly. | C．Watch sports news. |
2 . Across the world, animals including bears, moose, lynx, squirrels and frogs are leaving their homes as the planet warms.
A study was done of more than 4,000 species from around the world. It showed that about half of them are on the move, according to National Geographic. They are moving up slopes and away from the equator toward the poles to seek cooler environments. The ones on land are moving an average of more than 16 kilometers per decade, while marine species are moving four times faster.
Mountain species in particular, “are struggling to keep pace” with global warming, said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity in the US. In North America, for example, pikas used to climb an average of 13 meters per decade but it has gone up to 145 meters per decade since the late 1990s. Similarly, moths on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, an island in the Pacific Ocean, moved up 67 meters in altitude to escape rising temperatures. “We’re concerned many species won’t be able to move quickly enough, or that they will run out of mountaintop to flee,” said Wolf.
In some cases, moving species can lead to big changes in the whole ecosystem, as such areas aren’t able to deal with it. In Australia’s seas, kelp forests are being destroyed by tropical fish that have come in to eat them, threatening the survival of rock lobster, which also feeds on help forests.
And this is just adding fuel to the fire, making climate change worse. Take the pole ward spread of bark beetles in northern hemisphere forests as an example. The beetles attack trees that might already have been weakened by warmer, drier conditions, leading to more pest outbreaks and tree deaths. These, in turn, provide more fuel for forest fires, releasing more planet-warming carbon dioxide.
Climate-driven species’ movement shouldn’t be a concern only for scientists — it should worry everyone, Nathalie Pettorelli, at the Zoological Society of London, UK, told the Guardian. “The world as a whole isn’t fully prepared to deal with the range of issues emerging from species moving across local, national, and international boundaries”.
1. How are mountain species influenced by the global warming?| A．They are moving slower than they used to. |
| B．They are having a difficult time adapting to it. |
| C．They are moving downhill to cooler environment. |
| D．They are struggling with the warmer temperatures. |
| A．Tropical fish threaten to eat lobster. |
| B．The beetles make trees warmer and drier. |
| C．Dealing with environmental problems faces new challenges. |
| D．Moving species make some change in the whole ecosystem. |
| A．More concern and action from the public. |
| B．A focus on improving forest ecosystems. |
| C．Stricter regulations on animal movement. |
| D．Increased research on species movement. |
| A．Keeping pace means moving slowly. |
| B．Large quantities of pest are the final killer of tree deaths. |
| C．Marine animals are moving a little faster than those on land. |
| D．Many animals flee their home because of the occupation of their habitats. |
3 . Take a period of limited rainfall. Add heat. And you have what scientists call a ‘hot drought’ — dry conditions made more intense by the evaporative power of hotter temperatures.
A new study, published in the journal Science Advances, Wednesday, finds that hot droughts have become more common and severe across the western U.S. as a result of human-caused climate change. “The frequency of compound warm and dry summers particularly in the last 20 years is unprecedented,” said Karen King, lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
For much of the last 20 years, western North America has been under the control of a huge drought that has strained crop producers, city planners and water managers. Scientists believe it to be the driest period in the region in at least 1,200 years. They reached that determination, in part, by studying the rings of trees collected from thousands of sites across the Western U.S..
Cross-sections or cores of trees, both living and dead, can offer scientists windows into climate conditions of the past. Dark scars can show where fires have burned. Pale rings can indicate insect outbreaks. “Narrow rings mean less water,” said King, a dendrochronologist, who specialized in tree ring dating. “Fatter rings, more water.” Scientists have looked at tree ring widths to understand how much water was in the soil at a given time. King and fellow researchers did something different. They wanted to investigate the density (密度) of individual rings to get a picture of historical temperatures. In hotter years, trees build thick walls to protect their water.
By combining that temperature data with another tree-ring-sourced dataset looking at soil moisture (湿度), the researchers showed that today’s hotter temperatures have made the current western huge drought different from its past ones.
It also suggests that future droughts will be worsened by higher temperatures, particularly in the Great Plains, home to one of the world’s largest aquifers, and the Colorado River Basin, the source of water for some 40 million people.
1. What led to hot droughts?| A．Abundant rainfall. | B．Climate change. |
| C．Appropriate temperatures. | D．Dry summers. |
| A．Protected. | B．Surprised. | C．Stressed. | D．Helped. |
| A．They will not happen in the future. | B．They are affected by those tree rings. |
| C．They are similar in intensity to past droughts. | D．They have become more frequent and severe. |
| A．To entertain readers with a fictional story. | B．To persuade readers to protect environment. |
| C．To inform readers of severity of hot droughts. | D．To share personal experiences and reflections. |
4 . A new study says that more than half the world’s ocean area is “becoming greener”, and the trend is connected to human-caused global warming.
It’s not clear what is driving the greening. In some places, it could indicate changes in the amount of plankton or other organic material floating in the water. Plankton are a cornerstone of the ocean food chain, and these kinds of shifts could have ripple effects throughout the entire marine ecosystem.
The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, examines 20 years of satellite data measuring light reflected at the surface of the water all across the globe, subtle changes that aren’t necessarily visible to the naked eye. The research finds that 56 percent of the world’s oceans are shifting in color — and on the whole, they’re growing greener. The trend is especially strong in the lower latitudes, including the subtropics and tropics.
The researchers then used a computer model to find out whether climate change was playing a part. They conducted one set of simulations representing the oceans under a strong climate change scenario, and then compared them with a second set of simulations imagining a world in which climate change didn’t exist. The model suggests that rising global temperatures are to blame.
The exact reasons still require some scientific digging. While climate change seems to be the culprit, the study also indicates that rising ocean temperatures in and of themselves aren’t driving the greening.
There are plenty of other ways global warming is affecting the world’s oceans, by changing the structure and flow of certain currents, for instance. These kinds of changes can affect the growth of phytoplankton and other factors that might be contributing to the greening.
The findings weren’t a surprise to the researchers. They’re consistent with the way researchers expect the global oceans to change as the world keeps on warming.
“I’ve been running simulations that have been telling me for years that these changes in ocean color are going to happen,” study co-author Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a statement. “To actually see it happening for real is no unexpected, but frightening.”
1. What is the main topic of the study mentioned in the text?| A．Changes in the color of the world’s oceans. |
| B．The role of plankton in the ocean food chain. |
| C．The impact of climate change on ocean ecosystems. |
| D．The effects of global warming on ocean temperatures. |
| A．A person who is responsible for a crime. |
| B．An animal that causes damage or harm. |
| C．A substance that causes negative effects. |
| D．A thing or fact that is responsible for a problem. |
| A．They are unsurprised. | B．They are emotional. |
| C．They are indifferent. | D．They are unsure. |
| A．They will become smaller. | B．They will become more polluted. |
| C．They will continue to change colors. | D．They will become less diverse. |
1. What is the weather like now?
| A．Sunny. | B．Rainy. | C．Cloudy. |
| A．By underground. | B．By bike. | C．By car. |
| A．They are convenient. |
| B．They are good for the environment. |
| C．It may be unsafe to ride them without helmets. |
6 . Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World is one of the most important books about climate change to have been written. Hayhoe is a gifted public speaker and Saving Us is a follow-up to her awesome TED talk in 2018, “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it.”
One of the many refreshing aspects of this book is that Hayhoe recounts both her successes and her failures to communicate, through which she has gathered evidence about what works and what does not. Much of the book’s advice is common sense, all backed up not just by Hayhoe’s experience but also with convincing research by psychologists and social scientists.
Hayhoe advises against trying to engage with a small minority, the “Dismissives”, who “angrily reject the idea that human-caused climate change is a threat; they are most receptive to misinformation and conspiracy theories (阴谋论)”. There is a warning that offering up more facts about climate change can actually increase polarisation (两极化) among them.
The book includes amusing examples of her encounters with the “Dismissives”, almost entirely older men—including an engineer who was unconvinced about the evidence but with whom she was able to establish mutual (相互的) respect through a shared passion for knitting (打毛线衣) —and is packed with inspiring accounts of how she has won over even the most suspicious of crowds. Her motto is “bond, connect and inspire”, which represents her approach of always looking for points of commonality.
She also tells of a man who approached her after an event in London in 2019. He had been so inspired by her TED talk that he had started to speak to everybody he could in his neighborhood of Wandsworth. He showed her details of 12, 000 conversations that had taken place as a result, claiming that they had helped to convince the government to declare a climate emergency and to switch investments from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
And so, while it may feel difficult to influence the outcome of the COP26, Hayhoe’s uplifting book makes a persuasive case that we can all do our bit to bring about success just by talking about the issue.
1. What does the book mainly focus on?| A．Promoting people’s insight into climate change. |
| B．Introducing presentation skills with TED talks. |
| C．Developing critical thinking through literature. |
| D．Sharing communication tips on climate change. |
| A．Humorous but one-sided. | B．Novel and interesting. |
| C．Well-based and workable. | D．Serious and hard to follow. |
| A．By changing their political identity. |
| B．By challenging their fundamental beliefs. |
| C．By seeking common ground built on a shared interest. |
| D．By providing more facts about climate change. |
| A．The shift to clean energy is unstoppable. |
| B．Conversations can influence climate decision-making. |
| C．Policymakers turn a blind eye to market changes. |
| D．We should call on people to prepare for the climate crisis. |
| A．Clothes. | B．A plant. | C．A season. |
1. How was the weather early in the morning?
| A．Sunny. | B．Cloudy. | C．Rainy. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Ambiguous. | C．Understanding. |
1. What will the weather be like in the Northeast of England?
| A．Dry and cold. | B．Warm and windy. | C．Misty and rainy. |
| A．Around six or seven degrees. |
| B．Around three or four degrees. |
| C．Around ten or eleven degrees. |
| A．Hot. | B．Fine. | C．Windy. |
| A．Minus ten. | B．Minus five. | C．Minus four. |
| A．Sunny. | B．Rainy. | C．Cloudy. |
