1. What is Tina?
| A．A weatherwoman. | B．A host. | C．A reporter. |
| A．In the morning. | B．In the afternoon. | C．At midnight. |
| A．Extreme cold. | B．Loss of electricity. | C．Bad road conditions. |
| A．Staying outside. | B．Avoiding travelling too far. | C．Enjoying the snow properly. |
2 . Europe’s series record-breaking hot and dry summers have broken an easy link to climate change. Climate models show Europe warms faster than the rest of the planet and the Arctic melting eventually causes massive ocean currents (洋流) and regional hot air circulation patterns.
Arctic melting is adding roughly 6000 cubic kilometers of water or more to the ocean per decade. As that fresh-water pours into the North Atlantic Ocean, it sits on top of heavier ocean salt-water and stops mixing. With less heat being stirred in from below, the surface water gets colder than usual during the fall and winter months, says Marilena Oltmanns, a climate scientist at the U.K. National Oceanography Centre. This phenomenon may explain the so-called “cold blob”, an area of sea in the North Atlantic that NASA nodeling suggests is one of the few spots on Earth getting colder.
To explore how the fresh water from Arctic ice might be affecting weather, Oltmanns and her colleagues developed a way to combine data from satellites, and weather stations. They found when the freshwater-caused cold blobs were more intense, the boundary was sharper, bringing more powerful westerly (向西的) winds. As a result, the stronger westerlies move a warm ocean flow from roughly 45°N to 60°N. That shift can continue into the next summer. And like a barrier, this warm current, curls up and around the British Isles, allowing a mass of hot, dry air to camp out over Europe.
“The study convincingly puts meat on the bones of an expectation I and others have had for a while — that the cold blob south of Greenland would influence North Atlantic weather patterns, as well as those downstream over Europe,” says Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center.
1. What does the underlined word “cold blob” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Climate models. | B．Ocean current. |
| C．Cold water zone. | D．Air circulation patterns. |
| A．Introduce the form of cold blob. |
| B．Present a phenomenon of climate changes in Europe. |
| C．Survey some data for the study. |
| D．Analyze the reason of hot and dry summer in Europe. |
| A．Approving. | B．Indifferent. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Human activities change climate models. |
| B．Arctic melting contributes to European heat waves. |
| C．Climate changes have little impact on ocean currents. |
| D．Global warming results in the rise of the temperature. |
3 . In the summer of 2021, the Pacific Northwest experienced a severe heatwave that caused widespread panic and destruction. Temperatures reached record levels, including 114℉ in Portland.
A heatwave, born over the Pacific, drifted inland and grew in intensity, creating a heat dome. Ice was the first victim, and as snowpacks melted, glaciers released fast flowing muddy water that flooded towns. Salmon, sensing the water temperature change, began migrating early. But then they struggled to breathe as the rivers warmed. Vegetation was next—unable to escape the heat, it struggled to hold water. Bighorn sheep moved to higher ground, doves panted like dogs, baby eagles jumped to their deaths in an attempt to fly to escape overheating with their siblings.
In 72 hours, the official number of human deaths was 1,000—but the actual number is likely higher, especially among the elderly, poor, and medically vulnerable. The town of Lytton, British Columbia was burned down when temperatures there hit 121℉. Over a billion sea creatures met their deaths over the three days.
Such a heatwave in the Pacific Northwest had been thought to be as likely as snow in the Sahara. But then it happened. Right now, scientists can’t predict where or when such heat will appear next, but they do know that occurrences such as this are a direct result of human activities. As fossil-fuel burning increases levels of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide, the planet warms. Heat is the prime mover of climate chaos, melting ice, . drying soil, , and even reviving ancient bacteria from thawed permafrost (永冻土解冻).
Humans might be able to engineer their way out of anything—cities like Los Angeles and Paris are already working to deflect (使偏斜) sunlight and have more shade trees. But there are limits to adaptation for Earth’s population of nearly 8 billion. Parts of the Middle East and South Asia are already too hot for humans in summer.
1. How is the impact of the heatwave presented in Paragraph 2?| A．By telling a story. | B．By listing examples. |
| C．By giving a definition. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．Protected. | B．Disturbed. | C．Healthy. | D．Weak. |
| A．People considered the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest as common. |
| B．Such heat will certainly appear again as a result of human activities. |
| C．Los Angeles and Paris have already helped themselves out of heatwaves. |
| D．The earth’s adaptability to heatwaves has limits with such a large population. |
| A．Temperatures Reaching Record High | B．Human Activities Causing a Heatwave |
| C．A Heatwave Hitting the Pacific Northwest | D．Panic and Destruction Caused by a Heatwave |
| A．The weather report is unreliable. |
| B．The time of picnic has to be changed. |
| C．He should listen to the weather report first. |
5 . Right now, summers are getting hotter, winters colder and the polar ice is melting at an alarming rate. Extreme weather events and natural disasters frequently occur. The climate time-bomb is ticking. Strict measures must be taken to tackle the problem.
It reminds me of how the lives we live seem to follow roughly in the way put forward years earlier by the writers of science-fiction. I guess it’s “life imitating art”. When I was young there were stories about rockets going into space and even going to the moon, although there had never been a rocket into space at that time. Years later, Russia launched Sputnik, the first man-made object to go into earth orbit and later the US landed people and even a car on the moon.
When I was growing up there were also science-fiction stories about governments looking for solutions when the world’s natural resources were being over-extended, such as they are in the case of climate change. The solution in the stories was to assume that the cause of the problem was over-population and the solution, therefore, was to limit the number of people. Various plans were put forward for doing that, from limiting the birth rate to killing off anyone over a certain age. That age, if I remember correctly, was usually about 60 and when you reached that you were supposed to turn yourself over to a government facility where you would be put to death.
Still, a look at the old science-fiction stories provides an interesting and somewhat chilling approach to what is acknowledged to be a very serious and worsening world-wide problem. There is general agreement that urgent action is needed to stop us from literally making our world unfit to live on. The answers, at least so far, concentrate on managing those resources and the ways in which we use them However, I wonder if the day will come when life will imitate the art of the old science-fiction stories and someone will propose limiting the number of people on the planet as a way of making it more suitable for those who are left. It’s a grave thing to predict.
1. What does the author say about climate problems?| A．The problems can be tackled in a scientific way. |
| B．The problems are in urgent need of being resolved. |
| C．The explosion of extreme climates is under control. |
| D．The loss of natural resources leads to climate changes. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By using quotes. |
| C．By giving definitions. | D．By making contrast. |
| A．Removing overpopulated species. | B．Getting rid of seniors. |
| C．Over-extending natural resources. | D．Moving onto the moon. |
| A．Calm. | B．Serious. | C．Frustrated. | D．Anxious. |
1. What do we know about the man?
| A．His hometown has nice beaches. | B．He is a tour guide. | C．He comes from Canada. |
| A．Rainy. | B．Sunny. | C．Snowy. |
7 . Atmospheric (大气层的) rivers are long and narrow bands of water vapor (水蒸气) in Earth’s atmosphere, which are called “large rivers in the sky”. These rivers form over warm ocean waters. They are huge. They can be 930 miles long and one-third that wide.
Like real rivers, they carry huge amounts of water. These large streams of small water drops are blown by wind over land. When that happens, the water vapor cools down and condenses (凝结). Atmospheric rivers can be good. They bring water to dry areas. However, they can cause huge, fast-moving storms. Some cause snowfalls that bury towns. They are also the main cause of floods on the U.S. West Coast.
Atmospheric rivers are hard to predict. But scientists are working to change that. Marty Ralph, a scientist who works at the University of California, directs the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E). They created the first computer model to predict atmospheric rivers on the U.S. West Coast. This model uses a program that runs on a computer to create a model of a real-world event. CW3E also studies atmospheric rivers using planes. Pilots drop instruments into atmospheric rivers to collect information like temperature and wind speed, which helps with forecasting.
Will climate change affect atmospheric rivers? Climate change happens naturally over a long period of time. But today, it is largely caused by human activities and is causing the Earth to warm, which affects atmospheric rivers.
Atmospheric rivers are pushed by the wind. Those winds are driven by the temperature differences between the poles and the equator (赤道). But the poles are also warming faster than areas near the equator. That makes the temperature difference between the areas smaller. This can make winds weaker.
Climate change might not cause more atmospheric rivers. But there may be very, very wet seasons and very, very dry seasons. Such a seesaw in rainfall could make it harder to manage what water there is.
1. What can we learn about atmospheric rivers?| A．They can be 930 miles long and 465 miles wide. |
| B．They are easy to predict as scientists are working on it. |
| C．They are bands of water vapor forming over warm ocean waters. |
| D．They are the main cause of floods in the U.S. |
| A．Why it is hard to predict atmospheric rivers. |
| B．Whether scientists can predict atmospheric rivers. |
| C．How technology helps the prediction of atmospheric rivers. |
| D．How scientists are working on the forecasts of atmospheric rivers. |
| A．Growth. | B．Drop. | C．Prediction. | D．Change. |
| A．A textbook. | B．A science magazine. | C．An academic article. | D．A news report. |
8 . Several security guards of residential compounds in Beijing and workers were seen shoveling snow and some parked vehicles were covered by thick overnight snow. The first snowfall of winter arrived in Beijing early Monday, covering the Chinese capital with a mantle (披风) of white overnight and plunging (使……下降) the city into freezing temperatures, with even colder weather coming this week in northern China.
Snowfall reached 5.8 mm on average by early Monday, with the highest snowfall of 10.2 mm recorded in Fangshan district, Beijing Meteorological (气象的) Service data showed. Beijing typically sees its first snow of the season between late November and February, or even none at all. More snowfall is expected this week, with temperatures seen further sliding to as low as -20°Celsius. The Chinese capital last saw such similarly extremely cold weather on Jan. 7, 2021, when the temperature dropped to -19.6℃.
The cold snap (寒潮) in Beijing this week, compared with the autumn-like conditions a week ago, mirrored the sharp swings in temperatures recently. In October, Beijing experienced one of its warmest Octobers in decades in a year of weather extremes.
On Monday, the government warned of road icing in large parts of the city of nearly 22 million, with authorities shutting some expressways or partially closing sections. By 10 a. m. local time, 62 out of a few hundred flights had been cancelled at the Beijing Capital Airport. Railway authorities enforced speed limits on lines connecting Beijing and Guangzhou in southern China, causing delays in some passenger trains. By 7 a. m. Monday, more than 180 bus routes in Beijing had been suspended.
The official Beijing Daily reported that vegetable stocks were enough, hitting this year’s highest daily market volume of 23,800 tons, as merchants stocked up (备货) ahead of time. Huang, a Beijing resident working in the internet sector, said the snow in Beijing came early. “Normally, it doesn’t snow until the Spring Festival,” Huang said, referring to the start of the Lunar New Year, which typically falls in January or February.
1. Which of the following is not used to show the seriousness of the snowfall in paragraph?| A．By listing out numbers. | B．By illustrating a viewpoint. |
| C．By citing data from the authority. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．From hot summers to mild winters. |
| B．From dry conditions to heavy rainfall. |
| C．From autumn-like conditions to a sudden coldness. |
| D．From constant snow to unexpectedly warm temperatures. |
| A．introduced | B．obeyed | C．happened | D．improved |
| A．Organized community support groups. | B．Increased storage of essential supplies. |
| C．Created emergency shelters for the homeless. | D．Offered discounts and sales to boost business. |
| A．Rainy. | B．Clear. | C．Cloudy. |
1. What will the weather be like on Christmas day?
| A．Dry. | B．Rainy. | C．Snowy. |
| A．On Christmas Eve. | B．On Christmas Day. | C．On Boxing Day. |
| A．Watch the roads when driving. |
| B．Wear warm clothes when going out. |
| C．Stay indoors and drink hot chocolate. |
| A．The weather condition during Christmas period. |
| B．The plan on celebrating the New Year. |
| C．The arrangement on Boxing Day. |
