1 . New research has found that a major Greenland glacier (冰川) that was once one of the fastest shrinking (缩小) glaciers on earth is now growing again.
Scientists from the American space agency NASA recently reported their findings about the Jakobshavn glacier. Because over the past 20 years, it has been the single largest source of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet, researchers have been observing Jakobshavn for many years to help forecast world sea level rise.
NASA says that the water temperatures in areas around the glacier are currently colder than at any time since the mid-1980s. “At first we didn’t believe it,” said Ala Khazendar, a glacier scientist, helped lead the study. “We figured that the temperature would just keep going on as it had over the last 20 years.”
Jason Box is an ice and climate scientist. He told the Associated Press the new discovery about Jakobshavn was surprising because it had been moving in the other direction for so long. Box said, “The good news is that it’s a reminder that it’s not necessarily going that fast.” “But it is going,” he added.
A statement by NASA confirmed that, even with Jakobshavn’s new growth, it is still adding to global sea level rise. Scientists said this is because the glacier continues to lose more ice to the ocean than it gains from snowfall. The sea level rise is just happening at a slower rate.
Researchers involved in the study as well as other scientists believe Jakobshavn is experiencing only short-term changes. They mainly believe this because the cold water affecting the glacier was set in motion by a climate system called the North Atlantic Oscillation, which causes a natural temporary cooling and warming of different parts of the ocean.
The latest research clearly shows that Jakobshavn “is getting a temporary break” from a long-held climate pattern, where the world’s oceans are increasingly warming.
1. Why have scientists been observing Jakobshavn glacier during the past 20 years?| A．Because it is the only glacier in Greenland. |
| B．Because it is the single largest source of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet. |
| C．Because the temperature of water around it is colder than that of other areas. |
| D．Because it makes sea levels around the world rise faster. |
| A．The global sea level is very likely to stop rising. |
| B．The shrinking of the glacier will slow down a bit. |
| C．The glacier loss will keep going at the same speed. |
| D．The change happening to this glacier will last for a long time. |
| A．The glacier doesn’t gain as much ice as it has lost. |
| B．The temperature of the ocean is going down. |
| C．The situation regarding the world’s sea level is still not positive. |
| D．The growth of the glacier is due to a climate system. |
| A．A glacier was found growing temporarily. | B．The sea level is increasingly rising. |
| C．A new climate system was found. | D．The world’s oceans are possibly getting cooler. |
| A．It’s very warm. | B．It’s super cold. | C．It’s rather hot. |
Global climate change is not a future problem. Effects that scientists had long predicted would result
Scientists are
The
| A．Their daily routine. | B．Their dormitory. | C．The weather. |
5 . Coffee is probably the world’s least expensive success power tool. Coffee builds better teams and increases your leadership ability. Coffee also increases your immunity. Unfortunately, we may not be enjoying the benefits or pleasures of coffee too much longer. According to ecologists, there’s a good chance that in 20 or 30 years, the varieties of coffee that we drink today will be extinct (灭绝的). And we’ll be drinking a coffee substitute that more or less resembles the drink we enjoy today.
The problem, of course, is the pace of climate change. Successful coffee cultivation has three preconditions: a warm, highly stable (稳定的) tropical (热带的) climate with altitudes that keep air temperature between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius, rich soil full of natural nutrients, and an ecological environment that’s pest and disease resistant.
Coffee is a crop that is only grown in a thin band called the “coffee belt” close to the equator (赤道). It simply won’t grow anywhere else. Unfortunately, the “coffee belt” is extremely vulnerable to climate change. If the air is too cold or too hot, it prevents the growth of the coffee plant. Climate change also creates environmental stress, which spreads parasites, pests and plant diseases. All of these increase the fragility of the coffee crop and create the possibility of species-destroying rot.
Unfortunately, almost all of these species exist only in Ethiopia, a country that climate change is already hammering. As the environmental nonprofit USAID points out: “Ethiopia is one of the world’s most drought-prone countries. The country is faced with numerous development challenges that exacerbate its weakness facing climate change including increases in temperature, unstable rainfall and unpredictability of seasonal rain, and increased incidences of drought and other extreme events.”
In other words, even as climate change threatens coffee as it exists today, climate change is also eating away at the root source which we might turn to for replacement species.
What to do? Well, take the time to savor each cup of coffee you drink. Beyond that, stop electing the politicians who deny climate change.
1. What is the author’s feeling about the future of coffee?| A．Helpless. | B．Bored. | C．Happy. | D．Concerned. |
| A．A tropical climate. | B．The rich soil. |
| C．The increasing temperature. | D．The stable rainfall. |
| A．remove | B．worsen | C．decrease | D．accept |
| A．Changing Climate for Coffee | B．Enjoy Coffee While You Can |
| C．Benefits from Coffee Drinking | D．Conditions for Coffee Planting |
6 . 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. |
Under the influence of the recent EL Nino,
8 . One of the ocean’s noisiest creatures is smaller than you’d expect — snapping shrimp (鼓虾). They create a widespread background noise in the underwater environment, which helps them communicate, protect their homes and hunt for food. When enough shrimp snap (发出噼啪声) at once, the noise can be deafening.
Aran Mooney, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, suggested that with increased ocean temperatures, snapping shrimp will snap more often and louder than before. This could raise the background noise of the global ocean. “They make a sound by closing a claw so fast. This makes a bubble (泡泡) and when that bubble bursts, it makes that snapping sound,” said Mooney.
Mooney discovered a strong relationship between warmer waters and more frequent snapping shrimp sounds after experimenting with the shrimp in tanks in the lab and by listening to the shrimp in the ocean at various water temperatures. “As the temperature rises, the snap rate increases,” he said. This makes sense because shrimp are essentially cold-blooded animals, meaning their body temperature and activity levels are largely controlled by their living environment. “We can actually show in the field that not only do snap rates increase, but the sound levels increase as well.”
How the louder snapping shrimp would affect or benefit the surroundings remained to be seen. “We know that fish use sound to communicate,” Mooney said. “If the environment gets noisy, it has the possibility to influence that communication. That’s something we have to follow up on.” There is also the possibility that the change of snapping shrimp affects machines humans use to discover mines, which could lead to unpleasant results.
1. What can we know about the snapping shrimp’s sound?| A．It aims to protect the shrimp. | B．It is important to the ecosystem. |
| C．It has different uses for the shrimp. | D．It is hard to be discovered by other creatures. |
| A．By observing snapping shrimp in the field. | B．By recording the snap rates in the lab. |
| C．By analyzing the way shrimp make noise. | D．By comparing shrimp’s sound in different places. |
| A．Other uses of shrimp’s sound. | B．Influences of the noise on other creatures. |
| C．Means of communication among fish. | D．Methods of stopping shrimp’s snapping. |
| A．Underwater World Is No Longer Quiet | B．Small Animals Make a Big Difference |
| C．Warming Oceans Are Getting Louder | D．Snapping Shrimp’s Noise Speaks Much |
| A．The weather. | B．Football games. | C．A weekend plan. |
1. What are the highest temperatures in Northern India now?
| A．About 35℃. | B．Almost 40℃. | C．Over 45℃. |
| A．About 200. | B．About 1,000. | C．About 2,000. |
| A．Government projects will be done at night. |
| B．Bottles of water will be sold at low prices. |
| C．School days will be reduced. |
| A．Cooler. | B．All the same. | C．Hotter. |
