| A．Rainy. | B．Sunny. | C．Windy. |
2 . As a kid,I wanted to be a naturalist. When I got to college, I chose what I thought was a more practical path, studying physics along with public policy. That combination led me to atmospheric sciences. Now I'm studying low clouds.
But I didn't really notice low clouds until I started my study at the University of Washington, in Seattle. That city had a lot of low clouds. I suddenly realized how important their reflection of heat back into space was for Earth's climate. I continued studying how clouds at the University of Colorado in Boulder. There I earned my PhD.
Seattle's skies may be home to plenty of low clouds, but there are even better places to spot these little clouds. The greatest gatherings tend to occur off the coasts of places like Namibia, in Africa, and northern Chile. These places are home to some of Earth's driest deserts. And I like visiting such places.
The more I learned about these little clouds, the more fascinating I found them. I'm really interested in the various ways these low clouds respond to their environment. Because there are so many low clouds and they help keep Earth cool by reflecting(反射) heat, anything that affects them can also affect overall climate. It feeds back to the whole energy balance of the planet.
Lately I've been exploring how smoke that drifts(漂浮 )over clouds might change the way that these clouds absorb or reflect sunlight. Such smoke -from burning trees and grasses-can drift thousands of kilometers. If that smoke affects clouds, it might also affect climate. Last year, I spent a month on distant Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean setting up instruments to track the interaction(相互作用) between low clouds there and smoke from southern Africa.
I appreciate the diversity in my work. Besides the occasional trip to distant islands, I also teach and work with other scientists to better understand Earth's climate system. Along the way, I'm helping bring one type of low clouds to the attention it deserves.
1. What do we know about the author?| A．She learned three majors at the same time in college. |
| B．She wanted to study low clouds when she was a kid |
| C．She knew the importance of low clouds when in university |
| D．She was always worried about climate change in the world |
| A．Because she enjoys views of deserts. |
| B．Because she loves visiting beautiful coasts. |
| C．Because she has got tired of Seattle's skies. |
| D．Because they're great places for observing low clouds. |
| A．To study smoke' s effect on low clouds |
| B．To find the real causes of climate change. |
| C．To set up instruments for other scientists |
| D．To study the influence of low clouds on climate. |
| A．The fact of being very special | B．The fact of working by oneself |
| C．The fact of being respected by others | D．The fact of including some different things. |
1. What caused the traffic to stop？
| A．A sandstorm. | B．A heavy rain. | C．A night of snow. |
| A．Wednesday. | B．Thursday. | C．Friday. |
| A．Early spring. | B．Late winter. | C．Early winter. |
| A．Sunny. | B．Cloudy. | C．Rainy. |
1. What will the weather be like in high places this evening?
| A．There’ll be showers. | B．There’ll be heavy mist. | C．There’ll be strong winds. |
| A．Cloudy. | B．Rainy. | C．Sunny. |
| A．This weekend. | B．End of this month. | C．Next month. |
| A．It’s sunny. | B．It’s rainy. | C．It’s cloudy. |
| A．It's sunny. | B．It's rainy. | C．It's cloudy. |
7 . Climate change is perhaps the key issue of our time. Often, however, it is presented to us as being so abstract that it seems impossibly distant. For those of you looking for something a little more concrete, a new report suggests that the effects of climate change may significantly affect coffee.
The report, put out by The Climate Institute, describes the effects of climate change on various coffee-growing nations and the resultant effects on the plants and those who grow them.
Coffee Arabica plants, which produce 70% of all commercial coffee, can be adversely affected by even a half-degree change in typical weather conditions. This sensitivity to temperature puts the plant at increased risk of the effects of climate change.
In Central America the average temperature has risen by a full degree Celsius since 1960. In Ethiopia the average temperature has increased by l. 3 degrees. This increase is enough to have notable effects on the plants. In Tanzania the productivity per hectare of coffee has fallen by half since the 1960s due to changes in temperature.
Indeed, studies claim that by 2050 the area of the world suitable for growing coffee will be cut by half. Coffee production is likely to then be pushed to higher elevations(海拔) to take advantage of lower temperatures, but this will not be enough to make up for lost lowland areas.
Coffee is the second most traded goods by developing nations, and the inability of producer nations to export it could cause dramatic chain reactions in their economies.Millions of people make a living in the production, processing, transport, and sale of coffee;their livelihoods would stand to take a blow as growing areas decrease and prices rise.
As the temperature keeps rising, your cup of coffee will become much more expensive,and it may also carry an aftertaste bitterer than usual, for all those workers in the coffee belt left without the means to make a living as conditions worsen. Not only that, but the economic effects will cost the West millions in increased foreign aid.
1. What does the underlined word "adversely " in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?| A．slightly. | B．temporarily. | C．harmfully. | D．gradually. |
| A．To adapt to the change of temperature. |
| B．To increase the quality of the products. |
| C．To reduce the cost of coffee production |
| D．To get access to water supply more easily. |
| A．The rich will get richer and the poor poorer |
| B．Small changes may have large effects in general |
| C．Developed countries ought to aid poor countries. |
| D．Coffee trade will eventually disappear in the world. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Worried. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Hopeful. |
8 . By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.
At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms(海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean’s appearance.
Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide(二氧化碳) into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.
Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science, built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ” she said, “but the type of phytoplankton is changing.”
And why does that matter? Phytoplankton are the base of the food web. If certain kinds begin to disappear from the ocean, Dutkiewicz said, “it will change the type of fish that will be able to survive.” Those kinds of changes could affect the food chain.
Whatever colour changes the ocean experiences in the coming decades will probably be too gradual and unnoticeable, but they could mean significant changes. “It’ll be a while before we can statistically show that the changes are happening because of climate change,” Dutkiewicz said, “but the change in the colour of the ocean will be one of the early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?| A．The various patterns at the ocean surface. |
| B．The cause of the changes in ocean colour. |
| C．The way light reflects off marine organisms. |
| D．The efforts to fuel the growth of phytoplankton. |
| A．Sensitive. | B．Beneficial. | C．Significant. | D．Unnoticeable. |
| A．Phytoplankton play a declining role in the marine ecosystem. |
| B．Dutkiewicz’s model aims to project phytoplankton changes. |
| C．Phytoplankton have been used to control global climate. |
| D．Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear greener. |
| A．To assess the consequences of ocean colour changes. |
| B．To analyse the composition of the ocean food chain. |
| C．To explain the effects of climate change on oceans. |
| D．To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton. |
9 . California has lost half its big trees since the 1930s, according to a study to be published Tuesday and climate change seems to be a major factor(因素).
The number of trees larger than two feet across has declined by 50 percent on more than 46, 000 square miles of California forests, the new study finds. No area was spared or unaffected, from the foggy northern coast to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the San Gabriels above Los Angeles. In the Sierra high country, the number of big trees has fallen by more than 55 percent; in parts of southern California the decline was nearly 75 percent.
Many factors contributed to the decline, said Patrick McIntyre, an ecologist who was the lead author of the study. Woodcutters targeted big trees. Housing development pushed into the woods. Aggressive wildfire control has left California forests crowded with small trees that compete with big trees for resources(资源).
But in comparing a study of California forests done in the 1920s and 1930s with another one between 2001 and 2010, McIntyre and his colleagues documented a widespread death of big trees that was evident even in wildlands protected from woodcutting or development.
The loss of big trees was greatest in areas where trees had suffered the greatest water shortage. The researchers figured out water stress with a computer model that calculated how much water trees were getting in comparison with how much they needed, taking into account such things as rainfall, air temperature, dampness of soil, and the timing of snowmelt(融雪).
Since the 1930s, McIntyre said, the biggest factors driving up water stress in the state have been rising temperatures, which cause trees to lose more water to the air, and earlier snowmelt, which reduces the water supply available to trees during the dry season.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The seriousness of big-tree loss in California. |
| B．The increasing variety of California big trees. |
| C．The distribution of big trees in California forests. |
| D．The influence of farming on big trees in California. |
| A．Ecological studies of forests. |
| B．Banning woodcutting. |
| C．Limiting housing development. |
| D．Fire control measures. |
| A．Inadequate snowmelt. | B．A longer dry season. |
| C．A warmer climate. | D．Dampness of the air. |
| A．California’s Forests: Where Have All the Big Trees Gone? |
| B．Cutting of Big Trees to Be Prohibited in California Soon |
| C．Why Are the Big Trees Important to California Forests? |
| D．Patrick McIntyre: Grow More Big Trees in California |
10 . Just a year ago, the colors were bright under the waves. Now it’s gray — the Maldivian reef is dead. The coral is killed by the pressure of rising temperatures.
Coral reefs are areas underwater where small creatures live. The coral is hard material formed on the bottom of the sea by the skeletons of those creatures. But the world has lost about half its coral reefs in the last 30 years. Scientists are working to prevent their destruction. Due to global warming, over 90 percent of corals are expected to die by 2050. “To lose coral reefs is to fundamentally undermine the health of a very large proportion of the human race,” said Ruth Gates, director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.
Why are coral reefs important? Coral reefs support a fourth of all marine species, as well as half a billion people worldwide. They serve as barriers to protect coastlines from the storms. They provide billions of dollars from tourism, fishing and other trade. They are also used in medical research for cures for diseases. “Everyone should be concerned,” said biologist Ove Guldberg at Australia’s University of Queensland. “This is not just some distant dive destination. This is the basic structure of the ecosystem we depend on.”
The ocean is getting warmer. A rising temperature of just one to two degree Celsius can force coral to expel the algae (驱逐海藻) that live there. This leaves their white skeletons uncovered. It is a process called “bleaching”. Sixteen percent of the world’s corals died of bleaching in 1998. The problem has become much worse in recent years.
“We’ve lost 50 percent of the reefs, but that means we still have 50 percent left,” said Ruth Gates, who is working in Hawaii to breed corals that can better withstand increasing temperatures. She is also trying to “train” corals to survive rising temperatures. Gates says it is time to start “thinking outside the box”— find creative ways to help them.
1. The underlined word “undermine” in paragraph 2 means ___________.| A．weaken | B．regain | C．promote | D．overlook |
| A．People won’t find a dive destination in the future. |
| B．The effort to save corals will turn out to be fruitless. |
| C．The destruction of coral reefs will affect the earth ecosystem. |
| D．The bright sea has lost its charm because of those dead corals. |
| A．the harm of algae | B．the process of “bleaching” |
| C．the importance of coral reefs | D．the change of ocean temperature |
| A．proud | B．cautious | C．optimistic | D．casual |
