8 . Chinese scientists are mounting efforts to establish a weather monitoring station at an altitude of 8,800 meters on Mount Qomolangma, the world’s highest peak, on the China-Nepal border.
If the station is established successfully, it will replace the one at an altitude of 8,430 meters set up by UK and US scientists on the south side of the mountain in 2019, to be the world’s highest of its kind, according to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS).
Equipment weighing some 50 kg will be dismantled and distributed to mountaineers, each of whom will carry no more than 7 kg up onto the mountain for the establishment, said Zhao Huabiao, a researcher with the ITP.
Currently, the engineers in charge of establishing the station are still waiting for the perfect weather for mountaineering.
Including the highest, eight elevation gradient (高程梯度) weather stations will be set up on Mount Qomolangma, one of the main tasks in China’s new comprehensive scientific expedition on the world’s highest peak at the height of 8,848.86 meters.
Three meteorological (气象的) stations were established at sea levels of 7,028 meters, 7,790 meters and 8,300 meters, respectively, earlier this year on the north side of the mountain, bringing the total number of operational weather stations between the altitudes between 5,200 meters and 8,300 meters to seven. Last year, four stations at sea levels of 6,500 meters, 5,800 meters, 5,400 meters and 5,200 meters were set up.
The eight stations will collect the wind speed and wind direction data, as well as relative humidity (湿度) on the north side of Qomolangma, and the elevation gradient weather station system is of great significance for monitoring the melting glaciers (冰川) and mountain snow at the high altitudes, said Zhao.
The expedition team will also set up glacier radar and measure the thickness of snow and ice at the summit of the mountain, he said.
1. What do we know about the new weather monitoring station?
| A．It will collect weather data on the south side of Qomolangma. |
| B．It will become the highest of its kind at an altitude of 8,800 meters. |
| C．It will make great contributions to the scientific research on Qomolangma. |
| D．It will be the only weather station set up above the altitude of 8,000 meters. |
2. What does the underlined word “d
ismantled ” in Paragraph 3 mean?
| A．Taken apart. | B．Taken over. | C．Set down. | D．Set aside. |
3. How many weather monitoring stations has China set up on Mount Qomolangma?
4. Which of the following data can NOT be collected by the weather station?
| A．Wind speed. | B．Wind direction. |
| C．Relative humidity. | D．The thickness of snow. |
