1 . California’s snowpack is more than two-and-a-half times larger than average (平均水平) right now, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources. As the weather gets warmer, it’s going to melt (融化). Scientists say there’s no question we need the snow.
“The melting of snow has always been important every single year in California,” said scientist Dr. Pat Abbott.
This comes as the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report shows almost two-thirds of the state is not experiencing drought (干旱), a huge improvement over the past few months. Unluckily, the snowpack can’t make certain that we’ll stay that way.
“Drought is part of California,” said Dr. Abbott. “We’ve had a temporary respite. That doesn’t mean it has gone away completely. It will be back sooner than we would like.”
The snow can be a valuable protection against wildfires, but only if it melts slowly. “Plants stay healthy. They have taken in enough water and are less likely to catch on fire for a longer time,” said Dr. Abbott. “If it becomes too hot, say in early June, and all that snow is melted and gone, the plants don’t get more water and start drying out. By the time we get to the end of the summer, it’s easier for them to catch fire. The bigger the fires are, the greater the challenge is for our firefighters.”
A quick melt can also flood places near the Sierra Nevada (a mountain range in eastern California) that got more rain than they could deal with this winter. That includes places like Tulare Lake (in the Central Valley of California), which was dry for years until this winter. Now, it’s more than 100 square miles in size and flooding communities around it.
The area is expecting even more flooding when the snowpack melts. But Dr. Abbott says floods like this are a necessary risk for water the state has needed for years. “The snow we’ve gotten this winter is highly positive,” said Dr. Abbott. “On the other side, nothing is ever 100%.” Dr. Abbott says the snow is also helping to fill Northern California’s man-made lake, which helps provide water we need.
1. What do the underlined words “temporary respite” in paragraph 4 mean?| A．Close look. | B．Short break. | C．Clear goal. | D．Long history. |
| A．The snow’s melting speed matters. |
| B．It is costly to reduce the risk of wildfires. |
| C．Some plants died because it was too dry. |
| D．Plants will be hurt if the snow melts slowly. |
| A．It calls for more attention. |
| B．It does good to California. |
| C．It may cause unnecessary worries. |
| D．It will cause danger in the long run. |
| A．California’s snowpack: a wonderful view |
| B．Snowpack in California: a record snowfall |
| C．Snowpack in California: advantages and risks |
| D．California’s snowpack: the past and the present |
2 . Perhaps you know northern Americans still maintain the habit of celebrating Groundhog Day when a large groundhog (土拨鼠) checks to see its shadow on February 2 and helps to predict when winter will end. But have you ever heard about how a mountain town in North Carolina uses a caterpillar (毛毛虫) known as the Woolly Worm to make similar predictions?
According to the folklore (民间传说), the amount of black on the woolly worm in autumn predicts the severity of the upcoming winter. The longer the woolly worm’s black bands (带) are, the longer, colder, snowier, and more severe the winter will be. Similarly, a wider middle brown band is a sign of a milder upcoming winter. The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest. If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe. If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. In addition, the caterpillar has 13 segments (昆虫的节/段) to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter.
Scientific studies on worm forecasting are rare. American Museum of Natural History entomologist Howard Curran conducted a small trial in 1948. Having heard about the caterpillar folklore, Curran headed to Bear Mountain State Park to collect caterpillars each fall for eight years. He found that if the worms had brown markings on more than a third of their body, winters tended to be milder.
Most scientists view the folklore of caterpillar predictions as just that, folklore. “It’s a wonderful story, but I do think it was a playful trial,” says Joe Boggs, an entomologist at Ohio State University Extension who has studied woolly worms. “Curran was a real scientist. He had tons of papers published, but he never published this one — probably because he knew it wouldn’t stand up to peer review.”
Mike Peters, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts, doesn’t disagree, but he says there could be a link between the band of a caterpillar and the severity of winter. Peters suggests that the timing of their growth and environmental conditions, such as temperature, moisture levels, and food sources, can impact the appearance of woolly worms, including their size, coloration, and band patterns. By analyzing these characteristics, researchers can potentially infer information about the weather conditions. “The band does say something about a heavy winter,” he says. “The only thing is that it’s telling you about the previous year.”
1. How do people predict the weather through caterpillars?| A．By analyzing their living habits. |
| B．By measuring the change of their size. |
| C．By calculating the number of their segments. |
| D．By studying color bands on their bodies. |
| A．His personal observations. |
| B．An investigation on the locals. |
| C．Studies by previous scientists. |
| D．Statistics collected by the museum. |
| A．Positive. | B．Indifferent. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．The caterpillar forecasting needs long-term data to support it. |
| B．The color band of caterpillars can be a mirror of past weather. |
| C．The cold environment has a great impact on caterpillars’ growth. |
| D．The caterpillar can help predict the severity of winter accurately. |
3 . You have probably eaten a hot dog, but have you ever spotted a sundog? This isn’t your pet dog napping in the sun!
A sundog is a weather event that causes two bright bursts of rainbow colored light to appear on either side of the sun. You would see them around 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock. Sundogs can be very beautiful, with a red glow closest to the sun and a white in the center. The scientific name for sundogs is parhelia, which comes from a Greek word meaning “beside the sun”.
Conditions need to be just right for sundogs to appear. Sunlight passes through high clouds that spread out like feathers in front of the sun. These clouds contain flat, six-sided ice crystals (晶体). If the crystal drifts toward the ground, with the larger face facing the Earth, light is refracted (折射). These crystals then separate the light, forming a sundog.
Sundogs can be seen during any season but are most often seen during the winter months when the sun is lower in the sky. You are also more likely to see them early or late in the day, when the sun is near the horizon. Sundogs have been spotted around the world, across North America, Europe, and Asia, at the South Pole and in the far north. Scientists have even predicted what sundogs might look like on other planets.
Throughout history, sundogs have been used to predict weather because they indicate snow or rain on its way. Some people believed that sundogs were a sign of good luck, while others saw them as a warning from God. Shakespeare described sundogs in poems as frightening.
Ready to try out your weather detective skills? First, use your hand to block the center of the sun to protect your eyes. Search for clouds in a winter sky and a circle or burst of light around the sun. Be sure to show off your sundog smarts to your friends and family — you’ll be their top dog!
1. What can be inferred about a sundog from the passage?| A．It leads the sun to produce crystals. | B．It forms under strict circumstances. |
| C．It causes the appearance of rainbow. | D．It separates the sun from high clouds. |
| A．One summer midday in China. | B．One late winter night in America. |
| C．One winter morning in Europe. | D．One summer morning in the Arctic. |
| A．To convince readers of the beauty of sundogs. |
| B．To illustrate the wide range of topics of his poems. |
| C．To help readers understand the function of sundogs. |
| D．To show impressions of sundogs vary among viewers. |
| A．Confident. | B．Encouraging. | C．Worried. | D．Fearful. |
4 . Autumn is the best season to travel in Xinjiang. I promise the tour won’t disappoint you! Here is the schedule (日程). Please have a look.
 | |
| Day 1（cloudy） | ●Arrive in Urumqi and check in at the hotel. ●Visit the International Grand Bazaar (大巴扎). ●Climb the Red Hill. ●Have dinner at Silk Road Restaurant. |
| Day 2（rainy） | Remember to take umbrellas. ●Go to Fukang and visit the Tianchi Lake. ●Go to a hot spring in Wujiang Hotel. |
| Day 3（windy） | Remember to prepare sweaters and jeans. ●Fly to the city of Altay. ●Go to Keketuohai. ●Fly back to Urumgi the next day. |
| Day 4（sunny） | Remember to wear shorts and T-shirts. ●Go to the city of Turpan. ●Visit the Flaming (火焰) Mountain. ●Go to the Grape Valley (谷) and pick up grapes. ●End of your tour and go back to Urumqi. |
| A．cloudy | B．rainy | C．windy | D．sunny |
| A．umbrellas | B．sweaters | C．shorts | D．T-shirts |
| A．have dinner at Silk Road Restaurant | B．go to the Grape Valley |
| C．visit the Flaming Mountain | D．pick up grapes |
5 . Why the East Coast has had such a weak winter
Overall, winter across the East Coast this year has been pretty weak. “I was in shorts and a T-shirt,” said Jeff Weber, a research meteorologist (气象学家) at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Meteorologists descended upon Boston in mid-January for the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. January is Boston's coldest month, but during the weather conference, meteorologists experienced 75 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures.
A major reason is that the polar vortex (极地涡旋) — which is a circulating stream of air that forms over the Arctic during winter — has stayed rigid and in place, keeping its cold air mostly locked up north. Consequently, little of this exceptionally chilly air has got into the U.S. this winter.
Arctic blasts (北极寒流), like those in January 2019, happen when the polar vortex becomes unstable, allowing frigid air to spill south. “But this winter, instead of a weak polar vortex, we’ve had strong polar vortex conditions,” said Andrea Lang, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Albany who researches changes in seasonal winter weather.
The polar vortex has stayed strong because other weather systems, sometimes originating from the Pacific. Ocean, haven’t come along and knocked the spinning vortex out of place.
A frequent culprit (问题的起因) in disturbing the polar vortex is a powerful stream of air traveling some 30,000 to 35,000 miles up in the atmosphere (where jets fly) which we commonly call the jet stream. The jet stream shoots from west to east around Earth at speeds of 120 to 250 miles per hour, but can become dramatically wavier when it’s disturbed by strong storm activity or encounters masses of hot or cold air.
But this winter season, the meandering (蜿蜒前进的) jet stream has not knocked the polar vortex off its pole, explained Lang. Instead, the jet stream has bent dramatically south, right through the heart of the central U. S.
Atmospheric scientists are deeply interested in why a perturbed polar vortex has become more frequent. There’s evidence that the incessantly warming Arctic — the fastest-warming place on Earth — has led to a weaker and less stable polar vortex, which means more outbreaks of freezing Arctic air. Just not this winter — so far, anyway.
1. What does Jeff Weber mean by saying what he wore?| A．To introduce his dressing style. | B．To express his feeling then. |
| C．To prove the abnormal weather. | D．To show his love of winter. |
| A．It was as warm as that of this year. |
| B．It was very cold owing to the arctic blast. |
| C．The polar vortex stayed rigid and in place. |
| D．The polar vortex was weak and unstable. |
| A．Fixed. | B．Frozen. | C．Heated. | D．Disturbed. |
| A．By bending north and knocking it off. |
| B．By moving from east to west around Earth. |
| C．By waving and meandering powerfully. |
| D．By turning to the south dramatically. |
6 . Apart from a simple“hot”, what other ways are there to describe the summer heat? There are many interesting expressions that relate to unbearably hot weather and offer a glimpse into foreign culture.
Dog days of summer
In books and newspaper articles, the period from early July to mid－August is often referred to as the “dog days of summer”. Some think the expression means the weather is so hot that dogs go wild. But in fact, the expression comes from 16th century astrology and refers to the days on which Sirius－the Dog Star, the brightest star in the summer sky and part of the Great Dog constellation－rises at the same time as the sun.
Hotter than a two－dollar pistol
The reason for the expression is that no pistol could cost 2 dollars unless it had been stolen. In English slang, stolen goods are often said to be “hot” and anyone in possession of hot goods is likely to get their fingers burned, in other words, to be arrested.
So hot you can fry an egg on the sidewalk
Thousands of curious tourists feel like testing if the saying is true, with the result that sidewalks in Death Valley, California, the hottest place in the U. S. , are now littered with broken eggshells. As long as you use a frying pan with a lid and the temperature is at least 49℃ , it is actually possible to fry an egg on the sidewalk.
Hinges of Hades
For those who believe it exists, hell is undoubtedly the hottest place on earth, so unsurprisingly there are several expressions that refer to hell or Hades, or even the devil himself. “Hotter than the hinges or gates of Hades” is the oldest version , but more amusing variations have become popular, such as “hotter than the devil's underwear”.
1. Which expression relates to the study of stars?| A．Dog days of summer. | B．Hotter than a two－dollar pistol. |
| C．So hot you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. | D．Hinges of Hades. |
| A．Popular. | B．Difficult. | C．Illegal. | D．Angry. |
| A．55℃. | B．40℃. | C．39℃. | D．29℃. |
