1 . Two and a half months before the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins, and almost six months before it enters its peak (高峰), weathermen are already predicting (预测) that it could be particularly active.
Officially, hurricane season begins from June 1 and runs through November. One reason is that sea surface temperatures in the tropical (热带的) Atlantic are already at record highs.
Meanwhile, another significant potential factor in this year’s hurricane season is taking shape thousands of miles away in the Pacific. Over periods ranging from three to seven years, the waters of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean warm and cool in turn as a result of a repeating climate pattern called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). El Niño makes Atlantic hurricanes less likely to form but La Niña does.
During the 2023 season, ENSO was in an El Niño period. However, by the time the 2024 season starts, it will have changed into a “neutral(中立)” period, but that by the peak months, it is likely to have changed fully into a La Niña.
“How quickly that change occurs can affect everything as well,” says DaSilva, a lead hurricane weatherman. “There’s a lag time. So, while we expect the change to occur in mid-summer, it may not be until late summer or fall where we really see those effects across the Atlantic basin.” As a result, he says, this year’s hurricane season could remain particularly active deep into November.
Of course, no report can predict when individual storms will come or the paths they will take, but DaSilva warns that those who live in areas likely to suffer hurricanes, especially around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, should prepare. “If a tropical storm system comes into this area, it could rapidly strengthen, potentially close to land,” he also warns. “And that’s why people need to be careful and have their hurricane plans ready. Because any system with these kinds of conditions can explode very quickly. That’s what we’re concerned about.”
1. What is the function of Paragraph 1?| A．To give advice. | B．To explain the season. |
| C．To introduce the topic. | D．To inform a weather report. |
| A．The hurricane season has entered its peak. |
| B．A repeating climate has changed weather in summer. |
| C．The sea surface temperatures are the highest of all time. |
| D．El Niño makes Atlantic hurricanes more likely to form. |
| A．A time delay. | B．A time in a zone. |
| C．A time waste. | D．A time in advance. |
| A．It can be exactly predicted ahead of time. |
| B．People needn’t worry about hurricane season. |
| C．It may be eventually controlled by weathermen. |
| D．People can’t be more careful about hurricane season. |
2 . A forest in Staffordshire (in the UK) transformed into a hi-tech laboratory. Researchers here are investigating how the trees use carbon, and it’s difficult to find out. In an unusual experiment, extra carbon dioxide is piped to the trees, to create the kind of atmospheric conditions expected in the middle of the century. And instruments measure how the forest reacts.
The scientist in charge says there’s still a lot to learn. And he worries that governments and companies are rushing to plant trees as an easy answer to climate change. “If you try and use trees to tidy up the mess that we’re making through emissions, you are putting those trees into a very rapidly changing climate and they will struggle to adapt,” said Professor Rob MacKenzie, University of Birmingham.
This device tracks the movement of carbon dioxide. In a healthy forest, the gas is not only absorbed by the trees but some is released as well. What scientists here are finding out is the way carbon flows into a forest and out of it is a lot more complicated than you might think. So, if mass tree planting is meant to be a solution to tackling climate change, the trees are going to have to be monitored and cared for, over not just decades, but may be centuries as well.
Of all the challenges, the task of planting is the simplest. Shelby Barber from Canada can do an amazing 4,000 trees in a day. “People talking about planting millions billions of trees around the world. Is it possible do you think, physically?” asked BBC.
“It’s definitely possible with the right amount of people, the right group of people. I’ve personally, in three years, planted just over half a million trees.” said Professor Rob MacKenzie.
Once planted, the trees need to survive, and experts are mixing different types to minimize the risk of disease. “It’s a bit like making sure you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you’re spreading out your risk. And then if one part of that woodland fails, for whatever reason, it gets a disease or it can’t tolerate future climatic conditions, there are other parts of the forest that are healthy and able to fill in those gaps.” said Eleanor Tew of Forestry England.
Suddenly there’s momentum to plant trees on a scale never seen before. So what matters is doing it in a way that ensures the forests thrive — so they really do help with climate change.
1. Why is extra carbon dioxide piped to the trees in the experiment?| A．To predict the future atmospheric conditions. |
| B．To imitate the possible air condition in the future. |
| C．To create an instrument to measure atmospheric conditions. |
| D．To investigate the quality of air condition in the future. |
| A．oxygen | B．carbon dioxide | C．mess | D．purified gas |
| A．Minimizing the area of the woodland. |
| B．Studying future climatic conditions. |
| C．Planting different types of trees. |
| D．Avoiding mixing different species. |
| A．It should be advocated in terms of efficiency and convenience. |
| B．It is the most effective solution to fighting climate changes. |
| C．It will do more harm than good to the health of the environment. |
| D．It needs to be studied further as a measure against climate change. |
3 . Before joining the WNBA, Napheesa Collier won a national championship as a key player during the University of Connecticut’s undefeated 2016 season. Collier is also on another team: She’s an Eco Athletes champion. Eco Athletes is a nonprofit launched just over a year ago, with the mission to inspire and coach athletes to lead climate action. In its first year, 34 current and retired professional athletes have joined the team, from a wide range of sports and countries.
“My teammates and I talk about a lot of issues, but we haven’t gotten into it on climate yet,” says Collier. “Two things my teammates do talk about are racial and economic injustice. I know that climate change makes these issues much more difficult to deal with. I hope Eco Athletes can help me bring people’s attention to it and to act on positive solutions. ”
Although there’s a long history of athletes taking a stand on social justice issues, they have been more hesitant to speak out about climate change for a number of reasons, explains Lewis Blaustein, the founder of Eco Athletes. “First, some athletes prefer to not publicly engage in polities, which is common to a range of advocacy work. Second, when it comes to climate, athletes worried about communicating the science poorly. Finally, fears of being labeled a ‘climate fake(冒充者)’also stood in the way. ”
To overcome these challenges, Eco Athletes offers athletes access to a resource center and organizes events for athletes to learn from climate scientists and other climate experts. In turn, athletes can share their passion for the environment with their fans, get involved in more direct action and even advocate for policy change.
“A lot of it is trying to educate our followers and talk about climate change,” says Collier. “Caring about the Earth shouldn’t be a hobby or an identity, but a responsibility that everyone recognizes as their own. Once that happens, sustainability will become a value in everyday decision making and all those actions will add up. ”
1. Why was Eco Athletes set up?| A．To promote eco-friendly sports. |
| B．To provide a platform for world leaders. |
| C．To appeal to athletes to take climate action. |
| D．To inspire coaches to lead climate activities. |
| A．High economic pressure. | B．Lack of related knowledge. |
| C．Poor interpersonal relationships. | D．Worry about breaking sports rules. |
| A．Access to sports skills. | B．Ways to attract followers. |
| C．Chances to learn climate science. | D．Rights to draft climate policies. |
| A．Responsibility falls on climate experts. | B．Greatness comes from small beginnings. |
| C．The spirits of sports make great athletes. | D．Active engagement makes a difference. |
4 . Somalia, Kenya, and now Ethiopia are warning of a serious drought (干旱)that affects millions of people in Eastern Africa. In Ethiopia’s Somali area, people have seen the failures of what should have been three straight rainy seasons. Droughts do come and go over the years. However, the lack of rainfall has led to the driest conditions in 40 years in parts of Somalia and Ethiopia.
UNICEF is the United Nation’s children’s agency. Local Zaynab Wali told a visiting team with UNICEF that she and her seven children had never seen a drought like this. She said the government gave out food for animals during the last drought five years ago. “This time, we even don’t have enough food for our family.”
Children walk among the bodies of dead animals, which died from lack of food and energy. Somalia Consortium works to improve international aid for Somalia. It said in a separate statement that in Somalia, more than 7 million people need emergency help. It is asking international organizations to give much more to the country.
“We are just one month into the long dry season, and I have already lost 25 goats and sheep,” Hafsa Bedel in Ethiopia’s Somali area told UNICEF. She also lost four camels, a large desert animal, as well. She said there was nowhere for her animals to eat. She added that there was not enough food for her own family, including her six children.
UNICEF thinks that more than 150,000 children in such areas of Ethiopia have dropped out of school. They are needed to help find the limited amount of water and help their families with other work.
One young boy was seen supporting an animal, a donkey. The donkey was once important for carrying goods. But now, it had become too weak to walk on its own.
1. Why did Zaynab Wali mention the last drought?| A．To show the need to protect animals. | B．To express her disappointment this time. |
| C．To prove the high frequency of drought. | D．To praise the government for its timely help. |
| A．Get more foreign help. |
| B．Warn people of the risk of drought. |
| C．Offer more education to the children there. |
| D．Make clear the number of people in need. |
| A．The sweet picture of the boy and the animal. |
| B．The functions of animals in farming. |
| C．The importance of taking care of the weak animal. |
| D．The seriousness of the drought. |
| A．Drought in Eastern Africa Leaves Animals in Danger |
| B．Drought Makes People of Eastern Africa Leave Their Home |
| C．UN Officials Care for Children Affected by Drought |
| D．Millions Face Risk as Drought Affects Eastern Africa |
5 . The earth is warming. The past years are the warmest on record. Greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for 1.1°C of average warming since 1900. What we’re experiencing is different from the global average. We experience extreme weather — historic droughts, serious heatwaves, violent storms and catastrophic (灾难性的) floods.
We won’t feel the impact of our efforts for decades. But we must know our future today so we can act now. To develop the best strategies for adaptation, we need climate models to predict the climate in different regions over decades. Unlike predicting the weather, climate models are multi-decade simulations (模拟) modeling the physics chemistry and biology of the atmosphere, waters, ice, land and human activities.
Greater resolution is needed to model changes in the global climate. Scientists estimate that these resolutions will demand billions of times more computing power than what’s currently available. It would take decades to achieve that through the ordinary course of computing advances.
For the first time, we have the technology to do that. We can achieve million-x speedups by combining three technologies: GPU-accelerated computing; breakthroughs in physics-informed neural (神经的) networks and AI supercomputers, along with vast quantities of data to learn from.
With these techniques, we may have within our grasp the billion-x leap needed to do ultra-high-resolution (超高分辨率) climate modeling. And with more accurate predictions people and nations will act with more urgency.
NVIDIA this week announced plans to build the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer used to predict climate change Named Earth-2, the system would create a digital twin of the Earth. The system would be the climate change to Cambridge-1 the world’s most powerful AI supercomputer for healthcare research.
1. What is one of the results mentioned in the text of global warming?| A．Water shortage. | B．Loss of coastal cities. |
| C．Rise of sea level. | D．More extreme weather. |
| A．It will cost billions of money. | B．The climate changes frequently. |
| C．Technology now can’t meet the needs. | D．The model of the earth is too difficult to build. |
| A．What advance AI has made recently. |
| B．What makes it hard to model the global climate. |
| C．What makes modelling the global climate possible. |
| D．What scientists’ plan to model the global climate is. |
| A．A travel guide. | B．A news report. |
| C．A short story. | D．A science fiction. |
6 . “A lot of the time when climate change is discussed in mainstream media, people are asking ‘can humans overcome this?’, or ‘what technology can solve this?’. It’s high time we recognized that animals also have to adapt to various changes. We know some animals change their skin colors to escape from natural enemies or due to environment pollution,” says Ryding. “The climate change that we have created is putting a lot of pressure on them, and some species try to adapt by shapeshifting (变形). ”
Strong shapeshifting has particularly been reported in birds. Several species of Australian parrot have shown, on average, a 4%—10% increase in beak (鸟喙) size since 1871, and this is positively linked with the summer temperature each year. North American dark-eyed juncos, a type of small songbird, had a link between increased beak size and short-term temperature extremes in cold environments. There have also been reported changes in mammalian species. Researchers have reported tail length increases in wood mice and leg size increases in masked shrews (鼩鼱).
“The increases in some body parts size we see so far are quite small—less than 10%—so the changes are unlikely to be immediately noticeable,” says Ryding. “However, some body parts such as ears are predicted to increase.”
Ryding intends to investigate shapeshifting in Australian birds firsthand by 3D scanning museum bird specimens from the past 100 years. It will give her team a better understanding of which birds are changing their body parts and why. “Shapeshifting does not mean that animals are coping with climate change and that all is ‘fine’,” says Ryding. “It just means they are adapting to survive it—but we’re not sure what the other ecological consequences of these changes are, or indeed that all species are capable of changing and surviving. ”
1. What may cause animals’ shapeshifting according to Ryding?| A．Human hunting. | B．Climate change. |
| C．Natural enemies. | D．Polluted surroundings. |
| A．Giving examples. | B．Cause-effect analysis. |
| C．Making comparison. | D．Process analysis. |
| A．Animals can well adapt to changes and survive. |
| B．Influence of animals’ shapeshifting is uncertain. |
| C．Rdying will research into bird museums in Australia. |
| D．All adaptations of animals to climate change are beneficial. |
| A．Technology. | B．Health care. | C．Environment. | D．Education. |
7 . Alaska’s Yukon River has faced major salmon shortages in recent years. Officials say record-high temperatures last year killed most salmon in the 3,200-kilometer river before the fish were able to reproduce. The losses led Alaska to stop their salmon harvests in 2021 to make sure that enough fish survived to reproduce for another year.
The poor salmon harvests caused major financial losses to private fishing companies in the area. The die-offs also hurt native communities, which traditionally store the fish as a year-round food supply.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Commerce declared a disaster for Yukon River fishing for 2020 and 2021, making aid money available. Alaska has sent emergency fish shipments to areas affected by the salmon shortages.
Scientists have mostly blamed the problems on a series of heat waves in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean from 2014 to 2019. The warm ocean waters affected salmon’s living in the sea before they returned to lay eggs.
Climate change may also be affecting what the salmon are eating. Fishing experts say young salmon are likely filling up on nutrient-poor food because warmer waters drive away healthier organisms (有机物) they normally feed on. “In my opinion, the salmon are starving with climate change,” said Brooke Woods in the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
The effects of climate change on freshwater environments have also been studied. Vanessa von Biela is a biologist who looked at the rivers, streams and lakes where salmon live. Her team found that Chinook salmon show heat stress at temperatures above 18℃. They start dying above 20℃. In 2019, temperatures on the Alaskan side were above 18℃ for 44 straight days, a recent study found.
The effects of warming waters can be reduced by climate-driven glacier (冰川) runoff, which brings cooler water into rivers and streams. But scientists still expect salmon to begin slowly moving to new areas within Alaska. “Salmon will find a way,” said Biela. “but it’s going to be hard for communities in places where there might not be salmon anymore.”
1. What do the locals rely on salmon for?| A．Food supply. | B．Scientific study. | C．Green tourism. | D．Water improvement. |
| A．Financial losses. | B．Relief funds. | C．Economic growth. | D．Fast delivery. |
| A．No healthy organisms are left there. | B．Salmon there lose the ability to lay eggs. |
| C．Salmon there go short of nutritious food. | D．The temperature remains above 18℃ till now. |
| A．Measures to protect salmon are effective. | B．Salmon will not find a way out of the crisis. |
| C．The amount of salmon will increase greatly. | D．Salmon are likely to leave the river for survival. |
8 . Thousands of families will hit Europe’s ski resorts this month, hoping that snow conditions will be more favourable than at the start of the season in December. A warming world is changing precisely how, when and where snow falls. For the winter-sports industry, such shifts could hit profits harder than a springtime avalanche (雪崩).
The snowfall season has become shorter in places such as the Alps, says David Robinson of Rutgers University in New Jersey, as snow arrives later and melts earlier than it once did. Resorts at lower altitudes are among the most affected. Since the beginning of the 1980s the duration of the snow season, averaged over the northern hemisphere, has declined by five days a decade, according to the European Environment Agency. Huge regional variation exists, however both in Europe and elsewhere. Californian resorts that were unable to open in recent years because of snow shortages had to close at the start of 2021.
For resorts worried about strange weather, there are plenty of firms to help with piste-covering (铺设滑雪道). Snow guns and other devices use water and compressed air to allow tiny snow crystals to form if it is cold enough. According to Max Rougeaux, a manager at the firm, it produces about 4,500 machines a year. Turnover has grown from €90m in 2011 to €170m as more and more resorts try to satisfy snow-seekers. The cost of covering pistes with manufactured snow depends on many factors including the type of terrain (地形).
No snowmaker can stand still when global temperatures are changing. Thus, firms spend around 5% of revenues in researching how to make snow even when temperatures are around 0℃. Humidity (湿度) affects the process: the damper the air the less moisture it can absorb and the colder it must become for snow crystals to form from water droplets. Snowmakers have enjoyed much success recently but profits will be limited if their flakes turn to slush (雪水).
1. What’s the effect of the change of snowfall?| A．More visitors to ski resorts. | B．Earlier springtime avalanches. |
| C．A more serious warming world. | D．A decline of snow-sports industry. |
| A．It varies from place to place slightly. |
| B．It doesn’t affect resorts at high altitudes. |
| C．It doesn’t change in the southern hemisphere. |
| D．It has shortened by about 20 days in some areas. |
| A．No snowmakers can stand the climate change. |
| B．Rising temperatures don’t affect snowmaking. |
| C．Snowmakers react actively to global warming. |
| D．All snowmakers invest much in various devices. |
| A．The effects of a warming climate. |
| B．Snow shortage faced by ski lovers. |
| C．A chance and challenge for snowmakers. |
| D．New equipment created by snowmakers. |
9 . Winemaker Justin Jarrett remembers when the grape harvest used to start. He and his wife Pip, used to take their kids on an annual beach holiday in February. When they returned to their vineyards (葡萄园) in the regional New South Wales city of Orange, Australia, in early autumn, they’d start the harvest. Today, harvest starts six weeks earlier in January.
“What we did 20 years ago can’t work today, ”Jarrett says. “You have to adjust. ”
Scientists used to have big debates about how to talk to farmers about climate change, says Snow Barlow, a professor specialising in viticulture at the University of Melbourne. But recently there’s been a sea change. “Farmers are now saying. This is serious and we want to get on with doing things, ” he says.
“Wine is a classical industry that has been very influenced by climate, ” Barlow says. “You grow grapes in particular areas because you think it’s the ideal place to grow a particular grape to create the perfect wine. ”
Rising temperatures are not just affecting harvest times, but also the types of grapes that grow well in particular areas. Major labels, such as Brown Brothers, have moved some of their operations to the southern state of Tasmania where there are cooler sites for varieties such as chardonnay and pinot noir. Others are changing their varietal mix, introducing grapes from southern Italy, Sicily and Greece that are more heat- tolerant.
The Jarretts have spent years adapting their winemaking business for a warmer world. They’ve invested in infrastructure, helped them manage the compressed (缩短的) harvest time, and introduced more sustainable soil and pest (害虫) management practices.
Jarrett is growing their grape varieties at higher elevations (海拔高度) than he used to. Sauvignon blanc, for instance, which he used to grow at 700m, has been moved up to 900m. He thinks he can keep moving his operations up to about 1100m before he has to buy more land.
“We have to have a 20-year plan. If we’re going to move a variety or change something, we have to have at least 20 years of success to make it worthwhile,” Jarrett says. “We are really looking at varieties that are now considered hot climate. ”
1. What do the Jarretts have to adjust to?| A．Their holiday plan. | B．Their neighborhood. |
| C．The identity as winemakers. | D．The earlier grape harvest. |
| A．Scientists were divided over climate change. | B．Warm climate has caused a change in the sea. |
| C．Wine industry is particular about grape suppliers. | D．Farmers are aware of the gravity of climate change. |
| A．By putting off the harvest time. | B．By introducing heat- tolerant grapes. |
| C．By planting grapes at higher elevations. | D．By moving their operations to a new land. |
| A．Great minds think alike. | B．It is rewarding to try new things. |
| C．It is better to play safe than take risks. | D．One man’s meat is another man’s poison. |
10 . It is quite clear to me, based on my research, that tropical (热带的) insects rather than polar bears could be among the first species to become extinct as a result of global warming.
Insects in the tropics are already living at the limit of their temperature range and any further increases could quickly kill them off. This would be a major disaster for tropical habitats, which rely on insects for everything from pollination (授粉) to waste disposal (处理). We have found that a rise in average temperatures in the tropics of just 1℃ or 2℃ could be enough to bring about a significant and harmful effect on the survival of a wide variety of important insects. Fitness levels most likely decline quickly and there may not be much we can do about it.
Many tropical species can only accept a narrow range of temperatures because the climate they experience is pretty steady throughout the year. Now our study shows that they will be harmed by rising temperatures more than species in cold climates. Unfortunately, the tropics also hold the large majority of species on the planet.
We used daily and monthly global temperatures from the 50-year period between 1950 and 2000 and compared them against data showing the “fitness levels” of different species. “Fitness” was determined by indicators such as population growth rates and physical performance for different creatures.
We found that even moving into the shade did not help the insects. The direct effects of climate change on the organisms (生物体) we studied appear to depend a lot more on the organisms’ flexibility than on the amount of warming in the area where they lived.
As well as the danger for insects, the research confirms that there will be other consequences of global warming that could also have a serious impact on tropical regions, particularly on food crops. Our research focused only on the impact of changes in temperature, but warming also will change rainfall patterns. These changes could be more important for many tropical organisms, such as plants, but they are harder to predict.
1. What does the underlined word “This” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Global warming. | B．Living in the tropics. |
| C．Killing polar bears off. | D．Insects becoming extinct. |
| A．The fitness of crops they feed on is declining. |
| B．They can hardly stand up to temperature changes. |
| C．Their living environment has been greatly damaged. |
| D．The amount of warming is not steady in the tropics. |
| A．The significance of the research. |
| B．The challenge facing the researchers. |
| C．Predictions about the impacts of global warming. |
| D．Suggestions on how to preserve tropical regions. |
| A．To solve a problem. | B．To give practical advice. |
| C．To report a coming event. | D．To present a research result. |
