六级阅读第三十七天(加强卷)完整版.pdfVIP

Passage ★★★☆☆ Questions 1to 5are basedonthe following passage. An image taken of the Pacific Ocean last September is astonishing. Made using data collected from satellites monitored by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the picture shows the surface level ofthe Pacificas clearly as a yardstick lyingacross a lumpy bed.One sample ofwater--with avolume 30times that of all the Great Lakes--iswhite, indicatingthat it isas muchas 13inches higherthan its normallevel. ElNinoexpertsarestillstrivingtotacklethe reallybigquestion:what iscausingtheabnormal ElNinobehaviorofthe pasttwodecades?Some said because global warming accelerates the pace of El Ninoformation and reinforces each event. Supporters of global warming as El Nino instigator include Kevin Trenberth, a climate analyst with the National CenterforAtmospheric ResearchinBoulder,Colorado. Theresevidence that global warming didnt have much impact until 1979, but now its beginningto breakthrough, hesays. Two additional arguments are on the table. One theory is that the recent El Ninoepidemic is simply one of naturesclimatictiffs, butthat we haventbeenheatingthetune longenoughto recognizethe change in key.One problemisthat historicaldata on El Ninoissketchy priorto theearly1970sandalmostnonexistentgoingbackmorethan 50years.If onelooksbackfurther,however,fossilevidencesuggeststhatsomething about El Nino has indeed changed. Fossil records of coral in the GalapagosIslands showthat some4,000 years ago,an El Ninooccurred only every 60years or so. Studies of tree rings and ice cores indicate a more recent cycle of seven years, still much less frequent than the presentcycleofeverythreeorfouryears. RecordsareaccurateenoughtoshowthatwereinthesecondElNino intensive era of the past 100years. The first was during the 1920s and 30s, and probably was responsible for the Dust Bowl, when drought destroyed hundredsoffarms inOklahoma and northTexas. The second seems to h