2017年全优指导高中英语人教版选修6课件：Unit 4 Global warming 4.1.pptVIP

Unit 4 Global warming 词海拾贝 难句剖析 理解诱思 【文章导语】Researchers have found a link between the heating up of the Earth and the size of mammals.For example,as temperatures went up,the size of horses went down,and vice versa1. Could global warming make us shorter? “Global warming could make humans shorter,”warn researchers who claim to have found evidence that it caused the world’s first horses to shrink2 nearly 50 million years ago. 词海拾贝 难句剖析 理解诱思 In fact,a team from the universities of Florida and Nebraska says it has found a link between the heating up of the Earth and the size of mammals—horses,in this case. Researchers used fossils to follow the evolution of horses from their earliest appearance 56 million years ago.“As temperatures went up their size went down,and vice versa;at one point they were as small as a house cat,”said Dr.Jonathan Bloch,curator3 of the Florida Museum of Natural History. The researchers say that the current warming could have the same effect on mammals—and could even make humans smaller. 词海拾贝 难句剖析 理解诱思 “Horses started out small,about the size of a small dog like a miniature schnauzer4.What’s surprising is that after they first appeared,they then became even smaller and then dramatically increased in size,and that exactly corresponds to the global warming event,followed by cooling. “It had been known that mammals were small during that time and that it was warm,but we hadn’t understood that temperature specifically was driving the evolution of body size,” Dr.Bloch said in the Science journal. 词海拾贝 难句剖析 理解诱思 译文: 研究人员警告:“全球变暖会让人类变矮。”他们声称已经找到全球变暖引起5千万年前最早出现的马变小的证据。 事实上,一个来自佛罗里达州和内布拉斯加州的大学的团队声称他们已经找到了全球变暖和哺乳动物体型大小之间的联系——这一案例中的哺乳动物就是指的马。 研究人员利用化石追溯马从5600万年前诞生至今的进化历程。“随着温度的升高,它们的个头变小,反之则变大;它们曾一度像家猫一样大。”来自佛罗里达州的自然历史博 物馆馆长乔纳森·布洛赫博士这样说到。 研究人员称,目前的变暖也许会对哺乳动物产生相同的影响——甚至会让人类的身高也变矮。 词海拾贝 难句剖析 理解诱思 “马最初的个头很小,和小狗的个头差不多,与迷你雪纳瑞犬不相上下。让人惊讶的是,最初马诞生一段时间之后,它们的个子甚至变得更小,之后又显著地变大,而这些变化和全球变暖以及之后的变冷正好是一致的。 布洛赫博士在《科学》杂志上发文说:“众所周知,哺乳动物在当时个头比较小,而且那时候气温较暖和,但我们还没意识到正是气