Ⅰ. 阅读理解
This season, the bushfires in Australia have burned more than 12. 35 million acres of land. At least 25 people have been killed and 2, 000 homes have been destroyed. According to the BBC, this is the most casualties(伤亡) from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.
Zeke Hausfather, an energy system analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather have made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. “The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia’s fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia, ” Hausfather added on Friday.
Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures are also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.
Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled burns and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched(派遣).
【语篇概述】本文是一篇说明文, 介绍了澳大利亚森林大火产生的条件和蔓延的原因。
1. What do the numbers in Paragraph 1 show?
A. The causes of Australian fires.
B. The results of Australian fires.
C. The damaged areas of Australian fires.
D. The property destruction of Australian fires.
【解析】选B。推理判断题。由第一段中This season, the bushfires in Australia have burned more than 12. 35 million acres of land. At least 25 people have been killed and 2, 000 homes have been destroyed. 这个季节, 澳大利亚的丛林大火已经烧毁了超过1 235万英亩的土地。至少25人死亡, 2 000所房屋被毁。可知, 本段的数字表明森林大火产生的严重后果。
2. Which of the following best explains “more susceptible to” underlined in the second paragraph?
A. Quick to adapt to. B. Sure to cause.
C. Sensitive to. D. Easy to be protected from.
【解析】选C。短语猜测题。由第二段中Zeke Hausfather, an energy system analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather have made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. (能源系统分析师和气候研究员Zeke Hausfather说, 气温升高和极端天气使澳大利亚更容易发生火灾, 并延长了火灾季节的长度。)可推测气温升高和极端天气使澳大利亚更容易发生火灾, more susceptible to 意为“更容易受到”, 与C项Sensitive to “对……敏感”意思相近。
3 . What can we infer from Trenberth’s research?
A. Global warming is the root cause of the bushfires.
B. Longer dry weather contributes to global warming.
C. Warmer ocean temperatures promote fires spreading.
D. The imbalanced energy leads to the temperature rising.
【解析】选A。推理判断题。由第三段的He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer. (他说, 一旦一个地区经历了两个月或更长时间的干旱, 它就会增加火灾及火灾蔓延的风险。那些由于全球变暖而改变的天气使得干旱持续的时间更长。)可推断, 全球气候变暖是森林火灾的根本原因。
4. What does the author intend to do in the last paragraph?
A. To stress the effects of Australian fires.
B. To show the methods for controlling burns.
C. To predict the seriousness of Australian fires.
D. To provide some advice about reducing damage.
【解析】选D。推理判断题。由第四段中Practices like controlled burns and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. (控制性烧林等做法和其他因素可影响对人员和财产的风险, 如预警系统和特定地区的开发类型。)可知, 作者在最后一段介绍控制火灾造成的伤害的方法。
