READING PASSAGE 2 (对应考试日期：2013年11月9日 2010年10月30日 2009年3月28日 2009年1月10日 2007年9月20日)

 

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on

 

Reading Passage 2 below.

 

The summer of 2003 has, in a sense, been one that climate scientists have long been expecting. Until now, the warming has been manifesting itself mainly in winters that have been less cold than in summers that have been much hotter. Last week, the United Nations predicted that winters were warming so quickly that winter sports would die out in Europe’s lower-level ski resorts. But sooner or later the unprecedented hot summer was bound to come, and this year it did.

One of the most dramatic features of the summer was the hot nights, especially in the first half of August. In Paris, the temperature never dropped below 23°C (73.4°F) at all between 7 and 14 August, and the city recorded its warmest-ever night on 11-12 August, when the mercury did not drop below 25.5°C (77.9°F). Germany recorded its warmest-ever night at Weinbiet in the Rhine valley with a lowest figure of 27.6°C (80.6°F) on 13 August, and similar record-breaking nighttime temperatures were recorded in Switzerland and Italy.

The 15,000 excess deaths in France during August, compared with previous years, have been related to the high night-time temperatures. The number gradually increased during the first 12 days of the month, peaking at about 2,000 per day on the night of 12-13 August, then fell off dramatically after 14 August when the minimum temperatures fell by about 5°C. The elderly were most affected, with a 70 per cent increase in mortality rate in those aged 75-94.

For Britain, the year as a whole is likely to be the warmest ever recorded, but despite the high temperature record on 10 August, the summer itself — defined as the June, July and August period — still comes behind 1976 and 1995, when there were longer periods of intense heat. At the moment, the year is on course to be the third-hottest ever in the global temperature record, which goes back to 1856, behind 1998 and 2002, but when all the records for October, November and December are collated, it might move into second place, Professor Jones said. The 10 hottest years in the record have all now occurred since 1990. Professor Jones is in no doubt about the astonishing nature of European summer of 2003. “The temperatures recorded were out of all proportion to the previous record,” he said. “It was the warmest summer in the past 500 years and probably way beyond that. It was enormously exceptional.”

His colleagues at the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research are now planning a special study of it. “It was a summer that has not been experienced before, either in terms of the temperature extremes that were reached, or the range and diversity of the impacts of the extreme heat,” said the centre’s executive director, Professor Mike Hulme.

“It will certainly have left its mark on a number of countries, as to how they think and plan for climate change in the future, much as the 2000 floods have revolutionised the way the Government is thinking about flooding in the UK. “The 2003 heatwave will have similar repercussions across Europe.”

 

Questions 14-19

 

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet write

YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

 

14 The average summer temperature in 2003 is almost 4 degrees higher than the average temperature of the past.

15 Global warming is caused by human activities.

16 Jones believes the temperature variation is within the normal range.

17 The temperature is measured twice a day in major cities.

18 There were milder winters rather than hotter summers before 2003.

19 Governments are building new high-altitude ski resorts.

 

Questions 20-21

 

Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 20-21 on your answer sheet.

20 What are the other two hottest years in Britain besides 2003?

21 What will also influence government policies in the future like the hot summer in 2003?

 

Questions 22-25

 

Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

Write your answers in boxes 22-25 on your answer sheet.

The other two hottest years around globe were 22 . The ten hottest years on record all come after the year 23 . This temperature data has been gathered since 24 . Thousands of people died in the country of 25 .

 

Question 26

 

Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

Write your answer in box 26 on your answer sheet.

Which one of the following can be best used as the title of this passage?

A Global Warming

B What Caused Global Warming

C The Effects of Global Warming

D That Hot Year in Europe

 

Reading Passage 2.

题目详解

 

Questions 14-19

 

14. 利用细节信息“4 degrees”定位于第四段一句话“…when the anomaly is nearly four degrees”，题目与原文是同义表达，所以选择Yes。

15. 利用细节信息“global warming”和“human activities”，定位于第五段一句话“…global warming, caused by human actions”。题目与原文是同义表达，所以选择Yes。

16. 利用细节词“Jones”，定位于第五段开头，“It’s very unusual in a statistical sense. If this series had a normal statistical distribution, you wouldn’t get this number.”题目说这个温度变化正常，而原文说不正常(“unusual”)，题目与原文直接相反，所以选择No。

17. 原文中没有提及任何关于“measured twice in major cities”的信息。题目中出现原文未提及的细节信息或概念，所以选择Not Given。

18. 利用细节信息“milder winters rather than hotter summers”定位于第六段第2 行“the warming has been manifesting itself mainly in winters that have been less cold than in summers that have been much hotter”。题目与原文是同义表达，所以选择Yes。

19. 利用细节信息“ski resorts”定位于第六段倒数第二句话“…winter sports would die out in Europe’s lower-level ski resorts”。原文只说低海拔的滑雪胜地的冬季运动会消失，但是是否会修建高海拔的滑雪胜地并没有提及。题目中出现原文未提及的细节信息或概念，所以选择Not Given。

 

Questions 20-21

 

解答：20. 题目要求填写两个年代，利用反向思维，如果原文某个段落有答案则该段落必须出现两个或以上的年代(且不能是2003)和细节词“Britain”，由此可以定位与倒数第三段句话“For Britain…the summer itself…still comes behind 1976 and 1995”，所以答案为1976，1995。

21. 利用细节词“government policies”，可以定位于一段句话“…much as the 2000 floods have revolutionized the way the Government is thinking about flooding in the UK”。原文“revolutionize”对应题目“influence”，原文“the way the Government is thinking”对应题目“policies”，所以答案为2000 floods。

 

Questions 22-25

 

22. 与21 题相似，题目要求填写两个年代，利用反向思维，如果原文某个段落有答案则该段落必须出现两个或以上的年代，再利用细节信息“around the globe”可以定位于倒数第三段第四行，“the year is on course to the be third-hottest ever in the global temperature record, which goes back to 1856, behind 1998 and 2002”，所以答案为1998and 2002。

23. 利用细节词“ten hottest years”，定位于倒数第三段中间靠后“the 10 hottest years in the record have all now occurred since 1990”，所以答案为1990。

24. 这道题对应的细节信息与21 题对应的细节信息是同一句话“the year is on course to the be third-hottest ever in the global temperature record, which goes back to 1856, behind 1998 and 2002”，“since”对应“dates back”，所以答案为1856。

25. 本题违反顺序原则，但是利用细节信息“thousands of people died”，同时根据“the country of”(可以得知答案应为一国家名)，可以定位于第6 页第三段句话“The 15,000 excess deaths in France…”，所以答案为France。

 

Question 26

 

思路：该题目为典型的主旨题，需要把全文通读之后才能解答，所以应放到做。解答时可以多利用反向思维和排除法。

选项A，如果全文的标题为“Global Warming”，则全文应围绕Global Warming 大做文章，可能要详细描述Global Warming 现象，提及成因，影响和应对等诸多方面。但是本文显然没有这样写，而是着重强调2003 年欧洲酷热这一现象，所以排除。

选项B，如果全文的标题为“What Caused Global Warming”，则全文应通篇讲述各种可能的原因和理论，而本文只在第三段和第五段轻描淡写的提了一下Global Warming 是“human actions”导致的，纯属细节，所以排除。

选项C，如果全文标题为“The Effects of Global Warming”，则全文应描述Global warming 导致的多个结果(“effects”是复数形式暗示多个结果)，例如：2003 年酷热、南北极冰川融化、极端气候现象、物种更快灭绝、粮食减产等等，而文章只讲到2003 年酷热这一个Global Warming 导致的结果，与此标题不符，所以排除。

选项D，与文章讲述2003 年酷热的主要内容符合，所以为正确答案。

 

参考译文

 

科学家们现在意识到，就在那个夏天，人们才真真切切地感受到全球变暖。2003 年的夏天是如此不同寻常：英国经历了有记录以来的气温，欧洲大陆森林大火肆虐，大河干枯，热浪造成了数以千计的死亡。但是这个夏天究竟有多么重大的意义，直到现在才渐渐明了。

六月、七月和八月是西欧以及中欧有史以来最热的几个月。葡萄牙、德国、瑞士和英国都记录了本国的温度，要比之前最热记录高得多。据世界气温监测 分析机构——位于诺里奇的东英格兰大学气候研究小组(CRU)报道称，从巴黎西部到意大利北部，以及瑞士和德国南部，这一矩形区域内的夏季平均气温比长期标准温度高出3.78℃。

超出的温度似乎并不算多，但是当你了解到以往的情况后就会意识到这是多么大的变化。这在过去任何地方的数据中 都是前所未有的。这种罕见的情况使得CRU 的主管菲尔· 琼斯教授准备发表公开声明，2003 年这种极端现象的出现不是自然界的气候变化，而是由于人类活动导致的全球变暖，以前只有少数几个科学家发布过类似声明。

到目前为止，这 种近期的高温和气象学家们预测的气候变化保持了一致。在北纬35-50 度、东经0-20 度之间的广大区域，CRU 拥有1781 年以来该区域的温度记录。以1961-1990 年间有记录的平均夏季温度为标准，可以很容易地将整个地区偏离正常温度的情况或者说“出现异常”的情况联系起来。下图所示是过去200 年间的气候变化，其中至少有6 次异常，图中的峰值代表了炎热的年份，其高出的温度接近甚至超过了2℃。但是这些和2003 年相比还差很远，这一年的异常将近超出4℃。

“这非常明显，”琼斯教授对《独立报》记者说，“从数据来看这非常不正常。这些数字不是按 正常状态分布的。回归期(再次发生高温的时间间隔)理应是数千年一次。让我们来看这超出平均温度的4 度，其中将近3 度可能来自自然界的变化，因为这些在过去的夏季中曾出现过。但是一度的升高则是由人类活动导致的全球变暖造成的。”从某种意义上说，气候学家们很早就 预测会出现2003 年这般炎热的夏天了。到目前为止，地球变暖主要表现为冬天升温，而不是夏天更热。上周，联合国预测冬季升温过于迅速，以至于欧洲低海拔滑雪胜地的冬季运动项目将会消亡。而就像这年的夏天一样，的炎夏迟早将会袭来。

这个夏季最突出的特点是夜晚炎热，尤其是八月上半月。在巴黎，8 月7 日至14 日之间气温从未低于23℃(73.4°F)，8 月11 日至12 日市区记录温度的那个晚上，温度则从未降到25.5℃(77.9°F)以下。德国记录中出现温的夜晚发生在莱茵河谷的Weinbiet，这里气温记录是8 月13 日的27.6℃，瑞士和意大利也出现了类似的夜间高温。

整个八月，法国和往年相比增加了15,000 例与夜间高温有关的死亡报告。该数字在当月的最初12 天里逐渐增加，8 月12 日至13 日夜间达到死亡2,000 例的峰，8月14 日后气温下降了5℃，死亡人数也随之明显减少。高温对老年人的影响最为严重，增加的死亡人数中有70% 年龄在75-94 之间。

在英国，这一年整体上本应该是历史温度，但是尽管8 月13 日出现了史上温，这一年的夏天——六月、七月和八月——还没有1976 年和1995 年热，在这两年中出现了较长时期的酷暑。同时，这一年成为1856 年有温度记录以来的第三高温年，排在前面的还有1998 年和2002 年。琼斯教授说，如果加上10 月、11 月、12 月的所有记载，这一年将成为第二高温年，而最热的10 年都发生在1990 年之后。琼斯教授对2003 年欧洲夏日的惊人现象一点都不感到怀疑。“该年的温度数据超出了以往所有记录的范围，”他说，“这是过去500 年甚至更长时间以来最热的一个夏季。这实在是不可思议。”

他在东英格兰大学廷德尔气候变化研究中心的同事们正在准备一项专门的研究计划。“这是一个前所未有的夏季，无论是温度达到的极端值，还是这场高温波及的范围和力度。”中心的行政主管迈克· 休谟教授如是说。

“这显然会促使很多国家在未来开始重视气候变化的问题并为之做出计划，正像2000 年英国大洪水革命性地改变了政府对洪水的看法一样。”2003 年的高温将会给欧洲带来类似的影响。