雅思阅读自然地理类真题：ANewIceAge

时间：2024-03-11 06:55:49 楚薇20由分享

　　大家在备考雅思的阅读的时候，多多参考一下往年的真题可以帮助我们了解雅思阅读考试的题型和考点，为了方便大家，下面小编给大家带来雅思阅读自然地理类真题：A New Ice Age。

雅思阅读自然地理类真题：A New Ice Age

　　A New Ice Age

　　William Curry is a serious, sober climate scientist, not an art critic .But he has

　　spent a lot of time perusing Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s famous painting “George

　　Washington Crossing the Delaware,” which depicts (v. 描绘)a boatload of

　　colonial American soldiers making their way to attack English and Hessian

　　troops the day after Christmas in 1776. “Most people think these other guys in

　　the boat are rowing, but they are actually pushing the ice away,” says Curry,

　　tapping his finger on a reproduction of the painting. Sure enough, the lead

　　oarsman is bashing the frozen river with his boot. “I grew up in Philadelphia.

　　The place in this painting is 30 minutes away by car. I can tell you, this kind of

　　thing just doesn’t happen anymore.”

　　But it may again soon. And ice-choked scenes, similar to those immortalized

　　by the 16th-century Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, may also return

　　to Europe. His works, including the 1565 masterpiece “Hunters in the Snow,”

　　make the now-temperate European landscapes look more like Lapland. Such

　　frigid settings were commonplace during a period dating roughly from 1300

　　to 1850 because much of North America and Europe was in the throes of a

　　little ice age. And now there is mounting evidence that the chill could return. A

　　growing number of scientists believe conditions are ripe for another prolonged

　　cooldown, or small ice age. While no one is predicting a brutal ice sheet like

　　the one that covered the Northern Hemisphere with glaciers (n. 冰川)about

　　12,000 years ago, the next cooling trend could drop average temperatures

　　5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States and 10 degrees in the

　　Northeast, northern Europe, and northern Asia.

　　C “It could happen in 10 years,” says Terrence Joyce, who chairs the Woods Hole

　　Physical Oceanography Department. “Once it does, it can take hundreds of

　　years to reverse.” And he is alarmed that Americans have yet to take the threat

　　seriously.

　　A drop of 5 to 10 degrees entails much more than simply bumping up the

　　thermostat and carrying on. Both economically and ecologically, such quick,

　　persistent chilling could have devastating consequences. A 2002 report titled

　　“Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises,” produced by the National

　　Academy of Sciences, pegged the cost from agricultural losses alone at $100

　　billion to $250 billion while also predicting that damage to ecologies could be

　　vast and incalculable. A grim sampler: disappearing forests, increased housing

　　expenses, dwindling freshwater, lower crop yields (n. 产量)，and accelerated

　　species extinctions.

　　Political changes since the last ice age could make survival far more difficult

　　for the world’s poor. During previous cooling periods, whole tribes simply

　　picked up and moved south, but that option doesn’t work in the modern, tense

　　world of closed borders. “To the extent that abrupt climate change may cause

　　rapid and extensive changes of fortune for those who live off the land, the

　　inability to migrate may remove one of the major safety nets for distressed

　　people,” says the report.

　　But first things first. Isn’t the earth actually warming? Indeed it is, says Joyce.

　　In his cluttered office, full of soft light from the foggy Cape Cod morning,

　　he explains how such warming could actually be the surprising culprit of the

　　next mini-ice age. The paradox is a result of the appearance over the past 30

　　years in the North Atlantic of huge rivers of fresh water the equivalent of a

　　10-foot-thick layer-mixed into the salty sea. No one is certain where the fresh

　　torrents are coming from, but a prime suspect is melting (adj. 融化的)Arctic

　　ice, caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that traps solar

　　energy.

　　G The freshwater trend is major news in ocean-science circles. Bob Dickson,

　　a British oceanographer who sounded an alarm at a February conference in

　　Honolulu, has termed the drop in salinity and temperature in the Labrador

　　Sea— a body of water between northeastern Canada and Greenland that

　　adjoins the Atlantic”arguably the largest full-depth changes observed in the

　　modern instrumental oceanographic record.”

　　The trend ( n. 趋势)could cause a little ice age by subverting the northern

　　penetration of Gulf Stream waters. Normally, the Gulf Stream, laden with

　　heat soaked up in the tropics, meanders up the east coasts of the United States

　　and Canada. As it flows northward, the stream surrenders heat to the air.

　　Because the prevailing North Atlantic winds blow eastward, a lot of the heat

　　wafts to Europe. That’s why many scientists believe winter temperatures on

　　the Continent are as much as 36 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than those in

　　North America at the same latitude. Frigid Boston, for example, lies at almost

　　precisely the same latitude as balmy Rome. And some scientists say the heat

　　also warms Americans and Canadians. “It’s a real mistake to think of this

　　solely as a European phenomenon,” says Joyce.

　　Having given up its heat to the air, the now-cooler water becomes denser and

　　sinks into the North Atlantic by a mile or more in a process oceanographers

　　call thermohaline circulation. This massive

　　column of cascading cold is the main

　　engine powering a deepwater current called

　　the Great Ocean Conveyor that snakes

　　through all the world’s oceans. But as the North Atlantic fills with freshwater,

　　it grows less dense, making the waters carried northward by the Gulf Stream

　　less able to sink. The new mass of relatively freshwater sits on top of the

　　ocean like a big thermal blanket, threatening the thermohaline circulation.

　　That in turn could make the Gulf Stream slow or veer southward. At some

　　point, the whole system could simply shut down, and do so quickly. “There is

　　increasing evidence that we are getting closer to a transition point, from which

　　we can jump to a new state. Small changes, such as a couple of years of heavy

　　precipitation or melting ice at high latitudes, could yield a big response,” says

　　Joyce. Model of Pure Thermohaline Circulation

　　“You have all this freshwater sitting at high latitudes, and it can literally take

　　hundreds of years to get rid of it,” Joyce says. So while the globe as a whole

　　gets warmer by tiny fractions of 1 degree Fahrenheit annually, the North

　　Atlantic region could, in a decade, get up to 10 degrees colder. What worries

　　researchers at Woods Hole is that history is on the side of rapid shutdown.

　　They know it has happened before.

　　雅思阅读中不可忽略的逻辑关系

　　我们在雅思备考的过程中，尤其是学习雅思阅读，老师会特别强调四大逻辑关系在理解和做题中的重要作用。

　　在比较逻辑关系中，比较级是常见的论证方式，但是类比和对比也是英语文章中非常常见的论证手段，一般涉及到单个事物或若干个事物之间的比较，但这两种方法却有着本质上的不同。

　　类比(compare)强调两个对象的相似点，比如A和B的相同点是什么。而对比(contrast)则强调两个对象的不同点，比如A很高B却很低。

　　接下来，让我们从剑桥真题中看看，有哪些考点会涉及到类比和对比。

　　类比连接词

　　similarly, be similar to, as, like, alike，likewise, corresponding to, equal, identical, same, by the same token, the same is true of , in the same way, resemble，agree，share，harmony，compare to/with …, comparable

　　例题1 题目 C521 Q1 填空

　　Some plastics behave in a similar way to __________ in that they melt under heat and can be moulded into new forms.

　　文章 P2

　　Some are ‘thermoplastic’, which means that, like candlewax, they melt when heated and can be reshaped.

　　翻译：

　　有些塑料是“热塑型”的，这意味着，它们像蜡烛一样，会在加热时会融化，然后就可以重新塑形。

　　解析：

　　定位后，利用题中类比词in a similar way to, 可以找到文中对应词like, 也就是统一替换，答案就是candlewax了。

　　例题2 题目 C442 Q27 填空

　　However, as archaeologists do not try to influence human behaviour, the writer compares their style of working to that of a __________.

　　文章 Last Paragraph：

　　The objects the archaeologists discover, on the other hand, tell us nothing directly in themselves. In this respect, the practice of the archaeologist is rather like that of the scientist, who collects data, conducts experiments, formulates a hypothesis, tests the hypothesis against more data…

　　翻译：

　　另一方面，考古学家发现的这些物体本身并没有告诉我们什么。从这个方面说来，考古学家的实践经历跟科学家非常像，他们收集数据，操作实验，制定假说，用假说检验更多的数据。

　　解析：

　　审题时重点关注题中类比词compare ... to …，定位后，可以找到文中替换词rather like, 答案即 scientist。

　　例题3 题目 C10’11 Q11 表格填空

　　Looks more like a __________ than a well.

　　文章：

　　It actually resembles a tank (kund means reservoir or pond) rather than a well, but displays the hallmarks of step well architecture, including four sides of steps that decend to the bottom in a stunning geometrical formation.

　　翻译：

　　它实际上长的像一个水库(kund意味着水库或池塘)而不是一个井，但却展示了梯井结构的特点，包括下降到底部的四个阶梯面，这四面拥有着绝美的几何对称图案。

　　解析：

　　审题时关注类比词like，定位后，发现resemble，意思相当于look like, 答案呼之欲出 tank.

　　_对比连接词

　　while, however, nevertheless，otherwise，whereas, in contrast, on the contrary, rather than, instead of, conversely, unlike，different, incompatible, conflicting, change, vary, in opposition to, distinguish...from.. ，be distinct from sth…

　　例题1 题目 C10’23 Q37 判断

　　The approach of art historians conflicts with that of art museums.

　　文章：

　　Consequently, the dominant critical approach becomes that of the art historian, a specialised academic approach devoted to discovering the meaning of art within the cultural context of its time. This is in perfect harmony with the museum’s function.

　　翻译：

　　因此，主流的批判方法成为艺术史学家的批判方式，这是一种专门的学术方法，致力于发现在当时的文化背景下艺术的意义。这与博物馆的功能达到了完美一致。

　　解析：

　　审题时获取考点词conflict，正是对比连接词，定位后发现in harmony with，意思是“与……协调、一致”，所以二者并非矛盾，而是一致的，因此答案选NO。

　　例题2

　　题目 C11’32 Q18 判断

　　Dingle’s aim is to distinguish between the migratory behaviours of different species.

　　文章：

　　The value of his definition, Dingle argues, is that it focuses attention on what the phenomenon of wildebeest migration shares with the phenomenon of the aphids, and therefore helps guide researchers towards understanding how evolution has produced them all.

　　翻译：

　　Dingle认为，他定义的价值在于它将注意力集中于在牛羚迁徙现象与蚜虫迁徙现象的共同点上，因而有助于指导研究人员了解进化是如何将它们制造出来的。

　　解析：

　　审题关注到判断题对比词aim is to distinguish，定位后，对应到原文中的focuses attention on，发现类比词share，表示“共享，公用”，与题目的distinguish“区分”意思冲突，所以答案选择FALSE。

　　一般来说，阅读方面通过句子意思、句子关系、段落意思、段落关系的方法来理解文章的逻辑和要表达的观点非常关键。

　　关于逻辑关系的利用在剑桥真题实例不胜枚举，雅思阅读当中涉及到的比较级考点的题目还是很多的，建议大家在平时训练的时候，认真分析、总结并利用这些策略。

　　雅思阅读提分的三大必备要素　　

要素一：要具备扎实的语言功底

　　词汇量能体现语言功底来，词汇量直接影响的就是考生对于文章的细节的理解，进而影响做题速度和准确率，所以在雅思学习的任何阶段都不可忽略词汇的记忆，读到任何一篇新的文章，都会遇到一些比较关键的生词，大家在平时的学习中要注意积累，随时记下这些比较关键的生词，当然了，并不是要你记下一个就去查一个，而是在记录完一批后再去查，并时常拿出来反复记忆;

　　雅思培训7分班老师认为扎实的语法功底是另外一个影响文章理解的重要因素，雅思阅读中往往有很多从句、复合句，对于这些长难句的理解，万不可忽视的就是对句子的语法分析，熟悉语法规律才能在遇到这些长难句时准确快速的理解文章意思。

　　要素二：要对考试规律和题型的解题技巧非常了解

　　通常这是通过大量做题总结出来的，当然我们也为了让大家更快地了解并熟练使用这些规律和技巧，总结出了许多做题的经验供大家学习。当然了，你如果能在做题过程中总结出一些更适合自己使用的技巧那就更好了，因为只有在对题型了解足够充分的情况下，才有可能总结出一些可用的技巧。

　　要素三：要有目的地拓宽自己的阅读量

　　尤其是一些常考的题材，比如：自然科技类、社会人文类、语言类等。如果你原本知识面就较广泛，那么在雅思阅读中就更容易去理解文章大意，也更加有助于理解文章的细节信息。

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雅思阅读自然地理类真题：ANewIceAge