Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase

admin2016-03-21  28

问题     Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase in the 1990s. Meanwhile, emissions of carbon dioxide rose continuously. This pause in warming has raised doubts in the public mind about climate change. A few sceptics say flatly that global warming has stopped. Others argue that scientists’ understanding of the climate is so flawed that their judgments about it cannot be accepted with any confidence. A convincing explanation of the pause therefore matters both to a proper understanding of the climate and to the credibility of climate science—and papers published over the past few weeks do their best to provide one.
    As evidence piled up that temperatures were not rising much, some scientists dismissed it as a temporary phenomenon. The temperature, they pointed out, had fallen for much longer periods twice in the past century or so, in 1880- 1910 and again in 1945-75, even though the general trend was up. Variability is part of the climate system and a 15-year pause, they suggested, was not worth getting excited about.
    An alternative way of looking at the pause’s significance was to say that there had been a slowdown but not a big one. Most records, including one of the best known, do not include measurements from the Arctic, which has been warming faster than anywhere else in the world. Using satellite data to fill in the missing Arctic numbers, Kevin Cowtan of the University of York, in Britain, and Robert Way of the University of Ottawa, in Canada, put the overall rate of global warming at 0. 12°C a decade between 1998 and 2012. A study by NASA puts the "Arctic effect" over the same period somewhat lower, at 0.07°C a decade, but that is still not negligible.
    It is also worth remembering that average warming is not the only measure of climate change. According to a study just published by Sonia Seneviratne of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, in Zurich, the number of hot days, the number of extremely hot days and the length of warm periods all increased during the pause. A more stable average temperature hides wider extremes.
    Still, attempts to explain away that stable average have not been convincing, partly because of the conflict between flat temperatures and rising CO2 emissions, and partly because observed temperatures are now falling outside the range climate models predict. The models embody the state of climate knowledge. If they are wrong, the knowledge is probably faulty, too. Hence attempts to explain the pause.
According to the first paragraph, the pause of global warming has______.

选项 A、caused panic in the public
B、been ignored by the public
C、been explained by some scientists
D、aroused suspicion and controversy

答案D

解析 根据题干定位到第一段,再根据the pause of global warming定位到第三句:Thispause in warming has raised doubts in the public mind about climate change.该句明确指出thepause in wanning has raised doubts,相当于选项[D]的aroused suspicion。后两句提到:A fewsceptics say flatly that global warming has stopped.Others argue that…通过a few say,othersargue that这些信息,我们知道这也引起了人们争议,故[D]项aroused suspicion and controversy“引起怀疑和争议”是正确答案。而[A]项的panic一词文章未体现;[B]项的ignored也不符合原文;[C]项的been explained在该段也未体现。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/hRZ7FFFM
0

随机试题
最新回复(0)