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  3. THE CLIMATE OF JAPAN (1) At the most general level, two major climatic forces determine Japan’s weather. Prevailing westerly

THE CLIMATE OF JAPAN (1) At the most general level, two major climatic forces determine Japan’s weather. Prevailing westerly

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问题                                                 THE CLIMATE OF JAPAN
    (1) At the most general level, two major climatic forces determine Japan’s weather. Prevailing westerly winds move across Eurasia, sweep over the Japanese islands, and continue eastward across the Pacific Ocean. In addition, great, cyclonic airflow (masses of rapidly circulating air) that arises over the western equatorial Pacific moves in a wheel-like fashion northeastward across Japan and nearby regions. During winter months heavy masses of cold air from Siberia dominate the weather around Japan. Persistent cold winds skim across the Sea of Japan from the northwest, picking up moisture that then deposits as several feet of snow on the western side of the mountain ranges on Honshu Island. As the cold air drops its moisture, it flows over high ridges and down eastern slopes to bring cold, relatively dry weather to valleys and coastal plains and cities.
    (2) In spring the Siberian air mass warms and loses density, enabling atmospheric currents over the Pacific to steer warmer air into northeast Asia. This warm, moisture-laden air covers most of southern Japan during June and July. The resulting late spring rains then give way to a drier summer that is sufficiently hot and muggy, despite the island chain’s northerly latitude, to allow widespread rice cultivation.
    (3) Summer heat is followed by the highly unpredictable autumn rains that accompany the violent tropical windstorms known as typhoons. These cyclonic storms originate over the western Pacific and travel in great clockwise arcs, initially heading west toward the Philippines and southern China, curving northward later in the season. Cold weather drives these storms eastward across Japan through early autumn, revitalizing the Siberian air mass and ushering in a new annual weather cycle.
    (4) This yearly cycle has played a key role in shaping Japanese civilization. [A] It has assured the islands ample precipitation, ranging irregularly from more than 200 centimeters annually in parts of the southwest to about 100 in the northeast and averaging 180 for the country as a whole. [B] The moisture enables the islands to support uncommonly lush forest cover, but the combination of precipitous slopes and heavy rainfall also give the islands one of the world’s highest rates of natural erosion, intensified by both human activities and the natural shocks of earthquakes and volcanism. [C] These factors have given Japan its wealth of sedimentary basins, but they have also made mountainsides extremely susceptible to erosion and landslides and hence generally unsuitable for agricultural manipulation. [D]
    (5) The island chain’s mountains backbone and great length from north to south produce climatic diversity that has contributed to regional differences. Generally sunny winters along the Pacific seaboard have made habitation there relatively pleasant. Along the Sea of Japan, on the other hand, cold, snowy winters have discouraged settlement. Furthermore, although annual precipitation is high in that region, much of it comes as snow and rushes to the sea as spring runoff, leaving little moisture for farming.
    (6) Summer weather patterns in northern Honshu, and especially along the Sea of Japan, have also discouraged agriculture. The area is subject to the Yamase effect, when cool air from the north sometimes lowers temperatures sharply and damages farm production. The impact of this effect has been especially great on rice cultivation because, if it is to grow well, the rice grown in Japan requires a mean summer temperature of 20 degree centigrade or higher. A drop of 2 to 3 degree centigrade can lead to a 30—50 percent drop in rice yield, and the Yamase effect is capable of exceeding that level. This Yamase effect does not, however, extend very far south, where most precipitation comes in the form of rain and the bulk of it in spring, summer, and fall, when most useful for cultivation. Even the autumn typhoons, which deposit most of their moisture along the southern seaboard, are beneficial because they promote the start of the winter crops that for centuries have been grown in southern Japan.
    (7) In short, for the past two millennia, the climate in general and patterns of precipitation in particular have encouraged the Japanese to cluster their settlements along the southern coast, most densely along the sheltered Inland Sea, moving into the northeast. The limits that topography imposed on production have been tightened by climate, with the result that agricultural output has been more modest and less reliable, making the risk of crop failure and hardship commensurately greater.
Look at the four squares [ ■ ] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
Such a large amount of rainfall has both positive and negative effects on the environment of the Japanese islands.
Where would the sentence best fit?
选项
答案B
解析 本题属于插入句子题，句子意为"如此大量的降水对日本列岛的环境既有正面影响，也有负面影响"。Such a large amount of rainfall说明前一句应当与降水量相关，B处前一句阐述的便是日本列岛的降水量，故句子插在B处最合适。A处前一句并未提及任何有关降水量的内容，故排除A项。C处前一句指出了降水量对日本列岛的积极影响和消极影响，正好与插入句后半部分的内容相对应，是对插入句后半部分的补充解释，更适合位于插入句之后，故D处也不选。
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