Man travels the world to photograph melting glaciers

山東 李培貞

主題語境：人物 篇幅：314詞 建議用時：6分鐘

1Not too long ago,41-year-old Garrett Fisher flew in a small airplane close to the surface of Europe's largest glacier,which is in Norway.

2Information from the European Environmental Agency,or EEA,says glaciers in the Alps Mountains have lost about half of their volume since 1900.The melting has gotten faster since the 1980s.The EEA said that by 2100,the size of European glaciers could decrease by between 22 percent and 84 percent.Another EEA estimate suggested that up to 89 percent could melt.The EEA also said nearly all small glaciers in Norway would likely disappear.

3For Fisher,this means that time is running out.The melting pushes him to try to photograph the glaciers before it is too late.In the late 1990s,a friend told Fisher that the world's glaciers were disappearing,which pushed him to combine his love of flying and photography to photograph the Earth's remaining glaciers.

4He believes his photographs could be of great value to future generations.So he has launched Global Glacier Initiative,a non-profit group to support and show his work.He plans to open his photos to the public for research.Fisher flies a small plane called Piper Super Cub which can carry two people.“The weather is bad,especially the extremely cold and strong winds,which makes photography technically difficult,”Fisher said.“And to photograph glaciers,we're getting very close to all of this action.So it requires a lot of skill,time and determination.”

5Some people would ask,“Why did you risk flying over glaciers when satellites already give pictures of them?”Fisher said that satellite images don't capture the beauty of glaciers the way his photos can.His photos show the colors,shapes,and shadows as the light from the sun hits the glaciers.“Science has all of the data we need...The problem is,it's not beautiful,”he said.

Reading

Check

Gist

1.What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?

A.The urgency of protecting glaciers.

B.The seriousness of glaciers'melting.

C.The cause of the disappearance of glaciers.

D.The recent research on glaciers'melting.

Detail

2.What drove Fisher to take pictures of glaciers?

A.Words from a friend of his.

B.An invitation from a photography studio.

C.Photos taken by satellites.

D.His enthusiasm for glaciers.

Detail

3.Why is Fisher's shooting challenging?

A.Time is limited.

B.The weather is terrible.

C.He doesn't have professional equipment.

D.He doesn't have complicated shooting skills.

Inference

4.What can we know from Fisher's words in the last paragraph?

A.His pictures cost more time and are more difficult to take.

B.His pictures of glaciers have more scientific research value.

C.His pictures focus on presenting glaciers' beauty in various aspects.

D.His pictures provide more detailed information on glaciers for the public.

Language

Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

In the late 1990s,a friend told Fisher that the world's glaciers were disappearing,which pushed him to combine his love of flying and photography to photograph the Earth's remaining glaciers.20 世紀90 年代末，一個朋友告訴費希爾，世界上的冰川正在消失，這促使他將自己對飛行和攝影的熱愛結合起來，拍攝地球上僅存的冰川。

【點石成金】本句是一個復合句。a friend told Fisher that the world's glaciers were disappearing 中的that 引導了一個賓語從句；which 引導一個非限制性定語從句，修飾前面整個句子。to photograph the Earth's remaining glaciers是不定式作目的狀語。

Ⅱ.Text-centered chunks

run out 用盡；耗盡

push sb to do 推動某人做

combine...and...把……和……結合起來

get close to 接近；靠近

risk doing 冒險做