Sea ice in Antarctica falls to record lows

四川 鄔純碧

主題語境：環(huán)保 篇幅：336詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1It is deep winter in Antarctica,the time of year that the continent is surrounded by millions of square miles of the frozen ocean. But this year, there is a lot less sea ice than ever recorded before. It is bad news for people around the world, because sea ice helps control how quickly the rest of Antarctica's ice melts,which contributes to the global sea level rise.

2“It's a big enough deal to be alarming to climate scientists,”says Ted Scambos, who studies Antarctica at the University of Colorado Boulder.“We've seen a decline in sea ice cover since about 2016,but 2023 took a huge jump downward.”

3The missing ice is a problem for people far from Antarctica. While sea ice loss doesn't contribute directly to the sea level rise—melting sea ice doesn't add any extra water to the ocean—Antarctic sea ice acts like a protective collar around the continent.

4“Those ice shelves contain a lot of frozen water,and if they break and become a part of the ocean, that's going to raise global sea level,”says Marilyn Raphael, who studies Antarctic sea ice at the University of California,Los Angeles.

5Scientists are racing to figure out how much of that ice is likely to melt in the next hundred years,and to understand why the sea ice became smaller so suddenly this year.

6They are challenging questions to answer, because Antarctica and the ocean surrounding it are enormous, complex and remote. Unlike the Arctic, where humans have lived for a thousand years, the Antarctic requires specialized ships and planes to visit, and is basically inaccessible for half the year.

7“This is a very surprising, difficult system to forecast and predict,”says Scambos,who has been studying Antarctica for more than 30 years.One theory about why the sea ice is so small this year is that warm ocean water from other parts of the planet has started to mix with the layer of water at the surface,where sea ice forms.

Reading Check

Inference1.What's Ted Scambos'attitude towards the sea ice's becoming smaller?

A.Positive. B.Neutral.

C.Indifferent. D.Concerned.

Detail2.What do we know about sea ice loss?

A.It contributes indirectly to the sea level rise.

B.It only affects people living nearby.

C.It can cause coastal flooding.

D.It will become less serious in the next hundred years.

Detail3.Why is it difficult to figure out the cause of the sea ice's becoming smaller this year?

A.No vehicles can get there.

B.It snows for half a year in Antarctica.

C.Visiting Antarctica is not an easy job.

D.Scientists ignore Antarctica for long.

Inference4.What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?

A.A warning given by a scientist studying Antarctica.

B.A reason why the sea ice becomes so small.

C.A suggestion put forward by a famous scientist.

D.A method of dealing with sea ice loss.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentence in the text

Scientists are racing to figure out how much of that ice is likely to melt in the next hundred years,and to understand why the sea ice became smaller so suddenly this year.科學家們正競相計算出在未來一百年內(nèi)有多少冰可能融化，并了解為什么今年海冰急劇減少。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復合句。how much 引導賓語從句，作動詞短語figure out的賓語；why引導賓語從句，作動詞understand的賓語。

Ⅱ.Fill in the blanks with the words and phrases in the box.

1.I like to________lots of different people when I go out.

2.This latest incident will________the pressure on the government.

3.There have been some problems but________it's a good system.

4.An increase in cars has resulted in the________of public transport.

5.It is a(n)________challenge but we hope to meet it within a year or 18 months.

6.It is quite common that a person can still________society in the autumn of his life.