课文内容
词汇：Climate change 气候变化
Where do you keep ice? In the freezer, of course. That’s what scientists might have thought when they were looking for a safe place to store ice from mountain glaciers from around the world. They’ve decided to store ice in Antarctica because global warming is causing some of the glaciers in places like the Alps to melt.
Jerome Chappellaz of the French National Centre for Scientific Research is involved in creating an ice vault there. He says: “We are probably the only scientific community whose archive is in danger of disappearing from the face of the planet. If you work on corals, on marine sediments, on tree rings, the raw material is still here and will be for many centuries”.
And why do scientists need to study ice from the Alps, for example? Ice formed on the summit of a mountain is made of layers of snow accumulated over thousands of years. Trapped air bubbles contain samples of the atmosphere that existed when that ice was formed. Ice is a record of climate, according to polar oceanographer Mark Brandon from the Open University in Britain. He says: “We know carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher now than in the last three million years”.
Researchers use this kind of data to build computer models and try to predict what might happen in the future.
The ice vault will be housed in a snow cave at the Concordia Research Station, which is operated by scientists from France and Italy. The ice samples will be sealed in bags and placed 10m below the surface, at a constant temperature of -50C. This will put the scientists’ minds at rest. Commercial freezers break down, power failures happen and losing the ice samples would be a disaster. Nobody wants to see a mine of scientific knowledge lost for ever in a giant puddle.
词汇表
glaciers （复数）冰河，冰川
global warming 全球变暖
melt 融化
vault 穹窿，拱顶，地下储藏室
coral 珊瑚
raw material 原材料
trapped 被困住的
sample 样品，标本
atmosphere 大气
record 记录，证明
polar 极地的
oceanographer 海洋学家
carbon dioxide 二氧化碳
data 数据
computer model 计算机模型
to seal 封住，密封
put (their) minds at rest 使（他们）安心、放心
puddle 水坑
测验与练习
1. 阅读课文并回答问题。
1. What do scientists fear might not last long?
2. Why are the scientists interested in the bubbles trapped in the ice?
3. What might help the researchers predict the future, according to the article?
4. True or false? The ice from the glaciers could be safely stored in commercial freezers.
5. Which noun in the article means ‘an abundant supply of something of great value’?
2. 请你在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。
1. Joan is very lucky. She was rescued just in time after she was __________ in a snow cave.
safe trapped contained sealed
2. An oceanographer studies __________.
glaciers tree rings puddles corals
3. The bank is keeping all its clients’ gold coins in its __________.
cave knowledge vault store
4. Iron and coal are some of the __________ that are needed to produce steel.
carbon dioxide data samples raw materials
5. The __________ rain kept us indoors all weekend.
trapped constant layers of global warming
答案
1. 阅读课文并回答问题。
1. What do scientists fear might not last long?
Mountain glaciers.
2. Why are the scientists interested in the bubbles trapped in the ice?
Because trapped air bubbles contain samples of the atmosphere that existed when the ice was formed.
3. What might help the researchers predict the future, according to the article?
Computer models which are built using the data researchers collect from the ice.
4.True or false? The ice from the glaciers could be safely stored in commercial freezers.
False. Commercial freezers might break down or be affected by power cuts.
5. Which noun in the article means ‘an abundant supply of something of great value’?
Mine.
2. 请你在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。
1. Joan is very lucky. She was rescued just in time after she was trapped in a snow cave.
2. An oceanographer studies corals.
3. The bank is keeping all its clients’ gold coins in its vault.
4. Iron and coal are some of the raw materials that are needed to produce steel.
5. The constant rain kept us indoors all weekend.