Question

    Climate change will bring and has already brought a wide variety of threatening destruction to human existence. Some of these are well-known and already operative, like the wildfires racing along California’s freeways or the permanent droughts that have been upsetting Mediterranean farmers. But are these all terrible disasters we can come up with that are brought about by climate change?

Absolutely not. None of the challenges posed by our warming climate has appeared larger in the popular imagination than sea-level rise, as global populations and wealth are heavily concentrated in low-lying coastal cities. The best available models suggest that 37 million people currently live in places that will be below high tide by 2050-in an optimistic low-carbon-emissions scenario (设想).

Or rather, that’s what such models suggested before this week. On Tuesday, a new study revealed that those alarming statistics were wildly inaccurate. The actual impacts of sea-level rise are going to be much, much worse.

Previous estimates of the impact that rising tides would have on coastal cities relied on essentially a three-dimensional map of Earth obtained from satellite readings. But those readings were fundamentally unreliable because they often measured the planet’s upper surfaces — such as treetops and tall buildings — rather than its ground level. These mistakes led scientists to overestimate the elevation (海拔) of many regions of Earth.

In a new study published by the journal Nature Communications, scientists from Princeton, University detail this methodological problem, then use artificial intelligence to determine the previous literature’s error rate. Their research yields some amazing updates to our conventional understanding of what the next century has in store for our coastlines.

In its optimistic scenario, the Princeton study projects that lands currently occupied by 150 million people will lie below high tide in 2050. But as warming destroys many of the world’s agricultural regions, climate change could accelerate migration from rural areas to coastal cities.

The new study does include one piece of slightly encouraging news. While previous models suggested that 28 million humans currently live in places that already lie below high tide, the actual number is closer to 110 million — which means seawalls and other barriers have proven sufficient to keep many cities dry even as sea levels have risen around them. Still, the scale of barrier construction necessary to save low-lying cities from collapse is now, apparently, far greater than previously understood when the task already looked terribly expensive, particularly for developing countries.

If the Princeton researchers’ projections are correct, avoiding mass death and suffering in the coming decades will require not only rapidly reducing carbon emissions and strengthening construction of seawalls but also furthering mass migrations away from low-lying cities and islands and toward higher ground.

1.The first paragraph is mainly intended to       .

A.introduce the topic of this passage

B.show various disasters caused by climate change

C.call on people to fix attention on climate change

D.lay emphasis on the seriousness of climate change

2.All the following statements are true EXCEPT      .

A.the Princeton study reveals an optimistic picture of sea rising. . .

B.the three-dimensional map produced by satellite is not accurate

C.some measures are mentioned by the writer to deal with sea rising

D.more people are likely to live in coastal cities in the coming years

3.We can see something encouraging from the Princeton study that       .

A.it’s cheap to construct seawalls as well as other barriers

B.the scale of barrier construction is much greater than before

C.developed countries have less trouble in dealing with rising sea levels

D.seawalls do have the function to prevent coastal cities being drowned

4.What can be a suitable title for the passage?

A.How to protect cities from rising seas.

B.Rising seas are going to drown more cities.

C.Climate change is endangering human existence.

D.Less emission of carbon, fewer fires and droughts.

Answer

1.A

2.A

3.D

4.B

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章就气候变化情况下海平面上升的问题展开讨论，推翻了过去得出错误数据的旧方法，根据普林斯顿的一项新研究，提出海平面上升的问题正越来越严峻，全球变暖加剧了海平面上升、淹没城市的风险并给出了一些建议。

1.推理判断题。由第一段中的“Climate change will bring and has already brought a wide variety of threatening destruction to human existence.”（气候变化将给人类的生存带来并已经带来各种各样的威胁性破坏。）和“But are these all terrible disasters we can come up with that are brought about by climate change?”（但这些都是气候变化带来的可怕灾难吗？），由此判断出，第一段的目的是引出气候变化这个主题。故选A项。

2.细节理解题。由倒数第三段的“In its optimistic scenario, the Princeton study projects that lands currently occupied by 150 million people will lie below high tide in 2050.”（在乐观的情况下，普林斯顿大学的研究预测，目前有1.5亿人居住的土地在2050年还可以不会被海平面上升所淹没。），可知并未说海平面上升这件事情有一个光明的未来，而是前景很不客观。A 项错误；由第四段中的“But those readings were fundamentally unreliable because they often measured the planet’s upper surfaces — such as treetops and tall buildings — rather than its ground level.”（但这些读数基本上是不可靠的，因为它们经常测量地球的上表面——比如树梢和高楼——而不是它的地面。），可知通过卫星云图采集地表图像进行3D 建模的方式被证明是不准确的，B项正确；由最后一段的“avoiding mass death and suffering in the coming decades will require not only rapidly reducing carbon emissions and strengthening construction of seawalls but also furthering mass migrations away from low-lying cities and islands and toward higher ground.”（那么在未来几十年避免大规模死亡和痛苦不仅需要迅速减少碳排放和加强海堤的建设，而且还需要进一步推动大规模移民离开低洼的城市和岛屿，向高地迁移。），可知作者提出了一些建议，C项正确；由第二段中的“The best available models suggest that 37 million people currently live in places that will be below high tide by 2050-in an optimistic low-carbon-emissions scenario (设想).”（现有的最佳模型表明，在乐观的低碳排放情景下，到2050年，将有3700万人生活在海平面以下的地方。），可知住在海滨城市的人口与日俱增，D项正确。故选A项。

3.细节理解题。由题干关键词encouraging可将答案定位于倒数第二段。由倒数第二段中的“While previous models suggested that 28 million humans currently live in places that already lie below high tide, the actual number is closer to 110 million — which means seawalls and other barriers have proven sufficient to keep many cities dry even as sea levels have risen around them.”（虽然先前的模式显示，目前有2800万人居住在海平面以下的地方，但实际数字接近1.1亿，这意味着海堤和其他屏障已被证明足以让许多城市保持干燥，即使周围的海平面已经上升。），可知海堤确实有防止沿海城市被淹的作用。故选D项。

4.主旨大意题。由第二段中的“None of the challenges posed by our warming climate has appeared larger in the popular imagination than sea-level rise, as global populations and wealth are heavily concentrated in low-lying coastal cities.”（由于全球人口和财富高度集中在低洼的沿海城市，在人们的想象中，气候变暖带来的挑战没有一个比海平面上升更大。），第三段最后一句“The actual impacts of sea-level rise are going to be much, much worse.”（海平面上升的实际影响将会更加严重。），第四段第一句“Previous estimates of the impact that rising tides would have on coastal cities relied on essentially a three-dimensional map of Earth obtained from satellite readings.”（先前对涨潮对沿海城市的影响的估计，基本上依赖于从卫星读数获得的三维地球地图。），第六段最后一句“But as warming destroys many of the world’s agricultural regions, climate change could accelerate migration from rural areas to coastal cities.”（但随着气候变暖摧毁了世界上许多农业地区，气候变化可能加速从农村地区向沿海城市的移民。）和最后两段关于防止海岸城市被淹的策略和建议，可知本文强调的是气候变化情况下海平面上升淹没滨海城市的问题，应选B项；A项，本文主要在分析海平面上升问题的原因与过程，how to 只是结尾提到一句；C项，气候变化的确是一个严峻问题，但人类还没有到马上灭绝的程度；D项，碳排放与火焰、高温干旱不是本文主题。故选B项。