雅思閱讀自然地理類真題：ANewIceAge
大家在備考雅思的閱讀的時候，多多參考一下往年的真題可以幫助我們了解雅思閱讀考試的題型和考點，為了方便大家，下面小編給大家帶來雅思閱讀自然地理類真題：A New Ice Age。
雅思閱讀自然地理類真題：A New Ice Age
A New Ice Age
A
William Curry is a serious, sober climate scientist, not an art critic .But he has
spent a lot of time perusing Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s famous painting “George
Washington Crossing the Delaware,” which depicts (v. 描繪)a boatload of
colonial American soldiers making their way to attack English and Hessian
troops the day after Christmas in 1776. “Most people think these other guys in
the boat are rowing, but they are actually pushing the ice away,” says Curry,
tapping his finger on a reproduction of the painting. Sure enough, the lead
oarsman is bashing the frozen river with his boot. “I grew up in Philadelphia.
The place in this painting is 30 minutes away by car. I can tell you, this kind of
thing just doesn’t happen anymore.”
B
But it may again soon. And ice-choked scenes, similar to those immortalized
by the 16th-century Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder, may also return
to Europe. His works, including the 1565 masterpiece “Hunters in the Snow,”
make the now-temperate European landscapes look more like Lapland. Such
frigid settings were commonplace during a period dating roughly from 1300
to 1850 because much of North America and Europe was in the throes of a
little ice age. And now there is mounting evidence that the chill could return. A
growing number of scientists believe conditions are ripe for another prolonged
cooldown, or small ice age. While no one is predicting a brutal ice sheet like
the one that covered the Northern Hemisphere with glaciers (n. 冰川)about
12,000 years ago, the next cooling trend could drop average temperatures
5 degrees Fahrenheit over much of the United States and 10 degrees in the
Northeast, northern Europe, and northern Asia.
C “It could happen in 10 years,” says Terrence Joyce, who chairs the Woods Hole
Physical Oceanography Department. “Once it does, it can take hundreds of
years to reverse.” And he is alarmed that Americans have yet to take the threat
seriously.
D
A drop of 5 to 10 degrees entails much more than simply bumping up the
thermostat and carrying on. Both economically and ecologically, such quick,
persistent chilling could have devastating consequences. A 2002 report titled
“Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises,” produced by the National
Academy of Sciences, pegged the cost from agricultural losses alone at $100
billion to $250 billion while also predicting that damage to ecologies could be
vast and incalculable. A grim sampler: disappearing forests, increased housing
expenses, dwindling freshwater, lower crop yields (n. 產量)，and accelerated
species extinctions.
E
Political changes since the last ice age could make survival far more difficult
for the world’s poor. During previous cooling periods, whole tribes simply
picked up and moved south, but that option doesn’t work in the modern, tense
world of closed borders. “To the extent that abrupt climate change may cause
rapid and extensive changes of fortune for those who live off the land, the
inability to migrate may remove one of the major safety nets for distressed
people,” says the report.
F
But first things first. Isn’t the earth actually warming? Indeed it is, says Joyce.
In his cluttered office, full of soft light from the foggy Cape Cod morning,
he explains how such warming could actually be the surprising culprit of the
next mini-ice age. The paradox is a result of the appearance over the past 30
years in the North Atlantic of huge rivers of fresh water the equivalent of a
10-foot-thick layer-mixed into the salty sea. No one is certain where the fresh
torrents are coming from, but a prime suspect is melting (adj. 融化的)Arctic
ice, caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that traps solar
energy.
G The freshwater trend is major news in ocean-science circles. Bob Dickson,
a British oceanographer who sounded an alarm at a February conference in
Honolulu, has termed the drop in salinity and temperature in the Labrador
Sea— a body of water between northeastern Canada and Greenland that
adjoins the Atlantic”arguably the largest full-depth changes observed in the
modern instrumental oceanographic record.”
H
The trend ( n. 趨勢)could cause a little ice age by subverting the northern
penetration of Gulf Stream waters. Normally, the Gulf Stream, laden with
heat soaked up in the tropics, meanders up the east coasts of the United States
and Canada. As it flows northward, the stream surrenders heat to the air.
Because the prevailing North Atlantic winds blow eastward, a lot of the heat
wafts to Europe. That’s why many scientists believe winter temperatures on
the Continent are as much as 36 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than those in
North America at the same latitude. Frigid Boston, for example, lies at almost
precisely the same latitude as balmy Rome. And some scientists say the heat
also warms Americans and Canadians. “It’s a real mistake to think of this
solely as a European phenomenon,” says Joyce.
I
Having given up its heat to the air, the now-cooler water becomes denser and
sinks into the North Atlantic by a mile or more in a process oceanographers
call thermohaline circulation. This massive
column of cascading cold is the main
engine powering a deepwater current called
the Great Ocean Conveyor that snakes
through all the world’s oceans. But as the North Atlantic fills with freshwater,
it grows less dense, making the waters carried northward by the Gulf Stream
less able to sink. The new mass of relatively freshwater sits on top of the
ocean like a big thermal blanket, threatening the thermohaline circulation.
That in turn could make the Gulf Stream slow or veer southward. At some
point, the whole system could simply shut down, and do so quickly. “There is
increasing evidence that we are getting closer to a transition point, from which
we can jump to a new state. Small changes, such as a couple of years of heavy
precipitation or melting ice at high latitudes, could yield a big response,” says
Joyce. Model of Pure Thermohaline Circulation
J
“You have all this freshwater sitting at high latitudes, and it can literally take
hundreds of years to get rid of it,” Joyce says. So while the globe as a whole
gets warmer by tiny fractions of 1 degree Fahrenheit annually, the North
Atlantic region could, in a decade, get up to 10 degrees colder. What worries
researchers at Woods Hole is that history is on the side of rapid shutdown.
They know it has happened before.
雅思閱讀中不可忽略的邏輯關系
我們在雅思備考的過程中，尤其是學習雅思閱讀，老師會特別強調四大邏輯關系在理解和做題中的重要作用。
在比較邏輯關系中，比較級是常見的論證方式，但是類比和對比也是英語文章中非常常見的論證手段，一般涉及到單個事物或若干個事物之間的比較，但這兩種方法卻有著本質上的不同。
類比(compare)強調兩個對象的相似點，比如A和B的相同點是什么。而對比(contrast)則強調兩個對象的不同點，比如A很高B卻很低。
接下來，讓我們從劍橋真題中看看，有哪些考點會涉及到類比和對比。
類比連接詞
similarly, be similar to, as, like, alike，likewise, corresponding to, equal, identical, same, by the same token, the same is true of , in the same way, resemble，agree，share，harmony，compare to/with …, comparable
例題1 題目 C521 Q1 填空
Some plastics behave in a similar way to __________ in that they melt under heat and can be moulded into new forms.
文章 P2
Some are ‘thermoplastic’, which means that, like candlewax, they melt when heated and can be reshaped.
翻譯 ：
有些塑料是“熱塑型”的，這意味著，它們像蠟燭一樣，會在加熱時會融化，然后就可以重新塑形。
解析：
定位后，利用題中類比詞in a similar way to, 可以找到文中對應詞like, 也就是統一替換，答案就是candlewax了。
例題2 題目 C442 Q27 填空
However, as archaeologists do not try to influence human behaviour, the writer compares their style of working to that of a __________.
文章 Last Paragraph：
The objects the archaeologists discover, on the other hand, tell us nothing directly in themselves. In this respect, the practice of the archaeologist is rather like that of the scientist, who collects data, conducts experiments, formulates a hypothesis, tests the hypothesis against more data…
翻譯 ：
另一方面，考古學家發現的這些物體本身并沒有告訴我們什么。 從這個方面說來，考古學家的實踐經歷跟科學家非常像，他們收集數據，操作實驗，制定假說，用假說檢驗更多的數據。
解析：
審題時重點關注題中類比詞compare ... to …，定位后，可以找到文中替換詞rather like, 答案即 scientist。
例題3 題目 C10’11 Q11 表格填空
Looks more like a __________ than a well.
文章 ：
It actually resembles a tank (kund means reservoir or pond) rather than a well, but displays the hallmarks of step well architecture, including four sides of steps that decend to the bottom in a stunning geometrical formation.
翻譯 ：
它實際上長的像一個水庫(kund意味著水庫或池塘)而不是一個井，但卻展示了梯井結構的特點，包括下降到底部的四個階梯面，這四面擁有著絕美的幾何對稱圖案。
解析：
審題時關注類比詞like，定位后，發現resemble，意思相當于look like, 答案呼之欲出 tank.
_對比連接詞
while, however, nevertheless，otherwise，whereas, in contrast, on the contrary, rather than, instead of, conversely, unlike，different, incompatible, conflicting, change, vary, in opposition to, distinguish...from.. ，be distinct from sth…
例題1 題目 C10’23 Q37 判斷
The approach of art historians conflicts with that of art museums.
文章 ：
Consequently, the dominant critical approach becomes that of the art historian, a specialised academic approach devoted to discovering the meaning of art within the cultural context of its time. This is in perfect harmony with the museum’s function.
翻譯 ：
因此，主流的批判方法成為藝術史學家的批判方式，這是一種專門的學術方法，致力于發現在當時的文化背景下藝術的意義。 這與博物館的功能達到了完美一致。
解析：
審題時獲取考點詞conflict，正是對比連接詞，定位后發現in harmony with，意思是“與……協調、一致”，所以二者并非矛盾，而是一致的，因此答案選NO。
例題2
題目 C11’32 Q18 判斷
Dingle’s aim is to distinguish between the migratory behaviours of different species.
文章 ：
The value of his definition, Dingle argues, is that it focuses attention on what the phenomenon of wildebeest migration shares with the phenomenon of the aphids, and therefore helps guide researchers towards understanding how evolution has produced them all.
翻譯 ：
Dingle認為，他定義的價值在于它將注意力集中于在牛羚遷徙現象與蚜蟲遷徙現象的共同點上，因而有助于指導研究人員了解進化是如何將它們制造出來的。
解析：
審題關注到判斷題對比詞aim is to distinguish， 定位后，對應到原文中的focuses attention on，發現類比詞share，表示“共享，公用”，與題目的distinguish“區分”意思沖突，所以答案選擇FALSE。
一般來說，閱讀方面通過句子意思、句子關系、段落意思、段落關系的方法來理解文章的邏輯和要表達的觀點非常關鍵。
關于邏輯關系的利用在劍橋真題實例不勝枚舉，雅思閱讀當中涉及到的比較級考點的題目還是很多的，建議大家在平時訓練的時候，認真分析、總結并利用這些策略。
雅思閱讀提分的三大必備要素
要素一：要具備扎實的語言功底
詞匯量能體現語言功底來，詞匯量直接影響的就是考生對于文章的細節的理解，進而影響做題速度和準確率，所以在雅思學習的任何階段都不可忽略詞匯的記憶，讀到任何一篇新的文章，都會遇到一些比較關鍵的生詞，大家在平時的學習中要注意積累，隨時記下這些比較關鍵的生詞，當然了，并不是要你記下一個就去查一個，而是在記錄完一批后再去查，并時常拿出來反復記憶;
雅思培訓7分班老師認為扎實的語法功底是另外一個影響文章理解的重要因素，雅思閱讀中往往有很多從句、復合句，對于這些長難句的理解，萬不可忽視的就是對句子的語法分析，熟悉語法規律才能在遇到這些長難句時準確快速的理解文章意思。
要素二：要對考試規律和題型的解題技巧非常了解
通常這是通過大量做題總結出來的，當然我們也為了讓大家更快地了解并熟練使用這些規律和技巧，總結出了許多做題的經驗供大家學習。當然了，你如果能在做題過程中總結出一些更適合自己使用的技巧那就更好了，因為只有在對題型了解足夠充分的情況下，才有可能總結出一些可用的技巧。
要素三：要有目的地拓寬自己的閱讀量
尤其是一些常考的題材，比如：自然科技類、社會人文類、語言類等。如果你原本知識面就較廣泛，那么在雅思閱讀中就更容易去理解文章大意，也更加有助于理解文章的細節信息。
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