Half of the world’s population is affected by Asian monsoons（季风）, but monsoons are difficult to predict. American researchers have put together a 700-year record of the rainy seasons, which is expected to provide guidance for experts making weather predictions.
Every year, damp air masses，known as monsoon，produce large amounts of rainfall in India, East Asia, Northern Australia and East Africa. All this wet air is pulled in by a high pressure area over the Indian Ocean and a low pressure area to the south.
According to Edward Cook , a weather expert at Columbia University in New York., the plex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict. In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use. Therefore, he and a team of researchers spent more than fifteen years traveling across Asia, looking for trees old enough to provide long-term records. They measured the rings, or circles, inside thousands of ancient trees in more than 300 places.
Rainfall has a direct link to the growth and width of rings on some kinds of trees. The researchers developed a document they are calling a Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. It shows the effect of monsoons over seven centuries, beginning in the 1300s.
Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. “If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability.” With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve puter climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons.
“There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive flooding.” said Eugene Wahl, a scientist with America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So, to get a sense of what the regional moisture patterns have been, dryness and wetness over such a long period of time in great detail, I would call it a kind of victory for climate science.”
【小题1】What’s the passage mainly about？A．The effects of Asian monsoons. B．The necessity of weather forecast.C．The achievements of Edward cook. D．A breakthrough in monsoon prediction.【小题2】It is difficult for experts to predict Asian monsoons because .A．it is hard to keep long-term climate records. B．they are formed under plex climate systems.C．they influence many nations.D．there is heavy rainfall in Asia.【小题3】What can be inferred from the passage?A．Long and detailed climate records can offer useful information for monsoon research.B．The Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas has a monsoon record for about 1,300 years.C．The trees affected by monsoon grow fast if the monsoon is weak.D．The rainfall might be low although the monsoon is strong in monsoon-affected areas.【小题4】According to Professor Cook, the rings of the trees .A．determine the regional climate.B．have a great influence on the regional climate.C．offer people information about the regional climate. D．reflect all kinds of regional climate information.【小题5】Which of the following best describes the tone of this passage?A．Matter-of –factB．PessimisticC．HumorousD．Friendly.D
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(答案→)D
解析：
因为亚洲季风是在复杂的气候条件下形成的，所以很难预测。本文介绍了科学家利用树木的年轮了解历史上季风的发生规律，以便更好预测未来季风的发生。
【小题1】主旨大意题。文章开头在介绍季风造成的危害后指出季风发生的不确定性导致其难以预测。接下来介绍了科学家通过观察研究树木年轮，极为详细地了解了过去相当长时期内季风的发生规律，应被视为a kind of victory for climate science (气候科学的胜利)。故D项正确。breakthrough: 突破。
【小题2】 细节题。由…the plex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict.可知，亚洲复杂的气候系统导致季风难以预测。故答案为B。
【小题3】推断题。由最后一段Eugene Wahl的话可以推知。B项数据错误，The Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas对于季风的记录为700年。C、D两项错误明显。雨水不足时，树木生长慢而不是快；季风强劲时，降雨量应该大而不是小。故答案为A。
【小题4】细节题。由第五段So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability.一句可知，树木年轮的宽窄向我们提供了一个衡量季风种类恶尺度。故C项正确。A, B两项颠倒了因果关系；D项犯了扩大化的错误。
【小题5】本文可观叙述了亚洲季风的危害、难以预测性以及科学家们的工作和他们的成果，没有作者个人的观点或明显的个人情感。故答案选A. matter-of-fact: 就事论事的、客观的。pessimistic: 悲观的。humorous: 幽默的。friendly: 有好的。