2010 was the year the Earth struck back.
Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards (暴风雪), landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years bined.
“It just seemed like it was back-to-back(接二连三) and it came in waves,” said Craig Fugate, who heads the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.
“The term “100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.”
And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.
Even though many disasters have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and strange year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.
Poor construction and development practices make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings（危房） in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river floods, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.
Disasters from the Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanoes “are pretty much constant,” said Andreas Schraft, vice president of catastrophic perils for the Geneva-based insurance giant Swiss Re. “All the change that’s made is man-made.”
The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people – many of them living in poverty- and more poorly built shanties(棚户区) ,than it did 25 years ago. So had the same quake hit in 1985 instead of 2010; total deaths would have probably been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International University.
Climate scientists say Earth’s climate also is changing thanks to man-made global warming, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding.
The excessive(过多的) amount of extreme weather that dominated 2010 is a classic sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about. They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave – setting a national record of 111 degrees – would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.
Data show that 18 countries broke their records for the hottest day ever.
“The Earth strikes back in response to bad human decision-making,” said Debarati Guha Sapir.” “It’s almost as if the policies, the government policies and development policies, are helping the Earth strike back instead of protecting from it. We’ve created conditions where the slightest thing the Earth does is really going to have a surprising impact.” White House science adviser John Holdren said we should get used to climate disasters or do something about global warming. “The science is clear that we can expect more and more of these kinds of damaging events unless and until society has sharply reduced the amount of heat-trapping gases and particles(颗粒).”
【小题1】From paragraph 1 to paragraph 3, we learn .A．what natural disasters mean to the people all over the worldB．how terrorism attacks struck in the past four decadesC．how the Earth struck back in 2010D．why the world saw so many disasters in 2010【小题2】The author gives the example of the big earthquake in Haiti to show that .A．poor construction largely accounts for more deaths than expectedB．man’s behaviours are to blame for the constant occurrence of natural disastersC．the extreme weather mainly contributes to the disaster of the quakeD．the country’s poverty and over- crowdedness results in the disaster【小题3】 Which of the following would Debarati Guha Sapir most probably agree with?A．Environment protection should be taken into account in policy-making.B．Natural disasters are causing increase.C．The earth wouldn’t strike back but for the destruction by man.D．Conditions should be created to rid the influence of disasters.【小题4】 According to John Holdren, the best way to cut back on the number of natural disasters is .A．to forecast the happening of natural disasters accuratelyB．to build stronger houses that can stand severe earthquakes and floodsC．to make better decisions and policies of city developmentD．to send out much fewer greenhouse gases and particles【小题5】What is the real concern of the writer of this article?A．The major causes of natural disasters.B．The human unawareness of environment protection.C．The harmonious relationship between humans and nature.D．The serious results of global warming and earthquakes.C
网友回答
(答案→)C
解析：
【小题1】C 段落大意题。本文前三都都是讲述的是2010年在世界各地所发生的接二连三的自然灾害，故C正确。
【小题2】B 推理题。根据前一段最后一句. “All the change that’s made is man-made.”说明很多的灾难都是人为因素导致的，接下来就列举海地的地震灾难，主要就是为了说明人类的行为导致了自然灾难的频繁爆发。故B正确。
【小题3】A 推理题。根据最后一段前三行“The Earth strikes back in response to bad human decision-making,” said Debarati Guha Sapir.” “It’s almost as if the policies, the government policies and development policies, are helping the Earth strike back instead of protecting from it说明Debarati Guha Sapir认为人们在做决定的时候一定要考虑到环境的因素，故A想的观点与他的观点是一致的，故A正确。
【小题4】D 推理题。根据文章最后三行White House science adviser John Holdren said we should get used to climate disasters or do something about global warming. “The science is clear that we can expect more and more of these kinds of damaging events unless and until society has sharply reduced the amount of heat-trapping gases and particles(颗粒).”说明他认为我们要减少温室气体的排放以此来减少全球变暖的驱使。故D项与之相符。故D正确。
【小题5】C 主旨大意题。本文主要讲述的就是人类的行为导致了自然的报复，担心人和自然之间的关系。故C正确。