泛读教程4--Is_Weather_Getting_Worse

Is Weather Getting Worse?

Weather seems getting worse and wilder since "Mother Nature is full of surprises these days". Global warming, a heated topic of today, is often taken for granted to be responsible for the harsh weather. However, scientists, like Kevin E. Trenberth, are cautious in making their judgment. Please read the following article and find out what role El Niňo and La Niňa play.

As you read this, flip your eyes over to the window. The sky is clear, the wind light, and the sun brilliant. Or maybe not － Mother Nature is full of surprises these days. The calendar says it's spring, but there could just as easily be a winter blizzard, a summer swelter, or an autumn cold snap on the other side of that glass pane. Almost in an instant, it seems, the weather shifts from one season to another. And wherever it swings, it seems increasingly likely to be extreme.

Consider what Mother Nature slung our way last year in May, typically the second worst month for tornadoes. In less than 24 hours, more than 70 hellholes of wind rampaged through Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 49 and causing more than $1 billion in damages. In June, it was heat, as the Northeast began roasting through weeks of the worst drought since the 1960s; 256 people died. This year in January, blizzards pounded the U.S. from Kansas to the Atlantic Ocean. In April, 25 inches of snow fell on parts of New England.

Why has our weather gone wild? It's the question everyone's asking, but a very tough one to answer. Although many scientists still aren't convinced that it has gone wild, some have begun saying －cautiously, hesitantly － that extreme weather events are occurring with more frequency than at any time in this century, events consistent with the profile of a warming world. "Global warming is real," says Kevin E. Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section of the Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "The mean temperatures are going 课文一

天气正越变越糟？

因为“这些日子大自然母亲

充满着意想不到的事情”，看起来天气在越变越糟，越来越狂野。全球变暖是现在的热门话题，常常理所当然地被看成恶劣气候的罪魁祸首。但是，凯文·E·川伯斯这样的科学家在下

定论时态度谨慎。请阅读以下文章，看一看厄尔尼诺和拉尼娜现象所起的作用。

当你阅读本文时，请把目光轻快地投向窗外。天空澄净，微风轻拂，日光明媚。也许并不是这样——这些日子，大自然母亲充满着意想不到的事情。日历上说现在是春天，但窗外完全可能是一场冬季的暴风雪，一阵夏日的酷暑或一股秋天的寒流。几乎是在一瞬之间，气候就好象从一个季节转到了另一个季节。而且不管天气转向何方，它看起来变得越来越极端。

想想看去年五月大自然母亲都给我们带来了些什么，那是第二个遭受龙卷风袭击最严重的月份。在不到二十四小时之内，七十多个“地狱”风暴在俄克拉何马和堪萨斯州横行肆虐，造成49人死亡以及十多亿美元的损失。六月，天气酷热，东北部连续几周在热浪下炙烤，遭受了自六十年代以来最严重的旱情，256人丧生。今年一月，暴风雪横扫美国，从堪萨斯州直至大西洋沿岸。四月，新英格兰部分地区下的雪厚达二十五英吋。

为什么我们的天气变得如此

狂野？这是每个人都在问的问题，但是很难回答。虽然许多科学家仍然不相信天气已经失控，但有些人——虽然态度谨慎，仍存疑虑——已经开始说，与本世纪任何时段相比，极端性天气出现的频率愈加频繁，这与全球