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  3. Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase

Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase

admin2016-03-21  100
问题     Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase in the 1990s. Meanwhile, emissions of carbon dioxide rose continuously. This pause in warming has raised doubts in the public mind about climate change. A few sceptics say flatly that global warming has stopped. Others argue that scientists’ understanding of the climate is so flawed that their judgments about it cannot be accepted with any confidence. A convincing explanation of the pause therefore matters both to a proper understanding of the climate and to the credibility of climate science—and papers published over the past few weeks do their best to provide one.
    As evidence piled up that temperatures were not rising much, some scientists dismissed it as a temporary phenomenon. The temperature, they pointed out, had fallen for much longer periods twice in the past century or so, in 1880- 1910 and again in 1945-75, even though the general trend was up. Variability is part of the climate system and a 15-year pause, they suggested, was not worth getting excited about.
    An alternative way of looking at the pause’s significance was to say that there had been a slowdown but not a big one. Most records, including one of the best known, do not include measurements from the Arctic, which has been warming faster than anywhere else in the world. Using satellite data to fill in the missing Arctic numbers, Kevin Cowtan of the University of York, in Britain, and Robert Way of the University of Ottawa, in Canada, put the overall rate of global warming at 0. 12°C a decade between 1998 and 2012. A study by NASA puts the "Arctic effect" over the same period somewhat lower, at 0.07°C a decade, but that is still not negligible.
    It is also worth remembering that average warming is not the only measure of climate change. According to a study just published by Sonia Seneviratne of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, in Zurich, the number of hot days, the number of extremely hot days and the length of warm periods all increased during the pause. A more stable average temperature hides wider extremes.
    Still, attempts to explain away that stable average have not been convincing, partly because of the conflict between flat temperatures and rising CO2 emissions, and partly because observed temperatures are now falling outside the range climate models predict. The models embody the state of climate knowledge. If they are wrong, the knowledge is probably faulty, too. Hence attempts to explain the pause.
Sonia Seneviratne’s study suggests that______.
选项 A、Zurich is too warm to live
B、the pause may be a delusion
C、extreme climate will come soon
D、there will be more extremely hot days
答案B
解析 根据Sonia Seneviratne定位到第四段第二行。选项[A]的Zurich is too warm to live显然不是Sonia研究的目的；而[C][D]两项的“极端气候很快会到来”和“将来会出现更多的极热天气”两项不仅意思过于接近，而且语气过于肯定，可以同时排除。而[B]项thepause may be a delusion“全球变暖暂停可能是错觉”与该段最后一句A more stable averagetemperature hides wider extremes“更稳定的平均温度隐藏着更多极端天气”本质意思是一样的，故[B]项为答案。
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