Climate change is supposed to unfold slowly, over decades. But that is not true up in the great white north, as those attending

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问题     Climate change is supposed to unfold slowly, over decades. But that is not true up in the great white north, as those attending the AAAS meeting’s session on climate change in the Arctic were reminded. Temperatures there are 2°C higher than their long-term average, and the upper layers of parts of the Arctic Ocean are hotter than they have been for at least 2,000 years. Summer sea ice has been vanishing faster than even the gloomiest researchers thought likely, with some now predicting the first completely ice-free summer as soon as the 2020s.
    The Arctic is not, though, isolated from the rest of the world; rapid changes there could have knock-on effects elsewhere. Whether or not that is happening was a question addressed by Jennifer Francis, an atmospheric scientist at Rutgers University. It is a topical subject. Along with much of the rest of America, Chicago endured a fierce and prolonged cold snap in January, in which temperatures fell to -27°C, the lowest since 1884. Meanwhile, Brits at the conference were fleeing a country that had been soaked by the heaviest winter rains in two and a half centuries, and battered by a seemingly endless succession of Atlantic storms and gales.
    Campaigners in both countries have been quick to blame climate change for the rotten weather. But things are rarely so straightforward in climatology. The best Dr Francis could offer was a theory as to why a warmer Arctic might be expected to lead to wilder weather in mid-latitudes, and some tentative but suggestive evidence that this is already happening.
    Her idea rests on the jet stream, a powerful, persistent, high-altitude "river of air" which flows around the world from west to east, affecting the weather as it goes. The jet stream is driven in part by the temperature difference between cold Arctic air and the warmer air of middle latitudes. Because the Arctic is warming more rapidly than the rest of the planet, that difference is shrinking. This ought to produce a less potent jet stream. And a less potent jet stream is a more unpredictable one.
What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?

选项 A、Climate change of the ocean may have an impact on the land as well.
B、Chicago’s cold temperature is unrelated to the warming of the Arctic.
C、The whole America has experienced the lowest temperature since 1884.
D、Britain has been suffering from the heaviest storms and rains in history.

答案A

解析 选项A对应第二段首句:The Arctic is not, though, isolated from the rest of the world; rapid changes there could have knock-on effects elsewhere. 大意为:然而,北冰洋并不与世隔绝;北冰洋气候迅速变化可能对其他地方产生连锁效应。故该项表述是正确的。选项B显然与A表述相反,故错误。选项C中的“The whole America”错误,原文说的是“Along with much of the rest of America, Chicago…”,“the whole”显然与原文不符合,故错误。选项D中的“in history”与原文“in two and a half centuries”不符,故错误。综上所述,本题答案为选项A。
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