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  3. Global warming is the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth’s lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenho

Global warming is the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth’s lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenho

admin2014-07-20  34
问题    Global warming is the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth’s lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the industrial Revolution. The temperature of the atmosphere near the earth’s surface is warmed through a natural process called the greenhouse effect. Visible, shortwave light comes from the sun to the earth, passing unimpeded through a blanket of thermal, or greenhouse, gases composed largely of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Infrared radiation reflects off the planet’s surface toward space but does not easily pass through the thermal blanket. Some of it is trapped and reflected downward, keeping the planet at an average temperature suitable to life, about 60°F (16℃).
      Growth in industry, agriculture, and transportation since the Industrial Revolution has produced additional quantities of the natural greenhouse gases plus chlorofluorocarbons and other gases, augmenting the thermal blanket. It is generally accepted that this increase in the quantity of greenhouse gases is trapping more heat and increasing global temperatures, making a process that has been beneficial to life potentially disruptive and harmful. During the past century, the atmospheric temperature has risen 1.1°F (0.6℃), and sea level has risen several inches. Some projected, longer-term results of global warming include melting of polar ice, with a resulting rise in sea level and coastal flooding; disruption of drinking water supplies dependent on snow melts; profound changes in agriculture due to climate change; extinction of species as ecological niches disappear;  more frequent tropical storms; and an increased incidence of tropical diseases.
      Among factors that may be contributing to global warming are the burning of coal and petroleum products (sources of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone); deforestation, which increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; methane gas released in animal waste; and increased cattle production, which contributes to deforestation, methane production, and use of fossil fuels.
      Much of the debate surrounding global warming has centered on the accuracy of scientific predictions concerning future warming. To predict global climatic trends, climatologists accumulate large historical databases and use them to create computerized models that simulate the earth’s climate. The validity of these models has been a subject of controversy. Skeptics say that the climate is too complicated to be accurately modeled, and that there are too many unknowns. Some also question whether the observed climate changes might simply represent normal fluctuations in global temperature. Nonetheless, for some time there has been general agreement that at least part of the observed warming is the result of human activity, and that the problem needs to be addressed.
      A UN Conference on Climate Change, held in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 resulted in an international agreement to fight global warming, which called for reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases by industrialized nations. Not all industrial countries, however, immediately signed or ratified the accord. In 2001 the G. W. Bush administration announced it would abandon the Kyoto Protocol: because the United States produces about one quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases, this was regarded as a severe blow to the effort to slow global warming.  Despite the American move, most other nations agreed later in the year (in Bonn, Germany, and in Marrakech, Morocco) on the details necessary to convert the agreement into a binding international treaty, which came into force in 2005 after ratification by more than 125 nations.  
In Para. 4, the author suggests that ______.
选项 A、scientific predictions are accurate and trustworthy
B、the effectiveness of the models simulating the climate is not yet proved
C、observed climate changes is the representative of changes in global warming
D、mankind is the only one who is to blame on the issue of global warming
答案B
解析 细节理解题。对应文中第四段The validity of these models has been a subject of controversy. Skeptics  say that the climate is too complicated to be accurately modeled，and that there are too many unknowns．因此B正确。
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