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  3. As another active hurricane season in the Atlantic winds down, some atmospheric scientists say they have the tools to stop or sl

As another active hurricane season in the Atlantic winds down, some atmospheric scientists say they have the tools to stop or sl

admin2012-07-05  57
问题     As another active hurricane season in the Atlantic winds down, some atmospheric scientists say they have the tools to stop or slow the powerful storms. Their efforts, however, are hampered by a lack of funding and tricky legal issues.
    Until recently, the US Department of Homeland Security has been investigating whether seeding storm clouds with pollution-size aerosols (particles suspended in gas) might help slow tropical cyclones. Computer models suggest that deploying (散开) aerosols can have "an appreciable impact on tropical cyclone intensity," writes William Cotton, an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University. He and his colleagues recently reviewed such work in the Journal of Weather Modification. In fact, human pollution may already be weakening storms, including August’s Hurricane Irene. "Computer models all predicted that the intensity of Irene would be much greater than it was," Cotton notes.
    Other would-be storm stoppers, including Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, have focused on feeding cold water to the hot storms to slow their momentum. The Gates-backed plan proposes using a fleet of wave-powered rafts to spread the colder ocean water pumped up from the depths in the path of an onrushing storm. The trouble with that process is that it could prove unwieldy (难操纵的). It would require hundreds of devices, and because storms are so difficult to track, placing them would be a challenge. Moreover, would dispelling storms with cold water be a good idea? Tropical cyclones, for all their destructive force, arc one of the planet’s ways of redistributing heat from the tropics to the poles. Shutting that down might have unforeseen consequences, and shifting a storm’s course could cause punitive action from people in the new path, as a team of engineers, public policy experts and atmospheric scientists wrote in Environmental Science and Technology in April.
    Regardless, for all their power, tropical cyclones are sensitive. To exploit that sensitivity, scientists would need accurate information on a storm’s future course, says meteorologist Ross Hoffman of Atmospheric and Environmental Research. But the US government is cutting funding for the satellites that make such tracking and prediction possible. For now flood maps and evacuation (疏散) plans remain our best protection.
What would be a challenge to the Gates-backed plan?
选项 A、To keep track of the powerful storms.
B、To build the durable wave-powered rafts.
C、To pump up water from the depths of the ocean.
D、To invent hundreds of related devices.
答案A
解析 细节辨认题。由定位句可知，比尔·盖茨所支持的方案是从深海中抽出的极冷的海水，使用一队波能木筏将冷水注入热暴风的移动路径中。不过，这种办法实际操作困难，需要数百台仪器设备，同时由于暴风很难追踪，因此对暴风进行定位也是一个挑战。故A)“追踪猛烈的暴风”为正确答案。
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