鄔純碧

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1 It is deep winter in Antarctica， the time of yearthat the continent is surrounded by millions ofsquare miles of the frozen ocean. But this year， thereis a lot less sea ice than ever recorded before. It isbad news for people around the world， because seaice helps control how quickly the rest of Antarcticasice melts， which contributes to the global sea level rise.

2“ It's a big enough deal to be alarming to climate scientists，” says Ted Scambos， whostudies Antarctica at the University of Colorado Boulder.“ We've seen a decline in sea icecover since about 2016， but 2023 took a huge jump downward.”

3 The missing ice is a problem for people far from Antarctica. While sea ice lossdoesn't contribute directly to the sea level rise—melting sea ice doesn't add any extra waterto the ocean—Antarctic sea ice acts like a protective collar around the continent.

4“ Those ice shelves contain a lot of frozen water， and if they break and become a partof the ocean， that's going to raise global sea level，” says Marilyn Raphael， who studiesAntarctic sea ice at the University of California， Los Angeles.

5 Scientists are racing to figure out how much of that ice is likely to melt in thenext hundred years， and to understand why the sea ice became smaller so suddenly thisyear.

6 They are challenging questions to answer， because Antarctica and the oceansurrounding it are enormous， complex and remote. Unlike the Arctic， where humans havelived for a thousand years， the Antarctic requires specialized ships and planes to visit， andis basically inaccessible for half the year.

7“ This is a very surprising， difficult system to forecast and predict，” says Scambos，who has been studying Antarctica for more than 30 years. One theory about why the sea iceis so small this year is that warm ocean water from other parts of the planet has started tomix with the layer of water at the surface， where sea ice forms.

Reading

Check

1. What's Ted Scambos attitude towards the sea ice's becoming smaller？

A. Positive.B. Neutral.

C. Indifferent.D. Concerned.

2. What do we know about sea ice loss？

A. It contributes indirectly to the sea level rise.

B. It only affects people living nearby.

C. It can cause coastal flooding.

D. It will become less serious in the next hundred years.

3. Why is it difficult to figure out the cause of the sea ice's becoming smaller this year？

A. No vehicles can get there.

B. It snows for half a year in Antarctica.

C. Visiting Antarctica is not an easy job.

D. Scientists ignore Antarctica for long.

4. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about？

A. A warning given by a scientist studying Antarctica.

B. A reason why the sea ice becomes so small.

C. A suggestion put forward by a famous scientist.

D. A method of dealing with sea ice loss.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Scientists are racing to figure out how much of that ice is likely to melt in the nexthundred years， and to understand why the sea ice became smaller so suddenly this year. 科學(xué)家們正競相計(jì)算出在未來一百年內(nèi)有多少冰可能融化，并了解為什么今年海冰急劇減少。

【點(diǎn)石成金】本句是一個(gè)主從復(fù)合句。how much 引導(dǎo)賓語從句，作動(dòng)詞短語figure out的賓語；why引導(dǎo)賓語從句，作動(dòng)詞understand的賓語。

Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks with the words and phrases in the box.

contribute to decline add to enormous basically mix with

1. I like to__________lots of different people when I go out.

2. This latest incident will__________the pressure on the government.

3. There have been some problems but__________it's a good system.

4. An increase in cars has resulted in the__________of public transport.

5. It is a（n）__________challenge but we hope to meet it within a year or 18 months.

6. It is quite common that a person can still__________society in the autumn of his life.