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Walk through the Amazon
rainforest today and you will find it steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you
had been there around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have
been the same? For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how
rainforests might have reacted to the cold, dry climate of the ice ages, but
till now, no one has reached a satisfying answer.
Rainforests like the Amazon are
important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to solve global
warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of
CO2 each year: equal to the total amount of CO2 given off in the UK each year. But
how will the Amazon react to the future climate change? If it gets drier, will
it survive and continue to draw down CO2? Scientists hope that they will be
able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by
understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past.
Unfortunately, collecting information
is incredibly difficult. To study the past climate, scientists need to look at
fossilized pollen (花粉) kept in lake mud. Going back to the last ice age
means drilling down into lake sediments (沉淀物), which
requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery . There are very few roads
and paths, or places to land helicopters and aeroplanes. Rivers tend to be the
easiest way to enter the forest, but this still leaves vast areas between the
rivers completely unsampled (未取样). So far, only a
handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of
them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon forest reacts to
climate change.
(1)
How do scientists study the past climate change?
A . By predicting the climate change in the future.
B . By drilling down deep into land sediments.
C . By taking samples from rivers in the Amazon.
D . By analyzing fossilized pollen in lake mud.
(2)
What is needed for drilling down into lake sediments?
A . The latest helicopter.
B . The special equipment.
C . The light machinery.
D . The narrow path.
(3)
What is the purpose of writing the passage?
A . To attract more people's attention to CO2.
B . To call on people to protect rainforests.
C . To inform people of how scientists work on rainforests.
D . To warn people to stay away from the danger of rainforests.
(4)
The best title for the text may be_______.
A . Mystery of the Rainforest
B . Climates of the Amazon
C . The History of the Rainforest
D . Changes of the Rainforest
答案: D
B
C
A