Citizen Scientists

      Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle¹  events-flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring - all around the world. But ecologists can"t be everywhere so they"re turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.
　　Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they"re asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest - birds, trees, flowers budding, etc. - and send their observations to a  giant database to  be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat², citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that"s needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it³ in.
　　A group of scientists and educators launched an organization last year called the National Pheonology⁴  Network. "Phenology" is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature.
　　One of the group"s first efforts relies on scientists and non-scientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States. People participating in the project - which is open to everyone - record their observations on the Project BudBurst website.
　　"People don"t have to be plant experts -they just have to look around and see what"s in their neighborhood," says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. "As we collect this data, we"ll be able to make an estimate of how plants and eommunities⁵ of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes."

 

词汇：

Frog / frɒɡ/n. 蛙 

Ecologist / iˈkɒlədʒɪst /n .生态学家 

Phenology / fə"nɒlədʒɪ /n..物候学 

Bud/ bʌd /v.发芽，萌芽；n.芽，花蕾

Neighborhood / ˈnebɚˌhʊd /n.近邻；邻近地区 

Database / "deɪtəbeɪs/ n..数据库

Professional/ prə(ʊ)ˈfɛʃənəl / adj.专业的，职业的；n.职业选手，专业人员

 

注释：

1. life cycle：生命周期，即生物发展过程的系列变化。

2. hyper-local beat: beat 在此做名词用，意思是：某类新闻报道，如，a business beat；商业专题报道。这是近年来出现的新词。Hyper-local beat 即hyper-local news，指的是被传统新闻报道方式所忽略的小型社区或居民居住区里发生的相关信息报道。在美国由此而诞生了hyper-local news website，专门对主流媒体所没有覆盖的地区所发生的事件进行报道，其形式多以网民，即短文中所提及的citizen journalists，上传所在社区发生的事件报道、照片或视频为主。这是网络时代产生的又一新生事物。

3. data 是复数形式，但常用做单数，所以这里的代词是it。另参见最后一段“As we collect this data, ...”。这里的data 也用作单数。

4. phenology：物候学或生物气候学，是气候学和生态学的边缘学科，主要研究气候环境对生物的影响。

5. communities：生态学词汇：生物群落，记载比较相似的环境条件下在特定自然区域或环境中生活和互相影响的一群植物和动物。

What are citizen scientists asked to do?

A:To develop a specific research interest and become professional scientists. B:To send their research observations to a professional database. C:To increase their knowledge about climate change. D:To keep a record of their research observations.

Only (within) the past 200 years (scientists have) found (out what) fire (is).

A:within B:scientists have C:out what D:is

Earth’s North and South Poles are famous for being cold and icy. Last year, however, the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean fell to a record low.
Normally, ice builds in Arctic waters around the North Pole each winter and shrinks during the summer. But for many years, the amount of ice left by the end of summer has been declining.
Since 1979, each decade has seen an 11.4 percent drop in end of summer ice cover. Between 1981 and 2000, ice in the Arctic lost 22 percent of its thickness, becoming 1.13 meters thinner.
Last summer, Arctic sea ice reached its skimpiest levels yet. By the end of summer 2007, the ice had shrunk to cover just 4.2 million square kilometers. That’s 38 percent less area than the average cover at that time of year. And it’s a very large 23 percent below the previous record low, which was set just 2 years ago. This continuing trend has scientists concerned.
There may be several reasons for the ice melt, says Jinlun Zhang, an oceanographer at the University of Washington at Seattle. Unusually strong winds blew through the Arctic last summer. The winds pushed much of the ice out of the central Arctic, leaving a large area of thin ice and open water.
Scientists also suspect that fewer clouds cover the Arctic now than in the past. Clearer skies allow more sunlight to reach the ocean. The extra heat warms both the water and the atmosphere. In parts of the Arctic Ocean last year, surface temperatures were 3.5℃ warmer than average and 1.5℃ warmer than the previous record high.
With both air and water getting warmer, the ice is melting from both above and below. In some parts of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska and western Canada, ice that measured 3.3 meters thick at the beginning of the summer measured just 50 centimeters by season’s end.
The new measurements suggest that melting is far more severe than scientists have seen by just looking at ice cover from above, says Donald K. Perovich, a geophysicist at the U. S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N. H.
Some scientists fear that the Arctic is stuck in a warming trend from which it may never recover.
What can be a possible title for the passage

A:What are scientists looking for in the Arctic Ocean B:What are scientists doing in the Arctic Ocean C:Why are scientists worrying about the Arctic Ocean D:Why are scientists interested in the Arctic Ocean

In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. Their study is in ACS’ Energy & Fuels.
lbrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil". "Peak oil" is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve. A related concept is that of "Peak Oil". The term "Peak Oil" indicates the moment in which world wide production will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline.
The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide.
However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for more complex oil production cycles of some countries. Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.
The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast. Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries which supply most of the world’s conventional crude oil. They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world’s oil reserves are being reduced at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest.
Who develop the new version of the Hubbert model

A:American scientists. B:Kuwaiti scientists. C:British scientists. D:Scientists of 47 major oil-producing countries.

阅读下面的短文，文中有15处空白，每处空白给出了4个选项，请根据短文的内容从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。

A:scientists B:humans C:plants D:animals

第三篇"Life Form Found" on Saturn’s Titan Scientists say they have discovered hints of alien life on the Saturn’s moon. The discovery of a sort of life was announced after researchers at the US space agency, NASA, analyzed data from spacecraft Cassini, which pointed to the existence of methane-based form of life on Saturn’s biggest moon. Scientists have reportedly discovered clues showing primitive alien beings are "breathing" in Titan’s dense atmosphere filled with hydrogen. They argue that hydrogen gets absorbed before hitting Titan’s planet-like surface covered with methane lakes and rivers. This, they say, points to the existence of some "bugs" consuming the hydrogen at the surface of the moon less than half the size of the Earth. "We suggested hydrogen consumption because it’s the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth," says NASA scientist Chris McKay. "If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth." To date, scientists have not yet detected this form of life anywhere, though there are liquid-water-based microorganisms on Earth that grow well on methane or produce it as a waste product. On Titan, where temperatures are around 90 Kelvin (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit), a methane-based organism would have to use a substance that is liquid as its medium for living processes, but not water itself. Water is frozen solid on Titan’s surface and much too cold to support life as we know it. Scientists had expected the Sun’s interactions with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce a coating of acetylene on Titan’s surface. But Cassini detected no acetylene on the surface. The absence of detectable acetylene on the Titan’s surface can very well have a non-biological explanation, said Mark Allen, a principal investigator of the NASA Titan team. "Scientific conservatism suggests that a biological explanation should be the last choice after all non-biological explanations are addressed." Allen said. "We have a lot of work to do to rule out possible non-biological explanations. It is more likely that a chemical process, without biology, can explain these results." It can be inferred from Mark Allen’s address that

A:Scientists are trying to conform there is life on Titan. B:Scientists agree that a chemical reaction is a convincing explanation. C:Scientists share the opinion that a biological explanation is reasonable. D:Scientists are arguing over whether there is life on Titan.

Every living thing has what scientists call a biological clock that controls behavior. The biological clock tells (1) when to form flowers and when the flowers should open. It tells (2) when to leave the protective cocoons and fly away, and it tells animals and human beings when to eat, sleep and wake.
Events outside the plant and animal (3) the actions of some biological clocks. Scientists recently found, for example, that a tiny animal changes the color of its fur (4) the number of hours of daylight. In the short (5) of winter, its fur becomes white. The fur becomes gray brown in color in the longer hours of daylight in summer.
Inner signals control other biological clocks. German scientists found that some kind of internal clock seems to order birds to begin their long migration (6) twice each year. Birds (7) flying become restless when it is time for the trip, (8) they become calm again when the time of the flight has ended.
Scientists say they are beginning to learn which (9) of the brain contain biological clocks. An American researcher, Martin Moorhead, said a small group of cells near the front of the brain (10) to control the timing of some of our actions. These (11) tell a person when to (12) , when to sleep and when to seek food. Scientists say there probably are other biological clock cells that control other body activities.
Dr. Moorhead is studying (13) our biological clocks affect the way we do our work. For example, most of us have great difficulty if we must often change to different work hours.
(14) can take many days for a human body to accept the major change in work hours. Dr. Moorhead said industrial officials should have a better understanding of biological clocks and how they affect workers. He said (15) understanding could cut sickness and accidents at work and would help increase a factory’s production.

1（）

A:scientists B:humans C:plants D:animals

第一篇An Expensive Mistake Is there water on the planet Mars? Is there life on Mars? Was there ever life on Mars? Scientists from NASA wanted to know the answers to these questions. They built a spacecraft to travel around Mars and get information. The spacecraft was called the Mars Climate Orbiter. The Mars Climate Orbiter left for Mars on December 1998. The trip took nine and a half months. At first, everything was fine. However, when the Orbiter got near Mars, something terrible happened. The spacecraft didn’t go to the right place. It went too close to Mars. It was too hot for the Orbiter there. The spacecraft couldn’t function correctly. Suddenly, it stopped sending messages to NASA. The Orbiter was lost. How could this terrible thing happen? How did the Orbiter get closer to Mars than the scientists planned? Finally, they found the answer. Two teams of scientists worked together on the Orbiter. One team was in England, and one team was in the United States. There were many similarities in the way they worked, but there was one important difference: The teams used different guidelines for measuring things. The United States team used the metric system (公制). The other team used the English system. Because they used different systems, the scientists made a mathematical mistake. The Orbiter’s orbit (the shape and pattern of its path) around Mars was not correct. The scientists put the Orbiter on the wrong path. The Orbiter got too close and too hot, and it stopped functioning. Why didn’t anybody see the mistake before it was too late? Many things contributed to the problem. One thing was that NASA scientists and mathematicians were working on two other spacecrafts at the same time. This was a challenge, and they were very tired from working long hours. The Mars Climate Orbiter cost $94 million to build. It also cost a lot of money to try to find the lost Orbiter in space. In addition, NASA’s research on the cause of the problem was expensive. This wasn’t the first time that two different measurement systems caused mistakes in scientific projects. However, the Mars Climate Orbiter was definitely the most expensive mistake of all!What caused the Orbiter’s problem?

A:Scientists used wrong guidelines of mathematics. B:Scientists used wrong building materials. C:Scientists used different operating systems. D:Scientists used different measurement systems.