突发性干旱与农业

顾芳

突发性干旱发展迅速，甚至可以摧毁一个地区的农业。

主题语境：自然环境篇幅：359词 建议用时：7分钟

1 Flash droughts develop fast， and when they hit at the wrong time， they can ruin a region‘s agriculture. Theyre also becoming increasingly common as the planet warms. In astudy published in the journalCommunications Earth & Environment， we found that therisk of flash droughts， which can develop in the span of a few weeks， is on pace to rise inevery major agricultural region around the world in the coming decades.

2 In North America and Europe， croplandthat had a 32% annual chance of aflash drought a few years ago could have agreater chance of a flash drought by thefinal decades of this century. That resultwould put food production， energy， andwater supplies under increasing pressure.The cost of ravage will also rise. A flashdrought in the Dakotas and Montana in2017 caused $2.6 billion in agricultural damage in America alone.

3 All droughts begin when rainfall stops. What‘s interesting about flash droughts ishow fast they reinforce （加強） themselves， with some help from the warming climate. Whenthe weather is hot and dry， soil loses moisture rapidly. Dry air extracts moisture from theland， and rising temperatures can increase this evaporative （蒸发的） demand. The lack ofrain during a flash drought can further contribute to the feedback processes. Under theseconditions， crops and vegetation begin to die much more quickly than they do during typicallong term droughts.

4 In our study， we used climate models and data from the past 170 years to assess thedrought risks ahead under three conditions for how quickly the world takes action to slowthe pace of global warming. If greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles， power plants， andother human sources continue at a high rate， we found that cropland in much of NorthAmerica and Europe would have a 53% annual chance of flash droughts， respectively， bythe final decades of this century. Globally， the largest projected increases in flash droughtswould be in Europe and the Amazon. Slowing emissions can reduce the risk significantly，but we found flash droughts would still increase by about 6% worldwide under lowemissionconditions.

 ReadingCheck

1. What is the feature of flash droughts？

A. Seldom happen and badly beneficial.

B. Regularly happen and slightly harmful.

C. Suddenly happen but highly destructive.

D. Frequently happen and low risky.

2. What does the underlined word“ ravage” mean in paragraph 2？

A. Change. B. Damage. C. Increase. D. Progress.

3. Whats paragraph 4 mainly about？

A. How flash droughts develop.

B. Which continent is the safest.

C. Why we assess the drought risks.

D. Who are to blame for natural disasters.

4. How can humans help reduce flash droughts？

A. By studying climate models.

B. By speeding up global warming.

C. By changing cropland into forests.

D. By decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

 LanguageStudy

Ⅰ. 日积月累

hitv. 到达（某地）；袭击

extractv. 提取

lackn. 缺乏

vegetationn. 植被

typicaladj. 典型的

respectivelyadv. 各自地；分別

projectedadj. 预计的

in the span of 在……期间

under pressure 在压力下

feedback process 反馈过程

Ⅱ. 单句填空

1. You can learn more about flash droughts in the study_____ （publish） in the magazine.

2. With the weather getting hotter， soil becomes drier_____ （rapid）.

3. The world should take action _____ （fight） against global warming.

4. The study is about flash droughts， _____are common in the world.

5. _____interests us is that flash droughts can get themselves stronger.

6. Flash droughts are typical_____developing fast but having bad impacts.