英语听力：自然百科 格陵兰岛冰原融化

 As five European foreign ministers meet in Copenhagen to prepare for an aggreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol¹, scientists in Greenland are warning about accelerated glacier² melts. Several years ago, scientists reported that the Helheim Glacier, suddenly and without warning, had begun accelarating, spitting iceburgs ever faster into the ocean off southeastern Greenland. In just two years, it doubled the speed. Other Greenland glaciers³ made similar accelarations. Now, there is a bit of good news, but a lot of uncertainty⁴. The accelarated movement has diminished, but a climate scientist who has clocked Helheim Glacier with GPS receivers for five years says there is no less concern about a collapse⁵ of Greenland's ice sheet.

 

Glaciers like this one here, Helheim Glacier, have accelarated their flow speed, and that's important because they are like conveyor belts that move mass out of the mid⁶ of the ice sheet and take it down to the Fjord behind us, the ocean behind us. And when they get to the end, they discharge iceburgs into the ocean and that ice displaces sea water which causes the sea level rise just the same, in the same way that melting ice in turning into the liquid water causes the sea level rise.

 

Helheim is a fast moving glacier flowing at around 6.5 miles per year. The extremely rapid rate of flow has slowed recently, but is still much faster than in decades past.

 

The Greenland ice sheet contains about seven meters of sea level equivalent. In the other words, if you were to completely get rid of the Greenland ice sheet and put all the ice that's frozen on the land surface as liquid water into the ocean, the sea levels around the world would be about seven meters higher than they are today. Now, scientists like me don't foresee a complete collapse of the ice sheet in certainly our lifetimes and probably not for a few centuries. So, that sea level, that seven meter sea levels rise scenario⁷ is not something we can expect any time soon. But let's just say that a small part of the ice sheet were to collapse and we got a rise of sea level by one meter, that would have enormous implications for societies around the world, especially the sites clustered near the coasts.

 

Other researchers say some but not all of Greenland's glaciers have shown similar slowdown in recent years, suggesting that a sudden dramatic increasing flow speed may not be such a cataclysmic and irregular phenomenon after all. Still, the flows remain fast enough to yield a net loss of mass from the ice sheet. And if the world continues to warm, sudden spurts⁸ of glacial acceleration⁹ may become more frequent, draining the inland ice until it eventually collapses¹⁰.

1 protocol   

n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节

参考例句：

• We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
• The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。

2 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

3 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

4 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

5 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

6 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

7 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

8 spurts   

短暂而突然的活动或努力( spurt的名词复数 )； 突然奋起

参考例句：

• Great spurts of gas shoot out of the sun. 太阳气体射出形成大爆发。
• Spurts of warm rain blew fitfully against their faces. 阵阵温热的雨点拍打在他们脸上。

9 acceleration   

n.加速，加速度

参考例句：

• All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
• He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。

10 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。