特別說明：原文來自教材閱讀理解第三篇

第三篇：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 Phenology4Network. “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 Bud Burst, 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 Bud Burst 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 communities5 of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes.”

詞匯：

frog / fr?g/ n.蛙

ecologist / ,i:’k?l?d??st/ n.生態(tài)學(xué)家

bud / b?d / v.發(fā)芽，萌芽;n.芽，花蕾

database / ’de?t?be?s / n.數(shù)據(jù)庫

professional / pr?(?)’fe??n?l/ adj.專業(yè)的，職業(yè)的;n.職業(yè)選手，專業(yè)人員

phenology / f?’n?l?d?? / n.物候?qū)W

neighbor(u)rhood n.近鄰;鄰近地區(qū)

注釋：

1.life cycle：生命周期，即生物發(fā)展過程的系列變化。

2.hyper-local beat：beat在此做名詞用，意思是：某類新聞報道，如a business beat：商業(yè)專題報道。這是近年來出現(xiàn)的新詞。hyper-local beat即hyper-local news，指的是被傳統(tǒng)新聞報道方式所忽略的小型社區(qū)或居民居住區(qū)里發(fā)生的相關(guān)信息報道。在美國由此而誕生了hyper- local news websites，專門對主流媒體沒有覆蓋的地區(qū)所發(fā)生的事件進行報道，其形式多以網(wǎng)民，即短文中所提及的citizen journalists，上傳所在社區(qū)發(fā)生的事件報道、照片或視頻為主。這是網(wǎng)絡(luò)時代產(chǎn)生的又一種新生事物。

3.data是復(fù)數(shù)形式，但常用作單數(shù)，所以這里的代詞是it。另參見最后一段：“As we collect this data…”這里的data也用作單數(shù)。

4.phenology：物候?qū)W或生物氣候?qū)W，是氣候?qū)W和生態(tài)學(xué)的邊緣學(xué)科，主要研究氣候環(huán)境對生物的影響。

5.communities ：生態(tài)學(xué)詞匯：生物群落，即在比較相似的環(huán)境條件下在特定自然區(qū)域或環(huán)境中生活和相互影響的一群植物和動物。

練習(xí)：

1.Ecologists turn to non-scientist citizens for help because they need them

A　to provide their personal life cycles.

B　to observe the life cycle of plants.

C　to collect data of the life cycle of living things.

D　to teach children knowledge about climate change.

2.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.

3.In “All that's needed to become one ... (paragraph2)”, what does the word "one" stands for?

A　A citizen journalist.

B　A citizen scientist.

C　A scientist.

D　A citizen.

4.What is NOT true of Project Bud Burst?

A　Only experts can participate in it.

B　Everybody can participate in it.

C　It collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants.

D　It has its own website.

5.What is the final purpose of Project Bud Burst?

A　To study when plants will have their first buds.

B　To find out the types of plants in the neighborhood.

C　To collect life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States.

D　To investigate how plants and animals will respond as the climate changes

2014年職稱英語教材理工類閱讀理解

第三篇：Citizen Scientists

答案與題解：

1.C　第一段和第二段第一句告訴我們，要在世界范圍觀察氣候?qū)Υ笞匀恢猩锏纳芷诘挠绊懀瑪?shù)量有限的科學(xué)家不可能足跡遍及天下，為此科學(xué)家求助于普通公民的參與。所以C是正確選擇。

2.B　第二段第三句中encourage ordinary people to observe · · ·的主語是The citizen scientist movement,即公民參與科學(xué)觀察的運動。所以D不是正確選擇。A和C不符合文章的句意，因此也不是正確的選擇。這個句子的大意是：這一運動鼓勵普通公民根據(jù)自己的興趣愛好進行科學(xué)觀察，并將觀察結(jié)果送交數(shù)據(jù)庫，讓專門領(lǐng)域的科學(xué)家作進一步的觀察。B正確表達了這個意思。

3.B　one在這里是一個代詞，其前置詞是citizen scientists,而不是citizen journalists,這里的one指的是one of citizen scientists。所以，A、C和D都不是正確選擇。這個句子的意思是，只要每天或每星期花上幾分鐘收集數(shù)據(jù)并發(fā)送出去，就能成為一個公民科學(xué)家。

4.A　文章最后一段說，這個計劃向所有的人開放(open to everyone),所以應(yīng)選擇A。B、C、D所述內(nèi)容都在該段中提到。

5.D　C表述的內(nèi)容是Project BudBurst所要做的工作，但其最終目的不僅僅是收集數(shù)據(jù)，而是研究氣候變化對生物生命周期的影響。因此，D才是正確選擇。

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（責(zé)任編輯：vstara）

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