在練習題中學(xué)習英語四級閱讀技巧（8）

【今日推薦閱讀】

Spring arrived incredibly early this year, according to a botanist who monitors the blooming patterns of flowers.

Cristol Fleming says she believes the appearance of flowers up to two months' early is down to the changes created by global warming.

Experts have started calling the shift in the times that plants bloom "season creep" and using decades of research have charted how much earlier it is happening.

The leaves of the English oak are appearing sooner, meaning that winter moths are coming out earlier and, because the birds that eat them are still flying north, they have already turned from caterpillars and into moths.

Their research is matched by that of researchers in Korea tracking cherry blossom and the U.S., which records its findings at the Smithsonian Institution's National Herbarium every year.

A 2005 analysis of 100 of the most popular flowers, 90 bloomed up to 44 days sooner than they did 20 years ago, according to the Washington Post.

"There is always variation from year-to-year in nature."

"And I don't want to sound alarmist that spring is coming earlier and earlier," said Fleming, who is in her 70s. "But, boy, every year, we do feel it."

Meanwhile Remote Sensing Systems has shown that March 2011 was the coolest March since 1994.

It was 0.026C cooler than average - the first month that has been cooler than averagesince June 2008.

Ms Fleming worries that plants' life cycles are speeding up.

Her concern is that their insect pollinators won't be able to cope with the Earth's changing habitats.

Unlike animals, plants can't just get up and move.

"If they end up in a climate that's too warm, well, they'll just die."

【內(nèi)容簡介】

第一段開門進山說出今年春季提前到來這一事實，可稱為主題句。我們可以推測，接下來的內(nèi)容應(yīng)該是用事例證明這一事實。

接下來文章中舉了很多例子，包括樹葉發(fā)芽時間變早，韓國櫻花花期監(jiān)測和美國植物協(xié)會的發(fā)現(xiàn)等。

文章最后，專家們說出了自己的擔心，其實是在警告人們要好好應(yīng)對氣候變暖這一嚴峻挑戰(zhàn)。

【知識點講解】

①incredibly early  這是副詞修飾形容詞的一種語法現(xiàn)象，其中incredibly跟very類似，表示非常、極其等意思，強調(diào)意味很重的詞還有beastly，desperately，badly等。在作文中多運用這種格式要比千篇一律的very……好很多。例句：It is beastly hot these days. 最近真的超熱啊。

②bloom是指開花，所以blooming patterns of flowers就是指花期。

③globe warming，全球變暖，這是近幾年的熱點話題。

④cope with  對付，應(yīng)付，妥善處理

⑤speed up 等同于accelerate，quicken  加快，使加速

【快速閱讀支招】

先快速瀏覽，了解文章的大意和主題思想，并對文章的結(jié)構(gòu)有個總的概念，特別要注意文章的起始段、結(jié)束段、文章中每段的段首句和結(jié)尾句以及篇章連接手段和行文中的信息詞(signal word)，因為它們往往是對文章內(nèi)容的最精簡概括，是左右文章大意的關(guān)鍵。