Early warning systems for all 灾害预警系统致力于“一个都不能少”

李蕊

为应对全球范围内极端天气事件频发的局面，联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯表示，在未来5年内，地球上的每个人都应该受到极端天气和气候相关灾害的早期预警系统的保护。

主题语境：灾害防护篇幅：334词建议用时：6分钟

Early warning systems for natural disasters are the topic of a new UN project， as extreme weather grows more common due to climate change.

Early warning systems， like tornado sirens（警报器），air quality alerts， hurricane trackers， and fire towers， save thousands of lives. Andmore lives have been saved each year as severe weather events become more and more common. But one third of the world's people lack coverage.

“Today， one third of the world's people， mainly in the least-developed countries and small island developing states， are still not covered by early warning systems，”said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “In Africa， it is even worse with 60% of people lacking coverage. This is unacceptable， particularly with climate impacts sure to get even worse，”he said. “We must boost the power of prediction for everyone and build their capacity to act.”

On March 23， Guterres announced a joint project between the UN and the World Meteorological Organization to make sure that developing countries have the same early warning systems as wealthy countries. He charged the WMO to have an “action plan”for the project by November， to present at the UN climate conference in Egypt， and to complete the project within the optimistic five years.

According to the UN， the WMO will build on many of its existing programs， like a multi-hazard alert system for events like cyclones （旋風），flooding， fires， and coastal inundation（淹没）.Plans have already been on the table， in response to a WMO study last year which showed that since 1970， a climate or water-related disaster has occurred daily on average， with a mean average of 115 deaths and $200 million in calculable damage every day.

Just not long before， an immense tornado tore through New Orleans， that city's third major weather disaster since Katrina. Kauai was under a flash flood watch， and several Alabama counties were flooded. At least two were dead， and that，s with every warning system available in the developed world. Warning systems are necessary everywhere as extreme weather events grow ever more frequent.

Reading Check

1. How many of the world's population are now covered by early warning systems？

A. One second.B. One third.

C. Two thirds.D. Four fifths.

2. What's Antonio Guterres' tone like in paragraph 3？

A. Delighted.B. Concerned.

C. Curious.D. Humorous.

3. What did WMO's study last year probably focus on？

A. The “action plan”put forward by the UN.

B. The causes of climate change in recent years.

C. The damage caused by natural disasters worldwide.

D. The coverage of early warning systems in poor countries.

4. What does the underlined word “Katrina“refer to in the last paragraph？

A. A city.B. A tornado.

C. A country.D. An organization.

Language Study

I. Difficult sentence in the text

Plans have already been on the table， in response to a WMO study last year which showed that since 1970， a climate or water-related disaster has occurred daily on average， with a mean average of 115 deaths and $200 million in calculable damage every day.作为对世界气象组织去年一项研究的回应，相关计划已经出台。该研究显示，自1970年以来，平均每天都会发生一次与气候或水有关的灾害，平均每天造成115人死亡和兩亿美元可计算的损失。

【点石成金】本句是一个复合句。主句是Plans have already been on the table，后面是一个介词短语引导的状语，该状语成分还有一个which引导的定语从句和that引导的宾语从句。

II. Text-centered chunks

extreme weather 极端天气

due to由于

climate change 气候变化

warning system 报警系统

thousands of数以千计的

make sure 确信

on the table 公开地

in response to 作为对……的回应

on average 平均

at least 至少