Many world

一研究小组研发了一项新技术，即使用了各种卫星和模型的数据跟踪世界上近2，000个大型湖泊和水库的水位变化，并对这些湖泊及水库的储水变化趋势和原因进行了详细分析。让我们一起来看看吧。

主题语境：自然生态 篇幅：312词 建议用时：7分钟

1 More than 50 percent of large lakes in the world are losing water， according to agroundbreaking new assessment published in Science. The main causes are warmingclimate and unsustainable human consumption.

2 Lead author Fangfang Yao， a climate fellow at the University of Virginia， said this isthe first comprehensive assessment of trends and drivers of global lake water storagevariability based on an array （一系列） of satellites and models.

3 The team used 250，000 lake?area pictures captured by satellites between 1992 and2020 to survey the area of 1，972 of Earth's large lakes. They collected water levels fromnine satellite altimeters and used long?term water levels to reduce any uncertainty. Forlakes without a long?term level record， they used recent water measurements made bynewer instruments on satellites. Combining current level measurements with longer?termarea measurements allowed scientists to understand the changes in lake levels over decades.

4 The results were striking： 53 percent of lakes globally experienced a decline in waterstorage. Yao and his colleagues also assessed storage trends in reservoirs （水库）. Theyfound that nearly two?thirds of Earth's large reservoirs experienced significant water losses.“Sedimentation （沉积作用） dominated the global storage decline in existing reservoirs，”said Ben Livneh， also a co?author， CIRES fellow， and associate professor of engineering at CU Boulder. In long?established reservoirs—those that were filled before 1992—sedimen?tation was more important than droughts and heavy rainfall years.

5 Globally， freshwater lakes and reservoirs store 87 percent of the planet's fresh water，making them a valuable resource for both humans and ecosystems. Unlike rivers， lakes arenot well monitored， yet they provide water for a large part of humanity—even more thanrivers. It is estimated that roughly one?quarter of the world's population， 2 billionpeople， lives in the basin of a drying lake， which indicates an urgent need to incorpor?ate human consumption， climate change， and sedimentation impacts into sustainablewater resources management.

Reading Check

Detail

1. What problem does the new study focus on？

A. Severe water shortage of global big lakes.

B. An increase in the waste of water resources.

C. Human activities' damaging effects on lakes.

D. The importance of lakes to Earth ecosystems.

Gist

2. What is paragraph 3 mainly about？

A. The introduction to Earth's big lakes.

B. The difficulties of measuring water levels.

C. The process of scientists conducting the research.

D. The advantages of applying satellites to collecting data.

Detail

3. What is the main cause of the storage decline in reservoirs？

A. Sedimentation. B. Frequent rainfall.

C. Long?term droughts. D. Excessive use of water.

Inference

4. What does the author suggest in the last paragraph？

A. Limiting the development of lake resources.

B. Taking urgent action to control human consumption.

C. Solving the water problem of people around drying lakes.

D. Improving the management of sustainable water resources.

Language Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

It is estimated that roughly one?quarter of the worlds population， 2 billion people，lives in the basin of a drying lake， which indicates an urgent need to incorporate humanconsumption， climate change， and sedimentation impacts into sustainable water resourcesmanagement. 据估计，大约四分之一的世界人口，即约20亿人生活在干燥的湖泊流域，这表明迫切需要将人类消耗、气候变化和沉积的影响纳入可持续的水资源管理。

【点石成金】句中的that引导的是一个主语从句，it作形式主语；which引导的是定语从句，且在从句中作主语。

Ⅱ. Fill in the blanks with the words and phrase in the box in proper forms.

more than assessment variability combining measurement

1. Decisions could be made on the basis of price， delivery dates， after?sales service or any other ________.

2. In 1986，________three million were receiving unemployment benefit in America.

3. Up until that point， Leah had followed traditional________of success.

4. The________of hot weather and decreased water supplies is hurting many industries.

5. Officials arrived to________whether it was safe to bring emergency food supplies into the city.