时间:2018-12-02 作者:英语课 分类:2016年Scientific American(十二)月


英语课

 


Global warming deniers love to point to cold or snow as evidence against climate change. Like Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. Remember last year, when he tossed a snowball in Congress? "You know what this is? It's a snowball. It's very, very cold out." With that, he offhandedly 1 disproved decades of climate science. To some people.  


But such cold-influenced-denial may be playing out across the U.S., in particular in Appalachia and the South. Because it turns out those areas have had lots of record low temperatures in the last 12 years. And they're also by and large the same parts of the country that have high numbers of global warming skeptics. So researchers have a theory that personal experience with cold snaps could be trumping 2 scientific facts. The analysis is in the Proceedings 3 of the National Academy of Sciences. [Robert K. Kaufmann et al., Spatial 4 heterogeneity 5 of climate change as an experiential basis for skepticism]


Study author Robert Kaufmann, an environmental scientist at Boston University, says the way around this might be to put climate data in terms people understand: money. "We should propose a simple bet to climate skeptics. And that is: For every new record high temperature at a weather station, you pay us a dollar. And for every new record low temperature, we'll pay you a dollar."


Or, he says, think of climate change as a slot machine, especially with the president-elect. “He's run casinos. So you can kind of think of climate like a climate casino. If you were a casino owner and you had a machine that was constantly paying out more record high temperatures than more record low temperatures, you would look into that machine. Something's wrong with the machine. And that's what the climate machine has been doing."


However you think about it, Kaufmann won't be betting. "I got no dough 6, man, I'm an academic."


—Christopher Intagliata



1 offhandedly
adv.立即地;即席地;未经准备地;不客气地
  • She had made these remarks offhandedly. 她即席做了这些评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She threw him over offhandedly without even a dear-john letter. 她随即就把他甩了,甚至连封分手信都没有写。 来自互联网
2 trumping
v.(牌戏)出王牌赢(一牌或一墩)( trump的现在分词 );吹号公告,吹号庆祝;吹喇叭;捏造
  • Reality has a way of trumping art, and human-climate change is very real indeed. 现实总有它的王牌艺术,受人类影响的气候变化的确成了事实。 来自互联网
  • This quirky aversion may be a case of psychological security trumping physical comfort. 这种奇怪现象可能是缘于一个心理上的安全感战胜生理上的舒适感的例子。 来自互联网
3 proceedings
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
4 spatial
adj.空间的,占据空间的
  • This part of brain judges the spatial relationship between objects.大脑的这部分判断物体间的空间关系。
  • They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
5 heterogeneity
n.异质性;多相性
  • The heterogeneity and uneven development of China's economy are rather advantageous in the war of resistance.中国经济的不统一、不平衡,对于抗日战争反为有利。
  • In heterogeneity is creation of the world.世界产生自异质性。
6 dough
n.生面团;钱,现款
  • She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
  • The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。
学英语单词
ACL - access control list
affect adjective checklist
Arthroascus
auxiliary plane of symmetry
blackwater r.
bring ... forward
butterfly-nut
Caprivi Reg.
carboned
cell type tube
collapsible containers
contra vat
Cyperus michelianus
cypraea eglantina
deflection machanism
defruiter equipment
detecting power
determinands
dog's letter
draw shot
earthed aerial
ectosarcs
eisen
electives
encl.
enter into commitment
essential bargaining problem
fargas
fifteenthly
fore distance indicator
formicans stupor
freely falling body
Fubini's theorem
Giglio Island
grocery bags
guideboat
Gómez Rendón
have dealing with
hitch wheel
hongkelin
hyperexcitement
ill health
imitative synkinesia
impact matrix
internal machine representation
karageorge
kolmogorov turbulence
labour-intensive
laccose
Madsenia
manual hoisting
microamp
mile-high club
Mono S cation exchanger
mumak
Muslimophile
niccin'
Nodapton
non loaded cable
noninsured
oil-firing boiler
palmar metacarpal artery (or large metacarpal artery)
parted pattern
pastureland water conservancy
pelletizing effect
polluting oil
prize ring
pteridium esculentums
rate of bearing variation
reappareled
rear-unloading vehicle
reciprocal spectrum
regiones plantares digitorum pedis
reset attachment
Rhipidistians
rock maple
Rubus hypargyrus
salve a sore
sea canal
sherwood andersons
slot(ting)
snorkel exhaust valve
sopental
sovereign status
squamous carcinoma of larynx
steepest descent method
stress-strain-history relation
surface-consistent static correction
teal oil
termination of procedure
theory-practice
three misthread defense
to bargain
total outflow
tromp and stomp
undog
up-bow
upper space law
usain
utilization time
xystos
zinc hydrosulfite (zinc dithionite)