职称英语(理工类)教材阅读理解及译文(2)

　　El Nino

　　Using a computer, the researchers matched sea-surface temperatures to later El Nino occurrences between 1980 and 2000 and were then able to anticipate El Nino events dating back to 1857, using prior sea-surface temperatures. The results were reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

　　This will probably convince others to search around more for even better methods, said Weare. He added that the new method makes it possible to predict El Nino at long lead times3. Other models also use sea-surface temperatures, but they have not looked as far back because they need other data, which is only available for recent decades, Weare said.

　　When El Nino hit in 1991 and 1997, 200 million people were affected by flooding in China alone, according to a 2002 United Nations report.

　　El Nino tends to develop between April and June and reaches its peak between December and February. The warming tends to last between 9 and 12 months and occurs every two to seven years.

　　词汇：

　　equatorial adj.赤道的 ?k?r?nsp

　　meteorologist n.气象学家?fset p

　　lead adj.领先的 m?nsu:n p

　　tricky adj.难以捉摸的

　　1. methods had limited success predicting predicting the 1997 El Nino a few months in success的含义。

　　3.at long lead times：lead的意思相当于in advance。at long lead times的意思是在领先很长的一段时间里。

　　练习：

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned

　　A　Right B　Wrong C　Not mentioned