摘要：Research sometimes proves with data what we more or less already know. For example, exercise is good for you and polluted air isn'

2014年6月高考真题C篇1-3段

Research sometimes proves with data what we more or less already know. For example, exercise is good for you and polluted air isn't. Still, sometimes our assumptions are incorrect and scientific findings surprise researchers along with the rest of us. A recent example is the phenomenon of disappearing lakes in part of the frozen, treeless Arctic region.

You might think these lakes would be expanding, not disappearing, as climate change warms the region, melting surface snow as well as the permafrost. There would be more surface water, forming larger lakes and even new ones. Recently, however, scientists have observed not just shrinking lakes, but lakes that have completely gone away.

Many scientists share the common sense expectation that, as permafrost melts, lakes would at first expand with melt water falling into them. Eventually, researchers made a prediction that progressive warming during the 21st century and during the 21st and 22nd centuries would dry out the Arctic and lakes would begin to shrink. But now it looks as if Arctic lakes are disappearing a century sooner than predicted. A case in point is that large, age-old lakes shrank dramatically in what appears to have been a matter of months. Scientists have labeled this phenomenon "disaster lake loss".

中文翻译

研究有时会用数据证明我们或多或少已经知晓的事情。比如，锻炼对身体有益，而污染的空气则不然。不过，有时我们的假设是错误的，科学发现会让研究人员和我们其他人一样感到惊讶。最近的一个例子是在冰冻且没有树木的北极部分地区出现的湖泊消失现象。

你可能会认为，随着气候变化使该地区变暖，地表积雪和永久冻土融化，这些湖泊应该会扩大，而不是消失。会有更多的地表水，形成更大的湖泊，甚至是新的湖泊。然而，最近科学家们观察到，湖泊不仅在缩小，有些甚至完全消失了。

许多科学家都有这样一个符合常理的预期，即随着永久冻土融化，湖泊最初会因融水流入而扩大。最终，研究人员预测，在21世纪以及21世纪和22世纪期间的持续变暖会使北极地区干涸，湖泊将开始缩小。但现在看来，北极地区的湖泊消失的时间似乎比预测的要早一个世纪。一个典型的例子是，一些古老的大湖泊在短短几个月内就急剧缩小。科学家们将这种现象称为“灾难性湖泊消失”。

来源：Xin神英语