Question

Nature responds to climate change. To understand it, we need to monitor key life cycle events－flowering, the appearance of leaves the first frog calls of the spring－all around the world. But scientists can’t be everywhere so they’re turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.

A group of scientists and educators launched (發(fā)起) an organization last year called the National Phenology Network. “Phenology” is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature.

One of the group’s first efforts depends on scientists and non-scientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on different kinds of common plants from across the United States.

“People don ’t have to be plant experts－they just have to look around and see what’s in their neighbourhood,”says Jennifer Schwartz, an adviser with the project, “As we collect this data, we’ll be able to predict how plants and communities of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes.”

That data will help scientists predict not only how natural communities may change but also how these changes will affect people.

Scientists monitoring lilac (丁香) flowering in the western United States reported that in years when lilacs bloomed early before May 20th－wildfires later in the summer and fall are larger and more severe. Lilac blooming could serve as an alarm bell, Jennifer says.

Improved monitoring is an important step toward predicting how natural communities will respond to climate change.

“The best way for us to increase our knowledge of how plants and animals are responding to climate change is to increase the amount of data we have,” he says. “That ’s why we need citizen scientists to get as much information from as many places on as many species over as long a time period as we can.”

 

69. The National Phenology Network is launched to                .

A. research how nature makes response to climate change

B. keep a record of what is happening in nature

C. make a study of the first frog calls of the spring

D. judge what plants will die out in the future

70. The task of Project BudBurst is to                .

A. grow more plants to improve the climate

B. collect information about common plants

C. made citizens tell different plants

D. find out how many kinds of plants there are in America

71. By saying “Lilac blooming could serve as an alarm bell”, Jennifer meant             .

A. lilac flowers could made people feel anxious or afraid

B. lilacs could warn people of the danger of wildlife

C. the blooming of lilacs could predict the happening of wildfires

D. the flowers of lilacs could be used to wake people up

72. The main idea of this passage is              .

A. why we need to collect data about nature

B. when an alarm bell sounds for nature

C. what citizen scientists are in America

D. how nature responds to climate change

Answer 1

ABCD