2014年职称英语 阅读理解(3) Citizen Scientists

第三篇Citizen Scientists (C级)

Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle event — flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring —all around the world. But ecologists can’t be

every where so they’re turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.

Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they’re asking for yo ur help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest — birds, trees,

flowers budding, etc. —and send their observations to a giant database to be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat, citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that’s needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it in.

A group of scientists and educators launched 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 relies 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 a variety of common plants from across the United States. People participating in the project —which is open to everyone — record their observations on the Project BudBurst website.

“People don’t have to be plant experts they just have to look around and see what’s in their neighborhood,” says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. “As we collect this data, we’ll be able to make an estimate of how plants and communities of plants and anim als will respond as the climate changes.” 词汇：

frog n. 蛙neighbor(u)rhood n.近邻；邻近地区

Ecologist n. 生态学家 database n.数据库

Phenology n. 物候学professional adj.专业的，职业的；n. 职业选手，专业人员

bud v.发芽，萌芽；n.芽，花蕾

注释:

1. life cycle:生命周期，即生物发展过程的系列变化。

2. hyper-local beat: beat在此做名词用，意思是:某类新闻报道，如，a business beat; 商业专题报道。这是近年来出现的新词。Hyper-local beat即hyper-local news指的是被传统新闻报道方式所忽略的小型社区或居民居住区里发生的相关信息报道。在美国由此而诞生了hyper-local news website，专门对主流媒体所没有覆盖的地区所发生的事件进行报道，其形式多以网民，即短文中所提及的citizen journalists，上传所在社区发生的事件报道、照片或视频为主。这是网络时代产生的又一新生事物。

3. data是复数形式，但常用做单数，所以这里的代词是it。另参见昀后一段“ As we collect this data，…”。这里的data也用作单数。

4. phenology:物候学或生物气候学，是气候学和生态学的边缘学科，主要研究气候环境对生物的影响。

5. communities:生态学词汇:生物群落，记载比较相似的环境条件下在特定自然区域或环境中生活和互相影响的一群植物和动物。

练习：

1. Ecologists turn to non-scientist citizens for help because they need them A) to provide their personal life cycles.

B) to observe the life cycle of plants. C) to collect data of the life cycle of living things. D) to teach children knowledge about climate change.

2. What are citizen scientists asked to do? A) To develop a specific research interest and become professional scientists. B) To send their research observations to a professional database. C) To increase their knowledge about climate change. D) To keep a record of their research observations.

3. In “All that’s needed to become one …(paragraph2)”, what does the word “one” stands for? A) a citizen journalist. B) a citizen scientist. C) a scientist. D) a citizen.

4. What is NOT true of Project BudBurst? A) Only experts can participate in it. B) Everybody can participate in it.

C) It collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants. D) It has its own website.

5. What is the final purpose of Project BudBurst? A) To study when plants will have their first buds. B) To find out the types of plants in the neighborhood. C) To collect life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States. D) To investigate how plants and animals will respond as the climate changes.

答案与题解：

1. C第一段和第二段的第一句告诉我们，要在世界范围内观察气候对大自然中生物生命周期的影响，数量有限的科学家不可能足迹遍及天下，为此科学家求助于普通公民的参与。所以C是正确选择。

2. B第二段第三句中encourage ordinary people to observe…的主语是The citizen scientist movement，即公民参与科学观察的运动。所以D不是正确选择。A和C不符合文章的句意，因此也不是正确的选择。这个句子的大意是：这一运动鼓励普通公民根据自己的兴趣爱好进行科学观察，并将观察结果送交数据库，让专门领域的科学家做进一步的观察。B正确表达了这个意思。

3. B one在这里是一个代词，其前置词是citizen scientists，而不是citizen journalists，这里的one指的是one of citizen scientists。所以A、C和D 都不是正确选择。这个句子的意思是，只要每天或每星期花上几分钟收集数据并发送出去，就能成为一个公民科学家。

4. A文章昀后一段说，这个计划向所有人开放(open to everyone)，所以应选择A。B、C、D所述内容都在该段中提到。

5. D C表述的内容是Project Budburst所要做的工作，但其昀终的目的不仅仅是收集数据，而是研究气候变化对生物生命周期的影响。因此，D才是正确答案。

第三篇公民科学家

理解大自然对气候变化有怎样的反应需要监视世界各个角落的关键生命周期事件——花开、叶子的出现、第一只青蛙叫出春天的到来。但是生态学家不可能去到世界的各个角落，所以他们向非科学家求助，这些非科学家有时也被称作公民科学家。

气象科学家不可能足迹遍及天下。因为在世界上有如此多的地方，没有足够的科学家来观察它们。所以他们请求你来帮助观察全世界气候变化的迹象。公民科学家运动鼓励普通人根据自己的兴趣来观察某一个特定的方面——鸟儿、树木、花卉等等一一并把他们的观察结果发送到一个巨大的数据库来供专业科学家研究。这有助于数量有限的科学家得到如果只靠他们自己根本收集不到的巨大数据。就像公民记者帮助报道传统新闻报道方式所忽略的小型社区的相关信息一样，公民科学家也对他们所居住的环境很熟悉。所需要的就是每天或每周留出儿分钟来搜集数据并发送过来。

一群科学家和教育家在去年发起了一个叫做纽约国家物候学的组织。“物候学”就是科学家们所说的在自然中研究每个事件的时间。

其中一个小组的首要尝试就是依靠科学家和非科学家来收集关于每年植物开花和长叶子的数据。这一项目叫做花季追踪计划，它收集遍布美国的各种各样的植物生长周期的数据。参与这一项目的人们一一这一计

划对所有人开放——把他们的观察记录登录在花季追踪计划网站上。

“人们不需要是植物学家——他们仅仅需要环视四周看看周围有什么。”Jennifer Schwarts说，她是这项计划的教育顾问。“通过收集数据，我们就能够估算出气候变化对植物和生物群落会有怎样的影响。”