万花筒 2007-01-01&03, 冬天不见了?

In New York Central Park, it's looking more like spring with temperatures in the 50s. Cherry blossoms are blooming in the nation's capital months early. Skiers in New England have to find snow between the patches of grass. In Ohio, that lack of snow means golfers get a jump-start on the season in what would normally be frigid¹ temperatures. There's been plenty of snow dumped on Colorado, why is it so unusually warm in the northeast? Scientists say one culprit is El Nino.

It's essentially² a warm pool of water in the Pacific that sloshes back and forth³ on a 2 to 7 years' cycle. Forecasters say for the US, El Nino means a mild winter in some parts of the country and wet conditions in others, and others say it is not just El Nino. Some experts including one at the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric⁴ Administration say: it's playing a large factor, in fact if you didn't have increasing green house gases, we will not be seeing these consecutive⁵ very warm years following one after the other both here in the US and globally. Parts of Europe including the Alps have had unseasonably warm temperatures; the British climate scientists predict a new milestone⁶ for the globe: there's a high likelihood that 2007 will be the warmest year globally on record. Scientists say one year doesn't make a trend, but some say it's part of an overall climate change that is triggering concern. Some believe the impact can be seen in the US in the past year alone.

"In the US, we had record wildfire season in part because of the large drought conditions in the summer record temperatures, and we've been burnt about 9.5 million acres of our forests. And so these hyper-trends do have a profound impact."

Scientists say the change in climate being seen to serve as a wake- up call for how to plan for the future.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

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jump-start :to start something in a very active and successful way 发动
slosh:if a liquid sloshes, or you slosh it, it moves violently inside its container, or some of it comes out of the container 剧烈晃动

1 frigid   

adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的

参考例句：

• The water was too frigid to allow him to remain submerged for long.水冰冷彻骨，他在下面呆不了太长时间。
• She returned his smile with a frigid glance.对他的微笑她报以冷冷的一瞥。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

4 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

5 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

6 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。