Climate Experts Warn of More Coastal Building
Ten climate experts who are sharply divided over whether global warming is intensifying hurricanes say that this question, a focus of Congressional hearings, news reports and the recent Al Gore documentary, is a distraction from “the main hurricane problem facing the United States.”
That problem, the experts said yesterday in a statement, is an ongoing “lemming-like march to the sea” in the form of unabated coastal development in vulnerable places, and in the lack of changes in government policies and corporate and individual behavior that are driving the trend.
Whatever the relationship between hurricanes and climate, experts say, hurricanes are hitting and houses should not be built in their path.
Philip J. Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University who disputes the idea that global warming is linked to stronger storms, said the social and economic trends were completely clear. Kerry A. Emanuel, a climatologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drafted the statement and conducted one of several recent studies asserting that the building energy of hurricanes in recent decades was probably related to human-driven warming of the seas.

Words and Expressions/p>

新单词和短语

1.distraction:n
<I> the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something
2.lemming:n
<I> any of various small, thickset rodents, especially of the genus Lemmus, inhabiting northern regions and known for periodic mass migrations that sometimes end in drowning
3.unabated:adj
<I>continuing at full strength or intensity
4.vulnerable:adj
<I> susceptible to attack
5.climatologist:n
<I> one versed in, or who studies, climatology
6.assert:v
<I> to state or express positively; affirm

文中替换词

1.linked to-related to:
2.climate expert-climatologist/p>

Collocation

文中搭配
Verb+Noun
1.intensify hurricanes: 加剧了海啸（的发生率）
2.drive the trend: 促使，推动了趋势
3.hurricane hit: 海啸袭击（某一地区）
4.dispute the idea: 争论那个意见
5.draft the statement: 起草申明
6.conduct the study: 进行调查

Adjective+Noun
1.global warming: 全球变暖
2.lemming-like march: 向旅鼠一样的行进

Verb+Preposition
1.warn of: 警告

Adverb+Adjective
1.sharply divide: （意见）剧烈地分歧

搭配总结

1.trendbr/>Verb+Noun
<1>follow the trend:　跟随...趋势
e.g.Here is a list of ten things an enterprise architect should do to follow trends.
<2>ride the trend:　赶时髦，赶潮流
e.g.Retailers ride western trend.
<3>drive the trend:　促使...趋势的发生
e.g.Efficiency drive fuels trend to low-rpm diesels.
<4>reverse the trend:　逆转...趋势
e.g.States urged to reverse funding trend.
<5>buck the trendbr/>e.g.China steel prices buck global trend.
<6>curb the trendbr/>e.g.We must curb this negative trend that affects all sectors and all European Union (EU) countries.S
Adjective+Nounbr/><1>prevailing trend: 流行的趋势
<2>global/national trend: 全球的/全国的 趋势
<3>upward<->downward trend: 上升/下降 趋势
<4>positive<->negative trend: 正面/负面 趋势

Word Hyperlink
1.hurricane-vulnerable=hurricane-prone: 易收洪水的
<->hurricane-free: 没有洪水的
e.g.The best thing people in hurricane-vulnerable states, such as Georgia, can do is prepare well in.
e.g.NASA promotes hurricane-free Moon Villages by Scott Ott.
e.g.Gulf Coast farmers hoping for a hurricane-free September(title)

2.表示飓风袭击某一地区的说法：
<1>Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast.
<2>US economy was growing before Katrina hit
            Gulf Coast.
<3>Hurricane Katrina smashed into
            the Gulf Coast Monday.
<4>Hurricane Katrina slammed
            the Gulf Coast with violent fury this week, leaving behind a massive trail of destruction and chaos.
<5>Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast Monday with heavy winds and sheets of rain.
<6>Half a year after Hurricane Katrina tore into the Gulf Coast, only one thing is clear.
<7>Another tropical storm is threatening to turn into a hurricane and roar into the Gulf Coast.

3.表示飓风受灾地区的说法：
<1>hurricane-hit areabr/>e.g.Bush visits hurricane-hit Florida.
<2>hurricane-struck areabr/>e.g.US Central Command Air Forces announced plans today to return airmen assigned to hurricane-struck Keesler from their deployments.
<3>hurricane-affected areabr/>e.g.Museum Loan Network aids hurricane-affected institutions - MIT.(title)
<4>hurricane-ravaged areabr/>e.g.Bush visits hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast.

4.be related to=be connected to=be linked to: 与...有联系

背景知识/font>

关于 lemming-like march

请看一下旅鼠的一张图片：

图片出处：http://www.wenwu.gov.cn/bbs/UploadFile/2006-2/20062171155819251.jpg
 

当旅鼠的数量实在太多，而天敌数量总是有限，无论怎样地暴露自己都收效甚微。因此它们会显示出一种非常强烈的迁移意识，聚集在一起，渐渐地形成大群，开始时似乎没有什么方向和目标，到处乱窜，就像是出发之前的乱忙，正在准备似的。但是后来，不知道是谁下了命令，也不知谁带头，它们却忽然朝着同一个方向，浩浩荡荡地出发了。往往是白天休整进食，晚上摸黑前进，沿途不断有老鼠加入，而队伍会愈来愈大，常常达数百万只，逢山过山，遇水涉水，勇往直前，前赴后继，沿着一条笔直的路线奋勇前进，决不绕道，更不停止，一直奔到大海，仍然毫无惧色，纷纷地跳将下去，直到被汹涌澎湃的波涛所吞没，全军覆没为止。

原文出处：http://www.hongen.com/art/dlmy/cdlzs/dc0407.htm

本文中海啸的像旅鼠的行进指海啸定期的大规模的向海岸边行进，只不过两者的方向相反而已。

这个问题我首先咨询的Yeti前辈。他将这个问题粘贴在雨巷上，并做了详尽的解答。感谢他老人家。我把他的这篇帖子转贴在这里。

Someone in another forum asked me what "lemming-like" behavior means, so I thought it would be nice to add this to our collection of "Interesting words and phrases."First, what are lemmings? A lemming is a rodent (rat) like animal that looks like this.

However, to the many of us who start playing video games in the 1980s, we also remember lemmings as like this/font>

What lemmings are known for is their periodic migration and "suicidal" tendencies. They will march mindlessly towards a cliff and jump off to the sea or a river and get drowned.Here is what Wikepedia says about the suicides: "The actual reason for their 'suicide' deaths is because these mass migrations may last many months and the lemmings become too tired to avoid cliff edges or swim when they normally could. "===========Related to the expression "behaving like lemmings" is "Herd Instinct." Herd instinct means you follow the rest of the herd mindlessly and usually ended up getting hurt.(Herd Instinct=following the crowd mindlessly.)Here are examples of the use of these two expressions: Investors tend to behave like lemmings by following their herd instinct rather than reasoning.Source: Investopedia: Lemming    The act of following the crowd into an investment that will inevitably head for disaster.http://oregonmag.com/Neil203.htm     Lemmings and Investors:  How Different Are They?  by Mark Neil ...Stock market investors have similar tendencies, even though we consider ourselves to be higher on the food chain than lemmings or sheep.  Perhaps that means we just have more sophisticated reasons why we suddenly decide to head off one direction and blindly follow the herd. http://www.realnamibia.com/rn_028rainyseason.htm   Travelers on the other hand, drive too fast, get stuck in the mud and behave like lemmings when it comes to rivers. In fact, every year produces a new crop of photos of funny photographs of expensive offroad vehicles in the middle of raging torrents. Pulling travelers from rivers after a photo opportunity seems to have become the pastime of choice for tour guides during the rainy season. http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/new/contententry.htm  Kenya catapulted herself into the global limelight when she went through a peaceful, democratic change of government. She is a beacon of hope in Africa. We do not have to behave like lemmings, and blindly follow the path laid by other countries in their war against terror.  原文出处：雨巷论坛-学习交流：http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=11&id=9224&star=17

 

参与记录:

are sharply divided over   对...意见分歧很大

prevent the trend

express one's idea

reinforce one's idea

voice one's idea