This season, the bushfires in Australia have burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least

This season, the bushfires in Australia have burned more than 12.35 million acres of land. At least 25 people have been killed and 2000 homes destroyed. According to the BBC, this is the most casualties(伤亡)from wildfires in the country since 2009. The University of Sydney estimates that 480 million animals have died in South Wales alone.
Zeke Hausfather, an energy systems analyst and climate researcher at Berkeley Earth, said warmer temperatures and extreme weather have made Australia more susceptible to fires and increased the length of the fire season. “The drier conditions combined with record high temperatures in 2019 created main conditions for the disastrous fires. Australia’s fires were worsened by the combination of those two. 2019 was the perfect storm for being the warmest year on record for Australia and the driest year on record for Australia,” Hausfather added on Friday.
Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, said warmer ocean temperatures also contributed to more variable weather around the world. Trenberth believes that global warming contributed to energy imbalances and hot spots in the oceans, which can create a wave in the atmosphere that locks weather patterns in places, causing longer rain events in Indonesia, for example, and at the same time contributing to drought in Australia. He said that once an area experiences drought conditions for two months or more, it increases the risk of fires catching and spreading. Those changing weather patterns due to global warming make drought events longer.
Climate experts stress that climate change is not the only factor in the severity of wildfires. How land is managed can also impact the amount of fuel available for fires. Practices like controlled burns and other factors can impact the risk to people and property, such as warning systems and the type of development in a given area. Changing those policies has great potential to limit future damage from wildfires along with changes to how fire management resources are dispatched (派遣).
8. What are the numbers about in paragraph 1?
A. The causes of Australian fires.
B. The consequences of Australian fires.
C. The damaged areas of Australian fires.
D. The property destruction of Australian fires.
9. Which of the following best explains “susceptible to” in the second paragraph?
A. Very quickly to adapt to.
B. Very seriously to focus on.
C. Very likely to be influenced by.
D. Very easily to be protected against.
10. What can we infer from Trenberth’s research?
A. Global warming is the root cause of the bushfires.
B. Longer dry weather contributes to global warming.
C. Warmer ocean temperatures promote fires spreading.
D. The imbalanced energy leads to the temperature rising.
11. What does the author intend to do in the last paragraph?
A. To stress the effects of Australia fires.
B. To show the methods for controlling burns.
C. To predict the seriousness of Australia fires.
D. To provide some advice about reducing damage.
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