上海交通大学大学英语综合教程阅读理解答案

上海交通大学大学英语综合教程阅读理解答案

The growing importance of airpower in World War IIcombined with its sensitivity to weather, led to an ever greater military reliance on accurate forecasts. Knowing the weather was ofvital concern to combat commanders of that war.

As much an art as it is science, predicting the weather is dependent on the accurate tracking of weather phenomena, particularly storm fronts,from the areas where theyoriginate.Though meteorologists(气象学家)of the 1940s had none of the weather tracking satellites which make that job so much simpler today, they were still able to generate usably accurate forecasts as much as 72 hours in advance-as long as they could get the data they needed.

The need for that data gave birth to one ofthe most interesting and unique campaigns of the Second World War the so-called“Weather War”Although it was not a war of major commands and of troops, ships or aircraftit had an important impact on the fighting in the Atlantic and European Theatres. It was the weather data secured by this campaign which enabled the planning and execution of such critical operations as the Allied landings at Normandy and the entire strategic bombing campaign against Hitlers empire.

The Weather War bezan with the German invasion ofDenmark and Norway in April 1940. prior to that, those nations allowed their arctic weather stations to report the weather in the clear so all countries could use the information. Germany’s occupation of much of Scandinavia gave Berlin a monopoly(垄断)over arctic

weather data-a development the Allies could not allow.

The British, in fact,began planning to seize the weather stations even as the campaign for Norway progressed. Ofcourse, the Germans had plans for those same stations too,but Allied dominance over the sea.coupled with the unexpectedly high German naval losses in the Norweeian invasion. allowed Britain to score the first successes.But the weather itself proved the most serious obstacle to the start of the Weather War’s operations, delaying the first moves until August. In fact. throughout the Weather War. both sides found the elements a more formidable(可怕的) foe than the enemy.

1.We learn from the passage that the commanders on both sides of the war attached great importance to. B

A)airpower

B) weather forecasts

C)dominance over the sea

2. We can infer from the passage that meteorologists today B

A)rely on satellites to track storm fronts

B) can generate accurate forecasts 72 hours in advance

C)have a much simpler job than in the past regard weather forecast as science rather than an art

3.Which of the following statements is true ofthe Weather War? C

A)It involved large numbers of ships and aircraft.

B)It contributed greatly to Allied victory.

C)It started ling before the German invasion of Scandinavia