Europe’s series record-breaking hot and dry summers have broken an easy link to climate change. Climate models show Europe warms faster than the rest of the planet and the Arctic melting eventually causes massive ocean currents (洋流) and regional hot air circulation patterns.

Arctic melting is adding roughly 6000 cubic kilometers of water or more to the ocean per decade. As that fresh-water pours into the North Atlantic Ocean, it sits on top of heavier ocean salt-water and stops mixing. With less heat being stirred in from below, the surface water gets colder than usual during the fall and winter months, says Marilena Oltmanns, a climate scientist at the U.K. National Oceanography Centre. This phenomenon may explain the so-called “cold blob”, an area of sea in the North Atlantic that NASA nodeling suggests is one of the few spots on Earth getting colder.

To explore how the fresh water from Arctic ice might be affecting weather, Oltmanns and her colleagues developed a way to combine data from satellites, and weather stations. They found when the freshwater-caused cold blobs were more intense, the boundary was sharper, bringing more powerful westerly (向西的) winds. As a result, the stronger westerlies move a warm ocean flow from roughly 45°N to 60°N. That shift can continue into the next summer. And like a barrier, this warm current, curls up and around the British Isles, allowing a mass of hot, dry air to camp out over Europe.

“The study convincingly puts meat on the bones of an expectation I and others have had for a while — that the cold blob south of Greenland would influence North Atlantic weather patterns, as well as those downstream over Europe,” says Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center.

【小题1】What does the underlined word “cold blob” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Climate models.	B．Ocean current.
C．Cold water zone.	D．Air circulation patterns.

【小题2】What does paragraph 3 focus on?

A．Introduce the form of cold blob.

B．Present a phenomenon of climate changes in Europe.

C．Survey some data for the study.

D．Analyze the reason of hot and dry summer in Europe.

【小题3】What is Jennifer’s attitude toward the study?

A．Approving.

B．Indifferent.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

【小题4】What can we infer from the passage?

A．Human activities change climate models.

B．Arctic melting contributes to European heat waves.

C．Climate changes have little impact on ocean currents.

D．Global warming results in the rise of the temperature.