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  3. Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase

Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase

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问题     Between 1998 and 2013 , the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0. 04°C a decade, far slower than the 0. 18°C increase in the 1990s. Meanwhile, emissions of carbon dioxide rose continuously. This pause in warming has raised doubts in the public mind about climate change. A few sceptics say flatly that global warming has stopped. Others argue that scientists’ understanding of the climate is so flawed that their judgments about it cannot be accepted with any confidence. A convincing explanation of the pause therefore matters both to a proper understanding of the climate and to the credibility of climate science—and papers published over the past few weeks do their best to provide one.
    As evidence piled up that temperatures were not rising much, some scientists dismissed it as a temporary phenomenon. The temperature, they pointed out, had fallen for much longer periods twice in the past century or so, in 1880- 1910 and again in 1945-75, even though the general trend was up. Variability is part of the climate system and a 15-year pause, they suggested, was not worth getting excited about.
    An alternative way of looking at the pause’s significance was to say that there had been a slowdown but not a big one. Most records, including one of the best known, do not include measurements from the Arctic, which has been warming faster than anywhere else in the world. Using satellite data to fill in the missing Arctic numbers, Kevin Cowtan of the University of York, in Britain, and Robert Way of the University of Ottawa, in Canada, put the overall rate of global warming at 0. 12°C a decade between 1998 and 2012. A study by NASA puts the "Arctic effect" over the same period somewhat lower, at 0.07°C a decade, but that is still not negligible.
    It is also worth remembering that average warming is not the only measure of climate change. According to a study just published by Sonia Seneviratne of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, in Zurich, the number of hot days, the number of extremely hot days and the length of warm periods all increased during the pause. A more stable average temperature hides wider extremes.
    Still, attempts to explain away that stable average have not been convincing, partly because of the conflict between flat temperatures and rising CO2 emissions, and partly because observed temperatures are now falling outside the range climate models predict. The models embody the state of climate knowledge. If they are wrong, the knowledge is probably faulty, too. Hence attempts to explain the pause.
Towards the explanation of the pause of global warming, the author seems to be______.
选项 A、optimistic
B、pessimistic
C、skeptical
D、favourable
答案C
解析 根据出题顺序定位到最后一段，该段首句就很关键：Still，attempts to explain awaythat stable average have not been convincing…其中explain away that stable average指的就是题干的the explanation of the pause of global wanning，而not convincing“不具备说服力”就表明作者态度，是“怀疑的”，即[C]skeptical“怀疑的”为正确答案。
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