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  3. THE CLIMATE OF JAPAN (1) At the most general level, two major climatic forces determine Japan’s weather. Prevailing westerly

THE CLIMATE OF JAPAN (1) At the most general level, two major climatic forces determine Japan’s weather. Prevailing westerly

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问题                                                 THE CLIMATE OF JAPAN
    (1) At the most general level, two major climatic forces determine Japan’s weather. Prevailing westerly winds move across Eurasia, sweep over the Japanese islands, and continue eastward across the Pacific Ocean. In addition, great, cyclonic airflow (masses of rapidly circulating air) that arises over the western equatorial Pacific moves in a wheel-like fashion northeastward across Japan and nearby regions. During winter months heavy masses of cold air from Siberia dominate the weather around Japan. Persistent cold winds skim across the Sea of Japan from the northwest, picking up moisture that then deposits as several feet of snow on the western side of the mountain ranges on Honshu Island. As the cold air drops its moisture, it flows over high ridges and down eastern slopes to bring cold, relatively dry weather to valleys and coastal plains and cities.
    (2) In spring the Siberian air mass warms and loses density, enabling atmospheric currents over the Pacific to steer warmer air into northeast Asia. This warm, moisture-laden air covers most of southern Japan during June and July. The resulting late spring rains then give way to a drier summer that is sufficiently hot and muggy, despite the island chain’s northerly latitude, to allow widespread rice cultivation.
    (3) Summer heat is followed by the highly unpredictable autumn rains that accompany the violent tropical windstorms known as typhoons. These cyclonic storms originate over the western Pacific and travel in great clockwise arcs, initially heading west toward the Philippines and southern China, curving northward later in the season. Cold weather drives these storms eastward across Japan through early autumn, revitalizing the Siberian air mass and ushering in a new annual weather cycle.
    (4) This yearly cycle has played a key role in shaping Japanese civilization. [A] It has assured the islands ample precipitation, ranging irregularly from more than 200 centimeters annually in parts of the southwest to about 100 in the northeast and averaging 180 for the country as a whole. [B] The moisture enables the islands to support uncommonly lush forest cover, but the combination of precipitous slopes and heavy rainfall also give the islands one of the world’s highest rates of natural erosion, intensified by both human activities and the natural shocks of earthquakes and volcanism. [C] These factors have given Japan its wealth of sedimentary basins, but they have also made mountainsides extremely susceptible to erosion and landslides and hence generally unsuitable for agricultural manipulation. [D]
    (5) The island chain’s mountains backbone and great length from north to south produce climatic diversity that has contributed to regional differences. Generally sunny winters along the Pacific seaboard have made habitation there relatively pleasant. Along the Sea of Japan, on the other hand, cold, snowy winters have discouraged settlement. Furthermore, although annual precipitation is high in that region, much of it comes as snow and rushes to the sea as spring runoff, leaving little moisture for farming.
    (6) Summer weather patterns in northern Honshu, and especially along the Sea of Japan, have also discouraged agriculture. The area is subject to the Yamase effect, when cool air from the north sometimes lowers temperatures sharply and damages farm production. The impact of this effect has been especially great on rice cultivation because, if it is to grow well, the rice grown in Japan requires a mean summer temperature of 20 degree centigrade or higher. A drop of 2 to 3 degree centigrade can lead to a 30—50 percent drop in rice yield, and the Yamase effect is capable of exceeding that level. This Yamase effect does not, however, extend very far south, where most precipitation comes in the form of rain and the bulk of it in spring, summer, and fall, when most useful for cultivation. Even the autumn typhoons, which deposit most of their moisture along the southern seaboard, are beneficial because they promote the start of the winter crops that for centuries have been grown in southern Japan.
    (7) In short, for the past two millennia, the climate in general and patterns of precipitation in particular have encouraged the Japanese to cluster their settlements along the southern coast, most densely along the sheltered Inland Sea, moving into the northeast. The limits that topography imposed on production have been tightened by climate, with the result that agricultural output has been more modest and less reliable, making the risk of crop failure and hardship commensurately greater.
Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 6 about farming in southern Japan?
选项 A、Farming is limited to rice cultivation.
B、Farming is difficult because of the Yamase effect.
C、Farming takes place throughout the year.
D、Farming suffers from the effects of autumn typhoons.
答案C
解析 本题属于推论题，要求根据第6段推断出与日本南部农业有关的正确选项。原文第6段最后两句提到，Yamase效应并没有影响到遥远的南方，降水主要集中在春季、夏季和秋季，这是最有利于耕种的季节；秋季的台风也有利于促使日本南部开始种植冬季作物。由此可见，日本南部全年均可耕种，选C项。A项“农业仅限于水稻种植”没有依据。B项“Yamase效应使得耕作变得困难”，第6段倒数第2句提到，Yamase效应并没有影响到遥远的南方，B项错误。D项“农业遭受秋季台风带来的影响”，第6段最后一句提到，即使是秋季的台风也是有益的，D项与原文说法不符。
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