VOA标准英语2011--National Weather Satellite Threatened by

National Weather Satellite Threatened by US Budget Cuts

On May 22, 2011, a single massive tornado¹ hit Joplin, Missouri, claiming more than 150 lives. But the death toll² would have been much higher a century ago.
“With something of this magnitude, the loss of life may have been in the tens of thousands, as tragic³ as it was in the hundreds,” said Bob Ryan, a meteorologist in Washington, D.C. “In a historical perspective, before we had the modern tools, and before we had the data and before we had the system in place, the loss of life would have been horrendous⁴.”
Ryan helped highlight the importance of those modern tools during a briefing on Capitol Hill earlier this month. The briefing focused on the role weather satellites play in protecting public safety, national security and the economy. While measurements from orbiting satellites are crucial for maintaining accurate and timely weather predictions, funding for the government’s weather satellite program has been cut, compromising a year of atmospheric⁵ data collection.
Kathryn Sullivan, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), emphasized the importance of what she calls, “the chain.”
“Satellites to models to expert forecasters to provide the guidance. And then media, from an app on our iPhones to radio and television.“
Sullivan stressed that the responsibility of keeping that forecasting chain intact lies with the federal government.
“This is what we as a nation do, to assure that as a nation, we have - for all citizens - the technical and expertise⁶ foundation that lets observation transform to knowledge, transform to information that matters. And moved in a timely fashion, so that you can take the right action to protect yourself, your business, your home, your family.”
However, due to deep budget cuts, development of a replacement⁷ satellite has been slowed and its original deployment⁸ date delayed. Sullivan said without it, the amount of data fed into numerical weather models will be cut in half, reducing the prediction accuracy of a storm’s location and severity.
“If you know on this day starting at about that time, an intense snowfall event is going to leave you 22 inches of snow on the ground, you are going to behave differently," Sullivan said. "We’re not talking being slightly wrong. We’re talking potentially being 50 percent less good on where a storm is going or what the consequences it dumps on the ground may be.”
Ryan called that loss of accuracy “an unacceptable risk.”
“If we have a setback⁹ in accuracy, we may lose the confidence of the person making the decision in the forecast. And once we lose the confidence in the forecast, as with anything, it takes a long time to get that confidence back.”
However, things may be looking up for NOAA and its weather satellite system. Ryan pointed¹⁰ to President Barack Obama’s remarks on the economy last month.
“When the president mentioned two words, “weather satellites” as being something fundamentally important and part of something that shouldn’t be cut," he says, "I, in all candor¹¹, had never heard those two words before in a presidential speech and almost fell off of my chair.”
There's also another reason to be hopeful; weather is a bipartisan concern.
As Ryan noted¹², “Tornadoes don’t know which political party they belong to.”

1 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

2 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

3 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

4 horrendous   

adj.可怕的，令人惊惧的

参考例句：

• He described it as the most horrendous experience of his life.他形容这是自己一生中最可怕的经历。
• The mining industry in China has a horrendous safety record.中国的煤矿工业具有令人不安的安全记录。

5 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

6 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

7 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

8 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

9 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

10 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

11 candor   

n.坦白，率真

参考例句：

• He covered a wide range of topics with unusual candor.他极其坦率地谈了许多问题。
• He and his wife had avoided candor,and they had drained their marriage.他们夫妻间不坦率，已使婚姻奄奄一息。

12 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。