托福阅读背景范例——莫斯科烟雾死亡率的调查

 

          针对托福阅读里面出现的文章，很多都是根据故事背景知识来解答的，那么下面看看成都新航道小编为大家收集整理的莫斯科烟雾死亡率的调查为背景的范例，希望对大家有所帮助。

        广泛的托福阅读背景知识积累，有助于新托福阅读速度和准确率的提升。托福阅读题材分为自然科学、人文科学、互联网等几大类，如果同学们平时能对这些种类的文章都有所涉猎，托福阅读考试中遇到相关的话题就会有非常熟悉的感觉。下面给大家推荐一篇关于莫斯科烟雾死亡率的调查，希望能帮大家积累更多的托福阅读材料。

 

　　Scorching heat and acrid smoke have nearly doubleddeath rates in Moscow，a city official said on Monday，as a shroud of smog from raging forest and peatfires beset Russia's capital for a third week.

 

　　Firefighters battled wildfires covering 1，740 squarekm (672 sq miles) -- bigger than the area of GreaterLondon -- in what the state weather forecaster saidwas Russia's worst heat wave for a millennium.

 

　　"The average death rate in the city during normal times is between 360 and 380 people per day.Today，we are around 700，" Andrei Seltsovsky，Moscow's health department chief，told a citygovernment meeting.

 

　　Russia's worst drought in decades has spooked world grain markets，driving wheat prices upat the swiftest rate in more than 30 years and raising the specter of a food crisis.

 

　　Seltsovsky said heat stroke was the main cause of the recent increase in deaths. He saidambulance dispatches in Moscow were up by about a quarter to 10，000 a day and problemslinked to heart disease，bronchial asthma and strokes had increased.

 

　　"This is no secret，" Seltsovsky said. "Everyone thinks we're making secrets out of it. It's 40degrees (Celsius，or 104 Fahrenheit) on the street. Abroad，people drown like flies and no oneasks questions."

 

　　Moscow morgues and hospitals were overcrowded，funeral parlors were doing a brisk businessin coffins，and a sign in one crematorium said it was fully booked and taking no new orders.

 

　　"Today we have 80 bodies. We store them anywhere we can because the refrigerators are full，"an attendant at Hospital No. 62's morgue， designed to hold up to 35 corpses， told Reuters.

 

　　Until Monday，neither federal nor Moscow authorities had announced data on deaths from heatand pollution，giving rise to suspicion of a Soviet-style cover-up in the face of criticism of thegovernment's handling of the wildfire crisis.

 

　　Officials say 52 people have been killed by fires that have ravaged forests and fields anddestroyed a handful of villages since late July.

 

　　ECONOMIC IMPACT

 

　　Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week announced a grain export ban from August 15 toDecember 31，sending prices higher and hurting shares of brewers such as Carlsberg andHeineken.

 

　　SovEcon，a leading agricultural analyst，said on Monday the government might extend the baneven longer，reducing 2010-11 wheat exports to about 3 million tonnes instead of the earlierexpected 10-11 million tonnes.

 

　　SovEcon also said Russia's wheat crop might be about one-third smaller than last year's，dropping to 43 million tonnes from 61.7 million tonnes in 2009.

 

　　Russia's main sugar lobby warned on Monday that the drought may hamper this year's beetsugar output，reducing it from the earlier expected 4 million tonnes to 3.2-3.5 million tonnes.

 

　　The downgraded sugar beet forecast is not expect to change Russia's import needs as it haslarge domestic reserves. Almost all sugar produced in Russia is consumed domestically.

 

　　Kremlin critics have blamed Putin for what they call a sluggish and ineffective governmentresponse to the fires，but polls have so far shown no decline in his popularity.

 

　　Russia has begun to feel economic effects from the horrid weather conditions，which haveprompted banks and businesses to reduce staffing and slowed activity in the service sector.

 

　　Alfa Bank，a Moscow investment bank，said it would not publish a daily research bulletin onMonday or Tuesday.

 

　　"Owing to severe weather in Moscow，there is only a limited presence at the bank，" an Alfaofficial said in an e-mail.

 

　　According to the business daily Kommersant，investment bank Uralsib shortened its workday onMonday，and state-controlled behemoth Sberbank closed some of its back offices.

 

　　But many Muscovites did report for work，trudging to metro stations or driving on streetswhere visibility was far below normal and smog veiled buildings.

 

　　Many people wore facemasks to try to filter the smoke，but the masks were increasingly hardto find and some doctors raised concerns about an official whitewash of the real impact of thesmoke in Moscow.

 

　　An unnamed doctor at a Moscow clinic wrote on his Internet site over the weekend that he waswary of diagnosing patients with heat- and smoke-related illnesses for fear of dismissal.

 

　　Another doctor at a major hospital，speaking on condition of anonymity，told Reuters onSunday that senior management had instructed staff not to link patients' illnesses with theheat.

 

　　Moscow authorities said over the weekend that reception centers were operating city-wide asrefuges from the heat. But Vitaly Bredikhin，deputy manager of one of the centers，said thatabout 90 percent of the facilities lacked air-conditioning.

 

　　At one of the shelters，in an old building near Pushkin Square in the center of the city，about 10elderly people sat in a hot dining room with no air-conditioning or even a fan.

 

　　大量的托福阅读背景知识积累对于托福阅读非常有帮助，不管是英文原版还是中文翻译版，同学们都可以大量去阅读，熟悉内容即可。新航道小编祝各位同学取得好成绩！