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  3. The collapse of the Earth’s magnetic field—which guards the planet and guide

The collapse of the Earth’s magnetic field—which guards the planet and guide

游客2025-04-21  30
问题     The collapse of the Earth’s magnetic field—which guards the planet and guides many of its creatures—appears to have started about 150 years ago, the New York Times reported last week.
    The field’s strength has decreased by 10 or 15 percent so far and this has increased the debate over whether it signals a reversal of the planet’s lines of magnetic force.
    During a reversal, the main field weakens, almost vanishes, and reappears with opposite polarity (极). The transition would take thousands of years. Once completed, compass needles that had pointed north would point south. A reversal could cause problems for both man and animals. Astronauts and satellites would have diffculties. Birds, fish and animals that rely on the magnetic field for navigation would find migration confusing. But experts links between past field reversals and species extinctions.
    Although a total transition may be hundreds or thousands of years away, the rapid decline in magnetic strength is already affecting satellites. Last month, the European Space Agency approved the world’s largest effort at tracking the field’s shifts. Now a group of satellites called Swarm is to monitor the collapsing field with far greater precision. " We want to get some idea of how this would evolve in the near future, just like people trying to predict the weather, " said Gauthier Hulot , a French geophysicist working on the satellite plan. "I’m personally quite convinced we should be able to work out the first predictions by the end of the mission. "
    No matter what the new findings, the public has no reason to panic. Even if a transition is coming on its way, it might take 2,000 years to mature. The last one took place 780,000 years ago, when early humans were learning how to make stone tools. Deep inside the Earth flow hot currents of melted iron. This mechanical energy creates electromagnet-ism. This process is known as the geophysical generator. In a car’s generator, the same principle turns mechanical energy into electricity.
    No one knows precisely why the field periodically reverses. But scientists say the responsibility probably lies with changes in the disorderly flows of melted iron, which they see as similar to the gases that make up the clouds of Jupiter. [br] During the transition of the Earth’s magnetic field, ______.
选项 A、compass will become useless
B、man and animals will be confused in directions
C、the magnetic strength of the Earth will disappear
D、the magnetic strength of the Earth will be stronger
答案 B
解析 本题考查考生理解问题的能力，根据文中第三段后半部分的内容可以知道，磁场的减弱会造成磁极的颠倒，这会给依赖磁场的航海造成困惑和麻烦。由此可知B符合题意。
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