The world's oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 4

The world's oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change,Australian and US climate researchers reported Wednesday．Higher ocean temperatures expand the volume of water,contributing to a rise in sea levels that is covering small island nations and threatening to destroy the low-lying,densely-populated low regions around the globe. The study,published in the British journal Nature,adds to a growing scientific chorus of warnings about the pace and consequences rising oceans．It also serves as a corrective to a massive report issued last year by the Nobel-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPC C),according to the authors. Rising sea levels are driven by two things:the thermal expansion of sea water,and additional water from melting sources of ice．Both processes are caused by global warming．The ice sheet that sits atop Greenland,for example,contains enough water to raise world ocean levels by seven meters,which would bury sea-level cities from Dhaka to Shanghai. Trying to figure out how much each of these factors contributes to rising sea levels is critically important to understanding climate change,and forecasting future temperature rises,scientists say．But up to now,there has been a puzzling gap between the projections of computer-based climate models,and the observations of scientists gathering data from the oceans. The new study,led by Catia Domingues of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research,is the first to reunite the models with observed data．Using new techniques to assess ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 meters from 1961 to 2003,it shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.53 millimeter-per-year rise in sea levels rather than the 0.32 mm rise reported by the IPC C. Ultimately,the new study should help scientists to__.
A、lower water levels
B、change their opinions
C、better predict climate change
D、bury sea-level cities like Dhaka and Shanghai
【正确答案】：C
【题目解析】：首先，我们分析文章的主要内容和关键信息： 1. 文章首段提到，由于气候变化，过去40年里海洋变暖的速度比先前认为的要快50%。这导致了海平面的上升，威胁到全球低洼、人口稠密的地区。 2. 文章第二段提到，这项研究增加了对海洋上升速度和后果的科学警告，并纠正了去年联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）发布的一份大规模报告。 3. 第三段解释了海平面上升的两个主要原因：海水的热膨胀和冰源融化。这两个过程都是由全球变暖引起的。 4. 第四段提到，了解每个因素对海平面上升的贡献对于理解气候变化和预测未来温度上升至关重要。但到目前为止，基于计算机的气候模型预测与科学家从海洋中收集的数据观测之间存在令人困惑的差距。 5. 第五段描述了新的研究，该研究首次将模型与观测数据相结合，并显示热变暖导致海平面每年上升0.53毫米，而不是IPCC报告的0.32毫米。 现在，我们来分析各个选项： A. lower water levels（降低水位）：文章中并未提到研究能够帮助降低水位，只是说明了海洋温度上升导致海平面上升的问题。 B. change their opinions（改变他们的观点）：虽然文章提到该研究纠正了IPCC的某些观点，但并未明确说明研究的主要目的是改变科学家的观点。 C. better predict climate change（更好地预测气候变化）：文章第四段明确提到了解每个因素对海平面上升的贡献对于预测未来温度上升至关重要，而第五段提到的新研究正好填补了模型预测与实际观测之间的差距，因此可以推断该研究有助于更好地预测气候变化。 D. bury sea-level cities like Dhaka and Shanghai（埋葬像达卡和上海这样的海平面城市）：文章虽然提到了海平面上升可能导致的后果，但并未提到研究能够帮助实现这一点。 综上所述，答案是C，即这项新的研究应该帮助科学家更好地预测气候变化。