English Quiz for SBI Clerk Prelims 2016 - Set 12

About once in every seven years, the ocean surface off the coast of Peru warms up. This cuts the normal enriching nutrient-rich cold water. Plankton production is drastically reduced. This phenomenon, known as EL Nino because it starts during the Christmas season, usually lasts for up to a year. Occasionally it goes on for longer. Three times this century, it has persisted into a third year. The latest of these prolonged episodes have been blamed for much more than its effect on the Peruvian fishery. It certainly seems to have played a part in droughts in normally humid Indonesia as well as those that brought catastrophic fires to the outskirts of Sydney. It has been blamed for storms and landslides in coastal regions of Peru and Ecuador and is associated with drought in north-eastern Brazil. Its influence may stretch as far as Western Europe where the recentwinter brought heavy rainfall and flooding. El Nino is not the only ocean phenomenon to affect the weather. To understand how this might be done, it is useful to think about how the weather is forecast and about what makes it predictable. Weather forecasting uses two types of techniques, both of which rely on observations of what is going on at and shortly before the time of the forecast. To supply this information, national authorities operate extensiveland, sea and air based observation networks. These are coordinated under the United Nations World Meteorological Organization. There is an effective and almost instantaneous worldwide exchange of the information gathered.

A great deal of research has been put into this with some success but progress has been limited by two factors. The first is that coupled ocean-atmosphere models require enormously greater computing capacity than is provided even by the super computers used in weather forecasting. The second is that not enough is known about the state of the ocean at any given time- there is no global observation network as there is for the atmosphere or about the processes that govern the interactions. When these limitations have been overcome, it seems likely that coupled models will permit prediction of such climatological factors as frequency and intensity of rainfall for seasons and perhaps years ahead. In the meantime, climatologists have begun to be able to predict the onset and co - n sequences of phenomena such as El Nino using techniques like those used in the classical weather forecasting method. These ex - amine the condition of the ocean at a given instant and by comparison with past experience, attempt to predict in statistical way ho - w the ocean or the atmosphere- and hence the climate- are likely to behave for the next few months. As with the weather forecasts, this depends critically on the existence of a bank of past experience, in this case, particularly of sea-surface temperatures. A key contribution to this, recently completed by the U.K. Meteorological Office, has been the analysis of many millions of sea-surface temperatures.

This has led to the publication of the first globally complete monthly fields of sea-surface temperatures from 1871 to the pre sent day. This type of information may be used to predict events such as El Nino. Various scientific groups have tried to do so with varying degrees of success. In the meantime meteorological office scientists have also compared the temperature fields statistically with climatological factors. They have shown that particularly in tropics there are significant correlations between sea-surface temperature anomalies and climate statistics. This does not necessarily mean that one cause the other, though some degree of direct linkage seems likely. But it does open up the possibility of predicting short term climate fluctuations. The U.K. meteorological office has app - roached this by a rigorous comparison between rainfall statistics in the Nordeste area of Brazil, whose crops can be seriously affected by drought, with contemporaneous sea-surface temperatures worldwide. This has revealed significant links, verified over a period 1901-85, between rainfall and sea-surface temperatures in the north and south tropical Atlantic and western tropical Pacific, the area most strongly affected by El Nino.

1) It is the most important ocean phenomenon to affect a region's weather pattern.

2) There seems to be a statistical link between sea-surface temperatures and the occurrence of El Nino.

3) The consequences of El Nino can vary with the geographical position of the affected area.

4) Generally the effects of El Nino persist for about a year.

5) The consequences of El Nino may vary with the geographical position of the affected area.

1) Daily temperature recorded in coastal areas.

2) Daily atmospheric pressure levels for one previous year.

3) A data bank of sea-surface temperatures.

4) All of the above

5) None of the above

1) Once every year

2) About three times in a century

3) Once in three years

4) Once every seven years

5) About three times in a decade

1) The factors that can trigger phenomenon like El Nino

2) Phenomenon like El Nino that affect the planet's climate.

3) The global efforts being done in order to predict El Nino

4) The advances being made in the field of meteorological predictions through a greater study of ocean-atmosphere interactions.

5) Phenomenon like El Nino that do not affect the planet's climate.

1) There exists a global databank on the state of the ocean and its result ant interactions with the atmosphere.

2) Computers which are more efficient than supercomputers come into existence.

3) There is a thorough analysis of sea surface temperatures and their effects on the oceans.

4) 1), 2) and 3) simultaneously fall into place.

5) 1) and 2) are taken care of.

1) Disastrous 2) Developing

3) Prosperous 4) Possible

5) Probable

1) Latest 2) Last

3) Previous 4) Final

5) Prior

1) Depend 2) Vary

3) Very 4) Fluctuate

5) Swing

1) Wide 2) Spacious

3) Ample 4) Plenty

5) Narrow

1) Important 2) Imperative

3) Trivial 4) Central

5) Chief