廣泛的托福閱讀背景知識積累，有助于托福閱讀速度和準確率的提升。托福閱讀文章分為自然科學、人文科學、互聯網等幾大類，如果同學們平時能對這些種類的文章都有所涉獵，托福閱讀考試中遇到相關的話題就會有非常熟悉的感覺。下面天道教育給大家提供一篇關于厄爾尼諾題材的背景材料，希望能拓寬同學們的閱讀面。
　　The research is published online in the journal Nature Geoscience(地球科學). El Nino is a periodic(周期的)warming in the eastern tropical Pacific that occurs along the coast of South America. Recently, scientists have noticed that El Nino warming is stronger in the Central Pacific rather than the Eastern Pacific, a phenomenon known as El Nino Modoki (Modoki is a Japanese term for "similar, but different").
　　Last year, the journal Nature published a paper that found climate change is behind this shift from El Nino to El Nino Modoki. While the findings of that paper are still being debated, this latest paper in Nature Geoscience presents evidence that El Nino Modoki drives a climate pattern known as the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO).
　　"We've found that El Nino Modoki is responsible for changes in the NPGO,"said Emanuele Di Lorenzo, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "The reason this is important is because the NPGO has significant effects on fish stocks(魚類)and ocean nutrient distributions(海洋營養分布)in the Pacific, especially along the west coast of the United States."
　　The NPGO, first named two years ago by Di Lorenzo and colleagues in a paper in Geophysical Research Letters, explained for the first time long-term changes in ocean circulation of the North Pacific, which scientists now link to an increasing number of dramatic transitions in coastal marine(沿海海域)ecosystems.
　　"The ecosystems of the Pacific may very well become more sensitive to the NPGO in the future," said Di Lorenzo. "Our data show that this NPGO is definitively linked to El Nino Modoki, so as Modoki becomes more frequent in the central tropical Pacific, the NPGO will also intensify(增強)."
　　Vocabulary：
　　Geoscience：n. 地球科學
　　environmental geoscience　環境地學
　　South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission
　　南太平洋應用地球科學委員會(南太地科委)
　　Coordinating Committee for Coastal and Offshore Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia
　　東亞和東南亞沿海和近海地球科學方案協調委員
　　Periodic：a.周期的，定期的，時而發生的
　　The quality or state of being periodic; recurrence at regular intervals.
　　周期性周期出現的性質或狀態; 以固定的間隔而發生
　　A column in the periodic table of the elements.
　　屬，族元素周期表上的一欄
　　Ecosystems：生態系統
　　Aquatic ecosystems share a number of basic structural and functional characteristics with terrestrial ecosystems.
　　水生生態系統的結構和機能,在許多基本特征方面同陸地生態系統一樣。
　　Temperate forest ecosystems occupy a position of prominence among all ecosystems.
　　溫帶森林生態系統在所有生態系統中占有優勢地位。