請依下文回答第 56 題至第 60 題 Mark Finney at the US Forest Service and his colleagues sometimes do the unthinkable. They go outinto the bush and start a fire. But they’re not arsonists and these fires aren’t sprawling or highlydestructive. They’re controlled burns of real vegetation that give scientists a better understanding of howflames leap from one branch to another. Studying that can help predict how real wildfires may spread. Among the measurements Finney and his team take include the amount of time that flames spendburning in one area, how quickly they propagate through vegetation and what kind of heat exchange isgoing on as they do so. These experiments have taken place in New Zealand. The burn areas arecordoned off by barriers that stop the fire getting out of control. “We have drones that fly over and give us a view of what’s going on from the air, we have camerasthat are protected by an aluminum and insulation housing that allow you to put them inside the fire,” hesays. “It usually takes a day or more to set up all the instruments and of course you have to have theweather conditions cooperating.” It’s all part of a modern human quest – to know what makes fire tick. A supposedly crucial momentin the history of human evolution is the “discovery” of fire. But fire has been a natural occurrence onEarth since long before our ancestors took their first steps. And today, far from being something underour control, fire often takes the form of a man-made disaster. In the US, well over 80% of wildfires arestarted, usually accidentally, by people. This year, like last year, many parts of the planet have experienced very hot and dry summers,sharply raising the chance of wildfires taking hold once ignited. Woodlands have blazed in Greece, Sweden, and Siberia among other hotspots. The southwesternUS state of California has just recorded its largest wildfire on record. What if we’d known when and where these fires would start? Or how they would wax and wane? Ifwe had such knowledge, we’d surely be better able to protect the towns and communities that are at riskfrom destruction. Finney hopes that data from his experiments will improve the existing models that are used to projectwildfire spread. Some of those models are too simplistic, he explains. 【題組】59 Why do Finney and his colleagues start a fire on purpose?
(A)To better understand how fire spreads (B)To understand why fire is a man-made disaster (C)To see how drones work in a wildfire (D)To see how cameras are protected by an aluminum in a fire
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