本篇文章主要讲的是智能手机能帮助我们提前预测地震。由于预测地震的器械比较昂贵，所以科学家们就用手机帮助人类预测地震。运用手机的定位功能和其他的一些技术都需要设计出来。下面前程百利小编带大家一块看一下这篇托福听力背景材料中出现的生词，希望能给正在备考托福听力的同学带来帮助。
Early warning systems can be the difference between life and death (介乎生死之间)in earthquake-prone (地震倾向)regions, but they’re expensive. The U.S., Mexico and Japan have such systems. That leaves large swaths(细长的列) of Central and South America, Asia and the Caribbean unprotected.(无保护的)
Now, scientists think one solution could be hiding in (藏在)our pockets: our cell phones.
Smartphones(职能手机) employ the latest GPS technology. So scientists tested arrays of smartphones to determine if they could measure displacement(取代) caused by the earth’s shaking(颤动)—and signal the subtle(微妙的) beginnings of an earthquake.
For the experiment, the researchers used a hypothetical(假设的) magnitude(大小) 7 earthquake in California and data from the real magnitude 9 earthquake off the coast of Japan in 2011 that led to the tsunami(海啸) that caused the nuclear accident(核事故) at Fukushima.
They found that as few as 500 cell phones in California could alert the public five seconds before an event, enough time to at least move to a less vulnerable part of a room or dive under a desk.
For the Japanese earthquake, early warning would not have helped in the region closest to the epicenter(震中心). But such an alert could have helped cut damage in downtown Tokyo. And the information would have reached the coastline(海岸线) lifesaving (救生)minutes before the resulting tsunami waves did.
The scientists say various technological details need to be worked out, such as how companies would allow smartphones to access and share the raw data(原始数据). They point out that instead of waiting to buy expensive top-grade scientific equipment, governments could consider creating interim(临时的) early detection(早期发现) systems based on arrays of sensitive(敏感的) smartphones.
疑难词汇：
Prone adj. 俯卧的;有…倾向的，易于…的
Swath n. 细长的列;收割的刈痕;收割的宽度
Displacement n. 取代，位移;[船] 排水量
Hypothetical adj. 假设的;爱猜想的
Magnitude n. 大小;量级;[地震] 震级;重要;光度
Tsunami n. 海啸
Epicenter n. 震中;中心
好了，以上就是前程百利小编为大家整理的“从托福听力背景材料中学单词—手机预测地震”这篇托福听力背景材料中的疑难词汇，希望在备考的路上助大家一臂之力。最后，小编祝大家在托福考试中取得好成绩！
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