倘若地球停止转动会怎样呢？
【内容提示】
人所共知，太阳从东方升起从西方落下，这是由于地球的旋转造成的。但是，你是否想过地球旋转对人类的影响吗？你能想象到如果地球停止转动会发生什么事情吗？请用你所学的物理、化学、数学、地理、生物等自然科学知识作一分析，写一篇文章。文章要用连锁反应的方法展开，把它写成一篇因果链型的说明文。
下列词语可供参考：
1．rotation n．旋转 2．rotate v．旋转 3．radius n．半径；半径距离 4．hurricane n．飓风 5．hemisphere n．半球
【作文示范】
What Would Happen If the Earth Stopped Rotating?
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, which is caused by the rotation of the earth as you all know. But have you ever thought of the effect of the earth's rotation on man and can you imagine what would happen if the earth stopped rotating?
The radius of the earth is about 6,370 kilometres. It takes the earth 24 hours to rotate once. Objects on the earth's equator move with the earth at a speed of 460 metres per second, and the air close to the earth's surface turns at the same speed. If the earth stopped rotating suddenly, the air would keep flowing eastward at a speed of 460 metres per second. The wind would be fourteen times as powerful as a hurricane. At the same time sea water would rush eastward at a speed of several hundred metres per second, which might do damages much greater than a seaquake①would do. Obviously, men could hardly stand such a catastrophe②.
Even if such a catastrophe would not happen, there would be a great temperature difference on the two hemispheres of the earth, and the four seasons of the year would no longer occur because a day and a night would be as long as a whole year instead of 24 hours. All this would greatly affect the life of human beings, imals and plants and that would cause worse results than anything imaginable.
（选自1987年7月7日《上海学生英文报》）
【词语解释】
①seaquake ['si:kweik]n．海震
②catastrophe[k+'t$str+fi]n．大灾难；灾祸
【写法指要】
本文是用两个因果链来说明地球停止转动会给人类带来灾难的。第一个因果链在第二段：如果地球停转，风速就会加剧，海水的流动也会加速，造成大飓风或海啸，飓风或海啸会给人类带来灾难。第二个因果链在第三段：如果地球停止转动，两半球之间的温差会加大，不再存在四季，白天和黑夜就不是24小时，而是一年，这样就会影响到人类和动植物的生存。这种灾难是无法想象的。
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