There may be several reasons for the ice melt，says Jinlun Zhang，an oceanographer at the University of Washington at Seattle．Unusually strong winds blew through the Arctic last summer．Thewinds pushed much of the ice out of the central Arctic．leaving a large area of thin ice and open water．

　 　Scientists also suspect that fewer clouds cover the Arctic now than in the past．Clearer skies allow more sunlight to reach the ocean．The extra heat warnls both the water and the atmosphere．Inparts of the Arctic Ocean last year，surface temperatures were 3．5℃ warmer than average and 1．5℃warmer than the previous record high．

　　With both air and water getting warmer，the ice is melting from both above and below．In someDarts 0f the Beaufort Sea，north of Alaska and western Canada，ice that measured 3．3 meters thickat the beginning of the summer measured just 50 centimeters by seasons end．

　　The new measurements suggest that melting is far more severe than scientists have seen by justlooking at ice cover from above，says Donald K．Perovich，a geophysicist at the U．S．Army ColdRegions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover，N．H．

　　Some scientists fear that the Arctic is stuck in a warming trend from which it may never recover．

　　31．Which of the following is closest in meaning to the wordbuildin the first sentence of the second paragraph?

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