For many Americans, 2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold spell. November and December36 early snow and bone-chilling temperatures in much of the country, part of a year when, for the first time in two37, record-cold days will likely turn out to have outnumbered record-warm ones. But the U.S. was the exception; November was the warmest ever 38, and current data indicates that 2013 is likely to have been the fourth hottest year on record.
Enjoy the snow now, because39 are good that 2014 will be even hotter, perhaps the hottest year since records have been kept. That’s because, scientists are predicting, 2014 will be an EI Niuo year.
EI Niuo, Spanish for “the child”,40 when surface ocean waters in the southern Pacific become abnormally warm. So large is the Pacific, covering 30% of the planet’s surface, that the41 energy generated by its warming is enough to touch off a series of weather changes around the world. EI Ninos are42 with abnormally dry conditions in Southeast Asia and Australia. They can lead to extreme rain in parts of North and South America, even as southern Africa43 dry weather. Marine life may be affected too; EI Ninos can44 the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich(營養豐富的)water that supports large fish45,and the unusually warm ocean temperatures can destroy coral(珊瑚).
【答案解析】
36. N. saw 第一空顯然缺少謂語,優先考慮動詞,結合語義并根據Late November and December可以推出應選擇過去式動詞,故答案鎖定saw.
37. F. decades 根據two,首選復數名詞,結合語義,“for the first time in the two decades”,二十年來頭一次。