2017上半年大学英语四级考试阅读单项强化训练（26）

　　For many Americans, 2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold spell. November and December 36 early snow and bone-chilling temperatures in much of the country, part of a year when, for the first time in two 37 , 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, because 39 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 the 41 energy generated by its warming is enough to touch off a series of weather changes around the world. EI Ninos are 42 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 Africa 43 dry weather. Marine life may be affected too; EI Ninos can 44 the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich(营养丰富的)water that supports large fish 45 ,and the unusually warm ocean temperatures can destroy coral(珊瑚).