Part I         Reading Comprehension   (50 points) (40 minutes) Section A （ 10 points, 1’×10 ） (10 minutes) Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please choose only one best choice. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once. For many Americans, 2013 ended with an unusally bitter cold spell. Late 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 US 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 El Nino year. El Nino, Spanish for "the child", ___40____ when surface ocean waters in the southern Pacific become abnormally warm. So large is the Pacific, convering 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. El 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: El Ninos can ____44___ the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich water that supports large fish ____45____, and the unusually warm ocean temperatures can destroy coral. A) additional   B) associated  C) bore  D) chances  E) communicated   F) decades   G) experiences  H) globally  I) logically   J) occurs   K) populations   L) realize    M) reduce  N) saw  O) specific A. 36 B. 37 C. 38 D. 39 E. 40 F. 41 G. 42 H. 43 I. 44 J. 45