Beijing had its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap (寒潮) since 1981. And freezing weather is hitting the Deep South, including Florida’s orange groves and beaches.
Whatever happened to global warming?
Such weather doesn’t seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn’t contradict global warming at all—it’s just a temporary phenomenon in the long-term heating trend. “It’s part of natural variability,” said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist. With global warming, he said, “we’ll still have record cold temperatures. We’ll just have fewer of them.”
Scientists say man-made climate change does have the potential to cause more frequent and more severe weather extremes. But experts did not connect the current cold snap to climate change.
So what is going on?
“We basically have seen just a big outbreak of Arctic air over populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere”, Arndt said.
In the atmosphere, large rivers of air travel roughly west to east around the globe between the Arctic and the tropics. This air flow acts like a fence to keep Arctic air restricted. But recently, this air flow has become bent into a zigzag (之字形) pattern, wandering north and south. If you live in a place where it brings air up from the south, you get warm weather. In fact, record highs were reported this week in Washington state and Alaska.
But in the eastern United States, like some other unlucky parts of the globe, Arctic air is coming from the north. And that’s how you get a temperature of 3 degrees in Beijing, a reading of minus-42 in mainland Norway, and 18 inches of snow in parts of Britain. The zigzag pattern arises naturally from time to time, but it is not clear why it’s so strong right now.
【小题1】What is the best title of the text?

请认真阅读下面各题，从题中所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

The Science Museum, ________we visited during a recent trip to Britain, is one of London's tourist attractions.

1. A.
   which
2. B.
   what
3. C.
   that
4. D.
   where

D
It’s hardly surprising that weather is a favorite topic for so many people around the world---it affects where we choose to live, what we wear, our moods, and perhaps even our national characteristics．Studies have shown that changeable weather can make it difficult to concentrate, cloudy skies slow down reaction, and high humidity with hot, dry winds makes many people bad-tempered．
If you live in a place like Britain, where the weather seems to change daily if not hourly, you could be forgiven for thinking that the weather is random．In fact, the weather is controlled by systems which move around areas of the globe．In the UK the weather depends on depressions, often called lows, and anticyclones, also known as highs．These systems start in the Atlantic Ocean, and make their way across the British Isles from the west to the east．Highs bring sunny weather, while lows bring rain and wind．In modern times, human activities seem to be altering weather patterns．Gases produced by heavy industry change the temperature of the Earth’s surface, and affect cloud formation．Some researchers say that factories in Europe and North America may have been one of the causes of the droughts in Africa in the 1980s．
The human race has always tried to guess the weather, especially in areas of the world where there are frequent changes．Traditional rhymes point to early attempts to identify weather patterns, popular poems include:
Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight; red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning．
Flies will swarm before a storm．
Rain before 7, clear by 11．
While folk wisdom can still provide a guide to help forecast weather, today’s methods of prediction increasingly rely on technology．Satellites, balloons, ships, aircrafts and weather centers with sensitive monitoring equipment, send data to computers．The data is then processed, and the weather is predicted．However, even this system cannot predict weather for longer than about a week．
66．When weather keeps changing, _____________．
A．people become bad-tempered
B．people’s reaction slows down
C．people find it hard to focus on their work
D．people become hungrier
67．What is mainly talked about in the second paragraph?
A．Changes in weather．     B．Weather in Britain．
C．African droughts．  D．Research on weather．
68．The weather in Britain is _______________．
A．random    B．moist C．depressing D．satisfying
69．According to a traditional rhyme, if there is a red sky at night, the next day will be _______．
A．windy      B．rainy C．fine   D．snowy
70．Which of the following statements is true?
A．Anticyclones often bring rain and wind．
B．Weather forecasting has been done for a long time．
C．Weather could never be predicted．
D．Modern methods of weather prediction are developed from folk wisdom．

BRITAIN is a popular tourist place. But tours of the country have advantages and disadvantages .

ADVANTAGES

Free museums. No charge for good collections of art works

Pop music. Britain is the only country to rival(与…匹敌)the US on this point.

Cabs. London taxi drivers well know where they are going.

Choice of food. Visitors can find food from every corner of the world .

Fashion. Not only do fashion junkies love deeply and respect highly brand names such as Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen; street styles are justly loved, too.

　　DISADVANTAGES

　　Poor service. People can dine out on the rudeness they have experienced,” says Professor Tony Seaton, of Luton University’s International Tourism Research Center.

　　Poor public transport. Trains and buses are promised to defeat tourists who have the most patience, so the over- crowded London tube is inexplicably(难以理解的) popular.

　　Rain. Still in the number one complaint. 

　　Overpriced hotels. The only European country with a higher rate of tax on hotel rooms is Denmark.

Drinking hours. Alcohol(酒) is in short supply after 11 pm even in “24-hour cities”.

What do tourists complain most?

　 A. Poor service.             　　B. Poor public transport.

C. Rain.                　　      D. Overpriced hotels.

When is alcohol not able to get?

　 A. At 9: 00 pm      B. At 10: 00 pm     C. At 11: 00 pm      D. At 12: 00 pm

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

　 A. You have to pay to visit the museums.

　 B. Only clothing with brand names are sold in London .

　 C. You cannot find Chinese food there.

D. The public transport is poor there.

The Science Museum, ____________ we visited during a recent trip to Britain, is one of London’s tourist attractions.

A. which B. what   C. that     D. where