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A record warm December raised average temperatures enough to make 2015 the second hottest year on record in the contiguous United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climate Monitoring Annual Report, which was released Thursday.

The United Nations had previously reported that 2015 was shaping up to be the warmest year on record for the whole planet. 

Last year was also the third wettest on record in the U.S. and saw ten weather- or climate-related disasters that each caused at least $1 billion in damage in the killed a total of 155 e include a drought, two floods, five severe storms, a wildfire, and a winter storm.  

The average U.S. temperature was 54.4°F, 2.4°F above the 20th century average, and second only to 2012’s record was also the 19th consecutive year with average temperatures above the average for the century. Every state reported above-average annual temperatures. The warming was particularly pronounced across most of the eastern half of the country in December, when many places saw temperatures 30 degrees above normal and many records were set. 

This mirrored changes seen in the Arctic that month, when temperatures spiked to 50 degrees above normal. Part of this warming was driven by a strong El Niño, or periodic warming in the Pacific Ocean, but some of it can also be attributed to global warming, says meteorologist Eric Holthaus, who was not involved with the federal report. 

The analysis comes less than a month after the U.S. and 194 other countries signed an agreement in Paris to more aggressively counter the effects of climate change. 

“Even if all the initial targets in Paris are met, we’ll only be part of the way there when it comes to reducing carbon from the atmosphere,” said President Barack Obama at the time. Still, the agreement represented “a turning point” by setting up “the architecture" for doing so, he said. 

NOAA’s climate monitoring center doesn’t issue predictions for future weather, but the agency’s Climate Prediction Center does. That team’s forecast for the next three months calls for warmer-than-average temperatures in much of the country, although parts of Texas and the Southeast may be a little cooler than usual. 

As Lancaster University Professor Gail Whiteman told the Weather Channel, "climate change means extreme weather is the new normal." 

28. What’s the meaning of the underlined sentence “climate change means extreme weather is the new normal”?

eme weather will not normal due to the climate change.

ate change will result in the unpredictable weather.

ate change will be more and more common except for the extreme weather.

eme weather will be kind of tendency in the future.

29. Which of the following statement is true?

target of reducing carbon is accomplished.

B.$1 billion loss was caused by the extreme weather.

most areas of US, the temperatures will be warmer than average.

D.2015 was the first warmest and the third wettest on record in the country.

30. What can be inferred from the text?

reducing of carbon still needs great efforts worldwide.

has nothing to do with the predictions for climate change.

whole US will be warmer in the future due to the global warming.

weather change in the western areas is more obvious than that in the east.

31. We can probably find the text in   __  ?

A. a government report       B. a science magazine

C. an advertisement          D. a newspaper

【回答】

DDAB

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