For many Americans, 2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold spell. Late November and December (26)_____ early snow and bone-chilling temperatures in much of the country, part of a year when, for the first time in two (27)_____, 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 (28)_____, and current data indicates that 2013 is likely to have been the fourth hottest year on record.
Enjoy the snow now, because (29)_____ 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 Niños Year.
El Niños, Spanish for “the child”, (30)_____ 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 (31)_____ energy generated by its warming is enough to touch off a series of weather changes around the world. El Niños are (32)_____ 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 (33)_____ dry weather. Marine life may be affected too: EI Niños can (34)_____ the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich (营养丰富的) water that supports large fish (35)_____, and the unusually warm ocean temperatures can destroy coral (珊瑚).
