56. Daniel, a young computer programmer, has been working hard and needs a holiday to relax in winter. He likes to get close to nature and enjoy water sports.

54. 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

53. The weather in Britain is ____________________________.

A. random　　　　　　　　 B. moist　　　　　　　　　　 C. depressing　　　　　　 D. satisfying

52. What is mainly talked about in the second paragraph?

A. Changes in weather. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. Weather in Britain.

C. African droughts. D. Research on weather.

51. 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

50. If a customer buys something that does not meet his expectation, what is the advantage of dealing through electronic commerce over the present normal one?

A. It will be easier for him to return the goods he is not satisfied with.

B. It will be easier for him to attain the refund from the seller.

C. It will be easier for him to get his complaints heard by other consumers.

D. It will be easier for him to complain about this to the government.

C

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.

49. We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is ________.

A. very quick　　　　　　 B. very cautious　　　　 C. very slow　　　　　　　 D. rather careless

48. In the author’s view, businesses would place a high emphasis on honest dealing because in the electronic world ________.

A. international cooperation would be much more frequent

B. consumers could easily seek government protection

C. a good reputation is a great advantage in competition

D. it would be easy for consumers to complain

47. In case an electronic shopper bought faulty goods from a foreign country, what could he do?

A. Refuse to pay for the purchase. 　　　　　　 B. Go to the seller and ask for a refund.

C. Appeal to consumer protection law.　 D. Complain about it on the Internet.