A new tropical storm has formed in the Caribbean, matching a 72-year-old record for the highest number of Atlantic storms in a single season. Tropical Storm Wilma is the 21st (36) storm of the 2005 season and is (37) to become a hurricane be- fore heading to Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and possibly the battered U. S. Gulf (38) by the end of the week.
The last time this many storms (39) since record-keeping began 154 years ago was in 1933. If Wilma does turn into the season’s 12th hurricane it would also (40) a 1969 record of the most hurricanes in one term.
Reeling from the (41) effects of Katrina, Rita, and Dennis, the residents of the Gulf Coast are (42) Wilma stays away. Hurricane Katrina, which hit on August 29, killed more than 1,240 people and is expected to cause more than $ 34 billion in (43) losses.
(44) . Scientists say the cause of the increase is a rise in ocean temperatures and a decrease in the amount of disruptive vertical wind shear that splits hurricanes apart. (45) . (46) . They say the conditions are similar to those when the Atlantic was last in a period of high activity in the 1950s and 60s.
【参考答案】
Since AIIE, the Atlantic has been in a period of higher hu......