填空题

It’s been so warm in the United States this year, especially in March, that national (26) weren’t just broken, they were deep-fried.
Temperatures in the lower 48 states were 8.6 degrees above normal for March and 6 degrees higher than average for the first three months of the year, according to (27) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That far (28) the old records. The magnitude of how unusual the year has been in the U.S. has alarmed some climate scientists who have (29) global warming. One climate scientist said it’s the weather equivalent of a baseball player on steroids, with old wiped out.
"Everybody has this uneasy feeling. This is weird. This is not good," said Jerry Meehl, a climate scientist who (30) extreme weather at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "It’s a (31) pleasure. You’re out enjoying this nice March weather, but you know it’s not a good thing. "
It’s not just March. "It’s been ongoing for several months," said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Ashville, North Carolina.
Climate scientists say an (32) confluence of several weather patterns, (33) La Nina, Was the direct cause of the warm start to 2012. While individual events can’t be blamed on global warming, Crouch said this is like the extremes that (34) get more frequent because of man-made climate change from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. (35) March averages 42.5 degrees across the country. This year, the average was 51.1, which is closer to the average for April. Only one other time was the country as a whole that much hotter than normal for an entire month, and it was in January, 2006.