专业八级改错练习 第96期

A country's latitude, or distance from the equator,
has an important effect on its climate. In places
locating at low latitudes, or near the equator, like__1__
Ecuador and northern Brazil, the amount of sunshine
changes the most during the years. At mid-latitudes, in __2__
places like Japan or Argentina, there is less sunshine__3__
in the summer than in winter. The greatest change
occurs at the highest latitudes, in places like northern
Canada and Alaska. In these places, the nights are very
long for half the year, and the days are long during
other half. At the North or South Pole, sunlight lasts __4__
the longest during the winter. But light and heat are __5__
the most intense at the equator.
Altitude and distance from the sea also affect climate.
The thin air in the high mountain areas absorb less of the __6__
sun's heat than the thicker air at sea level. The daily
change in temperature also increases with distance
from the sea. Snow and rain are not very important to __7__
climate. Snow reflects as much as eighty or ninety
percent of the heat from the sun, and making the __8__
weather even colder. But a large forest area can reflect
as little as five percent of the sun's heat. This makes
the weather warmer. Of course, the general effects of
climate do not explain everything about the weather.
For example, either the driest places in the world and __9__
the place with the most rainy days are located in Chile.
Calama, in the Atacama Desert, has had no rain over__10__
400 years. But during the year 1916, it rained in Bahia
Felix, Chile for 348 days.