Climate change is making it harder than usual for scientists to figure out what the future will bring and what impact weather changes will have on society and the economy. An upsurge of severe weather events has already destroyed homes, businesses and lives. Some fairly simple changes may reduce the toll. In a laboratory test, a house built with conventional techniques is falling apart in hurricane-force winds. The survivor has stronger shingles, thicker roof boards, and metal straps holding floors together. Wind tunnel tests were done by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. It says stronger construction costs a little more, but holds up much better to extreme weather. The growing number of unusually strong storms, like Typhoon Haiyan, has convinced the Chairman of the U. S. Senate Homeland Security Committee, Tom Carper, that extreme weather is the "new _ )." "Extreme weather events have increased in frequency over the past 50 years and are expected to become even more common, more intense, and more costly," said Carper. Hurricane Sandy hit beachfront businesses along the U.S. East Coast, including Carper's home state. Insurance companies had to pay out huge claims. To limit such losses, the insurance industry can raise premiums  for businesses in vulnerable locations and offer discounts to clients who make their buildings more resilient with upgraded construction techniques. Managing risks is the job of insurance brokers like Kevin Connelly of the Graham Company, who spoke to VOA via Skype. "We are either going to price your insurance at a huge markup, or we are not going to write (sell it) it at all, which is just as bad obviously," said Connelly. Drought is another suspected consequence of climate change, and dry ground means more wildfires in California. Current mathematical models of climate change do a poor job of predicting the economic impact of drought and other weather events, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Robert Pindyck, who spoke via Skype. "I think all we... In a laboratory test , what kind of houses can stay up? A) a house built with conventional techniques B) A house with stronger shingles C) A house with thinner roof boards D) a house with metal floors .
B

More than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are drunk throughout the world each day, and it's likely that many taste bitter. Now, a new study suggests that coffee fans can make their drink sweeter by changing the color of their cups. Researchers from Oxford set out to prove whether the claim that coffee drunk from a white cup tastes biter was true. They used 36 volunteers and three different colored cups---blue, white and transparent glass--- to examine the claim. In one experiment, the white cup increased the intensity   of the coffee taste relative to the transparent cup. Then, in a second experiment, coffee drunk from the white cup was found to taste less sweet when compared to the other colored cups, while the blue cup made the coffee taste the sweetest. The scientists believe that the color brown may be associated with bitterness, and coffee in a white cup appears the brownest.  "Our study clearly shows that the color of a cup does influence our sense of the coffee taste," leading author Dr George Doorn, wrote in an article for The Conversation. "The effect of the color of the cup on the taste of the coffee reported here suggests that cafe owners should carefully consider the color of their cups," he said. "The potential effects may spell the difference between a one-time purchase and a return customer."  Actually, the idea that color can change the food and drink taste came out many years ago. A study published last year reported that red, strawberry-flavored cake served on a white plate was rated as 10 percent sweeter than the same food presented on a black plate. In which cup will coffee taste the sweetest? A) A white cup. B) A blue cup. C) A transparent cup D) A brown cup
B

In the modern world more and more people meet the problem of identity.The most interesting example is that of a so - called " _ ", which refers to an American who has an Asian face but holds Western values. In Shanghai, there now live a group of people from abroad.They look no different from the locals and speak fluent Chinese or even Shanghai dialect, but when it comes to writing Chinese characters, they are almost illiterate .Jack is such an example.He never learned to read or write Chinese characters, which he finds mysterious and difficult.From time to time, he files to the US as he does not feel Shanghai is where he comes from."But when I am in the States, I feel that's not my home either," he said. At De Gaulle Airport in France, there is a Swiss man who has been living in the waiting - room for a long time because he lost h is passport during his travels.He was refused entry into several countries.But when he was eventually allowed to return to Swizerland, he refused to leave the airport.His reason was very simple--"I am sure who I am.I need no acknowledgement from others," he said during an interview.For th is reason  he was honored by the Western media as "the Hero of identity." As the Internet becomes more and more popular, the problem of identity becomes more serious.In a virtual world, people can have different addresses registered with different names.In the Internet chat room, even one's gender  is hard to determine.It seems that in the glohal village, people are saying hello every day to each other without knowing whom they are talking to. What will be the next crisis  of identity? With the development of cloning technology, it might be: who is the real "I"? What does the passage mainly talk about? A) The importance of identity. B) The crisis of identity. C) Differences between Eastern and Western cultures. D) Difficulty in living in foreign counties.

B