John Lee likes to tinker with vehicles: his four-wheel-drive resembles a tractor more than a car. "It’s watertight," he smiles.

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问题     John Lee likes to tinker with vehicles: his four-wheel-drive resembles a tractor more than a car. "It’s watertight," he smiles. For the past week he has been driving down sodden lanes in Surrey, southwest of London, transporting people and medicines. Flooding is a misery, but at least it provides an opportunity to show off a set of wheels.
    Much of southern England is now sodden, and parts of the Thames Valley and Somerset are simply underwater. In Shepperton, a town in Surrey, the village green used for the summer fete is best reached by canoe. In Devon a sea wall has collapsed, shutting down a vital railway link to the south-west. As The Economist went to press, 16 severe flood warnings had been issued by the Environment Agency, a much-criticised quango that oversees flood defence.
    Floods are like snowflakes, says Andrew McKenzie of the British Geological Survey, a research body: none is quite like another. Rivers can overflow, as in Somerset. Groundwater can flood, as in the Thames Valley. Tides can surge, inundating villages, as they have in Lincolnshire. Rain can pound down too quickly to be absorbed. None of these is rare on its own. But over the past two months Britain has been subject to the whole lot, often in combination, over a large area.
    Last month was the wettest January in southern England since 1910. The rain was unusually prolonged, falling on 23 days out of 31, a four-decade record. Rain continues to fall on this sodden ground. As a result, the Thames river has been running high for longer than at any point since records began in 1883. The calamitous floods that struck England in 1947, by contrast, were over much more quickly.
    Fingers have been pointed at the government, for squeezing the Environment Agency’s budget. According to the Committee on Climate Change, an independent body, government funding for flood management between 2011 and 2015 will be less than in the previous four years, even in cash terms. The maintenance budget was cut particularly savagely, says Iain Sturdy of the Somerset drainage board.
What can be inferred from the second paragraph?

选项 A、Most parts of England suffered from the disastrous flood.
B、Many railroads have been shut down because of the flood.
C、The Economist was criticized for not covering the flood warnings.
D、It was too late for the Environment Agency to issue the flood warnings.

答案D

解析 选项A对应第二段首句:Much of southern England is now sodden,and parts of the Thames Valley and Somerset are simply underwater.文章提到的“much of southern England”, “parts of the Thames Valley and Somerset”等信息与该项的“most parts of England”不完全对等,故该项并非合适的答案。选项B对应第三句:In Devon a sea wall has collapsed,shutting down a vital railway link to the south-west.其中“shutting down a vital railway”与该项的“many railroads”不符,故该项错误。选项C对应最后一句:As The Economist went to press, 16 severe flood warnings had been issued by the Environment Agency,a much-criticised quango that oversees flood defence.是Environment Agency受到了指责,而不是Economist,该项属于偷换概念。选项D同样对应最后一句,该句意为:当《经济学人》付印之时,环境局才发布16则严重洪灾警告。言下之意是该警告为时已晚,故该项表述正确。答案为选项D。
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