【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[听力原文]24-26
Hurricane Katrina caused damage on a level never before seen in America when it struck the Gulf Coast area last week. The most costly natural event in American history has been Hurricane Andrew. It struck south Florida in 1992. The National Climate Data Center says Andrew caused almost thirty-six thousand million dollars in damage, with inflation considered. With Katrina, there are damage estimates of one hundred thousand million dollars or more.
So far the evidence suggests that Katrina will affect the national economy but not enough to cause a recession. That was the message this week from the Congressional Budget Office. It says the storm could reduce growth for the rest of the year by up to one percentage point. Economists had generally expected economic growth of three to four percent during the second half of the year.
Still, Katrina could reduce employment through the end of this year by about four hundred thousand jobs. But the budget office says employment should increase during the first half of next year as rebuilding gains speed. Of course, the economic effects are much worse in the areas hit by Katrina. Although workers have been busy getting the port of New Orleans ready to reopen, employment in the city for now is just about zero: everyone who lives there has been ordered out.
24. What do we learn from the talk about Hurricane Katrina?

[分析] 文章一开头就说了：Hurricane Katrina caused damage on a level never before seen in America．即B选项所述Hurricane Katrina is the most costly natural disaster in America so far．A项为干扰项，是对The most costly natural event in American history has been Hurricane Andrew．这句话的错误理解。此句实际是说hurricane Andrew是美国历史上，即在hurricane Katrina之前损失最大的自然灾害。而且根据此段后面的数据也可判断A选项不正确。根据第二、三段可判断出C选项和 D选项也不对。