It never rains but it pours. Just as bosses and boards have finally sorted out their worst

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It never rains but it pours. Just as bosses and boards have finally sorted out their worst accounting and compliance troubles， and improved their feeble corporation governance， a new problem threatens to earn them- especially in America-the sort of nasty headlines that inevitably lead to heads rolling in the executive suite： data insecurity. Left， until now， to odd， low-level IT staff to put right， and seen as a concern only of data-rich industries such as banking， telecoms and air travel， information protection is now high on the boss's agenda in businesses of every variety.

Several massive leakages of customer and employee data this year- from organizations as diverse as Time Warner， the American defense contractor Science Applications International Corp and even the University of California. Berkeley-have left managers hurriedly peering into their intricate 11 systems and business processes in search of potential vulnerabilities.

“Data is becoming an asset which needs no be guarded as much as any other asset.” says I am Mendelson of Stanford University's business school “The ability guard customer data is the key to market value， which the board is responsible for on behalf of shareholders” Indeed， just as there is the concept of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles （GAAP）. perhaps it is time for GASP. Generally Accepted Security Practices， suggested Eli Noam of New York's Columbia Business School. “Setting the proper investment level for security， redundancy， and recovery is a management issue， not a technical one.” he says.

The mystery is that this should come as a surprise to any boss. Surely it should be obvious to the dimmest exccutive that trust， that most valuable of economic assets， is easily destroyed and hugely expensive to restore-and that few things are more likely to destroy trust than a company letting sensitive personal data get into the wrong hands.

The current state of affairs may have been encouraged-though not justified-by the lack of legal penalty （in America， but not Europe） for data leakage. Until California recently passed a law. American firms did not have to tell anyone， even the victim， when data went astray， I hat may change fast lots of proposed data-security legislation now doing the rounds in Washington. D.C. Meanwhile. the theft of information about some 40 million credit-card accounts in America， disclosed on June 17th. overshadowed a hugely important decision a day earlier by America's Federal Trade Commission （FTC） that puts corporate America on notice that regulators will act if firms fail to provide adequate data security.

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36. The statement： “It never rains but it pours” is used to introduce

[A] the fierce business competition.

[B] the feeble boss-board relations

[C] the threat from news reports.

[D] the severity of data leakage.

A.in

B.of

C.to

D.for

A.rain

B.rainy

C.raining

D.rains

A.will rain;will rain

B. rains;will rain

C. will rain;rains

D. rains;rains

A. is raining

B. rains

C. was raining

D. will rain

A.heavily

B.carefully

C.actively

D.clearly

A、always rains

B、rain always

A.rain

B.rained

C.rains

D.will rain

ic-looking(相貌平平)man in a generic-looking suit slides back and forth before a map of the region，telling us we have nothing to worry about.Only a slight chance of an isolated thunderstorm after midnight.It’s 6:30 p.m.He smiles，tells us to have a great evening and fades away to sports.Less than an hour later，it’s pouring.And I mean pouring.Sheets-of-rain-down-the-windowpanes pouring.It remains one of life’s 1ittle mysteries to me how such well-intentioned and well-trained people using such high-tech equipment can be so wrong，and so often. I’ve often said that if I made that many mistakes in front of so many people，I’d have been out of job 35 years ago.I grew up on the windswept(受大风侵袭的)plains of western New York State.When the m an on the Buffalo station said it was going to snow，it snowed.It never failed. This was October，usually around Halloween(万圣节)。 He then predicted snow for the next six months，and he was never wrong November. December.January.February.March.April.Snow.Even as a kid，I figured Out this wasn’t rocket science.But at least he was always accurate.He had no equipment，no red or blue or green spots floating across his map.In fact，I’ll not sure I remember a map。In those days，we a11 knew where we were.NO map was Required。He got most()f his forecast tips，I suspect，from his bones and how they felt.

I have my simple theories why weather reporting is so inaccurate. WeatherepOrters rarely go outside.Nor can they see outside.MOst 0f them work in windowless buildings.

31.The sentence “It happened again the 0ther night” implies that ().

A.weather reporters are Often fired because they are inaccurate

B.it rains much too 0ften at night in that area of the country

C.inaccuracies in teleVisiOn weather reports are frequent

D.the author Often watches the weather report on teleVisiOn

32.The phrase“fades away to sports”(para.1)means ().

A.he goe s on t0 talk ab0ut sports programs

B.he goes away t0 play sports after work

C.sports programs begin when he disappears

D.sports have to be cancelled because 0f ranin

33.1t began to rain ().

A.at 6:30 p.m.

B.before 7:30 p.m.

C.after 7:30 p.m

D.by midnight

34.What the author intends to say id that weather reports are inaccurate because weaher reporters ().

A.are not well—equipped as expected

B.are not always responsible enough

C.go unpunished for their mistakes

D.do not conduct enough fieldwork

35.According to the author ,the man on the Buffalo station was accurate in predicting weather because ().

A.his pay depended on the tips he got from weather reports

B.what he felt in his bones helped to foresee the weather

C.it was the knowledge he gained from his ancestors

D.he could see snow coming from the windswept plains

A．rains; rains

B．will rain; rains

C．rains; will rain

D．will rain; will rain