Final answer:
The given code segment uses conditional statements to determine what message to print based on the values of the variables period and hour. The code can be simplified by combining the two conditions involving 'AM' into one. The modified code segment will always perform exactly the same, regardless of the values of period and hour.
Step-by-step explanation:
The given code segment uses conditional statements to determine what message to print based on the values of the variables period and hour. It first checks if period is 'AM' and hour is less than or equal to 4. If this condition is true, it prints 'It's early!'. If not, it moves to the next condition and checks if period is 'AM'. If true, it prints 'Good morning!'. If none of the previous conditions are true, it checks if hour is less than or equal to 5, then less than or equal to 8, and finally prints 'Good afternoon!', 'Good evening!', or 'Good night!' respectively depending on the condition.
This code segment can be simplified by combining the two conditions involving 'AM' into one. Instead of checking for 'AM' twice, we can modify the condition to check if period is 'AM' and hour is less than or equal to 4. This change will make the code always perform exactly the same, regardless of the values of period and hour.
The modified code segment would look like this:
if period == 'AM' and hour <= 4:
print('It's early!')
elif hour <= 5:
print('Good afternoon!')
elif hour <= 8:
print('Good evening!')
else:
print('Good night!')