第三节完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
　    When I was 6 years old, my parents got me a used __21____ for Christmas.
A year or so later, I badly wanted a Sting-Ray, a tricked-out bike that was __22__in the 1960s. So my father took my old bike, slapped a new coat of paint on it, and _23____ it with a banana seat, monkey handlebars and a sissy bar（保护杠）. ___24___didn't matter to me that some friends had new Sting-Rays straight from the Schwinn factory. Or even that my dad put the sissy bar on backward, _25____ exposed me to some teasing（嘲笑） before we _26____ it. I loved that bike.
　　So it was for my __27___. We weren't poor. But we always had modest Christmases. And I _28____ to do the same when I got married 27 years ago.
　　My wife, Clarissa, had different _29____. She, too, had some __30___Christmases growing up. She vividly remembers when she was 14 or 15 years old and her father lost his __31__in the construction industry. She overheard her __32___ talking about how _33___ they were.
　　So when her parents asked her what she wanted that year, she said, 'Nothing.' When her mother insisted she had to get ___34__, Clarissa asked for socks. 'I felt very good about myself afterward,' she recalls.
　　But as her family's finances _35_____, Christmas went back to being a __36__ bigger production. By the time I arrived on the scene, the __37__ family -- more than 20 people -- would gather at her grandmother's house in Mexicali, Mexico, on Christmas Eve. Around 10 p.m., Santa (my future brother-in-law in a costume) showed up with an enormous bag of _38____ and stepped into a roomful of children crying with __39____
　　'It was all about the children,' says Clarissa, who thought the experience was _40___ .And she has spent hundreds of dollars on presents every year to duplicate(重温 )it.
21．A．car             B．bike          C．book           D．coat
22．A．popular        B．common       C．ordinary        D．regular
23．A．add         B．equipped      C．placed         D．supplied
24．A．That           B．This          C．It           D．What
25．A．so            B．thus          C．Which         D．it
26．A．bought         B．placed         C．fixed          D．changed
27．A．childhood      B．life           C．children        D．youth
28．A．imagined      B．expected       C．suggested      D．supposed
29．A．ideas          B．life           C．childhood      D．Christmas
30．A．unforgettable   B．modest         C．happy         D．wonderful
31．A．life          B．job            C．interest        D．present
32．A．friends        B．mother        C．father         D．parents
33．A．broke         B．rich           C．wealthy        D．well-off
34．A．nothing        B．something     C．everything       D．anything
35．A．improved     B．caught         C．reduced       D．decreased
36．A．very          B．more          C．less           D．much
37．A．all         B．big            C．small         D．entire
38．A．bikes         B．food          C．presents        D．books
39．A．surprise       B．joy           C．fear           D．satisfaction
40．A．wasteful       B．valueless      C．priceless    D．useful

完形填空（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从下列各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

The human nose is an underestimated tool. Humans are often thought to be  1___ smellers compared with animals, but this is largely because, unlike animals, we stand upright. This means that our noses are  2  to detecting those smells which float through the air,  3  the majority of smells which stick to surfaces. In fact though, we are extremely sensitive to smells, even if we do not generally realize it. Our noses are capable of  4  human smells even when these are  5  to far below one part in one million.

　　  6     , some people find that they can smell one type of flower but not another, while others are sensitive to the smells of both flowers. This may be because some people do not have the genes necessary to generate  7     smell receptors in the nose. These receptors are the cells which sense smells and send  8    to the brain. However, it has been found that even people insensitive to a certain smell at first can suddenly become sensitive to it when  9     to it often enough.

　　The  10   for insensitivity to smell seems to be that brain finds it  11    to keep all smell receptors working all the time but can  12   new receptors if necessary. This may also explain why we are not usually sensitive to our own smells we simply do not need to be. We are not  13     of the usual smell of our own house but we  14     new smells when we visit someone else's. The brain finds it best to keep smell receptors _ 15    for unfamiliar and emergency signals such as the smell of smoke, which might indicate the danger of fire.

Employers fear they will be unable to recruit (招募) students with the skills they need as the economic recovery kicks in, a new survey ___21___.

Nearly half of the organizations told researchers they were already struggling to find ___22___ with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), ___23___ even more companies expect to experience ___24___ of employees with STEM skills in the next three years.

The Confederation of British Industry___25___694 businesses and organizations across the public and ___26___sectors , which together employ 2.4 million people.

Half are ___27___ they will not be able to fill graduate posts in the coming years, while a third said they would not be able to ___28___ enough employees with the right A-level skills.

　　“___29___ we move further role recovery and businesses plan ___30___ growth, the demand for people with high-quality skills and qualifications will ___31___.” said Richard Lambert, Director General, CBI. “Firms say it is already hard to find people with the right ___32___ or engineering skills. The new government must make it a top ___33___ to encourage more young people to study science-related ___34___.”

　　The survey found that young people would improve their job prospects (预期) ___35___ they studied business, maths, English and physics or chemistry at A-level. The A-levels that employers ___36___least are psychology and sociology. And while many employers don’t insist on a ___37___ degree subject . A third prefer to hire those with a STEM-related subject.

The research ___38___ worries about the lack of progress in improving basic skills in the UK ___39___. Half of the employer expressed worries about employees’ basic literacy and numeracy（计算) skills, while the biggest problem is with IT skills, ___40___ two-thirds reported concerns.

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By the third year of teaching I’d begun to expect Christmas break more for the school holiday and less for the excitement of the children. I was teaching fourth grade and my students had made me   16  . I just had to get through one of the hardest days of the school year.

  　　The morning bell rang. I walked   17   through the cold into the overly heated school building. Twenty-two smiling faces  18   me at the school bus stop. I forced myself to   19   their smiles. Back into the classroom, they   20  , comparing plans for the   21  . I had to remove one student from each arm   22   I could take a seat at my desk for my morning duties. Before I could find my roll book（点名册） my desk was covered with   23   and gifts followed by a   24   of “Merry Christmas” wishes.

  　“Oh, thank you,” I must have  25   a million times. Each gift was truly special to me, except my   26   mood. It was kind of them to  27   me. After a while, I heard a small nervous   28   say my name. I looked up to see Brandon standing   29   by my desk, holding a small, round gift. “This is for you.”

  　 “Thank you, Sweetheart.” I laid it on my desk with the others.

  　“Um, could you   30   it now?”

  　I gently tore at the paper and tape. “  31  ,” he said, “it’s breakable.” Slowly I opened a small, green Christmas tree ornament（装饰物）, complete with a hook already 32  . It dawned on me what he had done. Then a nearby student said that he just pulled that off his own tree. I tried to keep my   33   back.

   　Later that day, I sat   34   the ornament in my hands. Was I really so important to this child that he had searched for something to give me? Now every year as I   35   pull a green Christmas ball from my ornament box, I remember the deep influence my students have on me.

1..

A. excited      B. tired               C. amazed           D. relaxed

2..

. A. eagerly    B. aimlessly           C. gently           D. heavily

3..

A. watched      B. greeted         C. delighted            D. warned

4..

A. return       B. forget          C. ignore               D. refuse

5..

A. calmed       B. settled         C. chatted          D. argued

6..

A. study        B. weekend         C. vacation         D. lesson

7..

 A. before      B. when            C. after                D. because

8..

A. letters      B. books           C. chalks               D. cards

9..

A. knowledge    B. collection          C. series               D. bunch

10..

 A. confirmed   B. assessed            C. responded            D. explained

11..

A. pleased      B. low             C. thrilled         D. angry

12..

A. talk about   B. think of        C. turn to              D. connect with

13..

 A. call        B. sound           C. shout                D. voice

14..

 A. shyly       B. bravely         C. rudely               D. sadly

15..

 A. classify    B. collect          C. open             D. check

16..

A. Careful      B. Dangerous           C. Patient              D. Hasty

17..

A. exposed      B. adapted         C. adjusted         D. attached

18..

 A. trees       B. hooks           C. gifts                D. tears

19..

A. looking into B. turning over        C. giving away      D. packing up

20..

 A. anxiously   B. hurriedly           C. delicately           D. casually