完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
Two days before Thanksgiving, I was trying to open my mouth wide enough for a mirror and a roll of steel wire. Metal braces (牙齿矫正器)had been on my   31  for weeks, but this was the day for the wire to be adjusted. Only those who have had braces will understand the terrible   32  of being “wired”. For the next 24 hours, it felt like every tooth was being   33  slowly by a giant clawhammer (拔钉锤).  34  drinking water caused pain.
By Thanksgiving Day, I had got used to it.   35  I didn’t use my teeth, the pain was bearable. But this was a day when teeth had to   36  longer than usual. We were   37  at my grandparents’ house with relatives. The house was filled with so many pleasant   38  that we could hardly resist the food. When grandma said, “Dinner is ready!” all the kids   39  to be first in line. I was so excited that I    40  the braces in my mouth and   41  my way up to the head of the line.
I piled my plate high with my favorite corn-on-the-cob(玉米棒子)and   42  my mouth to enjoy it. The pain was   43 . I felt I would never be able to eat again. I put my plate away and ran outside in   44 .
Grandma then took my plate to the   45 . She cut all the corn off that cob and rescued me from my   46 . She handed me my plate piled high with corn. “Thanks,” I said   47 . Then I looked up and   48  a strange light in her eye, a light that is still   49  to me after more than fifty years. That was the Thanksgiving when I discovered something more   50  than good food.

D

China may send naval ships to the seas off Somalia to help the fight against piracy（海盗行为） there, Chinese media on Wednesday quoted a Vice Foreign Minister as saying at the United Nations, Reuters reported.

"China is seriously considering sending naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast for escorting operations in the near future," the Xinhua news agency quoted He Yafei as saying. He Yafei, speaking at a Security Council ministerial meeting, said that China welcomed global cooperation in the fight against Somali piracy, and supported efforts by other countries to send ships to the region, Xinhua reported.

Earlier this month a leading Chinese military strategist, Major-General Jin Yinan, urged the government to send ships, in comments generating debate about combating piracy in a country which has generally confined its navy to waters near home. Jin told a Chinese radio interviewer that "nobody should be shocked" if his government one day decided to send navy ships to deal with the pirates, whose recent victims have included ships from Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. Jin is the head of a strategy institute at China's National Defense University.

While the military strategist is urging an active part, other scholars think the government should be cautious before a decision is made. The Chinese military ships should go there "only within the UN framework," said Pang Zhongying, a professor of international relations with Renmin University of China. Pang added that he also had some concerns over the Chinese navy's capability. "I don't think the Chinese navy has the capability to fight against unconventional threats far in the ocean," he said, adding supplying and refueling in the Indian Ocean are key challenges.

A sharp increase in attacks at sea this year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has pushed up insurance costs, brought the Somali pirates tens of millions of dollars in ransom（赎金） and prompted foreign warships to the area. Among the captured ships are a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million of crude oil, the Sirius Star, and a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying some 30 Soviet-era tanks. The victims have also included a Hong Kong-flagged ship with 25 crew aboard and a Chinese mainland fishing boat reported seized off Kenya. NATO ships began anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in late October, but they have failed to stop the attacks.

56. This year, many ships from different countries have been captured by the Somali pirates except _______.

A. a Saudi supertanker   B. a Ukrainian cargo     C.NATO ships      D. the Sirius Star

57. The underlined word "confined" in the third paragraph most probably means ________.

A. involved            B. restricted           C. confirmed        D. contract

58. From the passage, we learn that _______.

A. China has sent its navy to fight the Somalia pirates

B. some countries have launched their anti-piracy operations

C. the Somalia pirates often attacked foreign warships for ransom

D. The Chinese navy hasn’t the capability to travel far to combat pirates

59. When the Major-General Jin Yinan said "nobody should be shocked", he actually indicated that ________.

A. the Chinese people should keep calm about the government's decision

B. no one should be frightened by the pirates' attack as the Chinese navy will defend them

C. it is reasonable for China to send its navy to fight against the Somalia pirates

D. if China had dealt with the pirates earlier, nobody would have been shocked

60. Professor Pang Zhongying’s main concern about the Chinese naval ships is that _______.

A. adding supplying and refueling far in the ocean is really a challenge

B. the Chinese navy has never fought against such unconventional threats

C. the fighting against pirates is not within the UN framework

D. the attacks in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia has increased sharply

Everyone wants to win a first-place blue ribbon, to be the best in something. Even kids in Kindergarten want that blue ribbon. In sports, I was never a blue-ribbon person. In a race, I was always  36 . In baseball I was likely to be  37  on the head or drop the ball. During the spring of my kindergarten year, our class had a field trip to a park in a town about twenty miles away. Making that drive now is no big  38  but when you’re six and you’ve lived in a town of 300 people all your life, going to a big town of a couple of thousand people is really something.
I don’t remember too much about it. But there was one that I will never forget —the __39__ race. The parents tied our feet together. One little boy got me for a  40  . He was the second most   41 boy in our class so he usually won at everything and I knew that with me tied to him he didn’t have a chance. And I’m sure he knew he was in trouble. The gun sounded and we were off. Some couples were falling and stumbling all around us,  42   we stayed on our feet and made it to the other side.  43  , when we turned around and headed back for home, we were in the lead! Only one couple had a chance to win, and they were a good several yards behind us.
A few feet from the finish line, disaster struck: I tripped and fell. We were   44  enough that my partner could have easily dragged me across the finish line and won. But he didn’t. Instead he stopped,   45   down and helped me up — just at the other couple crossed the finish line. As a result, we received a small red ribbon for coming in second.
I still remember that moment when the young boy decided that helping a friend get on her feet was more important than winning a blue ribbon. And 13 years later, I still have that little ribbon because it’s a   46   that a friend like this boy is one who really   47  .  

There are times when people are so tired that they fall asleep almost anywhere. We can see a lot of people sleeping on the bus or train on their way home __【小题1】__ work in the evening. A man will be reading the newspaper, and seconds later it appears as if he is trying to eat it. Or he will fall asleep on the shoulder of the stranger sitting next to him. Another place where __【小题2】__ (plan) short sleep goes on is in the lecture hall __【小题3】__ a student will start snoring so loudly that the professor has to ask __【小题4】__ student to shake the sleeper awake. A more _【小题5】__ (embarrass) situation occurs when a student starts falling into sleep and __【小题6】__ weight of the head pushes the arm off the desk, and the movement carries the rest of the body along. The student wakes up on the floor with no memory of getting there. The __【小题7】_ (bad) time to fall asleep is when driving. Police reports are full of accidents that occur when people fall into sleep and go off the road. __【小题8】__ the drivers are lucky, they are not seriously hurt. One woman’s car, for example, went into the river. She woke up in four feet of water and thought that it __【小题9】__ (rain). When people are really tired, __【小题10】__ will stop them from falling asleep — no matter where they are.

What happens to a teenage kid when the world he thought he knew suddenly changes? Find out in Little Brother by American author Cory Doctorow. It is a fascinating book for a new generation of sci-fi readers.
Marcus Yallow, 17, from San Francisco is much more comfortable in front of a computer than obeying the rules of society. Smart, fast and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting (骗过) his high school's monitoring system. This way he and his friends get to head off to play a popular online game in real life.
While they are playing, a bomb explodes on the Bay Bridge. Marcus stops a military (军队的) vehicle to get help for his injured friend, but this simple act throws him into a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secret prison. There he is treated as a possible terrorist(恐怖分子). He is eventually let go after four days, but his injured friend disappears.
When he returns, Marcus discovers that there are many "security measures" in place and that now all citizens are treated like potential terrorists. While some consider this government action necessary for public safety, Marcus sees this as a complete destruction of the rights he is supposed to have as a citizen.
He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him with only one thing to do: to take down the DHS himself. He helps organize a large network called Xnet to spread the truth, anonymously (匿名地).
The book presents a young man who is irresponsible, but learns about himself, and grows, in the course of the story. As part of this learning and growing he becomes aware of very serious issues about his society.
【小题1】 What kind of article does this passage belong to?