Question

Lost forever

Most people have heard about Didus ineptus, or the dodo, as it is more commonly known.  It was the flightless, long-extinct（灭绝的）member of the dove family that lived in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. The name “dodo” comes from the Portuguese and means “a person who is foolish”;    31   , to call someone a “dodo”   32    their stupidity. The dodo was a foolish creature about the size of a turkey and was easily fooled by sailors who tapped on trees to     33    its attention. It would come    34   towards the sound and was easily caught and whisked on board ship to become a valuable source of fresh, but tough meat．

Another expression to appear from the    35    bird’s situation is to say that something is “as dead as a dodo”, which means long since dead, very much     36    , or deserted. Of the many animals that people have removed from the face of the earth, the dodo has probably made the greatest contribution to our   37     .

Another less well-known but    38     extinct bird is Aepyornis maximus, more commonly known as the elephant bird of Madagascar. This creature   39    a very thickset, three-metre-tall emu（鸸鹋）   40    over half a ton and is thought to be the largest bird that ever lived. It was big in every way, even its eggs were extremely large. An elephant bird egg could measure up to ninety centimetres in diameter and    41    nine liters of liquid, about 200 ordinary chicken eggs. The eggs were in fact three times larger than dinosaur eggs.

  It’s hard to imagine how impressive the elephant bird must have been as it walked about proudly in its natural habitat. For thousands of years its size   42   was enough to scare the meat-eating animals.    43    it was a flightless bird, its sharp claws and powerful neck and beak ensured it could look after itself---that is, up until the Europeans arrived on Madagascar. They not only hunted elephant birds for food but began    44     their eggs as gifts. Sadly it was made    45    around I700, and the world became a much poorer place because of it

31. A. however            B. but                  C. therefore            D. usually

32. A. refers to            B. leads to             C. sticks to                D. comes to

33. A. concentrate         B. fix               C. attract          D. focus

34. A. swimming             B. flying            C. trembling      D. running

35. A. unfortunate                 B. unkind                 C. unfair           D. unable

36. A. fashionable                 B. outdated               C. updated        D. powerful

37. A. tradition             B. society         C. custom         D. language

38. A. continually           B. equally           C. carefully       D. officially

39. A. felt like               B. would like            C. looked like     D. sounded like

40. A. taking              B. looking              C. measuring           D. weighing

41. A. included                   B. existed        C. contained           D. examined

42. A. alone                      B. lonely          C. only         D. just

43. A. As though            B. Even though         C. As if           D. Even so

44. A. making                     B. cooking             C. collecting      D. counting

45. A. disappeared        B. free               C. known          D. extinct

Answer 1

31-35 CACDA     36-40 BDBCD     41-45 CABCD