第二节 完形填空(共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分)

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36—55各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

I was only eight years old when the Second World War ended, but I can still remember something about the   36   celebrations in the small town where I lived on the day when the war in Europe ended. We had not   37   much from the war where, though, like most children of my age, I often saw   38   houses in the streets and the very big   39   lorries(卡车) passing through. But both at home and at school I had become   40   to the phrases “before the war” and “when the war is over”. “Before the war”, obviously,   41   had been better, though I was too young to understand why,   42   there had been no bombs then, and people had eaten things like ice cream and bananas, which I had  43   heard of. When the war was over we would go back to London, but this meant very  44   to me. I did not remember what London was like.

What I remember now  45   V-Day(victory day) was the afternoon and the evening. Some boys and girls were collecting   46  and building an enormous bonfire(篝火). We stood and watched them for a time, and then I went home and   47   myself in with my key and waited for my parents to come back from work.

As computers become all the more popular in China, Chinese people are increasingly relying on computer keyboards to input Chinese characters. But if they use the computer too much, they may end up forgetting the exact strokes（笔画）of each Chinese character when writing on paper. Experts suggest people, especially students, write by hand more.

Do you write by hand more or type more? In Beijing, students start using a computer as early as primary school. And computer dependence is more wide-spread among university students. Almost all their assignments and essays are typed on a computer.

All the students interviewed say they usually use a computer.

It's faster and easier to correct if using a computer. And that's why computers are being applied more and www..commore often to modern education. But when people are taking stock in computers increasingly, problems appear.

"When I'm writing with a pen, I find I often can't remember how to write a character, though I feel I’m familiar with it."

"I'm not in the mood to write when faced with a pen and paper."

Many students don't feel this is something to worry about. Now that it's more convenient and efficient to write on a computer, why bother to handwrite?

Many educators think differently. Shi Liwei , the headmaster of a famous primary school in the capital said "Chinese characters enjoy both practical and aesthetic(审美的) value. But those characters typed with computer keyboards only maintain their practical value. All the artistic beauty of the characters is lost. And handwriting contains the writer's emotion. Through one's handwriting, people can get to know one's thinking and personality. Beautiful writing will give people a better first impression of them"

To encourage students to handwrite more, many primary schools in Beijing have made writing classes compulsory(必修的)and in universities, some professors are asking students to turn in their homework and essays written by hand.

【小题1】Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage?

A. The Importance of Handwriting and Typing.

B. To Type or To Hand Write

C. Writing By Computer Will Replace Writing By Hand

D. Practical and Aesthetic Value of Chinese Characters.

【小题2】The students interviewed prefer to write using a computer mainly because______.

A. they are usually asked to e-mail their Homework and Essays

B. they can correct the mistakes they make quickly and conveniently 

C. they find it not easy to remember how to write a character

D. computers have become a trend and fashion in China.

【小题3】The underlined expression “taking stock in”(Paragraph 4) probably means_____.

A. getting bored with          B. getting dependent on    

C. becoming crazy about       D. getting curious about

【小题4】We can draw the conclusion from the passage that_______.

A. more and more students will give up writing on a computer

B. writing by hand will give way to typing by computer one day

C. more and more students will pay attention to handwriting

D. the typing article better expresses one’s emotion and quality

I entered St Thoma’s Hospital as a medical student at the age of 18 and spent five years there. I was an unsatisfactory student, for my heart, as you might have guessed, was not in it. I wanted, I had always wanted to be a writer, and in the evening, after my high tea, I wrote and read. Before long, I wrote a novel, called “Liza of Lambeth”, which I sent to a publisher and was accepted. It appeared during my last year at the hospital and had something of a success. It was of course an accident, but naturally I did not know that. I felt I could afford to give up medicine and make writing my profession; so, three days after I graduated from the school of medicine, I set out for Spain to write another book. Looking back now and knowing as I do the terrible difficulties of making a living by writing, I realize I was taking a fearful risk. It never even occurred to me.

The next ten years were very hard, and I earned an average of £100 a year. Then I had a bit of luck. The manager of the Court Theatre put on a play that failed ; the next play he arranged to put on was not ready , and he was at his wits’ end. He read a play of mine and, though he did not much like it, he thought it might just run for the six weeks till the play he had in mind to follow it with could be produced. It ran for fifteen months. Within a short while I had four plays running in London at the same time. Nothing of the kind had ever happened before. I was the talk of the town. One of the students at St Thomas’s Hospital asked the famous surgeon with whom I had worked whether he remembered me. “Yes, I remember him quite well, “he said. “ One of our failures, I’m afraid. “

1. Which of the following statements is not true?

A. The author was very pleased to have his book published but he didn’t realize it was something of an accident.

B. The success of his first book led the author to think he could afford to make writing his profession.

C. The author knew he was running a terrible risk when he decided to become a writer.

D. The author became a writer after graduation but was not a successful one.

2. In the second paragraph, “… he was at his wits’ end “means ________.

A. he was having a nervous breakdown       B. he was out of his wisdom

C. he did not know what to do             D. he almost went mad

3. The manager of the Court Theatre agreed to put the author’s play on the stage because _____________.

A. he thought it would run for fifteen months

B. he knew it was one of the author’s best plays shown in London

C. he had just put on a play that failed

D. the play he had arranged to put on was not ready

4. The author became the talk of the town. The reason was that __________.

A. he talked with a great many people in London about his plays

B. the plays he wrote were excellently performed in London

C. his performances in the Court Theatre were unexpectedly

D. he was criticized by an eminent surgeon as one of their failures

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从第36至第55小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

I’ve always loved pigeons （鸽子）. Some years ago I managed to persuade my wife to let me buy a few and started __36___ them myself. They cost a lot of money and so it spoiled our ____37___a bit, but my wife never actually stopped me so I ___38___ carried on. I learned so much about them that I could ___39____ a good racer anywhere and I bought beauties. My pigeons won some top races, and I even began to make a bit of ___40_____.

You see, people are prepared to pay big prices if they get to know that your pigeons are ___41____ big prizes.

My wife had been changing her ___42____ to the pigeons over the last year or two anyway. She was quite ___43____ of all prizes we’d won. Then there was a lot of travelling, which she liked. You see, someone has to take the pigeons a __44____ way off and release(释放) them. Some of the ___45___ were really nice. I never travelled. I used to like to wait at home and see them come in. They got the wonderful sense of __46____, which could bring them back home so quickly. They’d flown hundreds of miles sometimes ___47___ storms or against strong winds. And there they’d come, tiny white birds against the great ___48____. Then I’d watch them __49___ round and come down onto the landing shelf, I’d look at my watch and think, “ My goodness, that’s a good ____50__ .” And I’d take off the little leg ring and push it through the machine to ___51___ what time he’d arrive. Then my wife would ___52___up and say, “Has he arrived yet?” Then we would work out if we’d win___53___.

However, last year we had a ___54____! One of them got some sort of flu and died; then they all ___55____. It was terrible; I had to burn them all. We lost a fortune, of course.

 36.  A. racing      B. understanding     C. selling       D. flying

 37.  A. dream      B. work            C. life          D. hobby

 38.  A. just        B. even            C. almost        D. hardly

 39.  A. notice      B. learn            C. imagine      D. recognize

 40.  A. living       B. fun             C. money       D. change

 41.  A. losing       B. winning         C. giving       D. making

 42.  A. subject      B. decision         C. relation      D. attitude

 43.  A. proud       B. fond             C. careful      D. sure

 44.  A. different     B. long            C. short         D. far

 45.  A. distances    B. activities         C. trips         D. movements

 46.  A. direction     B. sight            C. hearing       D. touch

 47.  A. over        B. across            C. with         D. through

 48.  A. heaven      B. mountains        C. cloud         D. sky

 49.  A. turn         B. dance           C. circle         D. whistle

 50.  A. beginning    B. time             C. day          D. look

 51.  A. write        B. record           C. count         D. memory

 52.  A. come        B. show            C. phone        D. cheer

 53.  A. again        B. finally           C. only          D. accidentally

 54.  A. disadvantage  B. chance           C. problem       D. disaster

 55.  A. flew down    B. came down        C. let out        D. gave out

Talking on a mobile phone is expensive, so a lot of people send text messages. Text messages are much cheaper than talking on a mobile phone, and you can make it cheaper by making the words shorter. You can do this by taking out “unimportant” letters in the words and using numbers instead of words (2 =" to," 3 =" free," 4 =" for," 8 =" ate," so h8 =" hate," etc.). You can also keep away from using punctuation (标点).       Here is an example: Do U wnt 2 g 2 th cnma tnite (Do you want to go to the cinema tonight?)

What do you think these text messages mean?

Whr hv U bn? Iv bn wtng hrs fr a cll.

Im hm nw, why nt gv me a cll.

I gt a txt mssge frm my frnd. Shes hvng a prty on Strdy.

Mobile phone users have developed a group of symbols (符号) to show how they feel. They are called emoticons, and there are some examples below. To read an emoticon, you have to look at it sideways. For example, if you say something in a text message that is a joke, you can follow it with a smiling face.

1.Why are text messages popular?

2.The first paragraph tells us that we can make the text messages shorter in             ways.

3.What does this text message “Do U wnt 2 cm?” mean? It means “                   ?”.

4.Why do people use emoticons?