完形填空 （共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（ABCD）中，选出可以填入空白的最佳答案，并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。

Preparing for tomorrow

    Sixth-grade schoolteacher Ms．Shelton believed in readiness．Students remembered how she walked in on the first day of class and began writing words of eighth-grade on the    36  ．They quickly protested that the words were not on their   37    and they couldn’t learn them．

    Their teacher insisted that the students could and would learn these   38   ．She said that she would teach them something that should be given．Ms．Shelton   39     by saying that one of the students in the classroom could go on to   40   , maybe even be president someday, and she wanted to prepare them for that day．

    Ms．Shelton spoke those words many years ago．  41    did she know that someday one of her students—Jesse Jackson—would take them   42   ．She believed that if they were well prepared, they could   43   high goals．

    Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “People only see what they are   44    to see．” If that’s true, then it is also    45    that they only become what they are prepared to become．And many things in life are just about getting ready．

    “I want to be doing something more    46    with my life than what I am doing now,” a young man once said to me．He    47    what he was doing was just not that important．Other people have said things to me such as, “I only    48    I had a meaningful relationship．” And, “I’d really like to get a better job, but I just don’t see    49    ．”

    You fill in the blanks．What is it you would like to    50    that isn’t happening? Perhaps the answer is that you are not yet   51   ．Maybe you need more time to prepare before you are truly ready for that which you   52   ．

    Think of today as another chance to   53   yourself for the exciting future you are looking for．Today is not wasted．If you desire more from   54   , then you can use today as training．For you will experience only what you are prepared to    55   ．Something wonderful can happen．And you can use today to get ready for tomorrow．

A．desk    B．wall C．chalkboard   D．door

A．duty    B．desk C．mind D．level

A．words   B．grammars C．pronunciations   D．sentences

A．started B．ended    C．warned   D．reminded

A．greatness   B．wealth   C．honor    D．failure

A．Seldom B．Little   C．Hardly   D．Totally

A．nervously   B．eagerly  C．seriously    D．simply

A．keep    B．have C．set  D．achieve

A．prepared    B．forced   C．attracted    D．tempted

A．proper  B．exact    C．legal    D．true

A．difficult   B．significant  C．pleasant D．interesting

A．boasted B．behaved  C．felt D.  looked

A．wish    B．expect   C．hope D．imagine

A．what    B．when C．why  D．how

A．survive B．happen   C．gain D．win

A．adventurous B．active   C．ready    D．intelligent

A．concern B．arrange  C．adore    D．desire

A．prepare B．enjoy    C．imagine  D．conduct

A．history B．nature   C．life D．marriage

A．suffer        B．experience     C．struggle       D．work

Where is that noise coming from? Not sure? Try living with your eyes closed for a few years.

Blind people are better at locating sounds than people who can see, a new study says, without the benefits of vision the ears seem to work much better.

Previous studies have shown that blind people are better than others at reaching out and touching the sources of sounds that are close by. Researchers from the University of Montreal wanted to see if blind people were also better at locating sounds that are far away.

Twenty-three blind people participated in the study. All had been sightless for at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had lost their vision before age 11. the rest went blind after age 16. The experiment also included 10 people who could see but were wearing blind-folds.

In one task, volunteers had to pick the direction of a sound coming from about 3 meters away. When the sound was in front of them or slightly off center in front, both groups performed equally well.

When sounds came from the side or the back, however, the blind group performed much better than the blindfolded group. The participants who had been blind since childhood did slightly better than those who lost their sight later.

Recognizing the locations of distant sounds can be a matter of life-or-death for blind people, say the researchers. Crossing the street, for instance, is much harder when you can’t see the cars coming.

Still, the researchers were surprised by how well the blind participants did, especially those who went blind after age 16. In another experiment, the scientists also found that parts of the brain that normally deal with visual information became active in locating sound in the people who were blind by age 11. These brain parts didn’t show sound-location activity in the other group of blind people or in the sighted people. The scientists now want to learn more about the working of brains of “late-onset” blind people.

The recent study shows blind people are better at telling __________.

A. The sources of loud sounds.     B. the locations of distant sounds

C. the direction of sharp sounds    D. the distance of a sound in front of them

Which would be a proper title for the passage?

A. A Research on Blind People     B. Where is That Noise Coming from?

C. Hearing Better in the Dark      D. What If Living Without Your Eyes?

If people were asked to tell the direction of a sound from the side, who would perform best?

A. Those who are blind.              B. Those who have gone blind since children.

C. Those who went blind at age 16.     D. Those who are blindfolded.

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Whether to be able to locate the sounds can be of vital importance for the blind.

B. All the volunteers in the experiment are sightless.

C. All the participants did equally well when picking sounds from whatever direction.

D. The later people become blind, the better they can perform in telling the direction of sounds.

What do we know about that parts of brain dealing with visual information are active in locating sounds?

A. This happens in almost all the testers.

B. This only occurs in the people who were blind after age 16.

C. It remains nothing new to the scientists any more.

D. It remains a mystery why it is so.

No one is glad to hear that his body has to be cut open by a surgeon（外科医生） and part of it taken out． Today， however， we needn't worry about feeling pain during the operation． The sick person falls into a kind of sleep，and when he awakes，the operation is finished. But these happy conditions are fairly new．It is not many years since a man who had to have operation felt all its pain．

   Long ago， operation had usually to be done while the sick man could feel everything． The sick man had to be held down(压制，控制) on a table by force while the doctors did their best for him． He could feel all the pain if his leg or arm was being cut off， and his fearful cries filled the room and the hearts of those who watched．

   Soon after 1770, Josept Priestley discovered a gas which is now called “laughing gas”．Laughing gas became known in America．Young men and women went to parties to try it．Most of them spent their time laughing，but one man at a party，Horace Wells，noticed that people didn't seem to feel pain when they were using this gas．He decided to make an experiment on himself．He asked a friend to help him．

   Wells took some of the gas，and his friend pulled out one of Well’s teeth．Wells felt no pain at all．

   As he didn't know enough about laughing gas，he gave a man less gas than he should have. The man cried out with pain when his tooth was being pulled out．

   Wells tried again，but this time he gave too much of the gas，and the man died．Wells never forgot this terrible event．

It is ＿＿＿＿ since a man being operated felt all the pain．

   A. a few more years   B. not long    C. few years     D. two thousand years

Long ago，when the sick man was operated on, he ＿＿＿＿．

   A. could feel nothing           B. could not want anything

   C. could feel all the pain        D. could do anything

Using the laughing gas，the people did not seem to ＿＿＿＿．

   A. be afraid of anything    B. feel pain   C. want to go to the parties    D. be ill

If a man took less laughing gas than he should have when an operation went on，he ＿．

   A．felt nothing  B. felt very comfortable  C．still felt pain      D．would die

One who took too much of the laughing gas ＿＿＿．

   A.would laugh all the time       B.would die 

C.would never feel pain         D.would be very calm

My parents kept their _____and took me to Shanghai, where we had ____.

   A.word, funs    B.words, fun    C.word, fun   D.words, funs

Was it in the village _______we used to live in _________the accident happened?

    A. where; that      B. which; that       C. that; where       D. where; which

________, I think, and the problem could be settled.

A. So long as you keep up your spirits          B. A bit more effort

C. If you doubt your efforts                    D. Making great efforts

___________, education is about learning and the more you learn, the more equipped for life you are.

A. As far as I concerned           B. As far as I am concerned

C. As far as I am concerning         D. As far as I was concerned

After a thorough search, the rescue team finally brought the mountain climber back, _______. 

   A. safe and sound      B. safely and sound       C. safe and soundly     D. safely and soundly

A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at two forty-six p.m. local time on March eleventh.2011. Japan's Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami（海啸） warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

There are more than four thousand Seismic Intensity Meters in place throughout Japan to measure earthquake activity. These meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening. Information about the strength and the center of the earthquake can be learned within three minutes.

There are also concrete(混凝土) sea walls around much of the Japanese coastline. But these measures proved no match for the powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Costas Synolakis ，a tsunami expert at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles said，"Japan is one of those most well-prepared countries on earth in terms of tsunami warning. They had a warning. I think what went wrong is that they had not expected the size of this event."

He says there are two reasons for this. Japan has not had any event anywhere near as big as this one in the last one hundred fifty years. And scientists had not expected such a large earthquake happening off the coast of Japan.

The nine point zero magnitude earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst earthquake ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves that followed were reported to have reached as high as thirteen meters in some areas.

Costas Synolakis says Japan's concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves.

Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted

Where can this passage probably be adapted from?

    A．A magazine on science       B．A fairy Tale 

C．A scientific fantasy book     D．A newspaper  

Which of the following statements NOT true ?

    A. A terrible earthquake hit the northeastern coast of Japan

    B. It was also the worst earthquake in Japan

C. The 9.0 earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan

D. Japan's concrete sea walls was unable to handle such high waves.

According to Costas Synolakis, why did Japan suffer such a loss?

  A. The country has never experienced any event as big as this one over the past 150 years

B. Japan has the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

C. There are not concrete sea walls around all of the Japanese coastline

D. The government didn’t announce its first tsunami warnings three minutes earlier.

Satellites are an important part of our ordinary lives．For example, the information for weather forecasts is sent by satellite．Some satellites have cameras which take photographs of the Earth to show how clouds are moving．Satellites are also used to connect our international phone calls．

Computer connections of the World Wide Web and Internet also use satellites. Many of our TV programs come to US through satellites．Airplane pilots also sometimes use a satellite to help them find their exact location．

We use satellites to send television pictures from one part of the world to another．They are usually 35，880 kilometers above the equator．Sometimes we can see a satellite in the sky and it seems to stay in the same place．This is because it is moving around the world at 11，000 kilometers an hour—exactly the same speed that the earth rotates．A satellite must orbit the Earth with its antennae(天线)facing the earth．Sometimes, it moves away from its orbit，So there are little rockets on it which are used to put the satellite back in the right position．This usually happens about every five or six days．

Space is not empty! Every week, more and more satellites are sent into space to orbit the Earth．A satellite usually works for about 10-12 years．Satellites which are broken are sometimes repaired by astronauts or sometimes brought back to Earth to be repaired．Often，very old or broken satellites are left in space to orbit the Earth for a very long time．This is very serious because some satellites use nuclear power and they can crash into each other．

Which of the following is NOT done by satellites according to the passage?

A．Sending information for weather forecast．

B．Taking photographs of the Earth．

C．Sending TV pictures．

D．Providing food for airplane pilots．

What’s the speed the earth rotates at?

A．35,880 kilometers per hour．     B．335,880 kilometers per hour．

C．11,000 kilometers per hour．     D．110,000 kilometers per hour

Why does the satellite move around the world at the same speed as the Earth rotates?

A．In order to take photographs．

B．In order to stay in a certain position in the orbit．

C．In order to move away from its orbit．

D．In order to send television pictures．

What does the underlined word “This” in the 3^rd paragraph refer to?

A．A satellite．   B．A little rocket．

C．A satellite seems to stay in the same place in the sky．

D．The satellite puts the rockets in the right position．

Which is true of satellites?

A．A satellite usually works for about 10-12 years．

B．Every time a satellite gets broken，it is brought back to the Earth to be repaired．

C. A broken satellite is never left in space.

D. They often crash into each other.