Susannah was a shy but clever girl. She had worn     1   for as long as she could remember. And again, for as long as she could remember, some of her classmates had always made fun of her. The worst thing was that Lewis    2   her “Four Eyes”. She acted like she didn’t     3    but in fact Susannah couldn’t stand it.
One day, the class went on a school outing to visit some famous     4   . The children were walking towards the caves when Lewis   5    . While falling, he got   6    of Susannah, who walked next to him, and both     7    down the hole.
They landed in a dark cave. Susannah and Lewis shouted for   8   , but no one came. The next morning they still hadn’t been found and Lewis continued shouting for help, but no       9        and he started feeling     10 .
It must have been noontime, because Susannah    11   that the ray of light just landed on the floor in front of her.   12   , she took a piece of wood that had fallen into the cave, and, using her glasses as a magnifying glass, she focused the ray of light onto the    13    . Now they had a torch. Lewis watched with surprise and    14    and off they went to explore the cave.
It took them some time, and they had to burn quite a few torches, but finally they found a way out. On top of hugs and cries of    15  , Lewis gave Susannah his heartfelt thanks.

News that Microsoft was making a $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo was greeted with heated discussion by many Internet users on Friday. Here are some responses:
Mark Galeassi of Kansas City, Missouri
This is the best move for both parties. Yahoo has the ideas and Microsoft has the money to finally market these ideas correctly. Microsoft and Yahoo are a perfect fit and the deal will be good for consumers.
Scott G of New Jersey
I was a Yahoo user for years along with Hotmail from Microsoft. Then Google came along: Google Earth, Google Toolbar and Gmail. Google is so innovative (创新的) with everything they do. Yahoo and Microsoft... same old story... I don’t think the merger (合并) will do anything for either company except improve the Yahoo shareholders’ bank accounts.
Michael Glosser of Estero, Florida
Right now, Yahoo offers a lot of features and tools at no cost for all different levels of Internet users. Microsoft seeks nothing but profit. Undoubtedly, they’ll do nothing other than find ways to start removing Yahoo’s formerly non-priced features. Microsoft’s greed will ruin the great thing that Yahoo currently is.
Toni Suarez of Hacienda Heights, California
Perhaps it would bring better high technology innovations to e-mail and help in researching and developing a better Internet!
Antonio Simmons of Parkville, Maryland
Microsoft purchasing Yahoo would be nothing more than an attempt from Microsoft to further impose upon the users their poor-quality software and obtain more wealth for the company. In my opinion, they will never be able to compete with Google because Yahoo and Microsoft’s current search engines are too inferior (差的) to compete. Even if combined, they still lack.
【小题1】Who is in favor of the merger of Microsoft and Yahoo?

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，选出最佳选项。
A recent study shows that gossip（流言蜚语）is more powerful than truth．It suggests people believe what they hear through the grapevine(小道消息)__36__they have evidence to the contrary．
Researchers, __37__students using a computer game, also found gossip played an important role when people __38__ decisions．"We show that gossip has a strong __39__, even when people have __40__ to the original information as well as gossip about the same information．Thus, it is __41__ that gossip has a strong controlling potential," said Ralf Sommerfeld, who led the study．
In the study, the researchers __42__ the students money and allowed them to give it to others in a series of rounds．The students also wrote __43__ about how others played the game that everyone could review．Students tended to give __44__ money to people described as “scrooges (吝啬鬼)” and more to those described as “__45__ players”．“People only believed the gossip, not the past decisions," Sommerfeld said in a telephone interview．
The researchers then took the game a step_46_and showed the students the actual decisions people had made．But they also supplied false gossip that contradicted that __47_．In these cases, the students_48_ their decisions to award money on the gossip, __49__ the hard evidence．
“If you know what the people did, you should care, but they still __50__ what others said,” Sommerfeld said．Researchers have __51__ used similar games to study how people cooperate and the __52__ of gossip in groups．Scientists define gossip __53__ social information spread about a person who is not __54__．In evolutionary terms, gossip can be an important tool for people to __55__ information about others' reputations or find the way through social networks at work and in their everyday lives．
36．A．in case     B．for fear that     C．as if  D．even if    
37．A．testing     B．checking C．examining       D．experimenting
38．A．draw       B．make       C．reach       D．conclude
39．A．impression      B．difference       C．influence D．function
40．A．access      B．entrance   C．charge     D．communication
41．A．curious    B．serious     C．obvious    D．worth
42．A．impressed      B．asked       C．showed    D．gave
43．A．articles    B．notes       C．dairies     D．letters
44．A．less B．more       C．fewer       D．much
45．A．general    B．mean       C．generous D．outgoing
46．A．away       B．forward   C．ahead       D．further
47．A．existence B．evidence C．confidence      D．dependence
48．A．based       B．put   C．focused    D．passed
49．A．more than       B．less than   C．rather than      D．other than
50．A．referred to      B．listened to       C．turned to D．stuck to
51．A．soon        B．presently C．far    D．long
52．A．strength   B．energy     C．effect     D．force
53．A．as     B．for   C．to     D．by
54．A．absent      B．present     C．gone  D．missing
55．A．achieve    B．earn C．acquire    D．win

Students who say they never or hardly ever used dictionaries often speak English well but usually write poorly, because they make many mistakes.
The students who use dictionaries most do not learn especially well either. The ones who look up every new word do not read fast. Therefore they do not have time to read much. Those who use small two-language dictionaries have the worst problems. Their dictionaries often give only one or two words as translations of English. But one English word often has many translations in a foreign language and one foreign word has many translations in English.
The most successful students are those who use large college edition dictionaries with about 100,000 words but do not use them too often. When they are reading, these students first try to get the general idea and understand new words from the context. Then they reread and use the dictionary to look up only key words that they still do not understand. They use dictionaries more for writing. If they are not sure how to spell a word, or divide it into syllables, they always use a dictionary. Also, if they think a noun might have an unusual plural form, they check these in a dictionary.
【小题1】The writer thinks that        .

It was very cold ____ they still went swimming.

A. although  B.but  C. however   D. though