We may look at the world around us, but somehow we manage not to see it until whatever we've become used to suddenly disappears.  36 , for example, the neatly-dressed woman I 37  to see -- or look at -- on my way to work each morning.

     For three years, no matter  38 the weather was like, she was always waiting at the bus stop around 8:00 am. On   39   days, she wore heavy clothes and a pair of woolen gloves. Summertime  40   out neat, belted cotton dresses and a hat pulled low over her sunglasses.  41   , she was an ordinary working woman. Of course, I  42   all this only after she was seen no more. It was then that I realized how  43  I expected to see her each morning. You might say I   44   her.

“Did she have an accident? Something  45 ?” I thought to myself about her  46  .  Now that she was gone, I felt I had  47  her. I began to realize that part of our  48   life probably includes such chance meetings with familiar 49 : the milkman you see at dawn, the woman who  50   walks her dog along the street every morning, the twin brothers you see at the library. Such people are   51   markers in our lives. They add weight to our  52   of place and belonging.

Think about it.   53   , while walking to work, we mark where we are by  54  a certain building, why should we not mark where we are when we pass a familiar, though  55  , person

Crossing Texas and Mexico, the Big Bend region is high in biodiversity(生物的多样性). It’s a place so untamed that if something doesn’t bite, stick, or sting, it’s probably a rock.

You know you have arrived in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert when it feels as if you have fallen off the edge of the earth and into the rabbit hole. Nothing is as it appears. Moths (蛀虫) are the size of birds. Are those twin pillars (柱) of black rock (a landmark known as Mule Ear Peaks) ten miles (16 kilometers) away or fifty (80 kilometers)? Visibility (能见度) reaches more than a hundred miles on a clear day, and since there are few roads or buildings to use as milestones, distance is difficult to judge.

This is a place where water runs uphill, where rainbows have to wait for rain. The line between myth (虚构的故事) and reality is unclear. Stare long enough at the Chisos Mountains or the Sierra del Carmen, the two mountain ranges, known as sky islands, which lie on the land, and they rise and float above the plain.

The vast Chihuahuan Desert is a land of no people. There is always the chance you’ll die of thirst. The “You Can Die”possibilities are endless, and keep some visitors — 350,000 a year to Big Bend National Park, built in 1944 — from coming back. Those who do return are left to think of the remarkable courage of the brave few who have managed to survive in this terrible environment.

1.The underlined word“untamed”in Paragraph 1 means“________”.

2.Why do the twin pillars of black rock seem ten or fifty miles away?

3.How many years are there since the Big Bend National Park was built?

4.What is the passage mainly about?

5.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

The tea gardens in Sri Lanka are actually large estates(种植园). The best tea usually comes from plants grown on high grounds, the cool hilltops with rows and rows of tea plants. The plants are about one metre apart. The plant is often pruned so that it remains only 60 to 90 centimetres high. Pruning is important because it encourages the growth of tender shoots, or young leaves. It is from these shoots that the best tea is got.

Practically all the tea pickers are women. The estates prefer to employ women pickers because they are more careful. Their thin fingers can easily remove the twin leaves and new shoots from the plant, which are the parts used for processing(加工) tea. The pickers carry large baskets into which they throw their pickings. A skilled worker can harvest between 9 to 14 kilogrammes of tea leaves a day. Usually new shoots can be picked from the plants about every ten or fifteen days.

       Processing tea shoots into the familiar dry tea leaves requires great care and skill .There are various methods of processing depending on the type of tea required .For black tea ,the young green leaves are first spread out o shelves to dry. This process removes much of its water and the leaves become soft. After this ,the leaves are passed through heavy rollers .This operation will press the leaves for juices which give the tea both its colour and taste .Then the leaves are spread out on floors and left to ferment （发酵）under wet conditions. Fermentation develops the rich taste of black tea .The fermented leaves are then dried with a hot-air blower until they become rolled-up black leaves .The final step is to sort and grade them before the black tea is ready for sale to countries all over the world.

68．In the first paragraph ,the word “pruning” means       .

       A．regular cutting of the plants

       B．frequent watering

       C．regular use of chemicals

       D．growing the plants high in the mountain

69．One of the reasons why women are employed to do the picking is that        .

       A．they work harder than men do in the picking

       B．they can throw their pickings more easily into the baskets

       C．their fingers fit them better for the job.

       D．they can more easily find the twin leaves.

70．How many processing steps are mentioned in the last paragraph?

       A．Three.                 B．Four.                   C．Five.                   D．Six.

71．What is the writer’s purpose in writing the passage?

       A．To introduce various methods of tea processing.

       B．To persuade readers to buy tea from Sri Lanka.

       C．To tell a story that had happened in the tea gardens.

       D．To inform readers of tea growing ,picking and processing.

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，从短文后所给各题的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
When my son was 11 years old, he got a small job helping out with a traveling carnival in our town. He didn't come home at lunch time, phoning  36  to tell me he was fine and had found a few days' work  37  out at an exhibit. However, after he finished work he  38  for supper as usual.
I asked him how he had  39  at lunch and he told me he had made some new  40  at the carnival, some young men who were twin brothers, and their mom and dad. They had  41  him a few dollars and invited him for lunch  42  for helping them set up their exhibit and wanted him to  43   the next day to help with other chores (杂务).
I was glad he had found new friends but a little  44  about the type of people who might be traveling in a carnival. "Oh, Mum, these are just  45  everyday people like anyone else. They  46   work at a carnival instead of in a store or something". "Come down tomorrow and  47  them yourself," he said.
So the next day I went to the carnival and to the exhibit he had  48  me to. The twin brothers   _49  out to be Siamese (连体的) twins, joined at the chest. He hadn't thought this  50  was noteworthy enough to mention. When I brought it to him, he said, "yes, I  51  that too. Do you know that their mum has to make all their clothes  52  it's so difficult to find anything to fit them? They're also really good  53  . Today, Joe, one on the fight, made me spaghetti (意大利面条) for lunch. "
What others see first in a person is not what a child considers  54  . Where I saw Siamese twins, he saw people having difficulty buying clothes that fit, and young men who were good cooks. It was a   _55  I have thought about many times over the years.
36. A. instead                B. even              C. also              D. besides
37. A. helping             B. helping                    C. taking             D. showing
38. A. did up                       B. gave up                    C. took up                    D. turned up
39. A. sought                       B. managed                  C. worked                    D. acted
40. A. clothes                       B. friends                            C. choices                     D. differences
41. A. paid                          B. charged                    C. lent                          D. owed
42. A. by chance                  B. in return                   C. by turns                   D. in advance
43. A. return                        B. promise                    C. consider                   D. decide
44. A. excited                      B. regretful                   C. worried                    D. optimistic
45. A. humorous                  B. obvious                    C. particular                 D. normal
46. A. just                           B. never                       C. hardly                      D. always
47. A. teach                         B. meet                        C. affect                       D. join
48. A. ordered                      B. directed                    C. forced                      D. persuaded
49. A. worked                      B. left                          C. came                        D. turned
50. A. expression                  B. change                            C. fact                          D. idea
51. A understood                  B. made                       C. noticed                     D. formed
52. A. before                       B. if                             C. after                        D. because
53. A. cooks                        B. doctors                     C. artists                       D. singers
54. A. necessary                   B. important                 C. impossible                D. unlucky
55. A. lesson                        B. festival                     C. task                         D. match

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，从短文后所给各题的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

When my son was 11 years old, he got a small job helping out with a traveling carnival in our town. He didn't come home at lunch time, phoning  36  to tell me he was fine and had found a few days' work  37  out at an exhibit. However, after he finished work he  38  for supper as usual.

I asked him how he had  39  at lunch and he told me he had made some new  40  at the carnival, some young men who were twin brothers, and their mom and dad. They had  41  him a few dollars and invited him for lunch  42  for helping them set up their exhibit and wanted him to  43   the next day to help with other chores (杂务).

I was glad he had found new friends but a little  44  about the type of people who might be traveling in a carnival. "Oh, Mum, these are just  45  everyday people like anyone else. They  46   work at a carnival instead of in a store or something". "Come down tomorrow and  47  them yourself," he said.

So the next day I went to the carnival and to the exhibit he had  48  me to. The twin brothers   _49  out to be Siamese (连体的) twins, joined at the chest. He hadn't thought this  50  was noteworthy enough to mention. When I brought it to him, he said, "yes, I  51  that too. Do you know that their mum has to make all their clothes  52  it's so difficult to find anything to fit them? They're also really good  53  . Today, Joe, one on the fight, made me spaghetti (意大利面条) for lunch. "

What others see first in a person is not what a child considers  54  . Where I saw Siamese twins, he saw people having difficulty buying clothes that fit, and young men who were good cooks. It was a   _55  I have thought about many times over the years.

36. A. instead                B. even              C. also              D. besides

37. A. helping             B. helping                    C. taking             D. showing

38. A. did up                       B. gave up                    C. took up                    D. turned up

39. A. sought                       B. managed                  C. worked                    D. acted

40. A. clothes                       B. friends                            C. choices                     D. differences

41. A. paid                          B. charged                    C. lent                          D. owed

42. A. by chance                  B. in return                   C. by turns                   D. in advance

43. A. return                        B. promise                    C. consider                   D. decide

44. A. excited                      B. regretful                   C. worried                    D. optimistic

45. A. humorous                  B. obvious                    C. particular                 D. normal

46. A. just                           B. never                       C. hardly                      D. always

47. A. teach                         B. meet                        C. affect                       D. join

48. A. ordered                      B. directed                    C. forced                      D. persuaded

49. A. worked                      B. left                          C. came                        D. turned

50. A. expression                  B. change                            C. fact                          D. idea

51. A understood                  B. made                       C. noticed                     D. formed

52. A. before                       B. if                             C. after                        D. because

53. A. cooks                        B. doctors                     C. artists                       D. singers

54. A. necessary                   B. important                 C. impossible                D. unlucky

55. A. lesson                        B. festival                     C. task                         D. match