完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）

My grandmother became a widow in 1970. Shortly after that, we went to the  21  shelter to pick out a dog to keep her  22  . Grandma decided on a little dog with a reddish-brown spot above each eye.  23  these spots, the dog was named Penny.

Grandma and Penny quickly became very  24  to each other, but that attachment grew much stronger about three years later  25  Grandma had a stroke（中风）. Grandma could no longer  26  , so when she came home from the hospital, she and Penny were  27  companions.

After her stroke, it became a real  28  for Grandma to let Penny in and out because  29  was at the bottom of a flight of stairs. So a mechanism（机械装置）using a rope and pulley（滑轮）was   30  from the door to a handle at the top of the stairs. Grandma just had to pull the handle to open and close the door. If the store was   31  Penny’s favorite dog food, Grandma would make one of us  32  Penny browned beef with potatoes in it. I can remember   33  my grandmother by saying that she loved that dog better than she loved her family.

As the years passed, it was not  34  for Grandma and Penny to separate each other. If Grandma went to take her nap（打盹）, Penny stayed by her side until she  35  . As Penny aged, she could no longer jump up on the bed, so she   36  on the rug （垫子）beside the bed. If Grandma went into the   37  , Penny would walk along beside her, wait outside the door and accompany her   38  to the bed or chair. Grandma never went anywhere without her   39  companion by her side.

The time came when both my grandmother’s and Penny’s   40  were failing fast. After fifteen years of loving companionship, Grandma and Penny passed away within a few hours of each other.

A．animal  B．toy  C．fish D．bird

A．business    B．firm C．company  D．friend

A．In spite of B．Because of   C．Instead of   D．In front of

A．linked  B．fastened C．attached D．tied

A．before  B．while    C．until    D．when

A．think   B．speak    C．work D．study

A．contrary    B．content  C．confident    D．constant

A．problem B．question C．practice D．rule

A．the door    B．Grandma  C．the window   D．Penny

A．repaired    B．fixed    C．bought   D．loaded

A．    out of  B．ahead of C．away from    D．apart from

A．show    B．hand C．borrow   D．cook

A．drawing attention to    B．making use of   

    C．breaking away from   D．making fun of

A．necessary   B．possible C．important    D．convenient

A．recovered   B．awoke    C．slept    D．screamed

A．rolled  B．stood    C．waited   D．lay

A．reading room    B．bedroom  C．shop D．bathroom

A．back    B．up   C．off  D．down

A．splendid    B．remote   C．faithful D．legal

A．smell   B．health   C．habit    D．living

Everybody was touched ____words after they heard her moving story.

A. beyond                   B. without          C. of                           D. in

It was a beautiful day at the beach—blue sky, gentle wind, calm sea．I knew these things because a man sitting five feet from me was shouting them into his mobile phone, like a play-by-play announcer （实况解说员）.

“IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY,” he shouted．“THE SKY IS BLUE, AND THERE’S A GENTLE WIND, AND THE WATER IS CALM, AND…”

Behind me, a woman, her mobile phone pressed to her ear was walking back and forth.

“She DIDN’T,” she was saying．“No．She DIDN’T．She DID? Really? Are you SERIOUS? She did NOT．She DID? No she…”

And so on．This woman had two children, who were playing in the sea．I found myself watching them, because the woman surely was not．A huge squid could have caught and snatched the children, and this woman would not have noticed．Or, if she had noticed, she’d have said, “Listen．I have to go, because a huge squid just……No! She didn’t ! She DID? No! She……”

And next to me, the play-by-play man would have said: “…AND A HUGE SQUID JUST ATE TWO CHILDREN, AND I’M GETTING A LITTLE SUNBURNED, AND …”

It used to be that the major trouble at the beach was the fellow who brought a boom box （便携式录音机） and turned it up so loud that the bass notes caused seagulls to explode．But at least you knew where these fellows were; you never know which beachgoers have mobile phones．You’ll settle next to what appears to be a sleeping sunbather, or even （you hope） a corpse , and you’ll lie happily on your towel, and you’ll get all the way to the second sentence of your 467-page book before you fall asleep to the hypnotic surge of the surf （催人入梦的潮声）, and …

BREEP! BREEP! The corpse sits up, feels urgently for its mobile phone, and shouts “Hello! I’m at the beach! Yes! It’s nice! Very peaceful! What? She did? No, she didn’t! She DID? No, she…”

Loud mobile-phoners never seem to get urgent calls．Just once, I’d like to hear one of them say, “Hello? Yes, this is Dr．Johnson．Oh, Dr．Smith．You’ve opened the abdominal cavity （腹腔）? Good! Now the appendix should be right under the … What? No, that’s the liver．Don’t take THAT out, ha ha! Oh, you did? My God! OK, now listen carefully…”

From the passage we can know that the writer of the passage _____.

       A．had a wonderful holiday at the beach

       B．must have suffered a lot because of the terrible weather

       C．is only interested in talks by doctors about operation

       D．experienced an unhappy holiday at the beach

According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

       A．The writer often spends his holidays at the beach.

       B．A huge squid ate two children while their mother was not watching.

       C．Some people used to play boom box while spending their holidays at the beach.

       D．Some people often make loud mobile phone calls without caring for others.

The underlined word“ corpse”in this passage has the closest meaning to________.

       A．a dead body           B．a loud mobile phone        

       C．a sound sleeper        D．a sleep lover

In the past the fellow who brought a boom box_________.

       A．turned it up to make the seagulls happy

       B．turned it up to cause the seagulls to explode

       C．might cause less trouble than the beachgoers with mobile phones

       D．might cause more trouble than the beachgoers with mobile phones

We can infer from the passage that _______.

     A．the writer is interested in mobile phone.

     B．the writer hates people using mobile phone

     C．the writer hates to be disturbed while enjoying holidays on the beach.

     D．the writer seldom finishes reading a book before going to sleep.

Once upon a time, there was an island inhabited by: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all the rest of it, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love.

    Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment.

When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.

    Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, "Richness, can you take me with you?"

    Richness answered, "No, I can't. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you."

    Love decided to ask Vanity(虚荣) who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. "Vanity, please help me!"

    "I can't help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat," Vanity answered.

    Sadness was close by so Love asked, "Sadness, let me go with you."

    "Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!"

    Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.

    Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come, Love, I will take you." It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went her own way.

What idea did the writer intend to tell us in this passage?

     A. Love takes a long period.                   B. Love gets along without richness.    

C.  Love goes on against Vanity.             D. Love is different from happiness.

Why did all except the elder refuse to take Love with them?

       A. Because they have enough Love already.     

B. Because they don’t need Love.

  C. Because they look down upon Love.

   D. Because in the writer’s opinion, Love has nothing to do with them.

It can be inferred from the passage that the elder probably refers to ________.

A. Cleverness       B. Time       C. Knowledge     D. Beauty

A serious problem for today’s society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives.It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society.I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.

First,employers should take the responsibility to the individual.This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement.This does not seem very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years.This means the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly.This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions.Furthermore,some institutions should be created for senior citizens,which can help provide a comfortable life for them.Unfortunately,as the president situation in our country shows,this is nota truly viable answer.The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly,particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.

One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some working places especially for the elderly where they are independent.

To sum up, all these options have advantages and disadvantages.Therefore,it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.

What is the passage mainly talk about?

A.The problems faced by the old in society.

B.Why we should take reponsibility for the old.

C.How we can improve the lives of the old.

D.Where the old can go to get their pensins.

According to the passage,how can the government help to improve the lives of retired people?

A.Set aside some profits to help people with problems after they retire.

B.Increase savings levels of people during their working years.

C.Increase the discounts for food and transport for the old.

D.Make available pensions for those who have retired.

The underlined word “viable” most probably means____.

A.impossible      B.practical     C.useful      D.successful

What can be concluded from the passage?

A.Taking care of the old is mainly an issue of money.

B.Empoyers should allow their workers to retire at a later age.

C.Becoming independent should be the goal of most old people.

D.There is no single solution to the problems of the old.