III. 完形填空（Cloze）(共15小题，计15分)
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从方框内选择适当的单词或短语填空。方框内有多余的词或短语，每个词或短语限用一次。（答案写在答题纸上）

Many tourists nowadays walk around carrying plastic bottles of water, even in cities. The bottles seem to have become an (71)________ fashion accessory（配件）, and not only for tourists. (72)________, nowadays everyone seems to carry a bottle of water with them (73)________ they go. This fashion for being seen with bottled water, (74)________ called “designer water”, has (75)________ a massive（大量的） increase in sales over the past few years. There are now so many (76)________ brand names available in the shops that it is hard to choose.

Most of the 20th century has been a development on the Industrial Revolution taken to an extreme: people now own more products than ever before; there are enough unclear weapons to destroy the earth several times over; there is hardly any forest left and pollution has got to the point where we buy water. Within a few years I predict you will be able to buy air. (There once was a time when you didn’t need to buy food or shelter either.)
Important developments in the last century are the breading down of the class structures left over from the Industrial Revolution stage, bringing with it the empowerment of the “common man ”: the working day is set by law to only 8 hours a day, everyone has the vote, the media has less obvious government control, people have landed on the moon, sent spacecrafts to Mars and so on. Families have also shrunk drastically（强烈地）; the nuclear family came about, and especially in the last half of the 20th century, one-parent families are becoming more common. This shrinking in the size of the family shows the increased independence of people—once upon a time people had to live in large groups to survive.
As humans have “become the gods”, they have realized their individuality and independence and taken their control of the world to an extreme. In many countries the land is almost completely used in the land is almost completely used in the production of food and as living space and they live in small cities which are entirely human constructed, made from materials which are also entirely human constructed(concrete, bricks) with hardly any remains of nature. Weeds are poisoned because they are messy; even parks have trees grown in tidy lines; grass is mowed to keep it short and so on. I think the massive drug “problem” troubling people is a result of too much of this influence, humans needing to escape the stark world they have created by entering fantasy worlds.
Over the last 100 years, the 20th century consciousness has spread throughout the world; most of Asia has been thoroughly “Westernized”, and most of the Third World is being overrun by western ways of doing things and living.
【小题1】What’s the author most concerned about?

FRANCE has destroyed the hopes of those who had planned to take refuge（避难）in one of the few places on Earth which some believe will be spared when the world ends on December 21 ．Local officials banned access to the Pic de Bugarach，a mountain in the southwest where rumor has it that the hilltop will open on the last day and aliens will appear with spaceships to save nearby humans.
Eric Freysselinard，the state’s top representative in the area，said he was blocking access to the mountain for public safety reasons to avoid a rush of New Age fanatics(盲信者），sight-seers and media crews. Believers say the world will end on December 21，2012，the end date of the ancient Mayan calendar，and they see Bugarach as one of a few sacred mountains sheltered from the cataclysm(大灾难）．
Mr Freysselinard said the 100 police and firefighters will also control approaches to the tiny village of the same name at the foot of the mountain，and if too many people turn up，they will block access there too.“We are expecting a few people who believe in this end of the world，but in extremely limited numbers，” he said in the. nearby city of Carcassonne.“We are expecting greater numbers of people who are just curious，but in numbers we cannot determine. Above all，we are expecting lots of journalists，”he said.
Films，documentaries and websites have promoted the idea that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts that doomsday is on December 21．The culture ministry in Guatemala-where half the population are of Mayan descent-is hosting a massive event in the capital just in case the world actually does end，while tour groups are promoting doomsday-themed getaways.
【小题1】Many people plan to go to Pic de Bugarach mainly because      ．

On Saturday, millions of people around the world will celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, which honors Patron Saint (or main religious figure) of Ireland. Communities across the United States will host parades, parties, and other festivities to mark the occasion.

This year, cities like Boston, New York, and Chicago have organized massive events celebrating Saint Patrick's Day. In New York City, hundreds of thousands of people will gather to watch the Saint Patrick’s Day parade—the nation’s largest. It is one of the most watched parades in the world. Last year, almost 2 million spectators and more than 150,000 participants filled the streets. The parade, first held in 1776, is also one of the oldest.

Chicago also throws a big celebration. Every year, the Chicago River, which crosses the city, glows green as event organizers dump about 40 pounds of fluorescence, a powerful dye, into the water.

Boston keeps its parade rolling for three hours or more. It is the nation’s second-largest parade. The city will also salute one of its most famous former residents, President John F. Kennedy, by opening the exhibit "A Journey Home: John F. Kennedy and Ireland," at his official library.

Patron Saint lived in Britain in the early fifth century, when it was still part of the Roman Empire. He was captured and sold into slavery in Ireland when he was only 16．He eventually escaped slavery and turned to a life of religious devotion. He trained to become a minister and set out to spread Christianity throughout Ireland. After 30 years as a religious leader, Patrick died on March 17, 1461．Saint Patrick’s Day is always celebrated on March 17．In Ireland, it is an official holiday.

What’s the best title of the passage?

        A．History of Saint Patrick’s Day   B．An Official Holiday in US

        C．The Largest Parade in the World  D．Celebrations across the Country

What do you think is the official color of St. Patrick’s Day?

        A．Green.      B．Red.   C．Black.        D．Yellow.

The last paragraph is mainly about _____.

        A．the cruel slave trade.      B．Saint Patrick’s contribution.

        C．activities during Saint Patrick’s Day  D．Ireland’s Patron Saint

College was the best of times and the worst of times for me. I met the best friends of my life, had    21   experiences, but I also folded under more   22   than I ever had to deal with before.     23   bad grades, I ended up being asked to take a semester off at the end of the first semester of my senior year.
So I went back home to   24  with my father and stepmother. To their credit, they understood me and were very cool about my coming back. I felt their    25   from the moment I walked in the door. They   26   to let me feel like a failure.
One morning not long after I had come home, my father woke me up saying that my stepmother   27  on the kitchen floor. I went downstairs trying to perform CPR on her   28   it was too late. She was already dead of a massive heart attack.
I’ll never   29  the look on my father’s face when he was given the official news of her passing. I knew at that moment that I had to be   30  because he needed someone to lean on. It was as if our roles had    31  and I was being the protective parent while he took the time to   32   .
I guess the lesson I took from it is that even in our   33   moments we can still be of help to someone who is   34   something much harder. It’s so easy to close ourselves off to the things going on around us, and   35  feel that we are the only ones   36  . Helping someone else could actually help us   37  ourselves.
Needlessly to say I went back to college the next semester, and I studied harder and got my    38    . My father and I developed a bond that was    39   closer than it already was, and I have a much better ability to keep   40  times in perspective.（适当地）