完形填空 （共15小题； 每小题2分，满分30分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从 下列各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

An English padre（神父） wanted to become a member of a certain club in Africa. In order to become a member, each person had to   1   at least one lion. The padre had never shot an animal for his life. So, armed with a rifle and led by a young African boy, the padre set out one evening for a pool in the jungle where he was told a lion came each evening to   2   . He waited patiently for a few   3   until shortly before midnight when he heard a rustling(沙沙声) noise. Sure enough a few feet away the head of the lion appeared above a bush that separated the padre and the pool. He aimed and fired. The head of the lion   4   fell behind the bush but a moment later

   5   . So the padre aimed and   6   again. The head of the lion fell behind the bush and once more reappeared. The padre fired again: the same   7   . He remained calm because he   8   he had brought sixteen bullets with him. After his fourth try, his aim seemed to become more and more   9   : in fact, after his  10  

try the African boy had to  11   him: “This is your last chance. If you  12   this time, we are in trouble.” The padre then realized how  13   the situation was, so he took a deep breath, aimed very carefully and fired. They waited for a moment, and then slowly  14   up to twenty: the head of the lion did not reappear. The padre was certain that at last he had shot his lion. They  15   forward together to the spot behind the bush. And what do you think they found? Sixteen lions!

1. A. shoot         B. kill         C. catch            D. hurt

2. A. eat           B. walk         C. drink            D. hunt

3. A. minutes       B. seconds      C. days         D. hours

4. A. fast          B. immediately  C. once         D. directly

5. A. turned        B. reappeared   C. returned         D. moved

6. A. killed            B. jumped       C. fired            D. tied

7. A. result            B. situation        C. answer       D. problem

8. A. acknowledged  B. understood   C. believed     D. knew

9. A. inaccurate   B. unnecessary  C. impossible   D. indirect

10 A. last          B. fifteenth        C. sixteenth        D. many

11. A. tell             B. frighten     C. warn         D. remain

12. A. fell         B. shot         C. fired            D. missed

13. A. difficult        B. serious      C. exciting     D. mad

14. A. counted      B. waited       C. added        D. named

15. A. drove         B. rushed       C. wandered     D. climbed

 

Most American students go to traditional public schools. There are about 88,000 public schools all over the US. Some students attend about 3000 independent public schools called charter schools.
Charter schools are self-governing. Private companies operate some charter schools. They are similar in some ways to traditional public schools. They receive tax money just as other public schools do. Charter schools must prove to local or state governments that their students are learning. These governments provide the schools with the agreement called a charter that permits them to operate.
Charter schools are different because they do not have to obey most laws governing traditional public schools. Local, state or federal governments cannot tell them what to teach. Each school can choose its own goals and decide the ways it wants to reach them. Class size is usually smaller than in traditional public schools.
The Bush Administration strongly supports charter schools as a way to re-organize public schools that are failing to educate students. But some education agencies and unions oppose charter schools. One teachers’ union has just made public the results of the first national study comparing the progress of students in traditional schools and charter schools.
The American Federation of Teachers criticized the government’s delay in releasing the results of the study, which is called the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Union education experts say the study shows that charter school students performed worse on math and reading tests than students in regular public schools.
Some experts say the study is not a fair look at charter schools because students in those schools have more problems than students in traditional schools. Other education experts say the study results should make charter school officials demand improved student progress.
【小题1】If a private company wants to operate a charter school, it must                    .

A．try new methods of teaching	B．prove its management ability
C．obey the local and state laws	D．get the government’s permission

【小题2】Charter schools are independent because                       .

A．they make greater progress	B．their class size is smaller
C．they enjoy more freedom	D．they oppose traditional ways

【小题3】What’s the government’s attitude toward charter schools?

A．Doubtful.

B．Supportive.

C．Subjective.

D．Optimistic.

【小题4】What can we learn from the text?

A．More students choose to attend charter schools.

B．Charter schools are better than traditional schools.

C．Students in charter schools are well educated.

D．People have different opinions about charter schools.

【小题5】It can be inferred from the text that                       .

A．charter schools are part of the education system

B．one-on-one attention should be paid to students

C．the number of charter schools will be limited

D．charter schools are all privately financed

The German shepherd runs off and noses around in the grass of Kenya’s Laikipia Plateau. “OK, Oakley,” the dog’s handler orders, “Find it!”

Oakley sniffs (嗅) until he comes to a bush, then stops, sits, and looks up at his handler. She bends to see what he has found: the waste of an endangered African wild dog. “Good dog!” she praises. The handler pulls a tennis ball from her pocket. Oakley jumps for his reward.

“He doesn’t actually want the waste,” says Aimee Hurt, a founding member of the U.S.-based group Working Dogs for Conservation. Hurt is in Kenya to train both Oakley and his handler. “He finds it so he can play with his ball. We’re the ones who want the waste.”

Detection dogs are sometimes taught to locate actual animals. Black-footed ferrets (雪貂) have been studied with their help. But more often the dogs learn to locate the waste of creatures such as bears, wolves and mountain lions.

What the dogs find provides scientists with data about a species. Scientists can use the DNA collected from animal waste to identify individuals, sex, and population sizes — all without ever seeing the animal itself. “It can take years to gather this kind of information if you have to trap animals,” Hurt explains.

Waste analysis might make a huge difference when wild species are accused of attacking domestic livestock (家畜). Hurt says, “A good detection dog will find the waste so we can see what the animal is actually eating.” This may help reduce problems between people and wildlife.

1. The underlined word “She” in Paragraph 2 refers to  “_____”.

A．the German shepherd

B．an African wild dog

C．Aimee Hurt

D．the handler

2. Oakley is interested in finding the waste because _____.

A．he wants to study endangered animals

B．he can get a tennis ball to play with

C．he wants to eat it

D．he wants to play with it

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Trapping animals is not difficult.

B．People are making efforts to protect the environment.

C．Detection dogs attack domestic livestock frequently.

D．Collecting animal waste is a good way to gather information.

4.What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Detection dogs can help scientists study wildlife.

B．Detection dogs can defend wildlife.

C．Detection dogs can help the police catch the criminals.

D．Detection dogs can help local people defend domestic livestock.

 

The family had just moved. The young woman was feeling a little__31__. It was Mother's Day — and 800 miles separated her from her parents.

    She had called them that morning, and her mother had__32__ how colorful their backyard was__ 33__ spring had arrived. Later, she told her husband how she__34__ those lilacs（丁香）in her parents' yard. “I know where we can find some,” he said. “Get the__35__ and come on.” So off they went.

    Some time later, they stopped at a hill and there were lilacs all round. The young woman rushed up to the nearest__ 36__ and buried her face in the flowers. Carefully, she__37__ some. Finally, they returned to their car for the__38__ home. The woman sat smiling, surrounded by her__39__.

    When they were near home, she shouted “stop,” got off quickly and__40__ to a nearby nursing home.  She went to the end of the porch(门廊), where a(n)__41__ patient was sitting in her wheelchair, and put the flowers into her lap. The two__42__, bursting into laughter now and then. Later the young woman turned and ran back to her__43__. As the car pulled away, the woman in the wheelchair__44__ with a smile, and held the lilacs__45__.

“Mom,” the kids asked, “__46___ did you give her our flowers?” “It is Mother's Day, and she seems so__47__ while I have all of you. And anyone would be__48__ by flowers.”

This satisfied the kids, but not the husband. The next day he__49__ some young lilacs around their yard.

I was the husband. Now, every May, our yard is full of lilacs. Every Mother's Day our kids__50__ purple lilacs. And every year I remember that smile of the lonely old woman.

1.A. moved   B. worried   C. angry    D. depressed

2.A. learned   B. imagined   C. mentioned   D. realized

3.A. now that   B. so that   C. as if     D. even if

4.A. missed   B. grew     C. watered   D. showed

5.A. cars      B. kids      C. clothes   D. lilacs

6.A. bush     B. hill     C. yard     D. door

7.A. bought   B. picked    C. set        D. raised

8.A. break    B. holiday   C. trip       D. dinner

9.A. friends   B. memory   C. flowers   D. honor

10.A. responded   B. pointed   C. drove   D. hurried

11.A. loving    B. elderly   C. serious   D. sensitive

12.A. hesitated   B. waited    C. sat    D. chatted

13.A. family   B. mother   C. path      D. home

14.A. nodded    B. waved      C. left   D. continued

15.A. sadly    B. politely   C. quickly   D. tightly

16.A. why     B. when     C. how     D. where

17.A. quiet    B. confused   C. alone    D. patient

18.A. calmed   B. persuaded   C. disappointed   D. cheered

19.A. arranged    B. dried    C. planted   D. hid

20.A. find      B. gather    C. receive   D. sell

 

On the 36th day after they had voted, Americans finally learned Wednesday who would be their next president: Governor George W. Bush of Texas.

Vice President Al Gore, his last realistic avenue for legal challenge closed by a U. S. Supreme Court decision late Tuesday, planned to end the contest formally in a televised evening speech of perhaps 10 minutes, advisers said.

They said that Senator Joseph Lieberman, his vice presidential running mate, would first make brief comments. The men would speak from a ceremonial chamber of the Old Executive office Building, to the west of the White House.

The dozens of political workers and lawyers who had helped lead Mr. Gore’s unprecedented fight to claw a come-from-behind electoral victory in the pivotal state of Florida were thanked Wednesday and asked to stand down.

“The vice president has directed the recount committee to suspend activities,” William Daley, the Gore campaign chairman, said in a written statement.

Mr. Gore authorized that statement after meeting with his wife, Tipper, and with top advisers including Mr. Daley.

He was expected to telephone Mr. Bush during the day. The Bush campaign kept a low profile and moved gingerly, as if to leave space for Mr. Gore to contemplate his next steps.

Yet, at the end of a trying and tumultuous process that had focused world attention on sleepless vote counters across Florida, and on courtrooms form Miami to Tallahassee to Atlanta to Washington the Texas governor was set to become the 43d U. S. president.

The news of Mr. Gore’s plans followed the longest and most rancorous dispute over a U. S. presidential election in more than a century, one certain to leave scars in a badly divided country.

It was a bitter ending for Mr. Gore, who had outpolled Mr. Bush nationwide by some 300000 votes, but, without Florida, fell short in the Electoral College by 271votes to 267—the narrowest Electoral College victory since the turbulent election of 1876.

Mr. Gore was said to be distressed by what he and many Democratic activists felt was a partisan decision from the nation’s highest court.

The 5-to –4 decision of the Supreme Court held, in essence, that while a vote recount in Florida could be conducted in legal and constitutional fashion, as Mr. Gore had sought, this could not be done by the Dec. 12 deadline for states to select their presidential electors.

James Baker 3rd, the former secretary of state who represented Mr. Bush in the Florida dispute, issued a short statement after the U. S. high court ruling, saying that the governor was “very pleased and gratified.”

Mr. Bush was planning a nationwide speech aimed at trying to begin to heal the country’s deep, aching and varied divisions. He then was expected to meet with congressional leaders, including Democrats. Dick Cheney, Mr. Bush’s ruing mate, was meeting with congressmen Wednesday in Washington.

When Mr. Bush, who is 54, is sworn into office on Jan.20, he will be only the second son of  a president to follow his father to the White House, after John Adams and John Quincy Adams in the early 19th century.

Mr. Gore, in his speech, was expected to thank his supporters, defend his hive-week battle as an effort to ensure, as a matter of principle, that every vote be counted, and call for the nation to join behind the new president. He was described by an aide as “resolved and resigned.”

While some constitutional experts had said they believed states could present electors as late as Dec. 18, the U. S. high court made clear that it saw no such leeway.

The U.S. high court sent back “for revision” to the Florida court its order allowing recounts but made clear that for all practical purposes the election was over.

In its unsigned main opinion, the court declared, “The recount process, in its features here described, is inconsistent with the minimum procedures necessary to protect the fundamental right of each voter.”

That decision, by a court fractured along philosophical lines, left one liberal justice charging that the high court’s proceedings bore a political taint.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in an angry dissent:” Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the law.”

But at the end of five seemingly endless weeks, during which the physical, legal and constitutional machines of the U. S. election were pressed and sorely tested in ways unseen in more than a century, the system finally produced a result, and one most Americans appeared to be willing at lease provisionally to support.

The Bush team welcomed the news with an outward show of restraint and aplomb. The governor’s hopes had risen and fallen so many times since Election night, and the legal warriors of each side suffered through so many dramatic reversals, that there was little energy left for celebration.

The main idea of this passage is

[A]. Bush’s victory in presidential election bore a political taint.

[B]. The process of the American presidential election.

[C]. The Supreme Court plays a very important part in the presidential election.

[D]. Gore is distressed.

     What does the sentence “as if to leave space for Mr. Gore to contemplate his next step” mean

[A]. Bush hopes Gore to join his administration.

[B]. Bush hopes Gore to concede defeat and to support him.

[C]. Bush hopes Gore to congraduate him.

[D]. Bush hopes Gore go on fighting with him.

     Why couldn’t Mr. Gore win the presidential election after he outpolled Mr. Bush in the popular vote? Because

[A]. the American president is decided by the supreme court’s decision.

[B]. people can’t directly elect their president.

[C]. the American president is elected by a slate of presidential electors.

[D]. the people of each state support Mr. Bush.

     What was the result of the 5—4 decision of the supreme court?

[A]. It was in fact for the vote recount.

[B]. It had nothing to do with the presidential election.

[C]. It decided the fate of the winner.

[D]. It was in essence against the vote recount.

     What did the “turbulent election of 1876” imply?

[A]. The process of presidential election of 2000 was the same as that.

[B]. There were great similarities between the two presidential elections (2000 and 1876).

[C]. It was compared to presidential election of 2000.

[D]. It was given an example.