II. 完形填空（共15题，每小题2分，共30分）

My best friend is Cocoa, and I live in a senior-citizen apartment. Cocoa is a ten-year-old dog and I am a sixty-nine-year-old lady, so you can see we both qualify as   11  citizens.

He is a   12  companion. He does many amusing things that make me  13  , and when that happens, he is so delighted  14  he just keeps it up.

But one afternoon, Cocoa started acting strangely. I was sitting on the floor playing with him,  15  he started pawing and smelling at the right side of my  16  . He had never done anything like this ever before, and I told him, “No.” To Cocoa, one “no” is usually  17 , but not that day. He stopped briefly, and then  18   ran toward me, throwing his entire weight at the right side of my chest. He crashed into me and I cried in   19  , falling down to the floor. Soon after this, I felt a lump (肿块). I went to my doctors, and after X-rays  20   and lab work were done, they told me I had cancer.

When cancer starts, a  21   of calcium (钙) builds. Then the lump or cancer attaches itself to this wall. When Cocoa jumped on me, the force of the impact broke the lump away from the wall. This made it possible for me to  22   the lump.

I had a complete mastectomy (乳房切除术) and the cancer has not   23  to any other part of my body. The doctors told me if the cancer had gone undetected even six more months, it would have been too  24  .

Was Cocoa  25   of just what he was doing? I’ll never really know. What I do know is that Cocoa not only shares his life with me, he has also made sure that I will be around to share my life with him!

11    A.    good       B.    standard  C.    senior      D.    great

12    A.    wonderful       B.    tiring      C.    hungry    D.    bad

13    A.    leave       B.    cry   C.    laugh      D.    jump

14    A.    as    B.    when      C.    and  D.    that

15    A.    when       B.    then C.    though    D.    as

16    A.    chest       B.    body       C.    shoulder  D.    arm

17    A.    right       B.    good       C.    enough    D.    unexpected

18    A.    hurriedly B.    rudely     C.    slowly     D.    suddenly

19    A.    pain B.    surprise   C.    trouble    D.    danger

20    A.    experiments    B.    researches       C.    tests       D.    papers

21    A.    wall B.    cancer     C.    body       D.    number

22    A.    watch      B.    have C.    get   D.    notice

23    A.    ran   B.    kept C.    entered    D.    spread

24    A.    common  B.    late  C.    much      D.    early

25    A.    ashamed  B.    aware      C.    afraid      D.    tired

It is generally believed that we are getting cleaned when we step under a shower. We are, but we’re also giving a home to lots of tiny little creatures we didn’t even know about. A showerhead carries thousands of bacteria called Mycobacterium．These can cause problems like coughs and tiredness, and a general feeling of poorliness (身体不舒服). When you turn on the water, the bacteria go from the showerhead onto and into your body.

??? This is a finding of Norman R. Pace and his team at the University of Colorado, in the US. The scientists investigated bacteria in all kinds of human environment, including showers．Pace's team looked at 45 showerheads in nine American cities. They discovered that 30 percent of them had large amounts of flying Mycobacterium.

But Pace said that they pose few threats to the health．Only those with a weak immune system might need to worry．He told the New York Times that the bacteria are not as unpleasant as might be thought．He said that having a shower is no more dangerous than anything else we do in the morning．

But for those who feel sick about the idea of all those microorganisms (微生物), he had some advice. Let the water run for 30 seconds before getting into the shower. Why? The number of bacteria is smaller than that when the water is just turned on. If that seems like a waste of water, he added that you could also change your showerhead every few months.

??? However, Pace had good news too. He has also been testing the air in US subways. Apart from iron particles (粒子), which are ground off the track by the wheels of trains, subway air is fresh. The reason is that a train’s movement pumps fresh outdoor air into the tunnels.

??? Pace explained that he wanted to understand the natural microbial environments of public places. This kind of knowledge might help discover the microbes to be used in a bioterrorist (生物恐怖分子) attack.

1.From the finding of Norman R. Pace, after taking a shower, we might cough or feel tired because?????? .

A. it’s easy to get a cold when taking a bath

B. the showerhead carries many bacteria causing illness

C. we don’t get cleaned while showering

D. we don’t get a weak immune system

2.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A. Hot water could kill most of bacteria in showerheads.

B. Of 45 showerheads surveyed in nine cities, 30 carried large amounts of Mycobacterium.

C. Changing showerheads is the only way to avoid microorganisms.

D. Shower water contains much less bacteria after being left to run for 30 seconds.

3.We can learn from the third paragraph that ????? .

A. having a shower in the morning is more dangerous than at other time

B. the bacteria always threat people’s health

C. there is no reason to fear microorganisms for people with strong immune system

D. it is better to do some exercise in the morning than have a shower

4.The underlined word “pose” in the third paragraph probably means “______”．

A. cause     ?????????? B. avoid       ????????? C. describe ????????? D. promise

5.What contributes to fresh air in US subways?

A. The train’s movement.         ???????????????? B. Iron particles．

C. Train wheels. ???????????????????????????? D. Air conditioners on the trains．

The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government said it was looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that float.

An increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the Maldives－a nation of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean－virtually uninhabitable by 2100,  the UN’s climate change panel(专门小组) has warned.

President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed a fight for survival, and he signed a deal with a Dutch company to study proposals for a floating structure that could support a convention center, homes and an 18-hole golf course.

The company , Dutch Docklands, is currently building floating developments in the Netherlands and Dubai.

The Maldives began work on an artificial island known as the Hulhumale near the crowded capital island of Male in 1997 and more than 30,000 people have been settled there to ease congestion.

The city, which has a population of 100,000, is already protected from rising sea levels by a 30-million-dollar sea wall, and the government is considering increasingly imaginative ways to combat(对抗) climate change.

Nasheed has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are submerged.   He has also pledged to turn his nation into a model for the rest of the world by becoming "carbon neutral (碳中和)" by 2020.

His plan involves ending fossil fuel use and powering all vehicles and buildings from "green" sources such as burning coconut husks.

What do you know about Maldives?

A. It has a population of 100,000.               B. It has a floating golf course.

C. It is a nation of tiny coral islands.           D. It is located in the Pacific Ocean.

The underlined word "uninhabitable" might mean _________ .

A. 不能居住的    B. 不习惯的        C. 不能改变的     D. 不能忍受的

The floating structure will be used as all the following except ________ .

A. a convention center         B. a sports center

C. homes                         D. a golf course

What are the government's ways to combat climate change?

A. Buy land elsewhere in the world.           

B. Make the nation "carbon neutral" by 2020.

C. Use "green" sources instead of fossil fuel.             

D. All of the above.

Modern man has cleared the forests for farmland and for wood, and has also carelessly burned them. More than that, though, he has also interfered （干涉） with the invisible bonds between the living things in the forests. There are many examples of this kind of destruction. The harmfulness of man’s interference can be seen in what happened many years ago in the forest of the Kaibab plateau （凯亚巴布高原） of northern Arizona. Man tried to improve on the natural web of forest life and destroyed it instead.

The Kaibab had a storybook forest of large sized pine, Douglas fir, white fir, blue and Engelmann spruce. In 1882 a visitor noted, "We, who ... have wandered through its forests and parks, have come to regard it as the most enchanting region it has ever been our privilege （特权） to visit.” This was also the living place of the Rocky Mountain mule deer. Indians hunted there every autumn to gather meat and skins. The forest also had mountain lions, timber wolves and bobcats that kept the deer from multiplying too rapidly.

Then, in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt made the Kaibab a national game preserve. Deer hunting was forbidden. Government hunters started killing off the deer’s enemies. In 25 years’ time, 6,250 mountain lions, wolves and bobcats were killed. Before the program, there were about 4,000 deer in the Kaibab, by 1924, there were about 100,000.

The deer ate every leaf and twig they could reach. But there was not nearly enough food. Hunting of deer was permitted again. This caused a slight decrease in the deer herd （鹿群），but a far greater loss resulted from starvation （饥饿） and disease. Some 60 percent of the deer herd died in two winters. By 1930 the herd had dropped to 20,000 animals. By 1942 it was down to 8,000.

1.The destruction of the environment of the Kaibab resulted from    

A．interfering with natural cycle of forest life

B．turning the forest into cultivated land

C．forest fires caused by man’s carelessness

D．cutting the trees for building materials

2."Engelmann spruce"（Para. 2） is most likely the name of .

A．an animal         B．a tree            C．a mountain        D．a game

3.The number of the deer in the Kaibab had increased enormously in     years’ time.

A．25               B．6                C．12               D．18

4.Years later, large numbers of deer in the Kaibab died mainly because of .

A．the cold                              B．the organized kill

C．the poor management                    D．the shortage of food

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama swept to victory as the first black president in the US history Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. "Change has come," he told a huge group of cheering supporters.
In his first speech as victor, Obama catalogued the challenges ahead. "The greatest of a lifetime," he said, "two wars, a planet in danger, the worst financial crisis in a century."
He added, "There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face."
The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states -- Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Iowa and more.
In his speech, Obama invoked (引用) the words of Lincoln and echoed John F. Kennedy.
"So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in (努力投入) and work harder," he said.
He and his running mate, Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths（宣誓）of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009.
Obama will move into the Oval Office as leader of a country that is almost certainly in recession (不景气), and fighting two long wars, one in Iraq, the other in Afghanistan.
Obama has said his first order of presidential business will be to tackle the economy. He has also pledged to withdraw most US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.
【小题1】What is special about Barack Obama, the newly-elected president of the United States?