Construction workers in Southern California have made a wild discovery. They were digging at a building site in San Timoteo Canyon (峡谷) when they unearthed hundreds of ancient animal fossils. Researchers say the bones hold important clues about the history of the region.
Nearly 1, 500 fossils were recovered from the dusty canyon. The remains are about 1.4 million years old. They include the bones of a new species of deer, several small rodents (啮齿目动物) and more. A giant cat fossil was also found. Scientists believe the animal was an ancestor of the saber- toothed tiger. Signs of plant life were uncovered as well.
“This is a huge find,” says Rick Greenwood, a scientist studying the site. “I don’t think most people had any idea that those types of animals were wandering around here more than a million years ago.”
San Timoteo Canyon is located about 85 miles from Los Angeles. The area of the canyon where the fossils were found was once part of a green river valley. Today, the region is dry and plant life is rare.
Most of the fossils are well preserved. Experts say a muddy lake bed may have trapped thirty animals that wandered over for a drink. The mud helped to protect the animal fossils.
The remains are a million years older than those discovered at the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Scientists studying the bones will be able to learn more about how the animals adapted to changes in the environment.
“We have a confused view of what this time period was like, ” says another scientist. “A discovery like this could really be an important contribution.”
About 35 different animal species are represented in the fossil collection. Scientists began removing bones from the site last fall. The project was completed this summer. Starting next year, the fossils will be on display at the Western Science Center in the nearby city of Hemet, California.
【小题1】
What does the passage mainly focus on?

完形填空（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从第31至第40小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
With the development of industry, factories produce large amounts of   31  chemicals. These chemicals go into the atmosphere and flow into the water, making many plants and animals   32    and large areas of the world damaged.     33  , the world’s population    34  to 6.5 billion.
Some people suggest cutting back on production, thinking more about recycling and teaching people about    35   friendly ways of living.
While some people say that a healthy environment and a stable economy should be possible at the same time. They don’t think the economy development is bad for the environment, saying there are many factories and industries   36  control the amount of pollution they produce and spend money    37  any damage they cause. They are concerned   38  the environment.
The way to   39   the environment may be recycling, and making more effective laws to control the numbers of trees   40  and fishes caught. Factories should have to pay higher taxes. And many people are willing to pay higher prices for environmentally friendly things.
31.  A.  useless    B.  good       C.  poisonous                 D.  harmless
32.  A.  die  B.  dies  C.  dying                       D.  died
33.  A.  In addition     B.  In all       C.  In time                  D.  In the end
34.  A.  is grown          B.  is growing         C.  had grown                    D.  grow
35.  A.  elementary     B.  environmental C.  environmentalist     D.  environmentally
36.  A.  where      B.  which             C.  what                      D.  who
37.  A.  repaire   B.  repaired   C.  repairing                D.  to repaire
38.  A.  with       B.  about       C.  in                          D.  to
39.  A.  damage  B.  build       C.  preserve           D.  ruin
40.  A.  cut down       B.  cut off     C.  cut up             D.  cut in

When he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain turned to Hannibal. The relationship between Hannibal and Twain began in November 1839, when Twain’s father decided to leave the village in Florida and move east about 35 miles to the somewhat larger and more prosperous Hannibal, on the banks of the Mississippi River. Twain marked his fourth birthday about a week after the family settled there. He showed little promise of becoming a long-term resident. However, because his health was so poor that his parents probably feared he would not survive childhood.

During the family’s first few years in Hannibal, Twain was too young to understand fully the changes going on around him. About the time the family moved into their new home. Twain’s health improved a lot. Instead of having to lead a quiet indoor life, he could roam the streets of Hannibal. Climb the surrounding hills, explore the area’s caves and splash about in local swimming holes. He reveled in his newfound freedom, spending nearly all his free time playing outdoors with the other boys in town and soon becoming a leader.

Twain’s carefree days did not last long, on March 24, 1847, his father died. For the next six years, his brother Henry, and his sister Pamela lived with their mother in the family home. Twain began taking odd jobs after school to bring in extra money. Within a year of his father’s death, he quit school and became an apprentice (学徒) printer, and when his brother Orion bought the Hannibal Journal in 1851, Twain went to work for him as a printer and editorial assistant. The stories he wrote for Orion’s paper, his first publications, taught him that he much preferred writing to typesetting. Thus, when he decided to leave Hannibal in May 1853, he already had an idea of his future career.

1. Why did little Mark Twain move and live in Hannibal?

A．Because he wanted to live in a larger and more prosperous city.

B．Because his father brought him there.

C．Because he wanted to wrote his novels there.

D．Because he wanted to become a long-term resident of Hannibal.

2. When did Mark Twain become healthy?

A．As soon as he arrived in Hannibal.

B．At the time when his family moved into their old home.

C．After his father died.

D．At the time when his family moved into their new home.

3. The last paragraph mainly tells us _________.

A．the happy childhood of Mark Twain

B．how Mark Twain became a famous writer

C．how Mark Twain to earn money to support his family

D．why Mark decided to leave Hannibal

 On May 27, 1995, our life was suddenly changed. It happened a few minutes past three.  36   my husband, Chris, fell from his horse as it   37   over a fence. Chris was paralyzed（瘫痪）from the chest down,   38   to breathe normally. As he was thrown from his horse, we entered into a life of   39   with lots of unexpected challenges（挑战）. We went from the “haves” to the “have-nots”. Or so we thought. 40   what we discovered later were all the gifts that came out of   41   difficulties. We came to learn that something   42   could happen in a disaster. All over the world people   43   Chris so much that letters and postcards poured in every day. By the end of the third week in a   44   center in Virginia, about 35, 000 pieces of   45   had been received and sorted.

As   46  , we opened letter after letter. They gave us   47   and became a source of strength for us. We used them to   48   ourselves. I would go to the pile of letters marked with “Funny” if we needed a   49  , or to the “Disabled” box to find advice from people in wheelchairs or   50   in bed living happily and   51  .

These letters, we realized, had to be shared. And so   52   we offer one of them to you.

Dear Chris,

My husband and I were so sorry to hear of your   53   accident last week. No doubt your family and your friends are giving you the strength to face this   54   challenge. People everywhere are also giving you best wishes every day and we are among those who are keeping you   55  .

                                                      Yours sincerely

                                                      Nancy Reagan

When I began married life more than 17 years ago, I weighed 118 pounds. After having two children, and years of ____21____ eating, I weighed 180 pounds. I was unhappy. I considered going on a ____22____, so I gathered information about it.

I ____23____ the South Beach Diet and how well it was ____24____ for some people in our area. I looked it up online and ____25____ for it. Even though I knew my husband loved me no matter how I ____26____ or how much I weighed. I decided that it would be a wonderful ____27____ for my husband to come home and see a new ____28_____, so I kept my South Beach experience a ____29____ from him. Later he left home for a two-week business trip.

I was surprised at all the ____30____ I could eat. It was great to have breakfast, ____31____ and dinner. The food was difficult to eat at first ____32____ I usually didn’t like such food. This made the daily menus hard, ____33____ I overcame (克服) the challenge.

The first two weeks there really ____34____ me change the way I thought about ____35____. It wasn’t chocolate or cheese or candy I ____36____, but fruit! Before my husband’s return, my children and I were amazed at how quickly the ____37____ was lost.

When my husband returned, I had ____38_____more than 30 pounds. When I saw my husband’s reaction at the airport I thought it was worth every minute on the diet! I have ____39_____ to lose weight and I am now less than 10 pounds from my final ____40____. I feel better than I have in years and I’m enjoying life much more!