A 7.0 magnitude（级）earthquake killed more than 230,000 people in Haiti. Then an 8.8 magnitude quake killed more than 900 people in Chile. And few weeks later, a 6.0 magnitude quake struck rural eastern Turkey, killing at least 57 people.
The earthquakes kept coming hard and fast.   1 It’s not. The problem is what’s happening above ground, not underground, experts say.
  2 They’re rapidly putting up buildings that can’t stand up to earth quakes, scientists believe.
And news reports and better earthquake monitoring make it seem as if earth quakes are increasing all the time.
On average, there are 134 earthquakes a year that have a magnitude between 6.0 and 6.9. So far this year there have been 40 earthquakes—more than in most years for that time period. But that’s because the 8.8 quake in Chile caused a large number of strong aftershocks.
Also, it’s not the number of quakes, but their destructive effects that gain attention. The death is largely due to building standards,   3  Paul Earle, a US seismologist, called for better building standards in the world’s big cities.
Of the 130 cities worldwide with populations of more than I million, more than half are likely to be hit by earthquakes.   4 “If you have a problem feeding yourself, you’re not really going to worry about earthquakes,” said Paul.
The earthquakes made everyone start to think   5  “People are paying attention to the violent planet we’re always lived on. Come back an another six moths if there has been no earthquakes, most people will have forgotten it again,” said US disaster researcher Dennis Mileti.

A boy, about 10 years old, got to my clinic with his sick cat for cure. Thc cat was a tiny beautiful thing, about the boy's own  36  . I could see she was  37   very strong and lovely with the fur of a 38   and Tigress was her name. She  39  me with a friendly nub against my hand.
I  40   her and found a tumor(肿瘤). She had no 41  of recovery. I looked at the fresh-faced boy and back at Tigress. I began to 42  pity on the boy. At such a young age, he had to face to part with his beloved one.
I told him as 43 as I could what I had found, and what it meant. The boy's face twisted (扭曲) and turned away. I sat down and 44  Tigress to give the boy some time to recover. I felt Tigress's old beautiful fur 45  we discussed the possible choice with him: I could give her an operation, which would be very  46   and would not make her live longer than a month, or an  injection and put her to sleep.
After some time, the boy accepted the reality.  "I've seen her 47 recently, so I'd like her to die peacefully." I could see  how  48   it was costing him in making such a 49  .
I asked if he wanted to take her home overnight to say goodbye. He said he just wanted to be 50  with her for a few minutes. I went to get the 51 which I would use to put her to sleep. I could not control the  52  streaming down my face.
She fell asleep, her head  53   in his hand, lovely and quiet, but her owner now had all the 54 . "This is the finest  55   you could give. You bear the pain so that the loved one might rest." The boy nodded and he understood.

A man found the cocoon (茧) of a moth (蛾). He took it home so that he could   1  the moth come out of the cocoon. On that day a small   2  appeared. He sat and watched the moth for several hours as the moth struggled to   3  the body through that little hole. Soon it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had   4  as far as it could and it could go no further. It just seemed to be stuck. So the man, out of his kindness, decided to help the moth. He took a pair of scissors and   5  the remaining bit of the cocoon. The   6  then came out easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriven (无用的) wings. The man continued to watch the moth because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and   7  to be able to support the   8  , which would get smaller in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life   9  around with a swollen body and shriven wings. It was   10   able to fly.
What the man in his kindness didn’t   11  was that the small cocoon and the   12  of the moth to get through the   13  opening was a way to push fluid (液体)   14  the body of moth    15  its wings so that it would be ready to fly   16  it got out of the cocoon. Freedom and   17  would come only after the struggle. By taking the struggle away, he also took away the moth’s health.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If we were to   18  our lives without any difficulties, we would become disabled. We would not be as   19  as what we could have been. Give every opportunity a chance. Leave no room for    20  .

A woman in her sixties lived alone in her little cottage with a pear tree at her door. She spent all her time taking care of the tree. But the children nearby drove her  16 by making fun of her. They would climb her tree and then run away with pears,  17 “Aunty Misery” at her.
One evening, a passer- by asked to  18 for the night. Seeing that he had an  19 face, she let him in and gave him a nice   20  . The next morning the stranger, actually a sorcerer (巫师), thanked her by granting (允准) her     21 that anyone who climbed up her tree  22  not be able to come back down until she   23  it.
When the children came back to steal her   24  , she had them stuck on the tree. They had to beg her long   25  she gave the tree permission to let  26   go. Aunty Misery was free from the   27  at last.
One day another man    28  her door. This one did not look trustworthy to her,   29  she asked who he was . “I am Death, I’ve come to take you   30    me.” said he.
Thinking fast Aunty Misery said, “Fine, but I’d like to  31   some pears from my dear tree to remember the  32 it brought to me in this life. But I am too    33  to climb high to get the best fruit. Will you be so   34   as to do it for me?” With a deep sigh, Mr. Death climbed up the tree   35  and was immediately stuck to it. No matter how much he warned or begged, Aunty Misery would not allow the tree to let Death go.

A. turn  B. eagerly  C. concerned  D. anxiously  E. growing   F. changed G. produced H. international   I. popular   J. called

There have been a lot of changes in American eating habits in the last ten years. One is the __1.__ awareness of the nutritional value of food. Another is an increasing interest in a variety of __2.__ foods. Since about 1970, Americans have been more and more __3.__ about health. They have begun to notice the ingredients（配料） in what they eat.

When they select food in the supermarket, they __4.__ the package over to read the labels carefully. They prefer to eat food that is __5.__ without unnecessary chemicals and often choose fruits and vegetables grown without poisons used to kill insects. A small group of Americans, __6.__ vegetarians, has decided not to eat meat. They choose a complete diet from other kinds of food because they think that meat products are not good for health.

Also more and more Americans have become interested in food from other countries. They have been going out to international restaurants and __7.__ trying unfamiliar dishes. Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, and Greek cooking as well as many other recipes（食谱） are all __8.__ these days in the United States. People used to say that Americans ate uninteresting, unhealthy food, but this has __9.__ in the last ten years.