Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. Fo
r the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use ONE word that best fits each blank.
Science can't explain the power of pets, but many studies have shown that the company of pets 1. _________ help lower blood pressure and raise chances of recovering from a heart attack, reduce loneliness and spread all-round good cheer.
Any owner will tell you 2. _________ a comfortable life they live with a pet. For some, an animal provides more comfort than a husband/wife. A 2002 study by Karen Allen of the State University of New York measured stress levels and blood pressure in people - half of them pet owners –while they performed 5 minutes of mental arithmetic (算术) or held a hand in ice water. Subjects completed the tasks alone, with a husband/wife, a close friend or with a pet. People with pets did it 3. _________ (well).Those tested with their animal friends had the smallest change in blood pressure and returned most quickly to baseline heart rates. 4._________ pets in the room, people also made fewer math mistakes than when doing in front of other companions. It seems that people feel more5. _________ (relax) around pets, says Allen, 6._________ thinks 
it may be because pets don't judge.
A study reported last fall suggests that having a pet dog not only 7._________ (raise) your spirits but may also have an effect on your eating habits. Researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital spent a year 8. _________ (study) 36 fat people and their equally fat dogs on diet-and-exercise programs; a separate group of 56 peopl
e without pets were put on a diet program. On average, people lost about 11 pounds, or 5% of their body weight. Their dogs did even better, losing an average of 12 pounds, more than 15% of their body weight. Researchers say dog owners didn't lose any more weight than those without dogs, 9._________ they got more exercise overall-mostly with their dogs - and found it worth doing.
My father and I disagreed about curfew (晚间在家的时间). He'd say I was to be in by 9：30 on weekdays, and 11：00 on weekends, no exceptions without my first asking. I told him it made me ____ like a juniorhigh kid. He explained that while a curfew ____ sound like a restriction, it's really about people looking out for one another.
The very next Friday after that pretty heated ___， my dad and I had tickets to see our town's professional football game. On that day he was ____ to a nearby city to meet with some major clients and ____ me that his getting home and our leaving for the game would be tight.
To make sure we could ____ off the moment he walked in, I got everything prepared. When a half hour had passed from the time he said he'd be home, I understood that he was a little ____. But then, nearly a whole hour passed. I was getting ____. We were going to miss the kickoff! And why hadn't he ____ me and let me know he was going to be really late? As I anxiously ____ the floor, another half hour passed. That's when I got really angry. How inconsiderate of my father! Now we were going to ____ the whole game! When yet another half hour passed, my anger turned to ____. What if something terrible had happened to my dad, like he had a heart attack or had been in an accident, or something? I began to really ____. I'd already called his cellphone about ten times, but no ____.
I was beside myself, assuming the worst had happened.
Finally, the phone rang, and my dad said ____， “Son, I'm so sorry about the game, but…there was a terrible accident…on the freeway coming home, and I ____ to help… and ended up going to the hospital. I ____ my cellphone in the car, so I couldn't call until now.”
I was so relieved to hear from my father and to ____ that he was safe that I actually cried. That was ____ I “got” the importance of a curfew: Checking in! It's about knowing that someone you love is ____. It was one more proof of my father's loving me as much as he does.
1.A.go B．feel
C．turn D．grow
2.A.might B．must
C．needed D．should
3.A.speech B．match
C．description D．exchange
4.．A.cycling B．driving
C．flying D．walking
5.A.allowed B．advised
C．informed D．ordered
6.A.pay B．hold
C．cut D．move
7.A.late B．lazy
C．forgetful D．careless
8.A.upset B．sorry
C．rude D．puzzled
9.A.warned B．signalled
C．phoned D．showed
10.A.hit B．paced
C．cleared D．measured
11.A.play B．watch
C．miss D．start
12.A.sadness B．surprise
C．doubt D．fear
13.．A.envy B．worry
C．regret D．cry
14.A.excuse B．way
C．time D．answer
15.A.strangely B．casually
C．breathlessly D．angrily
16.A.stopped B．forgot
C．failed D．refused
17.A.left B．lost
C．saw D．got
18.A.wonder B．guess
C．expect D．learn
19.A.what B．when
C．whether D．why
20.A.confident B．great
C．safe D．honest
While the presence of rats in homes may cause anxiety and annoyance, they rarely result in driving out the residents. But that is exactly what happened to the inhabitants of the 10squaremile Hawadax Island off the coast of Alaska, almost 230 years ago. Now thanks to a fiveyear effort by scientists, the terribly silent “Rat Island” as it had been called for many years has been returned to its rightful owners ——birds!
Hawadax Island is part of a chain of volcanic islands in the Bering Sea called the Aleutian Islands. The rats that arrived there in 1780, when a Japanese ship carrying them broke down nearby, completely destroyed the native population because the environment of the island was not built to defend its animals from these predators. There isn't any tree on the Island, which meant that the birds were accustomed to building their nests low in the ground, giving the rodents(啮齿动物) easy access to both eggs and baby chicks. As years passed, the birds that had called the island home for thousands of years became endangered and eventually, disappeared completely.
In 2007, the U．S. FWS (Fish and Wildlife Service) started a serious plan to rid the island of the rats and try bringing back the beautiful birds that had once called it home. Given that there were an estimated 10,000 rodents inhabiting “Rat Island” and the fact that they reproduce rapidly, it was not an easy task. But by 2009, the Island was officially declared rat free!
Then slowly but surely, the birds began to return. Unfortunately, some of the pioneers were unintentionally killed from the leavings of the raticide, a poison that had been used to wipe out the rodents. But now it seems things are becoming more stable and the Island is starting to increasingly look like its former self. Before the transformation, “Hawadax”， also known as “Rat Island”， was a silent and ghostly place with bird bones, snail remains and rocks covered in rat feces(粪便)．
Today, birds' singing and flying in and out is a common sight. Tufted puffins and song sparrows, which had long disappeared, are gradually making their way back. Scientists have also been observing an increase in ground nesting and shorebirds. Though the Island is still not back to its full glory, the signs are encouraging and things can only get better, as time passes.
1.The underlined word “that”in Para.1 probably refers to ________.
A．the presence of rats
B．birds' being driven out
C．birds' returning to the island
D．residents' worrying about rats
2.Birds on Hawadax Island became an easy target because ________.
A．this island was treeless
B．they nested randomly
C．they reproduced too rapidly
D．their chicks were extremely weak
3.From the passage, we can know the plan of US FWS ______.
A．has helped the island fully recovered
B．cost little but benefited greatly
C．involved poisoning the rats on a large scale
D．accomplished its goal after exactly 24 months
4.Which would be the best title for the passage?
A．FWS Help Get Rare Birds Back to Alaska Island
B．Japanese Changed a Bird Paradise into Rat Island
C．FWS Plan to Drive Rats Out Of Rat Island
D．Alaska's Rat Island Returns to a Bird Paradise
More than half a century ago, there were 4, 000 drivein movie theaters in the United States, and watching a movie from your car was a popular way to spend an evening. But with the number of driveins reduced to just a few hundred, outdoor movie has been popping up across the nation. Going to an openair theater has become a modern summer pastime for an increasing number of movie fans.
In recent years, outdoor movie screenings have come up in parks, vacant lots and shopping malls around the nation. On average, about 1,000 people attend each movie night. It attracts a lot of young professionals, young workers and residents nearby. For some, the outdoor movies bring back the memories of the drivein theaters of their youths. But for the majorities, they think it is comparable to the atmosphere of driveins, as they can bring friends, food, good wine, and watch the movie together.
The returning of Americans' love affair with outdoor movies makes Stephen Bastas ever busier. His sevenmember crew sets up screens in various locations mostly in the Washington area every day throughout the summer. They are doing pretty well and they hope to continue the trend. And it looks like they are going to. That's because many fans say there is nothing like watching a movie on a breezy summer evening under the stars.
1.In the first paragraph, the author tries to tell us ________.
A．outdoor movies attracts more movielovers
B．summer brings back more drivein movie fans
C．drivein movie theaters have already disappeared
D．watching a movie from your car is becoming more popular
2.Most people choose to go to an outdoor movie mainly because they can ________.
A．have snacks before the movie
B．cheer up with young friends
C．bring back good old days
D．enjoy the casual atmosphere
3.From the text, we can learn that Stephen Bastas is most probably ________.
A．a movie maker
B．an outdoor movie fan
C．a movie director
D．an openair theater operator
4.How does stephen Bastas feel about the future of outdoor movies？________.
A．Optimistic B．Amazed
C．Worried D．Disappointed
Password (密码) strength has been a topic about the Internet lately. I have seen lots of clever methods for generating and remembering strong passwords. Some are better than others, but in my opinion, none are adequate. Here's the problem: It doesn't matter how strong your passwords are if you use the same one on multiple sites. All it takes is for a site to get hacked(侵入), like Gawker media, or even Sony did, and now your superstrong password has been stolen, and every site on which you used that password has been accessed.
So, the bottom line is that no matter how strong your passwords are, and no matter what clever tricks you use to help you remember them, if you surf internet often, the only truly secure password system is what you need.
Enter LastPass. It's not the only password manager out there, but I like it the best. You create ONE strong password that you have to memorize and use it to access your LastPass database. The LastPass database is stored online, on LastPass's servers. LastPass recognizes the site you're on and automatically logs you in (after, optionally, asking you to reenter your master password). LastPass also has automatic form fill and automatic password generation. This means that you can have a different, unique, very strong password for every site you log into, but you only have to remember one master password. It's the best of both worlds.
One argument against LastPass is that if their database is attacked, then all of your sites are in danger, and that's true, but given that their entire line of work is keeping that information safe, I'm willing to take that chance. The alternative is rolling dice(掷骰子) or picking phrases to create passwords, writing all of them down on a piece of paper or something, and then having to manually type them in when I go to a site. A terrible mess.
There is a free version of LastPass, with some additional features unlocked if you pay a $12 a year subscription.
Joshua Bardwell
1.The writer thinks using the same password everywhere is ________.
A．dangerous B．convenient
C．appropriate D．adequate
2.When using Lastpass, users have to remember ________.
A．all passwords used
B．the last password
C．unique password each time
D．the master password only
3.Critics are against Lastpass because ________.
A．they have better ways to create password
B．they think rolling dice is more convenient
C．they have no faith in Lastpass database's safety
D．Gawker media and Lastpass were hacked once
4.Joshua Bardwell writes the passage to ________.
A．share his experience
B．introduce a product of good quality
C．advertise his product
D．teach how to use a new product
The Great Barn Adventure
One morning when I was 11, I explored the town's abandoned round grain barn(谷仓). I found a chained sliding door that was wide enough for me to pass through.
Inside, there was a heavy smell of dead mice in the dark. After my eyes adjusted, I noticed a shaft (升降机井) that rose all the way to the top of the barn. On one side was a oneman elevator with a long rope and roller.
I stepped onto the platform and gave the rope a drag and the elevator began sliding up the shaft, but stopped halfway. After a brief panic attack, I noticed holes in the wall at regular intervals, forming a ladder. For reasons known only to an 11yearold, I decided it would be better to go up than down. So, with shaking hands, I began climbing the wall.
After what seemed like forever, I reached the top of the shaft. I stood up, dusted myself off and found…absolutely nothing of interest. It was just an empty room with a ladder leading up to the roof. I climbed all the way up here for this? Then I noticed a fire extinguisher(灭火器)，which I'd always wanted to shoot off. So this was the chance of a lifetime. I tried it, and, much to my surprise, the thing worked! It shot out a thick cloud of powder that instantly filled the room. I couldn't breathe. I was going to choke to death, and they'd probably never even find my body.
Luckily, I remembered the ladder to the roof. I climbed up, popped the straw roof and saw a bright blue sky.
I suddenly realized the dust and powder pouring out of the top could draw attention. So when the dust had settled, I climbed down and slipped out of the chained door. I'm not sure if I was more excited about being alive or about not being caught, but I ran all the way back home.
1.When the author got inside the barn, he ________.
A．noticed a man on the elevator
B．opened the chained sliding door
C．saw many dead mice in the dark
D．found a shaft leading to the top
2.Which of the following is the right order of the author's adventure?
a. The elevator stopped halfway.
b. He entered the round grain barn.
c. He climbed to the top of the shaft.
d. He found a fire extinguisher and shot it off.
A．b－a－c－d B．a－c－b－d
C．c－a－d－b D．b－c－a－d
3.After getting out of the chained door, the author might feel ________.
A．inspired B．relieved
C．surprised D．disappointed
