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One of the first questions young children ask is “Why?” It is human nature to want 1.(find) out why things are the way they are. You can find out “Why” by turning the question into a hypothesis (假设) for 2. experiment.
3. example, suppose you have been trying to grow tomato plants, but insects keep destroying 4.. Someone tells you that 5. (put) large strips of colored cloth around the plants will keep insects away. Your question might be “Do certain colours of cloth keep insects away?” Then you’d begin your experiment. The first step would be to place different-colored strips of cloth around all of the plants except one. Then, as regular intervals, you would observe and record and note6.the plant had any insect damage or not.
This experiment may prove that the answer to your question is “No, it is not different-colored strips of cloth 7. keep away insects.” Or you may find that answer is “Yes, certain insects are kept away by blue cloth, but not yellow cloth.” ...... 8. you have found, you are well on your way to understanding how you can use scientific thinking to solve a problem in you own life.
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Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For 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.
News From The World of Medicine
SHORT ON SLEEP? DON'T FORGET TO DRINK WATER
In a Pennsylvania State University study involving more than 20,000 participants, people who said they got only six hours of sleep regularly ran a greater risk of dehydration (脱水) than 1. who got eight hours. The reason might lie with a hormone (荷尔蒙) called vasopressin, 2. helps control the body’s fluid levels. It’s let out in larger quantities later in the sleep cycle, 3. people getting less shut-eye might not have the best amount of it. If you know you’re short on slumber, 4. (make) a point of drinking water.
TEN-MINUTE CANCER TEST
Australian researchers have developed a test 5. can discover cancer cells in ten minutes with 90 percent accuracy. Healthy DNA and cancer DNA, it turns out, stick to metal surfaces differently. When cancer DNA 6. (add) to water mixed with gold nanoparticles (纳米颗粒), the water remains its rosy color, when healthy DNA is added, the water turns blue. 7. the test is cheap and simple, it could be used at your primary care physician's office, with follow-up if necessary.
EXERCISE PREVENTS FALLS
Each year, at least a third of people 8. the age of 65 fall downwards. Research found that there's one factor related to notably reduced risk: exercise. People who took part in Tai Chi fell 19 percent 9. (often), while those who did balance and functional exercises, such as step-ups, chair rises, or standing on one leg, fell 24 percent less often. Most useful of all was 10. (combine) different types of exercise, including lifting weights and balance exercises.
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Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. Use one word that best fits each blank.
The word taboo comes from the Tongan language and is used in modern English to describe verbal and nonverbal behavior that is forbidden or to be avoided. 1. what some may think, taboos are not universal. They tend to be specific to a culture or country, and usually form around a group’s values and beliefs. 2. is considered acceptable behavior in one country may be a serious taboo in another. Therefore, 3. you travel to another country, on business or vacation, it is helpful to learn some of that country’s customs 4. you don’t insult the local people.
Verbal taboos usually involve topics 5. people believe are too private to talk about publicly, or release to one’s manner of speaking. In many cultures, for example, it is considered bad manners to discuss subjects 6. sex or religion in public. In some countries, the volume of one’s voice may annoy people.
Nonverbal taboos usually relate to body languages. One of the biggest difference among many Western Asian, and African cultures is the use of eye contact. In the USA, people make eye contact when talking to others. If a person avoids eye contact, others might think they are being honest or 7. they lack confidence. In many Asian and African cultures, however, children are taught to lower their eyes when talking to their elders, or 8. of higher rank, as a way to show respect.
Certain gestures made with the hands can have very different meanings depending on 9. you are. For example, Crossing your middles finger over your forefinger is the sign for good luck in many western countries, in Vietnam and Argentina, however, it is an unsuitable gesture.
Behavior that is acceptable and non-offensive in one culture can be highly offensive in another. When visiting a foreign country, be aware of some of the basic differences, 10. will help to ensure a more enjoyable trip.
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Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For 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.
Different background shouldn’t mean less education, Fifty years ago, in a primary school classroom, two boys aged 11 took an examination called the 11-plus, 1. would make decisions about the rest of their lives. Paul passed and went to a “grammar school”. Baz failed the examination and went to a “secondary modern school”. They did not see each other again for years,
Many grammar schools 2. （establish） hundreds of years ago to teach the Latin language to children who were not from rich families. They encouraged students 3. （study） until they were 18 and then to go to university. Secondary modern school students left at 16, usually with fewer qualifications than grammar school students. Baz says the secondary modern school had 4.（few） resources and the quality of teaching was not as good.
Things have changed. In the 1960 s and the 1970s “comprehensive schools” were created. Today, 90 percent children aged 11 to 16 from the same area to the same school without 5. （take） any entry examination.
The British often disagrees about the best way 6. （educate） their children. Many people say that comprehensive schools help more children to succeed because they provide everybody 7. similar opportunities in a fairer way. Another view, though, is that more intelligent children, especially 8. from poor homes are better supported at grammar schools. Now, the government plans to open new grammar schools 9. almost two million children will go to the same type of school that Paul attended.
And Paul and Baz? Aged 60, they met again and compared what had happened to them. After university, Paul was qualified as a teacher 10. Baz went to work in a factory at 16 and later became an engineer. In fact, Baz had a much higher salary than Paul— so perhaps life is fair after all.
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The ancient Chinese were stonewall masters. China 1. has the world's longest fortification (buildings or walls built to defend a place), the 21,196-kilometer-long Great Wall, but the world's longest circular city wall, the Ming City Wall, which was originally 35 kilometers around. The latter stands in Jiangsu's provincial capital of Nanjing. It's one of China's most underrated tourist attractions and many local residents think it is worthy 2. (visit).
Currently, visitors can access only about three kilometers of the wall, but about 22 of the 3. (remain) 25 kilometers of the once-inaccessible wall are scheduled to open to the public soon. "In the past, the wall was the end of the city," says Sun Xiaowei, 32, president of the Nanjing-based urban hiking community. "But now it's the starting point of Nanjing's culture.” Sun recently shared with us the greatest barbican (楼堡) (an outer defensive work) 4. attracts him most: Zhonghua Gate.
5. (locate) immediately to the north of Qinhuai River, Zhonghua Gate, is one of the best preserved and most intricate barbicans in the world, according to Sun.The gate is used as a grand entrance to any tour of the City Wall.
It once served as the southern gate of ancient Nanjing, a 15,168-square-meter fortification that contained four layers of defenses, as well as three grand castles, 6. the ruins are connected to each other by a wide ring of wall. If paying an entry fee, visitors 7. view former garrisons, an exhibition about the history and variety of bricks used to build the City Wall.
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Social robots are going to become a lot more common in the next few years, 1. in the home or the workplace. Social robots are about to bring technology to the everyday world in a more humanized way, said Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist at the robot company Jibo.
2. household robots today do the normal housework, social robots will be much more like companions than mere tools. For example, these robots will be able to distinguish when someone is happy or sad. This allows them 3. (respond) more appropriately to the user.
The Jibo robot, 4. (arrange) to ship later this year, is designed to be a personalized assistant. You can talk to the robot, ask it questions, and make requests for it to perform different tasks. The robot doesn’t just deliver general answers to questions; it responds based on 5. it learns about each individual in the household. It can do things such as reminding an elderly family member to take medicine or taking family photos.
Social robots are not just finding their way into the home. They have potential applications 6. everything from education to health care and are already finding their way into some of these spaces.
Fellow Robots is one company 7. (bring) social robots to the market. The company’s “Oshbot” robot is built to assist customers in a store, which can help the customers find items and help guide them to the product’s location in the store. It can also speak different languages and make recommendations for different items based on what the customer is shopping for.
The more interaction the robot has with humans, 8. (much) it learns.But Oshbot, like other social robots, 9. (not intend) to replace workers, but to work alongside other employees. “We have technologies to train social robots to do things not for us, but with us,” said Breazeal.
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Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For 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.
1. (be) a successful speaker is no easy thing. It is essential for you to know why you are speaking and 2. you wish to accomplish by your speech. The four most common purposes of speech are to inform, to convince, to move to action, and to entertain. Do you, like a teacher or an expert in a field, wish to illustrate your ideas in detail to people unfamiliar with your subject 3. they can understand your ideas clearly and thoroughly? Or, like a debater, wish 4. (convince) the judges or the audience? Or, like a fund collector for a naturalist foundation, wish to get money? Or, like a comedian or after-dinner speaker, wish to entertain? The language and tone you use 5. be proper for your purpose, for your audience, and for the occasion. A speech to the graduating class will have quite different language, tone and manner from information 6. (deliver) to a group of your friends.
Furthermore, 7. talented the speaker is, a talk without enough preparation is usually 8. failure. To speak without preparing is to shoot without 9. (take) aim. Decide what your aim or objective is; then state it in a complete topic sentence. Make sure that your subject 10. (be) definite and not too broad.
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Directions：After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For 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.
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Even 1.（good）, you might live longer, an American researcher reports.
“Adults who have a sense of humor live longer than 2. who don’t find life funny, and the survival edge is particularly large for people 3. cancer,” says Richard Smith of the Columbia University of Science and Technology.
He 4.（present）his study of about 54,000 Americans, 5. he had followed for seven years, at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting last Monday.
At the start, patients filled out questionnaires on 6. easily they found humor in real-life situations and how important a humorous idea was. The study showed next the greater role humor played in their lives, 7. greater their chances were in 8.（survive）the seven years. Adult scoring in the top one-quarter for humor appreciation were 35% more likely 9.（be）alive than those in the bottom quarter. In a smaller group of 2,015 people who had a cancer diagnosis(诊断) at the start, the study found 10. important that a great sense of humor cut the chances of dying by about 70%.
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Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For 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.
Flu is killing us. The usual response to the annual flu is not enough to fight against the risks we currently face, 1.(say) nothing of preparing us for an even deadlier widespread flu that most experts agree 2.(come) in the future. Yet we have an annual vaccine, and everyone 3.(qualify) should get it without question. The reality, however, is that less than half Americans get the flu vaccines. And the flu vaccines we have are only 60% effective in the best years and 10% effective in the worst years. We urgently need a much 4.(effective) flu vaccine.
In the U. S alone, seasonal flu can cause up to 36 million infections, three-quarters of a million hospitalizations and 56,000 deaths. We are not investing the resources needed to protect ourselves, our loved 5. and our communities.
Why not? We haven’t been hit by 6. truly destructive widespread disease in a long time. So as individuals, we let down our guard as our leaders quickly defund and destroy the services we need to protect us.
The risk of continued foot dragging is huge. In a severe widespread disease, the U.S. health care system could be defeated in just weeks. Millions of people would be infected by the virus, and would die in the weeks and months following the initial outbreak.
The cost of preventing epidemics is roughly a tenth of 7. it costs to cope with them when they hit. In 2012, a call was issued for an annual billion-dollar U.S. commitment 8. the development of a universal flu vaccine. Six years later, the search for a universal vaccine remains seriously underfunded.
The simple reason lies in our collective satisfaction. 9. headlines about the flu are gone, hospitals are emptied of flu patients, and school and workplace absence rates decline, we go back to business as usual.
Leading scientists and public health officials have the capability to keep us much safer from flu. They need your quick and decisive support to succeed. Your action today 10. be a matter of life and death for you and those you love.
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Over-dried Earth
The south-west of the United States, together with some parts of Mexico across the Rio Grande, is one of the driest parts of the North American continent. But, over the past two decades, even that expected dryness 1. (take) to the limit. According to Park Williams, who works at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the current lack of rainfall in the area constitutes a megadrought of a severity 2.(see) on only four other occasions in the past 1,200 years.
Dr Williams studies the annual growth rings of 1,586 ancient trees, in order to reconstruct soil-moisture patterns going back to 800 A.D. During warm, wet years trees grow fast, producing wide rings. During cold, dry 3. they grow more slowly, producing narrow rings. During a drought, a tree 4. not grow much at all.
5.they describe in this week’s Science, the team identified dozens of droughts over the centuries in question. But four stood out. They then took the average soil-moisture value for the current drought and compared it with sequential（连续的） 19-year averages with the previous four, one of them 6.(last) nearly a century. This showed that the region is already drier than it was during the first three of the previous megadroughts, and is equivalent to the event of 1575-1603.
In a world 7. human actions are driving temperatures up, Dr Parker and his colleagues wondered how much people are 8.(blame) for this state of affairs. To estimate that, they turned to climate modelling.
Climate models are able to re-run the past with and 9. the warming effects of human activity, offering a way to compare what actually happened with what might have done. In their simulated world in which anthropogenic（人类起源的） emissions had not increased the greenhouse-gas effect, the team found that a drought did indeed still influence the western reaches of North America during the first two decades of the 21st century. But this imaginary dry spell was considerably 10.(severe) than the real one-ranking 11th rather than 2nd in the period under study (see chart).