【閱讀】
選詞填空
第一篇For manyAmericans, 2013 ended with an unusually bitter cold snap. LateNovember and December saw early snow and bone-chilling temperaturesin much of the country, part of a year when—for the first time intwo decades—record-cold days will likely turn out to haveoutnumbered record-warm ones. But the U.S. was the exception:November was the warmest ever globally, and the provisional dataindicates that 2013 is likely to have been the fourth-hottest yearon record.
Enjoy thesnow now, because chances are good that 2014 will be evenhotter—perhaps the hottest year since records have been kept.That’s because,scientists are predicting, 2014 will be an El Niño year.
El Niño,Spanish for “the child”, occurs when surface ocean waters in thesouthern Pacific become abnormally warm. So large is the Pacific,covering 30% of the planet’s surface, that the specific energygenerated by its warming is enough to touch off a series of weatherchanges around the world. El Niño are associated with abnormallydry conditions in the Southeast Asia and Australia. They can leadto extreme rain in parts of North and South America, even assouthern Africa experiences dry weather. Marine life may beaffected too: El Niño the rising of the cold, nutrient-rich waterthat supports large fish populations, and the unusually warm oceantemperatures can destroy coral.
參考答案
36. N. saw 第一空顯然缺少謂語，優先考慮動詞，結合語義并根據Late November andDecember可以推出應選擇過去式動詞，故答案鎖定saw.
37. F. decades 根據two，首選復數名詞，結合語義，“for the first time in the two decades”,二十年來頭一次。
38. H.globally 句子為主系表結構，不缺主要成分，所以首選副詞和形容詞，根據語義，ever表示“一直以來地、向來地”，“十一月向來是全球范圍內最溫暖的一個月。”
39. D.chances 缺少主語，并且謂語是are，所以首選復數形式的名詞，結合前文Enjoythe snow now, “享受現在的雪吧”，因為“時機是好的”。
40. J.occurs 空格前方有主語，且是單數形式，而后面由when引導的時間狀語從句的時態是一般現在時，所以主句謂語鎖定第三人稱單數形式的動詞，只能選擇occurs.
41. A.specific空格左為定冠詞the，空格右為名詞，中間只能選形容詞，選擇“特定的”符合語義。
42. B. associated 空格左為be動詞，右邊為介詞with，中間只能是形容詞或動詞的過去分詞形式，beassociated with表示“與…有聯系”，符合原意。
43. G.experiences 空格左為主語southern Africa，空格內應該為動詞的第三人稱單詞形式，結合語義，選G，“南非經歷著干燥的天氣。
44. M.reduce 空格左為情態動詞，空格內必須為動詞原形，填reduce“減少”符合原題。
45. K. populations 空格與左邊的large fish 共同構成動詞support的賓語，只能選一個名詞來作為名詞詞組，故選K，“大量的魚群”。
仔細閱讀
第一篇
Everybody sleeps—so goes theSesame Street song meant for obstinately awakechildren. That may be true, but what people stay up late tocatch—or wake up early in order not to miss—varies byculture.
Around the world, people changed sleep patterns thanks to the startor end of daylight savings time. Russians, for example, began towake up about a half-hour later each day after President VladimirPutin shifted the country permanently to “winter time”starting on October 26.
Russia’s other latenights and early mornings generally coincided with public holidays.One such spike was on New Year’s Eve, which Russians tend to ringin with unusual fervor, as well as on World War II Victory Day.According to another Jawbonefinding,Russians have the world's latest bedtime on December 31, hittingthe hay at around 3:30 a.m.
Russians also got upan hour later on International Women’s Day, the day for coddlingand celebrating female relatives.
Similarly, Americans’late nights, late mornings, and longest sleeps coincided withthree-day weekends.
Canada got the leastsleep of the year the night it beat Sweden in the Olympic hockeyfinal.
The World Cup wasalso a major sleep-deprivation culprit. The worst night for sleepin the U.K. was the night of the England-Italy match on June 14.Brits stayed up a half-hour later to watch it, and then they wokeup earlier than usual the next morning thanks to summer nights, thephenomenon in which the sun barely sets in northern countries inthe summertime. That was nothing, though, compared to Germans,Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hour and a halflater on various days throughout the summer to watch theCup.
It should be made clear that not everyone has a device to record their sleep patterns; in some of these nations, it’s likely that only the richest people do. And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person. Even if that’s the case, though, the above findings are still striking. If the most healthconscious among us have such deep swings in our shuteye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing?
參考答案及解析
61題，定位到第一段最后一句“varies byculture”，所以答案選A——They areculture-related.
62題，由題干的大寫名詞Russian定位到第二段和第三段。第二段的“Russian, for example, began towake up about a half-hour later each day”這一句是干擾句，起得晚不一定睡得早，所以答案推不出“他們比其他地方的人睡得更久”。然后看到第三段“Russia’sother late nights and early mornings generally coincided withpublic holidays”，所以答案為C——They don’t sleep much onholidays。
63題，題干問的是歐洲人缺乏睡眠的major cause主要原因是什么，由題干的大寫名詞Europeans’loss定位到倒數第二段的“comparedto Germans, Italians, and the French, who stayed up around an hourand a half later on various days throughout the summer to watch theCup”，原文的Germans, Italians, and theFrench就是題干中“Europeans”的同義改寫，而他們stayed up就是為了to watch theCup，所以說他們缺乏睡眠的原因便是C選項——The World Cup。
64題，問的是富有的人使用設備來記錄他們的睡眠模式的原因。由rich people以及device定位到最后一段第一句，定位句只說到了記錄的事實，而非其原因。按照四級閱讀金三句原則看到定位句的下一句“And people who elect to track their sleep may try to get more sleep than the average person”，記錄睡眠的人是想要得到比普通人更多的睡眠，所以答案是B——Theywant to get sufficient sleep.
65題，問的是作者在最后一段所表達的觀點，定位到最后一句If the most healthconscious among us have such deep swings in our shuteye levels throughout the year, how much sleep are the rest of us losing? 作者提到了health-conscious，人們對健康的意識是缺乏的，對健康是視而不見的，所以答案選B——Fewpeople really know the importance of sleep.
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