第二节 完型填空(共20小题;每小题1.5分，满分30分)

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上涂黑。

Books serve as stepping stones to human progress and civilization. Since the pre-historic times, man has had an    36   to   37   his needs. Be it hunger, shelter or search for a mate, he has always dealt with the circumstances to the best of his  38   . This might be the reason why we human are the most developed of all living species on the earth, and  39   also in the universe.   40  we climbed the steps of evolution with giant   41  , we somehow left   42  common sense and logical thinking ---- we forgot   43    we have stopped thinking ahead of times.

If you are hungry, what do you do? Grab a piece of your favorite meal and stay quiet after that?   44  your stomach, even your mind is hungry. But it never lets you know, because you keep it busy thinking about your dream lover, favorite star and many such unreasonable things. So it silently begins to focus on your needs and never lets itself   45  . When mind loses its freedom to develop, creativity gets a full  46   . This might be the reason why we all sometimes think "What happens next?", "Why can't I think?", "Why am I always given the difficult problems?"  Well, this is the cause and  47   of using our brain for thinking of  48    things.

49   of the mind can be actually satisfied through extensive reading. Now why reading and not watching TV? Because reading has been the most  50   tool used by us right from the childhood. Just like that to develop other aspects of our life, we have to take  51   of reading. You have innumerable number of books in this world which will answer all your "How to?" questions. Once you read a book, you just don't   52   your eyes through the lines, but even your mind understands it and explains it to you. The interesting part of the book is stored in your mind as a seed. Now this seed is   53   used by you in your future to develop new ideas. The same seed if used many times, can help you link and relate a lot of things, which you would have never thought of in your wildest dreams! This is nothing but   54  .  More the number of books you read, your mind will open up like   55    before.

36. A. urge      B. excitement    C. expectation   D. idea

37.A. carter     B. suit          C. provide      D. achieve

38. A. interests   B. beliefs       C. standards     D. advantages

39. A. naturally   B. actually      C. probably     D. certainly

40.A. As        B. Because      C. However     D. Whenever

41. A. gaps      B. efforts        C. leaps       D. consequences

42. A. off        B. behind       C. over         D. with

43.A. that       B. how          C. why         D. what

44. A. Just with   B. As with       C. Regardless of  D. In spite of

45. A. happen     B. go           C. increase      D. grow

46. A. stop       B. end          C. failure        D. rest

47. A. result      B. effect         C. ending      D. conclusion

48. A. priceless    B. helpless       C. meaningless   D. hopeless

49. A. Hunger     B. Eagerness     C. Peacefulness  D. Creativity

50. A. handy      B. convenient    C. practical      D. educative

51. A. help        B. notice        C. care      D. consideration

52. A. let          B. keep         C. run        D. concentrate

53. A. unknowingly  B. increasingly  C. surprisingly  D. unavoidably

54. A. happiness     B. success     C. creativity    D. progress

55. A. never        B. ever        C. as          D. even

第三部分：阅读理解(共20小题，每题2分，满分40分)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

Former President Jimmy Carter believes U.S central intelligence agency is spying on him — so much so, he gives up email to avoid government spies.

"You know, I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored," Carter told NBC's Andrea Mitchell in an interview broadcast Sunday. "And when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write a letter myself, put it in the post office and mail it.

"I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored," Carter continued.

The 89-year-old said the National Security Agency and others have abused the argument that gathering intelligence is important to homeland security.

"That has been extremely liberalized and, I think, abused by our own intelligence agencies," Carter said.

The 39th president, however, stopped short of criticizing No. 44 over the handling of the N.S.A. scandal(丑闻), the crisis in Ukraine or anything else.

"I don't have any criticism of him," Carter said of Obama.

He was asked if the president ever asks him for advice.

"Unfortunately, the answer is no," Carter said. "President Obama doesn't. But previous presidents have called on me and the Carter Center to take action."

Why not Obama?

"That's a hard question for me to answer, you know, with complete directness," he said. "I think the problem was that in dealing with the issue of peace between Israel and Egypt, the Carter Center took a very strong and public position of equal treatment between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And I think this was a sensitive area in which the president didn't want to be involved."

56. Former President Cater is being spied because________

A. he has stolen state secrets for personal interests

B. he knows so much secret information about President Obama

C. he holds political views about regional conflicts that differ from Obama’s

D. he refuses to provide advice for Obama’s administration

57. Which can be concluded from the whole passage?

A. Carter has to turn to letters instead of emails for communications for the sake of domestic security

B. Emails are easily monitored because computers have easy access to the internet

C. Carter is not the only president alone who is being spied by the government

D. Carter is the thirty-ninth president and Obama is the forty-fourth

58. In Carter’s judgment, who is monitoring him secretly?

A. NSA          B. NBC        C. NASA         D. CIA

59. Which of the following is NOT true according to the report?

A. Carter reveals the fact that he is being spied during an interview broadcast

B. Obama has never asked Carter for political advice

C. Carter totally supports Obama in dealing with sensitive issues

D. Carter is now in his late nineties

B

In its latest step to attract Chinese smartphone users, e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said it is planning to launch a mobile gaming service soon.

Alibaba is considering integrating(整合) its new mobile gaming service into its messaging app, Laiwang, as well as its Mobile Taobao app for online shopping, a person familiar with the matter said. It is also planning to launch the gaming service as a standalone app, the person said.

In the world of gaming and other mobile-based services, Alibaba faces powerful competitor Tencent Holdings Ltd., a giant in online gaming and social networking services. Many analysts view Tencent as a leader in mobile-based businesses in China because of its popular WeChat instant-messaging app, which has over 272 million monthly active users worldwide according to the company. Tencent could use WeChat's massive user base to offer additional mobile services such as gaming or e-commerce, analysts say.

Alibaba's push into mobile-based services hasn't always been smooth. It launched Laiwang more than a year ago, but the app, which competes against WeChat, struggled to gain popularity. In September, a person familiar with the situation said Alibaba was in talks with China Telecom Corp., to have the app preinstalled in smartphones sold by the country's third-largest mobile carrier. According to Alibaba, Laiwang had more than 10 million registered users as of November.

Alibaba dominates China's e-commerce market with its Taobao and Tmall shopping sites, but one of the biggest challenges it faces is how to hold onto its vast user base when more Chinese Internet users access online services from smartphones. To meet this challenge, Alibaba has made several acquisitions to strengthen its mobile-based services. Last year, it took an 18% stake(股份) in Sina Corp.'s Twitter-like Weibo service and integrated some of Taobao's e-commerce services with the microblog. It also bought a 28% stake in mobile mapping firm AutoNavi Holdings Ltd., a move that could enable Alibaba to send location-based ads to smartphone users.

60. Why does Alibaba plan to launch a mobile gaming services? ______

A. Alibaba wants to take more shares in the market of mobile-based services

B. Alibaba wants to sell more goods to customers

C. Alibaba wants to maintain its status as e-commerce leader

D. Alibaba wants to try something new in gaming services

61. Which of the following is true of Alibaba? _________

A. Alibaba is second to none in mobile-based social networking services

B. Both Laiwang messaging app and WeChat messaging app are developed by Alibaba

C. Alibaba’s entry into mobile-based services has always been successful

D. Alibaba has a cooperation with China Telcom Corp to attract more smartphone users

62. What can’t be concluded from the passage? ______

A. Tencent is now the largest online gaming and social networking service provider for smartphone users

B. WeChat instant-messaging app has over 272 million active users across the world annually

C. Two famous shopping sites Taobao and Tmall are now in the charge of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

D. Alibaba has ever had successful experiences in cooperating with mobile companies

63. Where can the passage above most probably be found ? _______

A. In a product booklet               B. In a travel journal

C. In an investment report             D. In a financial magazine

C

For the first time, scientists have found a planet beyond the solar system that not only is the same size as Earth, but has the same proportions of iron and rock, a key step in an ongoing quest to find potentially habitable sister worlds.

The planet, known as Kepler-78b, circles a star that is slightly smaller than the sun located in the constellation Cygnus(天鹅座), about 400 light years away.

Kepler-78b was discovered last year with NASA's now-idled Kepler space telescope, which detected potential planets as they circled in front of their parent stars, blocking a bit of light.

That measurement not only revealed that Kepler-78b was relatively small, with a diameter just 20 percent larger than Earth's, but that it was practically orbiting on the surface of its host star.

Scientists do not know how the planets ended up so close to their host stars.

While the planet's presumably molten surface and hot temperatures make it ill-suited for life, two independent teams of astronomers jumped at the opportunity to follow up the discovery with ground-based measurements to try to determine the density of Kepler-78b.

In two papers in this week's journal Nature, the teams report that not only were they successful, but that they came to the same conclusion: Kepler-78b has roughly the same density as Earth, suggesting that it also is made primarily of rock and iron.

Kepler-78b is among a dozen or so recently discovered small planets that orbit very close to their parent stars. Kepler-78b, for example, completes an orbit in just 8.5 hours.

64. Which of the following is right according the passage? ________

A. Kepler-78b is a newly-found planet in the solar system

B. Although relatively small, Kepler-78b has many properties that are similar to those of the earth

C. Kepler-78b has the same orbit circling the sun as the earth does

D. The earth is relatively larger than Kepler-78b both in size and in diameter

65. Scientists are still not sure about Kepler-78b ________

A. whether it is a place suitable for life to live on

B. why it circles so close to its host star

C. how long it takes to orbit its parent star in a circle

D. what it basically consists of

66. The word “ density” in the text suggests a measurement of the planet’s _____.

A. volume        B. size        C. weight       D. thickness

67. We can infer from the passage that _______

A. Scientists have never before found a planet beyond the solar system

B. Kepler-78b is the only one of the planets found till now that has been orbiting so close to its parent star

C. Kepler-78b is much alike the earth in size, proportions of iron and rock, and density

D. Among recently discovered small planets, it takes Kepler-78b the shortest time to complete an orbit

D

Thousands of cities around the globe turned off their lights for an hour to mark Earth Hour 2014, a symbolic show of support for the environment organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Since the movement began in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, it has spread to more than 7,000 cities across more than 160 countries. Singapore continues to hold one of the world's largest lights-off events, drawing around 9,000 people this year to Marina Bay Sands, a commercial center typically awash in electricity.

To mark the event actors Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx, Emma Stone and a group of other famous stars from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie were in town.

Other iconic landmarks that fell dark included the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok's Wat Arun temple, the Empire State Building in New York, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sydney Opera House, Red Square in Moscow, the Bird's Nest in Beijing and Hong Kong Harbor.

As the movement has grown, more organizations and business have committed to switching off their lights in support of efforts to reduce their environmental footprint. In Singapore, at least 600 organizations and companies agreed to either switch off their lights or participate in movements to use fewer plastic bags, take shorter showers, turn up their air-conditioning units or switch to LED lighting.

This year the World Wide Fund for Nature, which first launched worldwide Earth Hour, also launched Earth Hour Blue, a crowdfunding platform aimed at raising money for environmental projects around the globe. On Mar. 26 a project to stop the illegal wildlife trade in Asia by providing assistance to wildlife rangers became the first one to reach its target of $20,000 by relying completely on crowdfunding.

The hour-long event has little if any impact on electricity consumption, but as an awareness raising event it has registered success.

In a statement to mark Saturday's event, Andy Ridley, CEO and Co-Founder of Earth Hour, said Asia’s rapidly growing digital presence is an added bonus that has helped power our movement.

68. Which of the following may serve as the best title of the passage? ____

A. Earth Hour 2014              B. Save Our Earth

C. Lights-Off Event              D. Earth Hour Blue

69. We can infer from the report that _______

A. Australia and Singapore were the first two countries to launch Earth Hour

B. More than 7000 cities from 160 countries took part in Earth Hour 2014

C. Some famous movie stars from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were invited to Singapore to celebrate the event

D. The World Wide Fund for Nature first organized Earth Hour worldwide

70. How many different specific places are mentioned in the text to have participated in Earth Hour 2014 across the world?

A. 7          B. 8           C. 9       D. 10

71. Based on the report, which of the following statements is NOT correct? ____

A. Marina Bay Sands is a commercial town located in Singapore

B. Earth Hour Blue is a platform intended to collect money for environmental projects around the globe

C. Andy Ridley is the chief executive officer of Earth Hour and one of its founders.

D. LED lighting is an energy-saving device which doesn’t use electricity

E

Older fathers have uglier children, researchers have claimed after linking age to genetic mutations(变异).

The finding comes weeks after leading scientists reported children born to men over the age of 45 run a higher risk of having autism and mental disorders.

With age, sperm(精子)-producing cells do not copy a man’s DNA as effectively, leading to genetic mutations.

Martin Fielder, an anthropologist(人类学家) at Vienna University, told the Sunday Times: 'Every 16 years the mutation rate doubles. Other researchers found 25 mutations per sperm in a 20-year-old, but at age 40 it is 65 mutations. By 56, it doubles again.

The effect is very visible - someone born to a father of 22 is already 5-10 per cent more attractive than those with a 40-year-old father and the difference grows with the age gap.

In contrast, women pass on a maximum of 15 mutations to their baby, regardless of age, according to the study published in the journal Nature.

Surveying a group of six men and six women, researchers showed them each 4,018 photographs of 18-20-year-old men and 4,416 of women the same age, and asked to assess their attractiveness.

Those with older fathers were consistently considered less attractive.