【推荐1】Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with given words, fill in each blank with the proper form of the word given; for the other blanks, use one word for each blank that best fits the context.

For almost 500 years, people have wondered what deadly disease wiped out most of the Aztecs (阿芝特克人). The locals called it cocolizthi, and now a team of scientists think they know exactly what that was. The outbreak is considered to be one of     1    (deadly) epidemics (传染病) in human history. For centuries, its cause     2     (debate) by historians. New evidence suggests that the Aztecs died from a type of bacteria called salmonella enterica.

An international team of scientists came to this conclusion     3     analysing the skeletons (骨骼) of 29 Aztecs buried in a cocoliztli cemetery in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. The scientists obtained samples from the teeth of ten of the skeletons. They compared these with their database of bacteria and found traces of salmonella enterica.

Salmonella enterica can cause enteric fever,     4     typhoid (伤寒) is a type. Today, there are around 21 million cases of typhoid worldwide and it is considered     5     global threat.

The Aztecs were fierce hunter-gatherers who settled in     6     is now Mexico at the beginning of the 13th century. From their incredible capital city Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), the Aztecs fought wars with other tribes     7    they ruled much of the region.

The Aztecs ended up controlling large parts of Mesoamerica -now much of Mexico and Central America - until Spanish explorers     8     (arrive) in 1519 and brought with them advanced weapons and deadly diseases. The team believe that the     9     (domesticate) animals, such as goats and horses, which the explorers brought with them carried the deadly bacteria.

By 1545, not even 30 years after the Spanish had arrived, Mexico’s Aztec nation started coming down with a terrible illness. Symptoms included high fever, headaches and bleeding from the eyes, nose and mouth. Within five years, up to 15 million people-- more than 80% of the population at the time-had died from the mystery illness they called cocoliztli. The Aztec people had no immunity (免疫)     10    (fight) the disease.

【推荐2】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.

Cats are actually surprisingly bad at catching rats

If you are annoyed by rats, think twice about getting a cat. A cat might lead to the appearance of a rat-free home, but it turns out that the rats are still there. They are just keeping a low profile.

“Cats are not the natural enemy of rats,” says Michael Parsons of Fordham University, New York. “They prefer smaller prey.”

His team     1     (study) a rat colony at a recycling plant in New York in the past few years. When cats moved into the plant last year, the researchers were disappointed, but decided to set up cameras     2    (monitor) the area.

Over five months, they saw just three attempts by cats to catch rats, only two of     3     succeeded. Cats have good reasons to be cautious. The common rat has large teeth that can give a painful bite and carry lots of diseases. They also weigh 340 grams on average     4     (compare) with 25 grams for a mouse.

Parsons thinks that only starving cats will attempt to catch rats     5     the rats are sick or injured. The two rats killed during the team’s study     6     have been weakened by eating poisoned food, he says.

However, cats do have a big influence on rat behavior. “Rats overestimate the risk caused by cats,” says Parsons. His team found that when cats are in the area, rats spend much more time in     7     (hide) and move around cautiously. That means they are much less likely to be seen by people, which could explain     8     most people wrongly think cats are good at killing rats.

Some cat owners may    9     (convince) their pets are excellent ratters. But Parsons has found that many people mistake mice     10     rats. That said, it is possible there are a few exceptional cats that do take on healthy, adult rats, he says.

【推荐3】阅读下列材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Drinking a glass of juice is supposed to be the healthy way     1    (start) the day. But it might not be as     2    (benefit) as you think and could be harmful. Scientists claim fruit juice contains so much sugar that it actually     3    (increase) the risk of certain cancers, rather than preventing them. In fact, by the time the drink has been processed and packed, many of the ingredients in fruit that protect    4    tumors (肿瘤) have been lost, they say.

Australian researchers sought to establish how effective different fruits, vegetables and juice were at    5    (prevent) the    6    (develop) of bowel cancer. They examined the diets of 2,200 adults,    7     filled in a questionnaire detailing their daily eating habits. The team then tracked    8    participants for two years to see how many of them developed the disease.    9    (surprise) , they found that eating apples, sprouts(芽), cauliflower (花椰菜) or broccoli (西兰花) on a daily basis all reduced the likelihood. However, those who drank lots of fruit juice had a     10    ( high) risk.