1 . 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.
I won’t call myself the most accomplished person when it comes to     1    (hold) chopsticks. In fact, I’m pretty sure that my technique looks clumsy at times. I tend to hold     2     (I) in the middle, more beginner than expert.
Still, since I eat almost every meal with the eating utensil(器皿) of choice in China it’s not uncommon for a new friend or acquaintance to come to a simple     3     (conclude) after observing me that my Chinese husband, Jun, must     4     (show) me how to use them.
They are wrong. I’ve used chopsticks ever since I was a teenager, a time when my sister and mother were both fond of Chinese cuisine and introduced me     5     many new dishes, along with the     6     (prefer) utensils in China. We always kept bamboo chopsticks along with our     7     (knife), forks and spoons, ready for whenever we happened to have Chinese food for dinner. It was my closest family     8     observed my first mistakes I made in using chopsticks.
Plus, I lived over two years in China before Jun and I started dating and I     9     (expect) to use chopsticks in almost every restaurant, stand and bar. Trust me, when you’re hungry you figure out pretty fast what it takes to down(咽下)    10     meal with these utensils.

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.

Rescue in the Rapids

ON A BREEZY Saturday in April 2014, former police officer Kevin O’Connor and his son, Ryan, were standing in a park near the Fox River in Geneva, Illinois. As Kevin gazed at the river, he caught sight of several people on the bank     1    (motion) toward the water. When he looked in that direction, he noticed a bright red boat turning in a spinning circle in the stormy water at the base of the Geneva Dam，300 feet away.

Kevin assumed the person on the boat     2     (jump) out of it. “Then I heard a warning signal with a loud sound,” says Kevin, now 42. “That’s     3    I realized somebody was in trouble.”

He couldn’t see anyone in the river,     4    he sped toward the bank and dashed into the freezing water. About 150 feet from shore, he spied an object moving downriver. “I thought it was a life jacket,” he says. “When I caught up to it, I realized it     5     (attach) to a person.”

Now in water up to his neck, Kevin grabbed the man,     6    was floating on his back unconscious, under both armpits and held his head above the surface. Kevin struck the man’s chest again and again. After five hits, the man coughed up water and began speaking incoherently. Just back to life, the man was still weak. Battling the current, Kevin sidestepped his way     7    the shoreline, repeatedly digging his shoes into the river’s rocky bottom. When he reached the bank, someone jumped into the river and helped Kevin lift the 200-pound drowning man over a six-foot brick retaining wall to waiting doctors, who took him away in an ambulance. The man recovered, but a friend who was boating with him died after being trapped underwater near the dam.

Kevin pulled     8    up to sit on the shore beside Ryan, who had followed his father’s path down the river. “When I caught my breath, I realized I saved someone’s life, which is what I     9    do.” Kevin says.

In December 2015, Kevin received an award from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. “Lots of honour-receivers lost their lives saving someone,” he says. “     10     (put) in the same category is very humbling.”

3 . 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.

(Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my house in Bethesda, Md. No card or note came with it.)

I don’t remember ever slamming my door     1     anger at her and shouting, “You just don’t understand!” Because she did understand.

One month before my high-school graduation, my father died of a heart attack. My feelings ranged from grief to abandonment, fear and over-whelming anger that my dad was missing some of     2    (important) events in my life. I became completely uninterested in my upcoming graduation, the senior-class play and the prom. But my mother, in the midst of her own grief,     3     not hear of my skipping any of those things.

The day before my father died, my mother and I     4     (go) shopping for a prom dress. We’d found a spectacular one, with yards of dotted Swiss in red, white and blue.     5     made me feel like Scarlett O’ Hara, but it was the wrong size. When my father died, I forgot the dress.

My mother didn’t. The day before the prom, I found that dress – in the right size – draped majestically over the living room sofa. It     6    (present) to me – beautifully, artistically, lovingly. I didn’t care if I had a new dress or not. But my mother did. She wanted her children to feel     7     (love) and lovable, creative and imaginative, imbued with a sense    8     there was magic in the world and beauty in the face of adversity. In truth, my mother wanted her children to see     9     much like the gardenia – lovely, strong and perfect – with an aura of magic and perhaps a bit of mystery.

My mother died ten days after I was married, I was 22. That was the year the gardenias stopped     10     (come).

4 . A horse named Justice sues his former owner

When Justice was discovered on the property of his former owner in Washington County, Oregon, the 8-year-old horse was     1     extremely bad shape. He was very thin and had suffered severe frostbite(冻伤). He was also covered with lice and had a serious case of rain rot, a bacterial skin infection that causes painful scabbing(斑疤).

A neighbor reported Justice’s condition in March 2017. The horse, who had been left for months without adequate food and shelter,     2     (take) in by Sound Equine Options, a rescue and rehabilitation organization,     3     he received medical treatment to save his life.

In May, Justice became party to a groundbreaking lawsuit     4     (sue) his former owner “to recover the costs of his ongoing medical care and his pain and suffering,” according to The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), a legal advocacy group for animals that is representing Justice in his lawsuit.

“ALDF decided to represent Justice in this lawsuit not only because of his great need, but also because we felt he     5     win,” ALDF attorney Sarah Hanneken tells MNN. “Oregon has exemplary(典型的) animal-protection laws, and, given the details of Justice’s situation, we determined he has a strong case under a legal theory called ‘negligence(疏忽)per se.’”

According to Hanneken, “Negligence per se is a doctrine that essentially says, ‘    6     you are negligent and break a law resulting in someone getting hurt, the injured person who was protected by that law can sue you.’”

The case is back in the news now because     7     defendant(被告) filed a motion to dismiss the case. ADLF expected this, and is fighting to keep the case in court. A hearing will be scheduled     8     (decide) the next step.

This is the first time the doctrine     9     (apply) to an animal. If the lawsuit is successful, according to ALDF, it “would be the first to establish     10     animals have a legal right to sue their abusers in court.”

5 . 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.

Benjamin West, the father of American painting, showed his talent for art when he was only six years of age. But he did not know about brushes before     1     visitor told him he needed one. In those days, a brush was made from camel’s hair. There were no camels nearby. Benjamin decided that cat hair would work instead. He cut some fur from the family cat     2     (make) a brush.

The brush did not last long. Soon Benjamin needed more fur. Before long, the cat began to look ragged（蓬乱）. His father said that the cat     3     be sick. Benjamin     4     (force) to admit what he had been doing.

The cat’s lot was about to improve. That year, one of Benjamin’s cousins, Mr. Pennington, came to visit. He was impressed with Benjamin’s drawings.     5     he went home, he sent Benjamin a box for paint and some brushes. He also sent six engravings（版画）by an artist.     6     were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had even seen. In 1747, when Benjamin was nine years old, Mr. Pennington returned for another visit. He was amazed at     7     Benjamin had done with his gift. He asked Benjamin’s parents     8     he might take the boy to Philadelphia for a visit.

In the city, Mr. Pennington gave Benjamin materials for creating oil paintings. The boy began a landscape painting. William Williams, a well-known painter, came to see him work. Williams was impressed with Benjamin and gave him two classic books on painting to take home. The books were long and dull. Benjamin could read only a little,     9     (be) a poor student. But he later said, “Those two books were my companions by day, and     10     my pillow at night.” While it is likely that he understood very little of the books, they were his introduction to classical paintings. The nine-year-old boy decided then that he would be an artist.

6 . 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.

One night about nine o'clock, Dr. Eyck had a phone call from Dr. Haydon at the hospital in Clens Falls. Dr. Eyck was asked to go there at once to operate     1     a very sick boy who shot himself while playing with a gun.

Dr. Eyck was soon on his way to Clens Falls. It was 60 miles away. And it     2    （snow）heavily in the city. He thought he     3     get there before 12 o'clock. A few minutes later, the doctor     4    （stop）by a man in an old black coat. Gun in hand, the man ordered the doctor     5    （get）out. Then he drove the car down the road, leaving the doctor in the     6    （fall）snow while playing with a gun.

It was two o'clock in the morning     7     the doctor arrived at the hospital in Clens Falls. Dr. Haydon told him that the boy     8    （die）an hour before. When they walked by the door of the hospital waiting room, there sat the man in the old black coat with his head in his hands.

“Mr. Cunningham,” said Dr. Haydon to the man, “This is Dr. Eyck. He is the surgeon who came all the way from Albany to save your boy.”

7 . 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.

A twist of fate

When Tamara Rabi met Adriana Scott at a local McDonald’s restaurant, their lives changed forever. “I didn’t know what to say     1     ‘hi’. I was just so shocked -- it was like seeing myself,” says Adriana. They were both students at neighbouring universities in Long Island, New York, and they had grown up only 30 kilometres apart. They shared a birthday, they were exactly the same height and both loved hip hop. But the most important thing     2     was shared between them was the same Mexican mother. Both girls grew up knowing that their mother     3     (give) them up for adoption when they were born, but they had no idea     4     they had a twin sister. Then, Justin Lattore, a friend of Adriana’s, went to Tamara’s twentieth birthday party. When he walked in and saw Tamara, hardly     5     he believe his eyes. “I was just shocked -- she looked so much like Adriana,” says Justin. Then it got clear -- they had to be sisters. In fact, Tamara had already noticed that strangers on her university campus often smiled and said hello, clearly     6     (mistake) her for someone else.

Following the birthday, Justin put the two girls in touch and they arranged the McDonald’s meeting by email. “    7     she came towards me, she was walking like me, talking like me,” says Tamara. “We have the same mannerisms, the same interests and got the same grades at school,” adds Adriana. The girl even discovered that as children they had often had the same nightmare of a really loud noise     8     (follow) by a very quiet one. They had another sad factor in common.     9     of their adoptive fathers had died a few years before they met.

Now the twins are finishing their studies, and they meet often. “I feel she’s my sister, but our relationship right now is more like friends,” says Tamara. She’s optimistic and excited that their futures will be together. “We will always have each other. We don’t have any other brothers and sisters -- we are sure     10     (grow) old together!”