Cloze Human beings are animals. We breathe, eat and digest, and reproduce the same life 1 common to all animals. In a biological laboratory rats, monkeys, and humans seem very much the same. However, biological understanding is not enough: 2 itself, it can never tell us what human beings are. 3 to our physical equipment the naked human body—we are not an 4 animal. We are tropical creatures, 5 hairless and sensitive to cold. We are not fast and have neither claws nor sharp teeth to defend ourselves. We need a lot of food but have almost no physical equipment to help us get it. In the purely physical 6 ; our species seems a poor 7 for survival. But we have survived—survived and multiplied and 8 the earth. Some day we will have a 9 living on the moon, a place with neither air nor water and with temperatures that turn gases into solids. How can we have done all these things? Part of the answer is physical. 10 its limitations, our physical equipment has some important 11 . We have excellent vision and hands that can 12 objects with a precision unmatched by any other 13 . Most importantly, we have a large brain with an almost 14 number of neural 15 .
1.
A.processes
B.acts
C.modes
D.procedures
A B C D
A
[解析] life processes意为“生命历程”,在这里符合题意。C项modes意为“方式,方法”;D项procedures意为“程序,手续,常规”。例如:The new work procedure is a great improvement on/over the old one.新工序比起老工序来是一个巨大的改进。
2.
A.On
B.With
C.For
D.By
A B C D
D
[解析] By itself为习惯用语,意为“独自地,单独地”。例如:The house stands by itself outside the village.这幢房子孤单地坐落在村外。所以D项为正确答案,即可排除A、B、C项。
3.
A.Stripped
B.Pared
C.Peeled
D.Removed
A B C D
A
[解析] A项strip意为“脱去,剥去”;B项pare意为“削去,剥去(外皮),(常与off,away连用)修剪,(常与away,down连用)削减”;C项peel意为“(常与off连用)去(皮或壳等)”。例如:The wallpaper is peeling off.壁纸正在剥落。D项remove意为“移动”。
[解析] A项fill意为“注满,用……装满”,fill the earth意为“遍布地球”,强调分布范围之广。A项符合题意。B项load意为“装载;大量供给,负荷,重担,装载量,加载”;C项stuff意为“塞入,塞满”;D项意为scatter“分散,散开”。
9.
A.residence
B.colony
C.home
D.empire
A B C D
B
[解析] 从下文中可找到提示:“Inhabitants of our eventual moon colony will bring their own food...”,故选B项colony,意为“殖民地,侨民”;A项residence意为“居住,住处”;D项empire意为“帝国,帝权”。
10.
A.Apart from
B.With regard to
C.With the exception of
D.In spite of
A B C D
D
[解析] 根据题意,应选择表示让步关系的In spite of,意为“尽管”,例如:In spite of great efforts we failed to carry our plans through.尽管我们作出了巨大努力,我们还是没能完成计划。A项Apart from和C项With the exception of意为“除……之外”,B项With regard to意为“关于”,即可排除A、B、C项。
In our contemporary culture, the prospect of communicating with—or even looking at—a stranger is virtually unbearable. Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they fiddle with their phones, even without a 16 underground. It's a sad reality—our desire to avoid interacting with other human beings—because there's 17 to be gained from talking to the stranger standing by you. But you wouldn't know it, 18 into your phone. This universal armor sends the 19 : "Please don't approach me." What is it that makes us feel we need to hide 20 our screens? One answer is fear, according to Jon Wortmann, executive mental coach. We fear rejection, or that our innocent social advances will be 21 as "creepy." We fear we'll be 22 . We fear we'll be disruptive. Strangers are inherently 23 to us, so we are more likely to feel 24 when communicating with them compared with our friends and acquaintances. To avoid this anxiety, we 25 to our phones. "Phones become our security blanket," Wortmann says. "They are our happy glasses that protect us from what we perceive is going to be more 26 ." But once we rip off the bandaid, tuck our smartphones in our pockets and look up, it doesn't 27 so bad. In one 2011 experiment, behavioral scientists Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder asked commuters to do the unthinkable: Start a 28 . They had Chicago train commuters talk to their fellow 29 . "When Dr. Epley and Ms. Schroeder asked other people in the same train station to 30 how they would feel after talking to a stranger, the commuters thought their 31 would be more pleasant if they sat on their own," The New York Times summarizes. Though the participants didn't expect a positive experience, after they 32 with the experiment, "not a single person reported having been snubbed." 33 , these commuters were reportedly more enjoyable compared with those sans communication, which makes absolute sense, 34 human beings thrive off of social connections. It's that 35 : Talking to strangers can make you feel connected.