Question

【題目】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.

Over-dried Earth

The south-west of the United States, together with some parts of Mexico across the Rio Grande, is one of the driest parts of the North American continent. But, over the past two decades, even that expected dryness 【1】 (take) to the limit. According to Park Williams, who works at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the current lack of rainfall in the area constitutes a megadrought of a severity 【2】(see) on only four other occasions in the past 1,200 years.

Dr Williams studies the annual growth rings of 1,586 ancient trees, in order to reconstruct soil-moisture patterns going back to 800 A.D. During warm, wet years trees grow fast, producing wide rings. During cold, dry 【3】 they grow more slowly, producing narrow rings. During a drought, a tree 【4】 not grow much at all.

【5】they describe in this week’s Science, the team identified dozens of droughts over the centuries in question. But four stood out. They then took the average soil-moisture value for the current drought and compared it with sequential（連續(xù)的） 19-year averages with the previous four, one of them 【6】(last) nearly a century. This showed that the region is already drier than it was during the first three of the previous megadroughts, and is equivalent to the event of 1575-1603.

In a world 【7】 human actions are driving temperatures up, Dr Parker and his colleagues wondered how much people are 【8】(blame) for this state of affairs. To estimate that, they turned to climate modelling.

Climate models are able to re-run the past with and 【9】 the warming effects of human activity, offering a way to compare what actually happened with what might have done. In their simulated world in which anthropogenic（人類起源的） emissions had not increased the greenhouse-gas effect, the team found that a drought did indeed still influence the western reaches of North America during the first two decades of the 21st century. But this imaginary dry spell was considerably 【10】(severe) than the real one-ranking 11th rather than 2nd in the period under study (see chart).

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】has been taken

【2】seen

【3】ones

【4】might /may

【5】As

【6】lasting

【7】where

【8】to blame

【9】without

【10】less severe

【解析】

本文是說(shuō)明文。文章以美國(guó)和墨西哥的部分地區(qū)為例，講述了科學(xué)家對(duì)過(guò)度干燥的地球的研究。研究表明，人類活動(dòng)對(duì)于對(duì)球變得過(guò)熱起到了推動(dòng)的作用。

【1】考查時(shí)態(tài)和語(yǔ)態(tài)。句意：但是，在過(guò)去的二十年中，預(yù)期的干旱也已達(dá)到極限了。由時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)over the past two decades可知，句子使用現(xiàn)在完成時(shí)，主語(yǔ)dryness承受動(dòng)詞take的動(dòng)作，謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞使用被動(dòng)語(yǔ)態(tài)，并且主語(yǔ)為不可數(shù)名詞，謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞用單數(shù)形式。故填has been taken。

【2】考查過(guò)去分詞。句意：根據(jù)哥倫比亞大學(xué)拉蒙特-多爾蒂地球觀測(cè)站工作的帕克·威廉姆斯的說(shuō)法，該地區(qū)目前的降雨不足造成了特大干旱，其嚴(yán)重程度在過(guò)去的1200年中僅在其他四個(gè)場(chǎng)合出現(xiàn)過(guò)。megadrought of a severity承受動(dòng)詞see的動(dòng)作，使用過(guò)去分詞作后置定語(yǔ)。故填seen。

【3】考查不定代詞。句意：在寒冷干燥的季節(jié)，它們生長(zhǎng)較慢，產(chǎn)生狹窄的年輪。為避免重復(fù)，使用ones代替前面的復(fù)數(shù)名詞years。故填ones。

【4】考查情態(tài)動(dòng)詞。句意：在干旱期間，樹可能不會(huì)長(zhǎng)很多。根據(jù)語(yǔ)境，此處填入情態(tài)動(dòng)詞表示推測(cè)，意為“可能”。故填might/may。

【5】考查定語(yǔ)從句的引導(dǎo)詞。句意：正如他們?cè)诒局艿摹犊茖W(xué)》雜志上描述的那樣，研究小組確定了幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來(lái)發(fā)生的數(shù)十次干旱。分析句子結(jié)構(gòu)可知，此處需填入連詞as引導(dǎo)定語(yǔ)從句，并指代逗號(hào)后面的句子，意為“正如”。故填As。

【6】考查現(xiàn)在分詞。句意：然后，他們獲取了當(dāng)前干旱的平均土壤水分值，并將其與連續(xù)19年的平均值進(jìn)行了比較，并將其與前四個(gè)平均值進(jìn)行比較，其中一個(gè)數(shù)值持續(xù)了近一個(gè)世紀(jì)。分析句子結(jié)構(gòu)可知，逗號(hào)后面的last的作為動(dòng)詞使用，應(yīng)填入非謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞的形式，oneofthem發(fā)出last的動(dòng)作，因此應(yīng)使用現(xiàn)在分詞的形式。故填lasting。

【7】考查定語(yǔ)從句的引導(dǎo)詞。句意：在這個(gè)人類舉動(dòng)加劇氣溫的世界中，帕克博士和他的同事們想知道人類應(yīng)該為這種狀況負(fù)多少責(zé)任。分析句子結(jié)構(gòu)可知，此處需填入連詞引導(dǎo)定語(yǔ)從句，先行詞是world，它在從句中作地點(diǎn)狀語(yǔ)。故填where。

【8】考查固定短語(yǔ)。句意：在這個(gè)人類舉動(dòng)加劇氣溫的世界中，帕克博士和他的同事們想知道人類應(yīng)該為這種狀況負(fù)多少責(zé)任。be to blame for：為……應(yīng)該受到責(zé)備，為……承擔(dān)責(zé)任，這是固定用法。故填to blame。

【9】考查介詞。句意：氣候模型能夠在有和沒(méi)有人類活動(dòng)帶來(lái)變暖影響的情況下重現(xiàn)過(guò)去，從而提供一種比較實(shí)際發(fā)生的事情和可能做過(guò)的事情的方式。由下文的“anthropogenic emissions had not increased the greenhouse-gas effect（人為排放并沒(méi)有增加溫室氣體的影響）”可知，此處應(yīng)填入介詞with的反義詞without，即without the warming effects of human activity（沒(méi)有人類活動(dòng)導(dǎo)致的變暖影響），這兩部分是同義表達(dá)。故填without。

【10】考查形容詞的比較級(jí)。句意：但是，同期的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)這種虛構(gòu)的干旱沒(méi)有真正的排名第11的干旱嚴(yán)重卻比排名第2的嚴(yán)重（參見(jiàn)圖表）。由than可知，形容詞severe應(yīng)使用比較級(jí)的形式。結(jié)合圖表信息可知，表示“程度沒(méi)有那么嚴(yán)重”應(yīng)使用less+形容詞。故填less severe。

現(xiàn)在完成時(shí)主動(dòng)語(yǔ)態(tài)：have/has + done；現(xiàn)在完成時(shí)的被動(dòng)語(yǔ)態(tài)：have/has＋been done；現(xiàn)在完成時(shí)常用的標(biāo)志性時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)：already，ever，never，yet，just，before，still，lately，since，for a long time，up to now，until，so far，in the last few years/weeks/months，till now，recently等。小題1詳解考查時(shí)態(tài)和語(yǔ)態(tài)。句意：但是，在過(guò)去的二十年中，預(yù)期的干旱也已達(dá)到極限了。由時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)over the past two decades可知，句子使用現(xiàn)在完成時(shí)，主語(yǔ)dryness承受動(dòng)詞take的動(dòng)作，謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞使用被動(dòng)語(yǔ)態(tài)，并且主語(yǔ)為不可數(shù)名詞，謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞用單數(shù)形式。故填has been taken。