42 the diagnosis. We weren’t angry about it, luckily, 43 we’d seen so many patients in 44 situations, and we knew that 45 is a part of life. But it's one thing to know that; it was a very 46 experience to actually live with the sadness and 47 of a serious illness.

As a poem says, “Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is sewn with its color.” For me that poem 48 my love for Paul, and a new strength that came from loving and losing him. When Paul said, “It’s going to be O,” that didn’t mean that we could 49 his illness. 50 , we learned to accept both joy and sadness at the same time because we are all born and we all die. 51 ourselves in the full range of experience—living and dying, love and 52 —is what we get to do. When we approach suffering together and choose not to 53 it, our lives don’t shrink; they 54 . Our job isn’t to fight fate, but to help each other 55 . That’s how we make it O, even when it’s not. 36. A. control 37. A. whisper 38. A. ceased 39. A. stand

B. test

C. notice

C. cry

D. care

D. think

B. watch

B. rejected C. delayed C. assess

D. missed D. contain D. enlarged D. position D. rid

D. until D. disastrous

B. approach B. deepened B. will

40. A. transformed 41. A. status 42. A. cure 43. A. because 44. A. stable 45. A. love

C. refreshed C. knowledge C. fight

B. accept

B. once

C. providing C. impressive

B. virtual B. cancer

C. death D. devotion D. terrifying

D. influence

46. A. different B. unforgettable B. risk

C. reluctant C. uncertainty C. sets out

47. A. prevention

48. A. brings forward 49. A. confirm 50. A. Instead 51. A. Burying 52. A. divorce

B. figures out

B. resist

D. calls up

D. relieve

C. cure

B. Therefore

C. However

D. Moreover

D. Enjoying

B. Involving

C. Employing

B. struggle B. laugh at B. expand B. over

C. loss C. get over C. switch C. up

D. disagreement D. wipe out D. continue D. through

53. A. hide from 54. A. survive 55. A. away

第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题；每小题 2分, 满分 30分）

请认真阅读下列短文, 从短文后各题所给的A、 B、 C、 D四个选项中，选出最佳选项, 并在答题

纸上将该项涂黑。

A

100-Word-Story Competition Our annual short-story competition is back! We look forward to reading yours! Rules Please ensure that submissions are original, not previously published and exactly 100 words long (not including the title). Don’t forget to include your full name, address, email and daytime phone number when ?lling in the form. We may use entries in all print and electronic media. Entry is open only to residents of the U, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland. It is not open to employees of Vivat Direct Ltd, its subsidiary companies and all others associated with this competition, their immediate families and relatives living in an employee’s household. The judges’ decision is ?nal. Please submit your stories online by 5pm on February 19. Terms and conditions There are three categories—one for adults and two categories for schools one for children aged 12–18 and one for children under 12. In the adults category, the winner will receive ￡1,000 and two runners-up will each receive ￡250. In the 12–18s and under-12s categories, the winners will each receive a Fire HD 8 Tablet (worth ￡600). The two runners-up in both categories will each receive a indle E-Reader. The editorial team will pick a shortlist of entries, which this year will be published by our partner. Winners of the categories will have an opportunity to write a longer version of their stories for inclusion in the book. The three best stories in each category will be posted online on February 27. The one with the most votes wins the top prize. Voting will close at 5 pm on March 19 and the winning entries will be published in our June issue. 56. If you want to enter the short-story competition, you will have to ________. A. provide necessary proof of residence in the U B. submit or mail your story no later than February 19 C. inform the judges of your phone number and email D. ensure your 100-word-story hasn’t ever got into print

57. Which of the following about Terms and conditions is TRUE? A. The adults category is offered the richest award of all. B. The competitors will all have their submissions published. C. The version to be printed will still stay 100 words long. D. The votes will go to whoever enters the story competition.

B

Health experts have known for years that kids who grow up on a farm have fewer incidences than city kids. Now they might finally know why. And that bit of information might be the clue they need to develop a vaccine(疫苗) for asthma(哮喘)and better treatment strategies for allergies.

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine compared 30 Amish children and 30 Hutterite children from two farming groups in North Dakota. Researchers chose these children because asthma is rare among the Amish but common among the Hutterites, even though the groups have similar genetic backgrounds and diets and very little exposure to tobacco smoke, polluted air and indoor pets. The one key difference lies in their farming methods The Amish reject electricity and industrialization, while the Hutterites embrace it. And because of this, the children are exposed to different microbes(微生物).

“We never thought we would see a difference,” Carole Ober, an author of the study and the chairwoman of the department of human genetics at the University of Chicago, told the New York Times. But to their great surprise, “we saw great differences with very, very different cell types and cell numbers.”

The Amish children all had a large proportion of neutrophils—white blood cells that are part of the so-called inborn immune system. The Amish kids’ neutrophils “were newly found in their bone marrow, evidence of a continual low-grade reaction to microbial invaders(入侵者),” the New York Times reports. In contrast, the Hutterite kids had “old” neutrophils, and researchers found their blood was full of another type of immune cell, eosinophils, which provoke allergic reactions.

“I keep saying if everyone would just put a cow in their house, no kid would have asthma, but that's not very practical,” Ober told Live Science. Instead, Ober predicts an air mister parents could use to spray the beneficial microbes into the air.

58. What can we know about the Hutterite group according to Paragraph 2?

A. The air is heavily polluted due to industrialization. B. They have a fatter chance to catch asthma and allergies. C. Their family members are addicted to cigarette smoking. D. Modern machines are widely used instead of farm animals.

59. Which of the following can be added to the differences between the two groups?

A. genetic background B. immune system C. health care D. educational level 60. By jokingly suggesting having a cow in their house, Ober intends to tell us that ________. A. keeping a toy cow is more practical B. we should get exposed to indoor pets C. unhealthy living styles should be avoided

D. farm environment helps fight Asthma and Allergies

C

As e-cigarettes become more popular, fewer people are taking up smoking traditional cigarettes. But can e-cigarettes, an electronic nicotine delivery system, help people quit smoking altogether? The answer is probably yes. A study led by Matthew Carpenter, a professor

at the

Medical University of South Carolina found that e-smokers tend to smoke less and have increased quit attempts.

In the pilot study, Carpenter evaluated e-cigarettes in terms of usage, product preference, changes in smoking behaviors and nicotine exposure. Ninety subjects were evaluated 45 were randomized to use e-cigarettes, and 45 were randomized to a control group. Everyone was followed over a period of four months. The study was published in Cancer Epidemiology in November and is one of the few randomized studies in the U.S. to examine the effects of e-cigarettes.

Results showed that when smokers were given e-cigarettes, uptake was strong. Many participants rated the e-cigarettes similar to their usual product, suggesting that e-cigarettes might give smokers a suitable alternative to combustible(燃烧的) cigarettes. E-cigarettes offer significantly less exposure to harmful toxicants and therefore are safer. People using e-cigarettes throughout the study smoked an average of 37 percent fewer cigarettes, as compared to those in the control group, showing a positive effect when making the switch and potentially serving as a tool to help smokers quit.