Question

Farmers,as we all know,have been having a hard time of it lately,and have turned
to new ways of earning income from their land.This involves not only planting new kinds of crops,but some__55 ways of making money,the most unusual of which has got to be sheep racing.Yes,you heard me__56  !A farmer now holds sheep races on a regular basis,and during the past year over 100,000 people have __57  to watch the race.“I was passing the farm on my way to the sea for a holiday,"one punter (賽馬經紀人)told me,“and I thought I'd have a look.I didn't believe it was serious to tell you the truth."According to a regular visitor,betting on sheep is more interesting than betting on horses.“At proper horse races everyone has already studied the form of the horse __58  ,and there are clear favourites. __59  nobody has heard anything about these _60  !Most people find it difficult to tell one from another in any
case."I stayed to watch the races,and I must admit that I found it quite__61  . In
a usual sheep race,half a dozen sheep race down hill over a course of about half a mile.Food is waiting for them at the other end of the__62  just to give them so
me encouragement,I ought to add!The sheep run surprisingly fast，__63 they have probably not eaten for a while.Anyway,the crowd around me were obviously enjoying
heir day out at the races, __64  by their happy faces and the sense of excitement.
55.A. common         B. strange            C. swift          D. illegal
56.A. honestly       B. surprisingly       C. completely     D. correctly
57.A. showed off     B. brought up         C. turned up      D. looked forward
58.A. behind time    B. in progress        C. in advance     D. in time 
59.A. But            B. Therefore          C. Moreover       D. Otherwise 
60.A.horses          B. sheep              C. races          D. stories
61.A.exciting        B. dangerous          C. boring         D. peculiar
62.A.race            B. hill               C. track          D. field
63.A.if              B. so                 C. yet            D. although
64.A.observing       B. judging            C. considering    D. inferring 

Answer 1

55--64   BDCCA   BACDB  

55. 對于此空，前面已給出提示。我們可以注意到前半句用了not only,因此后者與前者情況相同。前者是planting new kinds of crops，這里是some  ________ways of making money,strange當然是最合適的。而且接下來文中說the most unusual of which…，所以這里選strange完全符合邏輯。而A項common“普通的”；C項swift“快的；迅速的”；D項illegal“不合法的”均不符合題意。答案為B。 
56.correctly“正確地”，因為傳統上都是horses racing，而對于sheep racing,人們聞所未聞，感到難以接受，難以置信。這里作者用了一個插入語“Yes,you heard me correctly!”“是的，你沒聽錯!”，而honestly(正直地);surprisingly(驚奇地)；completely(完全地)用在此句中則無法與上、下文相聯系，答案為D。 
57.show off是炫耀的意思，而文中人們只是來觀看比賽，并沒有炫耀的意思，故A不可選；bring up意為“使注意”，用在這里沒什么意義；look forward意為盼望，如果說人們盼望觀看比賽也可以講得通，但look forward后的to是介詞，后應跟動名詞，故D也不可選;turn up意為出現，從意義上也講得通，語法上也無錯誤，答案為C。
58.already有已經的意思，表示人們研究得比較早；there are clear favourites，比賽時大家都清楚地知道哪是好馬，哪是劣馬，所以研究馬一定發生在比賽前，所以答案是in advance。A項behind time“隨后”；B項in progress“在過程中”；D項in time“及時”均不合題意。答案為C。
59.前面講述了賽馬的情況，接下來講述賽羊，情況與賽馬完全不同，因此這里需要一個轉折連詞But。therefore表示因果;moreover表示遞進；otherwise意為否則，均不合題意。答案為A。 
60.這篇文章主要是講賽羊，前面講了賽馬，很明顯，這里講的是羊，而且前面的賽馬為人們所熟知，而這里沒人聽說過的，當然就是賽羊了，答案為B。
61.下文提到了賽羊場面激動人心，羊跑得出人意料地快，所以這里應該選擇exciting來描繪。B項dangerous“危險的”；C項boring“令人厭煩的”；D項peculiar“古怪的”，均不合題意。答案為A。
62.因為這些食物的目的是給羊encouragement的，所以必須能被羊看見，如果在山的另一邊，就起不到作用了。field意為田地，而比賽時應是沿著一定路徑跑的，而不是在田地里跑，故D也不可選。合理的理解應該是羊跑時，把食物放在路的另一邊，答案為C。
63.for a while是一段時間;not for a while意為它們吃食物的時間很少，前一句是The sheep run surprisingly fast，與這句構成轉折關系，盡管它們吃得很少，跑得卻特別快，答案為D。
64.最后一句得出的結論是“人們顯然在這天的比賽中很高興，這是通過他們愉快的臉和激動的情緒判斷出來的”。A項observing“觀察”；D項inferring“推測”，均不正確。答案為B。