Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage.Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Did Sarah Josepha Hale write "Mary's Little Lamb," the eternal nursery rhyme (儿歌) about a girl named Mary with a stubborn lamb? This is still disputed, but it's clear that the woman【 26 】for writing it was one of America's most fascinating【 27 】. In honor of the poem's publication on May 24, 1830, here's more about the【 28 】author's life.
Hale wasn't just a writer, she was also a 【29】 social advocate, and she was particularly【 30 】with an ideal New England, which she associated with abundant Thanksgiving meals that she claimed had "a deep moral influence." She began a nationwide【 31 】to have a national holiday declared that would bring families together while celebrating the【 32 】festivals. In 1863, after 17 years of advocacy including letters to five presidents, Hale got it. President Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, issued a【 33 】setting aside the last Thursday in November for the holiday.
The true authorship of "Mary's Little Lamb" is disputed. According to the New England Historical Society, Hale wrote only part of the poem, but claimed authorship. Regardless of the author, it seems that the poem was【 34 】by a real event. When young Mary Sawyer was followed to school by a lamb in 1816, it caused some problems. A bystander named John Roulstone wrote a poem about the event, then, at some point, Hale herself seems to have helped write it. However, if a 1916 piece by her great-niece is to be trusted, Hale claimed for the【 35 】of her life that "some other people pretended that someone else wrote the poem".
A) campaign
B) career
C) characters
D) features
E) fierce
F) inspired
G) latter
H) obsessed
I) proclamation
J) rectified
K) reputed
L) rest
M) supposed
N) traditional
O) versatile
参考答案：
26.K) reputed
27.C) characters
28.M) supposed
29.E) fierce
30.H) obsessed
31.A) campaign
32.N) traditional
33.I) proclamation
34.F) inspired
35.L) rest