备考2020年高考英语二轮专题复习：完形填空 2

    I've been farming sheep on a hillside for 54 years. I use a small tractor to get about. My dog Don always sits beside me in the passenger scat.

    One morning I 1 a lost lamb when I was in the top field，near where a motorway cuts through my land. The lamb had become separated from its 2, so I jumped out of the tractor to 3 it while Don stayed in his scat.

    Lamb and mother 4, I turned back to the tractor only to see it move suddenly away from me. This was so 5 because I had put the handbrake on when I jumped out. 6 Don had somehow made the 7move.

    My heart froze in my chest as I 8 the tractor heading towards the 9 .I ran desperately but failed to 10. It crashed through a wooden fence and disappeared. The 11 thing I saw was Don's face, looking calmly back at me.

    Heart in mouth, I 12 the fence and looked over. The tractor was 13against the crash barrier in the central reservation, having miraculously(奇迹般地) crossed the 14 road with fast-flowing traffic. I couldn't see Don, but as I 15 the tractor he jumped out onto the road, apparently 16, and dashed back to me.

    The police 17 and the motorway ran normally again. I couldn't quite believe my 18it turned out no one got badly hurt, but the outcome could have been 19 .Don was given a special 20 that night—I didn't want him thinking I was angry with him.

    As s businesswoman, I care deeply about my customers. But like anyone for whom you feel affection, 1 can also drive you mad. They'll come rushing in, 2their handbag's been stolen. They'll 3 that they left it in the changing room, create havoe (混乱) and then 4 it had been in their car all the time. They'll have out half the 5 in the shop, and want the only style you don't have left in a 6 colour. I do know how upset the shop staff can get, but I try to persuade them to keep 7.

    I remember the first really 8 customer we had at Covent Garden. She was. 9 absolutely everything, nothing was right and I was rather 10 that she became a "regular". After a while, she 11 for the way she behaved at the beginning. She had split up with her husband the week before, was living in a flat 12, and since she'd found it too much to cope with (应对), she'd taken it out on 13 people.

    That taught me a valuable 14 and I pass it on to the people who 15 in the market. Don't take it 16. If a customer is rude or difficult, just think "Maybe she's had a row with her husband. Maybe her child's not 17." Always water it down and don't let your ego (自我) get 18. If you do, you won' be able to 19 it and the whole thing develops into an unpleasant scene and that 20 everyone's day.

    Since our twins began learning to walk, my wife and I have kept telling them that our sliding glass door is just a window. The 1 is obvious. If we 2 it is a door, they'll want to go outside 3. It will drive us crazy. The kids apparently know the 4. But our insisting it's 5 a window has kept them from 6 millions of requests to open the door.

    I hate lying to the kids. One day they'll 7 and discover that everything they've always known about windows is a 8.I wonder if 9 should always tell the truth no matter the 10. I have a very strong 11 that the lie we're telling is doing 12 damage to our children. Windows and doors have 13   metaphorical (比喻) meanings. I'm telling them they can't open what they absolutely know is a door. What if later in 14 they come to a metaphorical door, like an opportunity (机会) of some sort, and 15 opening the door and taking the opportunity, they just 16 it and wonder, "What if it isn't a door?" That is, "What if it isn't a 17 opportunity?"

    Maybe it's an unreasonable fear. But the 18 is that I shouldn't lie to my kids. I should just 19 repeatedly having to say, "No. We can't go outside now." Then when they come to other doors in life, be they real or metaphorical, they won't 20 to open them and walk through.

    It was just after sunrise on a June morning. "Nicolo," whose real name cannot be 1 to the public because of Italy's privacy laws, 2 working the whole night at a factory in Turin. As he often did, he stopped by the "after work auction（拍卖）" 3 by the Italian police where things 4 on the trains were sold to the highest bidder. There, among many other things, Nicolo spotted two paintings he thought would look 5      above his dining room table. Nicolo and another bidder 6 until Nicolo finally won the paintings for $32.

When Nicolo retired and went to live in Sicily, he 7 the paintings with him. He hung them above the same table he had 8 from Turin. His son, age 15, who had 9 an art appreciation class, thought that there was something 10 about the one with a young girl sitting on a garden chair. It was signed(签名) "Bonnato" or so he thought, but when he 11 it, he only found "Bonnard," a French 12 he had never heard of. He bought a book and was 13 to find a picture of the artist Pierre Bonnard sitting on the same chair in the same 14 as his father's painting.

    "That's the garden in our picture,"Nicolo's son told his father. They 15 learned that the painting they 16      was called "The Girl with Two Chairs." They 17 the other painting and learned that it was 18 Paul Gauguin's "Still Life of Fruit on a Table with a Small Dog." The 19 called the Italian Culture Ministry; the official confirmed that the paintings were 20 and worth as much as $50 million.

    There are lots of ways to raise awareness for a cause. Usually, the 1 the idea is, the more it gets noticed. And that's precisely why one 2 Frenchman has caught our attention.

    Baptiste Dubanchet is biking across Europe, surviving 3 on discarded（丢弃）food. The three-month, 1 900-mile journey from Paris to Warsaw is Dubanchet's 4 of raising awareness of food waste in Europe and throughout the world.

    As you can 5 , the trip is no piece of cake. While restaurants 6 tons of food each year, much of it remains inaccessible because of 7 garbage containers, health regulations, or business policies. Only about one in ten places 8 him food that would otherwise be discarded.

    For legal 9 , most restaurants have a policy against 10 food waste. "Some people have even 11 their jobs by giving me food," Dubanchet said.

    What's 12 interesting is the attitude various cities have toward Dubanchet's cause. Berlin has been the 13 while the most difficult was the Czech town of Pilsen. There, he had to 14 at some 50 different stores or restaurants before finding food. The 15 is all the more serious when you consider the 16 exercise required to bike from France to Poland.

    "I have to get food 17 because after all the biking I am tired and I need the 18 ,"

    Dubanchet explained. "Is my 19 full or empty? That is the most important thing, not what I am eating."

    He aims to 20 his journey by mid-July. With any luck, he'll turn a few more heads in the process.

    Wildlife has been greatly threatened in the modem age. There are species (物种) that are 1 every day. The white-naped crane is a typical example. So scientists are trying their best to 2 the species from going out of existence.

    Chris and Tim work at a zoo, helping endangered cranes with their 3. Emma, a female crane, has been in their 4 since she arrived in 2004.

    Born at an international crane foundation, Emma was 5 by human caretakers. This led to an unexpected 6, though she had a wonderful time there. Emma had 7 taken herself as a crane and become deeply attached to humans. She 8 to live with male cranes, and even had a 9 for killing some of them, which made it 10 for her to become a mother.

    11, the two zookeepers didn't want to see the extinction (灭绝) of this precious species. With their patience and efforts, they successfully developed a 12 of artificial breeding (人工繁殖) and natural reproduction. This 13 Emma to give birth to five baby cranes.

    The two keepers are proud of their productive work. But before they can be 14, more efforts must be made, because the population of the crane in the wild is on the 15, and many other species appear headed toward extinction. 16, not everyone has realized that wildlife has thoughts, feelings, and most importantly, equal rights to survive.

    How can we 17 the ever-widening gap that separates us from other animals? Chris and Tim offered us the 18: human beings took it for granted that their 19 held all the solutions, but maybe their hearts can be a better 20.

    It's about 250 miles from the hills of west-central lowa to Ehlers' home in Minnesota. During the long trip home, following a weekend of hunting, Ehlers 1about the small dog he had seen 2 alongside the road. He had 3 to coax（哄）the dog to him but, frightened, it had 4.

    Back home, Ehlers was troubled by that 5 dog. So, four days later, he called his friend Greg, and the two drove 6. After a long and careful 7. Greg saw, across a field, the dog moving 8 away. Ehlers eventually succeeded in coaxing the animal to him. Nervousness and fear were replaced with 9. It just started licking（舔）Ehlers' face.

    A local farmer told them the dog sounded like one 10 as lost in the local paper. The ad had a 11 number for a town in southern Michigan. Ehlers 12 the number of Jeff and Lisa to tell them he had 13 their dog.

    Jeff had 14 in lowa before Thanksgiving with his dog, Rosie, but the gun shots had scared the dog off. Jeff searched 15 for Rosie in the next four days.

    Ehlers returned to Minnesotan, and then drove 100 miles to Minneapolis to put Rosie on a flight to Michigan. “It's good to know there's still someone out there who  16 enough to go to that kind of 17," says Lisa of Ehlers' rescue 18.

    I figured whoever lost the dog was probably just as  19 to it as I am to my dogs,” says Ehlers. “If it had been my dog, I'd hope that somebody would be 20 to go that extra mile.”

    Raynor Winn and her husband Moth became homeless due to their wrong investment. Their savings had been 1 to pay lawyers' fees. To make matters worse, Moth was diagnosed（诊断）with a 2 disease. There was no 3, only pain relief.

    Failing to find any other way out, they decided to make a 4 journey, as they caught sight of an old hikers'（徒步旅行者）guide.

    This was a long journey of unaccustomed hardship and 5 recovery. When leaving home, Raynor and Moth had just ￡320 in the bank. They planned to keep the 6 low by living on boiled noodles, with the7hamburger shop treat.

    Wild camping is 8 in England. To avoid being caught, the Winns had to get their tent up 9and packed it away early in the morning. The Winns soon discovered that daily hiking in their 50s is a lot 10 than they remember it was in their 20s. Raynor 11 all over and desired a bath. Moth, meanwhile, after an initial 12, found his symptoms were strangely 13 by their daily tiring journey.

    14, the couple found that their bodies turned for the better, with re-found strong muscles that they thought had 15 forever. "Our hair was fried and falling out, nails broken, clothes 16 to a thread, but we were alive."

    During the journey, Raynor began a career as a nature writer. She writes, "17 had taken every material thing from me and left me torn bare, an empty page at the end of a(n) 18 written book. It had also given me a 19, either to leave that page 20 or to keep writing the story with hope. I chose hope."

    During my second year at the city college, I was told that the education department was offering a "free" course, called Thinking Chess, for three credits. I 1 the idea of taking the class because, after all, who doesn't want to 2 a few dollars? More than that, I'd always wanted to learn chess. And, even if I weren't 3 enough about free credits, news about our 4 was appealing enough to me. He was an international grandmaster, which 5 I would be learning from one of the game's 6,I could hardly wait to 7 him.

    Maurice Ashley was kind and smart, a former graduate returning to teach, and this 8was no game for him; he meant business. In his introduction, he make it 9 that our credits would be hard-earned. In order to 10 the class, among other criteria, we had to write a paper on how we plan to 11 what we would learn in class to our future professions and 12, to our lives. I managed to get an A in that 13 and learned life lessons that have served me well beyond the 14.

    Ten years after my chess class with Ashley, I'm still putting to use what he 15 me: "The absolute most important 16 that you learn when you play chess is how to make good 17.On every single move you have to 18 a situation, process what your opponent(对手) is doing and 19 the best move from among all your options."These words still ring true today in my 20 as a journalist.

    Alia Baker is a librarian in Iraq. Her library used to be a 1place for all who loved books and liked to share knowledge. They 2 various matters all over the world. When the war was near, Alia was3that the fires of war would destroy the books, which are more 4 to her than mountain of gold. The books are in every language — new books, ancient books, 5 a book on the history of Iraq that is seven hundred years old.

    She had asked the government for6to move the books to a 7place, but they refused. So Alia took matters into her own hands. 8, she brought books home every night,9her car late after work. Her friends came to 10her when the war broke out. Anis who owned a restaurant  11 to hide some books. All through the12 , Alia, Anis, his brothers and neighbours took the books from the library, 13them over the seven-foot wall and 14them in the restaurant. The books stayed hidden as the war15. Then nine days laters, a fire burned the16to the ground.

    One day, the bombing stopped and the17 left. But the war was not over yet. Alia knew that if the books were to be safe, they must be 18 again while the city was 19. So she hired a truck to bring all the books to the houses of friends in the suburbs(郊区). Now Alia waited for the war to end and 20 peace and a new library.