Section A

Directions:  After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages 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.来源进步网www.szjjedu.com

(A)

My stay in New York

After graduation from university, I had been unable to secure a permanent job in my small town. So I decided to leave home for New York, (25) ______ I might have a better chance to find a good job. (26) ______ (earn) some money to pay the daily expenses, I started work in a local café as a waiter. I believed that (27) ______ I was offered a good position, I would resign at once.来源进步网www.szjjedu.com

Over time, the high cost of living became a little burden on my already (28) ______ (exhaust) shoulders. On the other hand, my search for a respecta进步网ble job had not met with much success. As I had studied literature at university, I found it quite difficult to secure a suitable job in big companies. Mother had said that (29) ______ ______ ______ I wanted to have a better career advancement, I had to find work in the city. Perhaps, (30) ______ my mother had told me was deeply rooted in my mind. I just did as she had expected.

Soon I had lived in the city for over six months but I still did not like it. Apparently, I had difficulty (31) ______ (adapt) myself to life in the city, let alone finding a job to my delight. After nine months of frustration. I eventually decided to go back to my small town. Not until I returned (32) ______ I realise that a quiet town life was the best for me.来源进步网www.szjjedu.com

(B)

The giant vending machine（自动售货机）is a new village shop

Villagers have long been used to facing a drive when they run out of basic supplies. However, help is now nearer at hand in the form of the country's first automatic push-button shop. Now residents in the Derbyshire village of Clifton can buy groceries around the clock after the huge vending was installed outside a pub in the village this week.

Peter Fox, who is (33) ______ electrical engineer, spent two and a half years working on the project. The machine (34) ______ (equip) with security cameras and alarms, and looks like a mini shop with a brick front, a grey roof and a display window.来源进步网www.szjjedu.com

Mr. Fox said he hoped his invention, (35) ______ is set to be installed in other villages in the area over the coming months, will mark a return to convenience shopping for rural communities.

He said: "I had this idea a few years ago but I couldn't find a manufacturer who could deliver what I wanted, so I did it by (36) ______. The result is what amounts to a huge outdoor vending machine. Yet I think the term automatic shop is far (37) ______ (appropriate)."

In recent years, the commercial pressure from supermarket chains (38) ______ (force) village shops across the country to close. In 2010, it was estimated that about 400 village shops closed, (39) ______ (urge) the local government to give financial support to struggling shops or set-up new community stores.

Hundreds of communities have since stepped in and opened up their own volunteer-run shops, but Mr. Fox hopes his new invention will offer a solution (40) ______ those进步网villages without a local shop.来源进步网www.szjjedu.com