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.
Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.
If our society ever needed a reading renaissance（复兴）, it’s now. The National Endowment for the Arts released “Reading at Risk” last year, a study showing that adult reading 47 have dropped 10 percentage points in the past decade, with the steepest drop among those 18 to 24. “Only one half of young people read a book of any kind in 2002. We set the bar almost on the ground. If you read one short story in a teen?ager magazine, that would have 48,” laments a director of research and analysis. He 49 the loss of readers to the booming world of technology, which attracts would?be leisure readers to E?mail, IM chats, and video games and leaves them with no time to cope with a novel.
“These new forms of media undoubtedly have some benefits,” says Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You. Video games 50 problem?solving skills; TV shows promote mental gymnastics by 51 viewers to follow complex story lines. But books offer experience that can’t be gained from these other sources, from 52 vocabulary to stretching the imagination. “If they’re not reading at all,” says Johnson, “that’s a huge problem.”
In fact, fewer kids are reading for pleasure. According to data 53 last week from the National Center for Educational Statistic’s long?term trend assessment, the number of 17?year?olds who reported never or hardly ever reading for fun 54 from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004. At the same time, the 55 of 17?year?olds who read daily dropped from 31 to 22.
This slow but steady retreat from books has not yet taken a toll on reading ability. Scores for the nation’s youth have 56 constant over the past two decades（with an encouraging upswing among 9?year?olds）. But given the strong apparent correlation between pleasure reading and reading skills, this means poorly for the future.
［A］ percent［F］ counted［K］forcing
［B］ remained［G］ relieved［L］improve
［C］ rose［H］ present［M］ Styles
［D］ rates［I］ Believing［N］
building
［E］ percentage［J］ released［O］ attributes
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