Farmers,as we all know,have been having a hard time of it lately,and have turned

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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 (赛马经纪人)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 

答案

55--64   BDCCA   BACDB  

解析

55. 对于此空，前面已给出提示。我们可以注意到前半句用了not only,因此后者与前者情况相同。前者是planting new kinds of crops，这里是some  ________ways of making money,strange当然是最合适的。而且接下来文中说the most unusual of which…，所以这里选strange完全符合逻辑。而A项common“普通的”；C项swift“快的；迅速的”；D项illegal“不合法的”均不符合题意。答案为B。 
56.correctly“正确地”，因为传统上都是horses racing，而对于sheep racing,人们闻所未闻，感到难以接受，难以置信。这里作者用了一个插入语“Yes,you heard me correctly!”“是的，你没听错!”，而honestly(正直地);surprisingly(惊奇地)；completely(完全地)用在此句中则无法与上、下文相联系，答案为D。 
57.show off是炫耀的意思，而文中人们只是来观看比赛，并没有炫耀的意思，故A不可选；bring up意为“使注意”，用在这里没什么意义；look forward意为盼望，如果说人们盼望观看比赛也可以讲得通，但look forward后的to是介词，后应跟动名词，故D也不可选;turn up意为出现，从意义上也讲得通，语法上也无错误，答案为C。
58.already有已经的意思，表示人们研究得比较早；there are clear favourites，比赛时大家都清楚地知道哪是好马，哪是劣马，所以研究马一定发生在比赛前，所以答案是in advance。A项behind time“随后”；B项in progress“在过程中”；D项in time“及时”均不合题意。答案为C。
59.前面讲述了赛马的情况，接下来讲述赛羊，情况与赛马完全不同，因此这里需要一个转折连词But。therefore表示因果;moreover表示递进；otherwise意为否则，均不合题意。答案为A。 
60.这篇文章主要是讲赛羊，前面讲了赛马，很明显，这里讲的是羊，而且前面的赛马为人们所熟知，而这里没人听说过的，当然就是赛羊了，答案为B。
61.下文提到了赛羊场面激动人心，羊跑得出人意料地快，所以这里应该选择exciting来描绘。B项dangerous“危险的”；C项boring“令人厌烦的”；D项peculiar“古怪的”，均不合题意。答案为A。
62.因为这些食物的目的是给羊encouragement的，所以必须能被羊看见，如果在山的另一边，就起不到作用了。field意为田地，而比赛时应是沿着一定路径跑的，而不是在田地里跑，故D也不可选。合理的理解应该是羊跑时，把食物放在路的另一边，答案为C。
63.for a while是一段时间;not for a while意为它们吃食物的时间很少，前一句是The sheep run surprisingly fast，与这句构成转折关系，尽管它们吃得很少，跑得却特别快，答案为D。
64.最后一句得出的结论是“人们显然在这天的比赛中很高兴，这是通过他们愉快的脸和激动的情绪判断出来的”。A项observing“观察”；D项inferring“推测”，均不正确。答案为B。