Section A: Banked Cloze
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.
Life After the Coronavirus
Virtually every activity that entails or facilitates in-person human interaction seems to be in the midst of a total meltdown as the coronavirus (冠状病毒) outbreak erases Americans’ desire to travel. Amtrak says bookings are down 50 percent and cancelations are up 300 percent. Hotels in San Francisco are experiencing (26) ______ rates between 70 and 80 percent. Broadway goes dark on Thursday night. Universities, now emptying their campuses, have never tried online learning on this (27) ______. White-collar companies like Amazon, Apple, and the New York Times are asking employees to work from home for the (28) ______ future.
But what happens after the coronavirus?
In some ways, the answer is: All the old normal stuff. The pandemic (流行病) will take lives, (29) ______ economies and destroy routines, but it will pass. Americans will never stop going to basketball games. They won’t stop going on vacation. They’ll meet to do business. No decentralizing technology so far—not telephones, not television, and not the internet—has dented that human desire to shake hands, despite technologists’ (30) ______ to the contrary.
Yet there are real reasons to think that things will not return to the way they were last week. Small (31) ______ create small societal shifts; big ones change things for good. The New York transit strike of 1980 is (32) ______ with prompting several long-term changes in the city, including bus and bike lanes, and women wearing sports shoes to work. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 prompted the development of national health care in Europe.
Here and now, this might not even be a question of (33) ______. It’s not clear that the cruise industry will (34) ______. Or that public transit won’t go broke without (35) ______ assistance. The infrastructure might not even be in place to do what we were doing in 2019.
Answers & Explanations (答案与解析)
Section A: Banked Cloze
26. N (vacancy)。解析：空格在名词 `rates` 之前，需要填入名词（构成复合名词）或形容词。前文提到旅游意愿消失，预订下降取消上升，这里指旧金山的酒店正经历70%到80%的“空房/空置”率。`vacancy` 意为“空缺”，`vacancy rates` 意为“空房率”。因此填入 vacancy。
27. I (scale)。解析：空格在介词短语 `on this ______` 中，指示代词 `this` 之后，需要填入单数名词。前文提到大学正在清空校园，采用在线学习，这是一种前所未有的大“规模”尝试。`on this scale` 是固定搭配，意为“在这种规模上”。因此填入 scale。
28. F (foreseeable)。解析：空格在介词短语 `for the ______ future` 中，定冠词 `the` 之后，名词 `future` 之前，需要填入形容词。`for the foreseeable future` 是极其常见的固定搭配，意为“在可预见的未来”。因此填入 foreseeable。
29. J (strangle)。解析：空格与 `take` (夺走) 和 `destroy` (破坏) 构成三个并列的谓语动词短语，主语是 `The pandemic`，时态为一般将来时（跟在 `will` 之后），需要填入动词原形。句意：流行病将夺走生命，“扼杀”经济，破坏常规。`strangle` 意为“勒死，扼杀”。因此填入 strangle。
30. G (predictions)。解析：空格在所有格名词 `technologists'` (技术专家们的) 之后，介词短语 `to the contrary` 之前，需要填入名词。句意：尽管技术专家们做出了相反的“预测”，但没有任何去中心化技术削弱了人类握手的渴望。`predictions` 意为“预测”。因此填入 predictions。
31. D (disruptions)。解析：空格在形容词 `Small` 之后，且作主语，根据后面的复数代词 `ones` (指代前面主语) 和谓语动词 `create`，需要填入复数名词。句意：小的“破坏/干扰”会引起小的社会转变，大的（破坏）会永久改变事情。`disruptions` 意为“干扰，破坏”。因此填入 disruptions。
32. B (credited)。解析：空格在系动词 `is` 之后，且与介词 `with` 连用，需要过去分词构成被动语态。`be credited with` 是固定搭配，意为“把...归功于，认为...有某种功劳/作用”。句意：1980年的纽约公交罢工“被认为”促成了该市的几项长期变化。因此填入 credited。
33. H (preference)。解析：空格在介词 `of` 之后，需要填入名词。句意：此时此地，这甚至可能不是一个“偏好/选择”的问题（而是生存问题）。根据后文说的是邮轮行业能否生存、公交是否会破产，说明这不是选不选的问题。`preference` 意为“偏好”。因此填入 preference。
34. M (survive)。解析：空格在情态动词 `will` 之后，位于句末，需要填入不及物动词原形。句意：邮轮行业能否“生存下来”还不清楚。`survive` 意为“生存，幸存”。因此填入 survive。
35. E (federal)。解析：空格在介词 `without` 之后，名词 `assistance` 之前，需要填入形容词修饰援助。前文提到公共交通如果缺乏援助就会破产。在美国语境中，通常指缺乏“联邦”援助。`federal` 意为“联邦的”，`federal assistance` 意为“联邦援助”。因此填入 federal。
【核心搭配与亮点句型】
in the midst of：在...之中，在...期间（to be in the midst of a total meltdown）
go dark：变暗，（剧院等）关门/停演（Broadway goes dark on Thursday night）
for the foreseeable future：在可预见的未来（for the foreseeable future）
to the contrary：相反地（despite technologists' predictions to the contrary）
for good：永远地（change things for good）
be credited with：被认为有...的功劳/作用（is credited with prompting several long-term changes）
go broke：破产（won't go broke without federal assistance）
in place：就位，准备妥当（The infrastructure might not even be in place）