Directions: In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 1-5, choose the most suitable one from the list A—G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps.
If you flew in an airplane over the continent of Antarctica, you would look down on a great sheet of snow and ice. The snow and ice slopes gently from a central plateau around the South Pole toward the sea. Along the coasts of Antarctica, sharp mountains rise up from the snow. Huge masses of ice called glaciers slide between the mountain ridges toward the sea. At the sea's edge, tremendous icebergs break off the glacier and float away. They are often enormous in size.
1) Most of the land beneath the snow is a great land mass. A chain of smaller islands is nearby. The islands and the land mass are joined into one continent by a thick blanket of ice.
Antarctica has nine-tenths of all the world's ice. If all this ice melted, the level of the world's oceans would rise 250 feet. Most cities along the coast would be drowned. In New York Harbor, water would almost cover the Statue of Liberty's head. But the ice in Antarctica does not melt. The temperature stays well below freezing the year round in most places. Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. 2)
Antarctica does not have much plant life. Only a few simple plants, such as mosses, lichens, and algae, can grow there. 3) But along the coasts of the continent there are many birds, fish, and animals.
Thousands of whales and millions of seals swim in Antarctic seas. Six kinds of seals are found. The fur seal, the smallest, has long been hunted for its silky fur. The tough-skinned elephant seal is the largest. It can weigh as much as four tons.
4)
A number of birds live in Antarctica, and fly over the water and ice. 5) Each year it migrates between the northernmost islands of the Arctic (the region around the North Pole) and the shores of Antarctica —a distance of about 11,000 miles.
[A]The temperature stays well below freezing the year round in most places. Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. The temperature there has been known to drop to more than 100 degrees below zero.
[B]The Arctic tern has been called the long-distance champion of the world.
[C]Most of the world's whaling takes place in Antarctic waters. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. It may weigh as much as 150 tons and be 95 feet long. Smaller whales include the bottlenose, the humpback, the sperm, and the finback.
[D]They cannot fly, but they have flipper-like wings, which make them strong swimmers.
[E]Beneath the snow and ice of Antarctica lies land. Snow piles deeper and deeper on top of the land and hardens into ice. In some places, it is three miles deep.
[F]The climate is so harsh, and food so scarce, that people cannot settle in Antarctica.
[G]When the ice sheets pushed down from the north reaching as far south as the river, it does not encounter any mountains and hard rocks. 答案及详解
1.E。填写这段话时，应同时根据上下文来理解，在文章第一段当时曾经出现过“the snow and ice”这个词，当然这就应该是一个很好的启发。第一段中说的是这些雪和冰从南极点向海里运动的过程，那么进入第二段时，我们很自然就会想，当这些雪和冰移到海里之后，他们下面又是什么，第二段的空白接下去的句子就提到了这些(beneath the snow ...)，而这与所要填写的选项正是相呼应的。
2.A。填写这几句话时，主要应该从语意和语境上来理解。文章第三段的前部分，描述了南极洲存在着大量的冰，并且那些冰终年不化，于是我们就能自然而然的想到，那儿的温度也是非常之低的了。
3.F。填写这句话时，也应同时结合上下文来看。前一句说到，南极洲仅有少数的植物生命存在，后一句说的是，在大洲的海岸沿线却存在许多鸟、鱼和动物。这里要引起注意的就是那个转折词“But ...”，说明前一句就应该是说有些动物类生命是不适合在那里生存的，即人。
4.C。填写这段话时，应该看到它的前一段，即本文的第五段，说有成千上万的鲸以及几百万之多的海豹在南极游嬉。而接下来的文字，却仅仅只是描述了海豹的种类及特征，那么很明显，剩下的文字，就应该比较具体的来描述鲸了。
5.B。理解这句话并不难，主要在其中的一个单词“Arctic tern”，这是“北极燕鸥”，了解了它的意思，这句话也就看懂了。北极燕鸥在世界上被称为长距离飞行的冠军。
D。这句话的意思是他们不能飞。但是有鳍状的翅膀，使他们更善于游泳，这显然是南极洲另外一种动物——企鹅的特征，故不能选，并且它与燕鸥飞行11，000 英里之间迁徙的后文相矛盾。
G。这句话说的是那些冰块从北向南移动，不再会遇到山脉和岩石，这显然已经超出了文章的范围，因为这样的碎冰几乎已经走出了南极洲，成为人类可利用之水。并且它与在整个文章内容上不能衔接，故不能填。 中心思想
本文主要介绍了南极洲的自然风光，通过描述巨大的冰川、寒冷的天气，以及稀有的动植物，向我们较为全面地展示了南极洲的与众不同。考研
