Do you know insurance(保险)? Buying
insurance is a {{U}}(56) {{/U}} by which people can protect themselves
{{U}}(57) {{/U}} large losses. Protection against fire is one kind of
insurance. Large numbers of people pay {{U}}(58) {{/U}} sums of money
{{U}}(59) {{/U}} an insurance company. Although thousands of people have
paid for fire insurance, only {{U}}(60) {{/U}} will lose their homes by
fire. The insurance company will pay for these homes {{U}}(61) {{/U}} of
the sums of money it has collected. The first modem fire
insurance company was {{U}}(62) {{/U}}in London, England, in 1666．A
great fire had just {{U}}(63) {{/U}} most of the city, and people wanted
to protect against {{U}}(64) {{/U}} losses. The fire company grew
rapidly.{{U}} (65) {{/U}} , other companies were founded in other
areas. Benjamin Franklin helped form the first fire insurance
company in America in 1752．He also {{U}}(66) {{/U}} a new kind of
insurance for {{U}}(67) {{/U}}. The new insurance would offer protection
against the loss of crops {{U}}(68) {{/U}} storm.
In 1759, Benjamin Franklin helped start {{U}}(69) {{/U}} new
insurance. This company, which offered {{U}}(70) {{/U}} insurance,
collected some money {{U}}(71) {{/U}} from different men. Although a man
died, his family was given a large sum of money. Today, this company is
{{U}}(72) {{/U}} in business. Over the years,
people have {{U}}(73) {{/U}} from many new kinds of insurance when they
have suffered from {{U}}(74) {{/U}} accidents as car, plane crashes.
Tomorrow, almost everyone has {{U}}(75) {{/U}} kind of
insurance.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】by means of“通过…的方式/手段”，固定搭配。
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】protect sb．against sth．“保护某人免受…的伤害”，固定搭配。从下文“protection against fire”也可以看出。
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】a big/large/small sum of money“一大笔/小笔钱”。人们上保险的钱对于保险公司来说，是很小的数目，所以选A。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】pay money to sb．“向某人付钱”，固定搭配。
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】四个选项都可修饰可数名词。few“几乎没有”，表示否定；quite a few“相当多”；a few“少数几个”；many“许多”。因为文中出现了only，就说明“有”，但“不多”，所以选C。
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】out of “从…当中，出于”，如six out of ten(十分之六)。该句意思是“保险公司从收到的保险金里拿出一部分支付给这些家庭。”
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】form“形成，组建”；recognize“认识到，认出，识别出”；found“建立”，但可惜的是该词是原形，没有用过去分词，与原句中的“was"构成被动语态；而come into being“产生”没有被动语态。