单选题 There are so many new books about dying that there are now special shelves set aside for them in bookshops, along with the health-diet and home-repair paperbacks. Some of them are so (61) with detailed information and step-by-step instructions for performing the function, that you'd think this was a new sort of (62) which all of us are now required to learn. The strongest impression the casual reader gets is that proper dying has become an extraordinary, (63) an exotic experience, something only the specially trained can do.
(64) , you could be led to believe that we are the only (65) capable of being aware of death, and that when the rest of nature is experiencing the life cycle and dying, one generation after (66) , it is a different kind of process, done automatically and trivially, or more "natural", as we say.
An elm in our backyard (67) the blight (枯萎病) this summer and dropped stone dead, leafless, almost overnight. One weekend (68) was a normal-looking elm, maybe a little bare in spots but (69) alarming, and the next weekend it was gone, passed over, departed, taken. Taken is right, for the tree surgeon came by yesterday with his (70) of young helpers and their cherry picker, and took it down branch by branch and carted it off in the back of a red truck, everyone (71) .
The dying (72) a field mouse, at the jaws of an amiable household cat, is a spectacle I have beheld many times. It (73) to make me wince. However, early in life I gave up throwing sticks (74) the cat to make him drop the mouse, (75) the dropped mouse regularly went ahead and died anyway.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 此句表示其中一些关于死亡的书中写满了相关的翔实信息，A、B两项均为包括之意，不与with连用。D项有“充满的”意思，并可以with连用，但意为“胡乱丢满、乱七八糟的”，用在此处不正确。C项packed意为“拥挤、塞满、充满的”，感情色彩也与原文相符，表示书中充斥着关于……的内容。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 此句意为“你会认为这是一个要求大家都要学会的新……”，根据下文中“only the specially tarried can do(只有经过专门培训方可做到)”可以判断，指书中的内容让人觉得死是人们要按部就班学习的一门技术，A项意为“能力，才能，天资”，B项意为“专门的技术，技能，技艺”，C项意为“品质，才能”，D项意为“工艺，技术”。B为最合适的选项。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 文中需要的是连接词，exotic的含义比extraordinary更进一步，句意为“适当的死法已然成了一种特别的、甚至是奇异的经历”。这种情况不必多想，B为最合适的选项。A项为并列关系，C、D项表示转折，而非递进。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本段开头意为“书中内容会让你觉得我们是唯一有死亡意识的……”，上段内容指“书中的内容让人觉得死是人们要按部就班学习的一门技术”，此处仍表示“死亡书中的内容使人……”，A项意为“而且，此外，再者”为正确选择。B项However“然而，可是，不过”表示转折。C项意为“即使如此”，D项意为“从那时以来”，均与句意不符。

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 句意为“我家后院的榆树今年夏天染上了枯萎病”，catch作及物动词，有“染上疾病”的意思。B项意为“持有，抓住”，C项意为“(疾病)突然侵袭”，用在疾病的后面，如the blight took our elm。D项意为“采集，挑选”。故选A。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 四个选项中只有C是正确用法，田鼠的死曾让我感到害怕。若选A项，it was to make me wirier意为“田鼠的死是(计划好)用于让我害怕、畏缩的”。若选B项，句子意为“田鼠之死习惯了让我害怕”。若选C项，句子意为“以前田鼠的这种死法常让我感到害怕”。D项指此事即将让我害怕。