单选题 America's most popular newspaper website today announced that the era of free online journalism is drawing to a close. The New York Times has become the biggest publisher yet to     28    plans for a paywall around its digital offering,     29    the accepted practice that internet users will not pay for news.
    Struggling with an evaporation of advertising and a downward drift in street corner sales, The New York Times     30    to introduce a 'metered' model at the beginning of 2011. Readers will be required to pay when they have     31    a set number of its online articles per month.
    The decision puts the 159-year-old newspaper     32    the charging side of an increasingly wide chasm (鸿沟) in the media industry. But others, including the Guardian, have said they will not charge internet readers, and certain papers, such as London's Evening Standard, have gone further in abandoning readership revenue by making their print editions free.
    The New York Times' publisher, Arthur Sulzberger,     33    that the move is a gamble: 'This is a bet, to a certain degree, in where we think the web is going.'
    Boasting a print     34    of 995,000 on weekdays and 1.4 million on Sundays, The New York Times is the third best-selling American newspaper, behind the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. While most US papers focus on a single city, The New York Times is among the few that can     35    national scope—as well as 16 bureaus in the New York area, it has 11 offices around the US and     36    26 bureaus elsewhere in the world.
    But like many in the publishing industry, the paper is in the grip of a serious financial crisis. Its parent company, the New York Times Company, has 15 papers, but     37    a loss of $70 million in the nine months to September and recently accepted a $250 million loan from a Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim, to strengthen its balance sheet.
    A. suffered        B. targeted      C. circulation  D. set out
    E. acknowledged    F. abandoning    G. multiplied    H. intend to
    I. maintains      J. claim        K. evaluation    L. set in
    M. on              N. exceeded      O. abusing
问答题    
 
【正确答案】D
【答案解析】此处要填动词,set out的意思是“制定,设计,开始”。下文提到计划,所以这里只能填与计划相关的词,set out plans的意思是“制定计划”,满足要求,而L项set in的意思是“开始(并继续下去)”,不符合意思,因此,正确答案是D。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】F
【答案解析】此处要填一个动名词,abandoning的意思是“放弃”,根据上下文可知,这里讲的是《纽约时报》将要放弃互联网用户看新闻不收费的习惯做法,在所有选项中,只有F项abandoning有此意,因此,正确答案是F。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】H
【答案解析】此处应该选一个动词,intend to的意思是“企图,打算做,目的是为了”,根据上下文可知《纽约时报》打算推出“计量”模式,即当读者每月阅读的在线文章超过一定数量时要付一定费用,这里表示“打算做,企图”的意思只有H项,因此,正确答案是H。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】N
【答案解析】此处要填一个动词,exceeded的意思是“超出,超过”,根据上下文可知,这里的意思是网上读者每月阅读的在线文章超过一定数量时要付一定费用,而表示“超过”这个意思的只有N项exceeded,G项multiplied的意思是“乘,(使)相乘;(使)增加”,意思不通,因此,正确答案是N。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】M
【答案解析】此处要填一个介词。on the side of的意思是“站在某一边”,根据上面讲道,《纽约时报》开始对网上阅读收费,所以这一决定致使有着159年历史的报纸站在鸿沟日趋扩大的媒体产业中的收费这一边,因此,正确答案是M。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】E
【答案解析】此处要填一个表示观点意见的动词,acknowledged的意思是“承认”,根据下文他说的话(从某种意义上来说,我们把赌注压在我们认为的互联网未来走向),可知这里讲的是阿瑟·苏茨伯格承认此举是一场赌博,在这些选项中只有E项acknowledged有此意,因此,正确答案是E。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】C
【答案解析】此处要填一个与报纸相关的名词,circulation的意思是“发行量”,下文讲到“《纽约时报》以工作日99.5万份,和周末140万份的销量而自豪”,由此可以推断出这里讲的是报纸的发行量,所有选项中只有C项circulation符合题意,K项evaluation的意思是“评估,评价”不符合要求,因此,正确答案是C。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】J
【答案解析】此处要填一个表示发表意见的动词,claim的意思是“声称,要求”,根据上下文可知,这里讲的是《纽约时报》却是少数几个可以自称面向全国发行的报纸之一,claim 一般用于此种语境表示声称某种地位。I项maintains的意思是“维持,保持”不符合要求,而且在情态动词can后面不能用第三人称单数形式,因此,正确答案是J。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】I
【答案解析】此处要填动词,maintains的意思是“维持,保持;有”,此处提到,除了纽约的16个办事处外,它在全国还有11个办事处,在世界各地还有26个办事处,所以这里只能填maintains,其他选项都没有此意,因此,正确答案是I。
问答题    
 
【正确答案】A
【答案解析】此处要填动词,suffered的意思是“遭受,承受”,根据上下文可知,和出版业的其他报纸一样,它也陷入了严重的财政危机,以及下文讲到的7000万美元的损失,所以这里只能填suffered,其他选项均不恰当,因此,正确答案是A。