单选题 Broadly speaking, the Englishman is a quiet, shy, reserved person who is fully (21) only among people he knows well. In the presence of strangers or foreigners he often seems inhibited, (22) embarrassed. You have only (23) a commuter train any morning or evening to see the truth of this. Serious-looking businessmen and women sit reading their newspapers or dozing in a comer; no one speaks. In fact, to do so would seem most unusual. (24) , there is here an unwritten but clearly understood code of behaviours which, (25) broken, makes the person immediately the object of (26) .
It is a well-known fact that the English have a (27) for the discussion of their weather and that, given half a chance, they will talk about it (28) . Some people argue that it is because English weather (29) forecast and hence is a source of interest and (30) to everyone. This may be so. (31) Englishmen cannot have much (32) in the weathermen, who, after promising fine, sunny weather for the following day, are often proved wrong (33) a cloud over the Atlantic brings rainy weather to all districts ! The man in the street seems to be as accurate—or as inaccurate—as the weathermen in his (34) .
The overseas visitors may be excused for showing surprise at all the number of references (35) weather that the English make to each other in the course of a single day. Very often conversational greetings are (36) by comments on the weather. "Nice day, isn't it?" "Beautiful!" may well be heard instead of "Good morning, how are you?" (37) the foreigner may consider this exaggerated and comic, it is worthwhile pointing out that it could be used to his advantage. (38) he wants to start a conversation with an Englishman but is (39) to know where to begin, he could do well to mention the state of the weather. It is a safe subject which will (40) an answer from even the most reserved of Englishmen.

单选题 A. entertained B. relaxed C. amused D. enlightened

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词义辨析。由第一句话“英国人只有在熟人面前才会显得……”结合下一句话“他们在陌生人或外国人面前会显得拘谨”来判断，本句需要inhibited 的反义词，relaxed 意为“不拘束的”符合题意。而entertained 意为“感到愉快的”；amused 意为“愉快的，开心的”；enlightened 意为“文明的，受启迪的”均不是inhibited 的反义词。

单选题 A. yet B. otherwise C. even D. though

单选题 A. experience B. undergo C. travel D. witness

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词义选择与词语搭配。后面接commuter train。首先排除trayel 意为“旅行”，因为travel 后加交通工具时多用travel by sth。如 I traveled by bike。此时的“travel”为不及物动词。experience 则表达体验一种感受，如 experience happiness，不能与commuter train 搭配。undergo 意为“经历，遭受，忍受(某种磨难或痛苦)”，显然不符合题意。witness 表示目击、亲眼所见，它属于及物动词。这里之所以选witness，还可以从下文的to see 得到提示，只有亲眼所见，才能看到。

单选题 A. Obviously B. Contrarily C. Frequently D. Practically

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查语篇连接。前文叙述了英国人在市郊火车站上沉默、内敛的表现，这看起来很不正常，但很显然，这就是英国人不成文的行为规范。如表现得过分张扬，反倒不好。从上下文的逻辑关系可以判断出来，这里应该选Obviously。Contrarily 意为“相反地”，并没有表示转折的语境；Frequently 意为“频繁地，常常”；Practically 意为“实际上，事实上”与本文没有直接关系。

单选题 A. unless B. if C. while D. as if

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查语法和语篇的结合。中间部分属于插入语，从题意上可以判断，存在这样的行为规范，一旦打破，就会使这个人很快成为……的对象。此时只能选if，表示假设。unless 意为“除非”，不符合此处逻辑关系；while 意为“然而”；“当……”，表示“当……”的时候后面必须跟持续的动作，如：While I was singing…；as if 意为“好像”，不符合题意。

单选题 A. suspicion B. opposition C. attack D. study

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词义辨析。应选suspicion，意为“猜疑，怀疑”，意思是“如果一个英国人违反了不成文的行为规范，就会成为大家猜疑的对象”，suspicion 从程序上比较适合。 opposition 意为“反对，敌对”，在这里不符合题意。opposition 超出了作者的表达范畴。attack意为“进攻，攻击”同样远远超出了作者的表达范畴。英国是文明社会，attack 显然不符合题意；study 意为“学习，研究”与题意无关。

单选题 A. passion B. fancy C. necessity D. judgement

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词义辨析。to have a fancy for 表示喜爱做某事。英国人喜欢谈论天气。passion 意为“激情，热情”表示强烈的情感，也表示喜爱，但是程度远高于fancy，表示酷爱，比如：She has a passion for chocolate。necessity 意为“必要性，需要”；judgement 意为“判断”这两项不符合题意。

单选题 A. at length B. to a great extentC. from their heartD.by all means

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查固定搭配。从文中判断，英国人会抓住一切机会不厌其烦地讨论天气。at length 意为“详尽，充分的”符合题意，如：He went on at tedious length about his favourite hobby。to a great extent 意为“很大程度上”，如：To a great extent，he is correct。from their heart 意为“发自内心的”，如：I love you from my heart。by all means 意为“尽一切办法，一定”，如：Please save her by all means。

单选题 A. follows B. predicts C. defies D. violates

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词义辨析。从逻辑上考生可判断出，正是因为真正的天气情况与预报不符，英国人才有了谈资，可以对天气进行预测。所以这里要排除follows 意为“遵循”和predicts 意为“预知，预言，预报”，defies 意为“不服从，不符合”；violates 意为“违犯，亵渎(圣物)，冒犯”虽然也有“不符合”的意思；但超出所要表达的语气，同样不选。

单选题 A. contribution B. deduction C. contemplation D. speculation

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词义辨析。此处应填speculation 意为“推断，推测”，因为对未来的天气进行讨论，主要是推测。contribution 意为“捐献，贡献”显然不符合题意；contemplation 意为“预期，企图，打算”，虽然也表示对未来的想法，但主要表示一种打算，如：The government's contemplation of taking new measures．政府采取新措施的打算。

单选题 A. Still B. Also C. Certainly D. Fundamentally

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查语篇分析。前文说到：“English weather defies forecast and hence is a source of interest and speculation to everyone．”由此可以推断出英国人当然不会太相信不准确的天气预报了，所以答案选Certainly。而Still 意为“仍，还，更，还要”表示递进；Also意为“也，同样”表示并列；Fundamentally 意为“基础地，根本地”均不符合题意。

单选题 A. faith B. reliance C. honor D. credit

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查固定搭配。这里意思是“英国人不太信任天气预报员”。faith意为“信任，信念”。have faith in 意为“相信，信任”，如：Do you have faith in him? reliance 意为“信任，信心”与faith 的意思一样，但用法不同，为place reliance on，如：Don't place too much reliance。on his advice。honor 意为“荣誉，光荣”，不符合题意，用法为have honor of sth.，如：May I have the honor of this dance? credit 意为“信任，信用”，不与in 搭配使用，如：Recent developments lend credit to previous reports。

单选题 A. if B. once C. when D. whereas

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查语法。考生从上下文很容易判断出正确答案是when，此处为时间状语从句，意为“当……的时候，证明了天气预报是错误的”。if 表示假设，而上句为are often proved wrong，而不是will be proved wrong，所以不选if。once 表示条件，意为“一旦……就……”；whereas 表示转折，二者不符合题意。

单选题 A. propositions B. predictions C. approval D. defiance

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查词义辨析。此处是与天气预报员比较，天气预报员对未来天气的判断应为预测，所以选predictions 意为“预言，预报”。其他选项均不合题意：propositions意为“主张，建议”；approval 意为“赞成，承认”，如：He showed his approval by smiling。defiance意为“挑战，蔑视”，in defiance of 意为“公然蔑视，挑战”，都不合题意，故答案选B。

单选题 A. about B. on C. as to D. to

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查固定搭配。这里意思是“英国人不厌其烦地谈及天气，这件事让国外游人感到吃惊”。谓语为make，宾语是reference。答案选make reference to sth．意为“提及，提及”，如：He made pointed references to the recent scandal。此外，Bear some reference to sth．意为“与某事有关”，如：This bears no reference to what we were discussing。about，on，as to 均不可与reference 搭配。

单选题 A. replaced B. conducted C. executed D. proposed

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查固定搭配。答案主要根据下文的instead of，说明问候被评论天气所取代了，所以选replaced 意为“取代，替换”。replace by 意为“取代，以……代替”，如： Can a mother's love be replaced by anything else?而conducted 意为“引导，管理”；exectuted 意为“执行，实行”；proposed 意为“计划，建议”均不合题意。

单选题 A. Since B. Although C. However D. Before

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查语篇连接。结合下文“it is worthwhile pointing out that it could be used to his advantage．”说明尽管外国人认为英国人的行为很滑稽，有时这么做还是有好处的。因此文章的逻辑为让步转折关系，应当选择让步连词Although，而其他三项Since 表示因果关系；However 表示转折关系；Before 表示时间先后关系，均不合题意。

单选题 A. Even if B. Because C. If D. For

单选题 A. at a loss B. at Just C. in fact D. on the occasion

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查固定搭配。此处需填表示否定的短语，意思是“不知从哪儿说起”，选at a loss 意为“困惑地”，如I'm at a complete loss at what to do next。而at last 意为“终于”；In fact 意为“事实上”；on the occasion 意为“在……情况下”均不合题意。另外，as occasion demands 意为“在必要时”；as occasion serves 意为“一有适当时机”；catch occasions by the fore- lock 意为“抓紧时机”。