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.
A new volcano was being born.
The volcano in the cornfield grew until it was bigger than the cornfield! 1) People called the volcano the Little Monster because it grew so fast. Scientists came from all over the world to study it and watch it grow. It is not often that people get a chance to watch a volcano from the very beginning.
Most of the volcanoes have been here for a very long time. Some have been here so long that now they are cold. They are called dead volcanoes. They have stopped throwing out fire and melted rock and smoke. It is safe to walk on them. Farms are plowed on the quiet slopes, and people have built houses there.
Some volcanoes have stopped throwing out hot rock, but they still smoke a little now and then. They are "sleeping" volcanoes. Sometime they may "wake up".
2)
Today volcanoes are not so dangerous for people as they were a long time ago. Now we know more about why volcanoes do what they do, and we can usually tell when they are going to do it. 3)
People used to think dragons under the earth caused volcanoes. They said the smoke that puffed above the ground was the dragon's breath. They said the earthquakes were caused by the dragon's moving around down in the earth. Now we know that this is not true.
Another thing we know about volcanoes is that they don't happen just anywhere. 4) Scientists know where these places are, and maps have been made to let everybody know.
There are different kinds of volcanoes. Some explode so violently that the rock goes high into the air and falls miles away. A volcano may shoot out ashes so high that they float all the way around the world. They have made the sunsets green and the snow purple.
5)
One very tall volcano stays fiery red at the top all the time. It is lucky that the volcano is near the ocean. Sailors can use it for a lighthouse.
[A]Other volcanoes are more gentle. The hot lava rises in their cones and overflows, rolling slowly down the mountainside, where it becomes cool and hard.
[B] Black smoke puffed out. Hot ashes fell like black snowflakes. Hot rock and fire and lava shot out.
[C]Smoke puffed up, and rock started popping up out of a crack that opened in the ground.
[D]A volcano named Vesuvius slept for a thousand years. But it woke up and threw out so much hot melted rock that it buried the buildings of two cities.
[E]Before a sleeping volcano wakes up, it usually makes a noise like faraway thunder, and the ground shakes in small earthquakes. People are warned and have time to get away safely.
[F]A volcano starts from a hole in the ground from which hot rock and smoke and steam come out. Far, far under the ground it is so hot that rock melts. This hot melted rock, or lava, is sometimes pushed out of the earth through a hole or a crack in the ground. The steam inside the earth pushes the rock out.
[G]There are certain places under the earth where the rock is broken in a way that lets the steam and hot rock escape to the outside more easily. 答案及详解
1.B。填写这几句话时，应该从上下文的语境和语意中来理解，前一句说火山开始萌发了。后一句说人们把火山称为小恶魔因为是它萌发的十分迅速，可见中间的三句话应该描述的是火山萌发的过程，而需要填写的这三句话，简明、扼要、显得很有力量，同时也很形象地说明了问题。
2.D。填写这段话时，应结合前文来看。文章的第四段说明了有一种火山的类型，就是“休眠火山”，那么下一段，理所当然可以举个例子来说明。
3.E。填写这几句话时，也应该结合上文来理解。在本段的前几句提到，现在的火山已不再让人类感到那么恐惧，因为人类已经可以预知它的发生了。紧接下来，就从声音、地面晃动等情况描述了火山苏醒时的情景注意本句话比较容易和选项D填写的位置弄混淆。
4.G。填写这句话时可以看到，前一句说的是我们已经知道火山不会在所有的地方爆发，那究竟哪些地方不会发生火山呢，这句话就作出了描述，讲明了原因。
5.A。填写这段话时，应结合上文，前一段就说明了有很多种类型的火山，并列举了一种爆发时很猛烈的火山，那么与之对应，也就有爆发时相对温柔的火山。
F。这段话也是描述了火山萌发过程，很容易将它填在①处，但它不合适的原因是，过于冗长，不适合当时的语言环境，不能很好的表达出人们要将火山称之为小恶魔时的恐惧的心情。
C。这句话描述的是烟喷出，岩石迸出，火山即将爆发时的场景，显然没有其它合适的地方填这句话，另外，可能有人会将它与选项G混淆，应注意区分两者的意思。 中心思想
本文从火山喷发的过程。火山的种类、以及目前人类对火山的了解等诸多方面，较为详尽地向我们展示了火山这一奇妙的自然景观。
