Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't 1 it to be blue - the name has nothing to 2 the color of our closest celestial（天体） neighbor.
A full moon 3 on December 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.
"If you're in Times Square, you'll see the 4 moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show.
The New Year's Eve blue moon will be 5 in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up 6 New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.
However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse（月蚀） on New Year's Eve when 7 of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The 8 will not be visible in the Americas.
A full moon occurs 9 29.5 days, and most years have 12. 10 , an extra full moon in a month - a blue moon - occurs every 2.5 years. The 11 time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't 12 again until 2028.
Blue moons have no astronomical 13 , said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
"`Blue moon' is just a 14 in the same sense as a `hunter's moon' or a `harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.
The popular definition of blue moon 15 after a writer for Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 misunderstood the Maine Farmer's Calendar and marked a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact, the calendar 16 a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three.
Though Sky & Telescope corrected the 17 decades later, the definition caught on. For purists（语言纯正癖者）, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as a 18 moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.
In a tongue-in-cheek essay 19 on the magazine's Web site this week, senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty wrote: "If skies are clear when I'm 20 celebrating, I'll take a peek（眯着眼睛看） at that brilliant orb（天体） as it rises over the Boston skyline to see if it's an icy shade of blue. Or maybe I'll just howl."
( ) 1. A. wish B. wait C. hope D. expect
( ) 2. A. deal with B. do with C. develop with D. form into
( ) 3. A. occurred B. came C. ran D. went
( ) 4. A. full B. half C. bright D. part
( ) 5. A. out of sight B. visible C. big D. clear
( ) 6. A. until B. when C. before D. since
( ) 7. A. part B. all C. any D. none
( ) 8. A. moon B. eclipse C. sun D. shadow
( ) 9. A. each B. every C. either D. all
( ) 10. A. On the whole B. Generally speaking C. On average D. In addition
( ) 11. A. last B. next C. other D. another
( ) 12. A. go B. see C. come D. look
( ) 13. A. point B. evident C. theory D. significance
( ) 14. A. name B. object C. phenomenon D. tradition
( ) 15. A. created B. came about C. made D. copied
( ) 16. A. named B. called C. introduced D. defined
( ) 17. A. error B. name C. reality D. number
( ) 18. A. blue B. red C. yellow D. grey
( ) 19. A. published B. posted C. printed D. written
( ) 20. A. in B. out C. away D. on
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
We have been driving in fog all morning, but the fog is lifting now. The little seaside villages are ____, one by one. "There is my grandmother's house," I say, ____ across the bay to a shabby old house.
I am in Nova Scotia on a pilgrimage (朝圣) with Lise, my granddaughter, seeking roots for her, retracing (追溯) ____ memory for me. Lise was one of the mobile children, _____ from house to house in childhood. She longs for a sense of ___ , and so we have come to Nova Scotia where my husband and I were born and where our ancestors _____for 200 years.
We soon ___ by the house and I tell her what it was like here, the memories___back, swift as the tide (潮水).
Suddenly, I long to walk again in the ___where I was once so glorious a child. It still ____a member of the family, but has not been lived in for a while. We cannot go into the house, but I can still walk __ the rooms in memory. Here, my mother ___ in her bedroom window and wrote in her diary. I can still see the enthusiastic family ___ into and out of the house. I could never have enough of being ___ them. However, that was long after those childhood days. Lise ____ attentively as I talk and then says, " So this is where I ___ ; where I belong. "
She has _ her roots. To know where I come from is one of the great longings of the human __. To be rooted is "to have an origin". We need __ origin. Looking backward, we discover what is unique in us; learn the___ of "I". We must all go home again—in reality or memory.
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The New York Times published an article recently that shows great regret for the "death of conversation"．It suggests that while technology such as cell phones, e-mails , and Internet posting makes us feel more than ever, they’re also driving us _ from people around us．
Users get final connectivity the price of face-to-face conversation． Sherry Turkle, author of the article in The New York Times says people are to a different way of being “alone together”．
Actually , text messages or writing micro-blogs allows us to thoughts.
bits and pieces of online cannot a “real conversation．” Lan Guo, 19, a freshman English major from Changsha University , said that she would like to hear people’s tone of voice and see their faces in a (n) ．“The give and take of ideas in a conversation sharpens our minds,” she said．She also mentions that ourselves in mobile technology reduces our chance of starting conversations with strangers and People．
Turkle mentioned the popular of “I share, therefore I am” among this generation. Liu Xuan, a young writer from Taiwan and psychology graduate from Harvard University, thinks it’s a mindset adopted by most young people． They are so busy creating or polishing their online persona (网络人格)that they forget how to live a (n) life． For example，They may more about blogging about attending a party rather than enjoying being ．
However，experts remind us that it’s unfair to mobile technology . Chen Chen, a sociology expert at China Youth &Children Research Center, points out that it is still owners of gadgets , such as cell phones and tablets , who’re avoiding personal .We take advantage of these devices to hide ourselves others ．Texting messages or calling may be a (n) to avoid contact with others, such as having eye contact． “Only by strengthening conversation can we understand each other. Simply throwing away the mobile gadgets is not a solution．”she said．
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阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
It is universally acknowledged that fresh food is beneficial to our health. As a small child, I didn’t know about the benefits of fresh food. , I considered canned fish and fruit, bottled soft drinks and snacks to be the most appetizing (令人垂涎的). As I learned to prefer fresh and foods to the artificial taste of chemically-enhanced snacks, I began to starting a vegetable garden in our backyard.
“What would it take?” I asked my mom. We had the space and were to take care of the plants every day. doing some research online, we to dig out a space of 16 square feet in our yard. It would have to be at least a foot deep with a raised vegetable bed, the vegetables would have two feet of depth to grow.
It was February of 2013. We knew that we had to work if we wanted to plant vegetables that spring. That month, every day after school, I pushed the tough clay (粘土) under our lawn with a large shovel (铲子). Luckily, the rain made the soil , and before we knew it, we had finished digging the bed. Next came my favorite part: shopping for and plants. By June, our plants, especially the tomatoes, were growing . We had never such fresh tomatoes; they were so sweet that you could almost taste the in them. To give our friends gifts, we packed jars of our little tomatoes. We also Italian pasta sauce with our tomatoes and basil (罗勒，一种香料). It reassured (使…放心) us to know that we were eating healthy and fresh produce.
The work we put into our vegetable garden was worthwhile. As long as we had the to start and maintain the garden, we a bountiful (大量的) harvest for the entire summer and fall in return. Thanks to the success of my vegetable garden, I can say that if the of life is to be happy, I’m one little step closer.
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This was an unforgettable and wonderful experience. It happened about three years ago and it has had a____effect on me. I would like to show respect here for the two men I do not know ____ but whose actions gave a new ___ to the words—kind and generous.
I was walking down a busy street on a cold，windy day in early ____.A homeless man，probably about 60 and without wearing any shoes，was ____ for change on a street corner.
A BMW car ___ on the other side of the street and an executive(主管)who was perfectly dressed stepped out of the car. He was probably about ____ years old. He was wearing a blue business suit with a deep red silk tie. He walked____ across the street and over to the homeless man. Without saying anything，he first gave him a lot of ____ and then he sat down and took off his leather gloves(手套)，beautiful black leather shoes and his black dress socks. Then he ____ them to the homeless man. The homeless man took them and stared with a/an ____ mouth.
As he drove off，I couldn't ____ thinking that it was probably the first time he had ____ the pedal(踏板)of that topbrand BMW car with a ____ foot！I stood there and the looks of ____ appeared on my face and the homeless man's.
Two men of about the same age ____ very different lives had met and the one who was ____ in materials had offered ___ than his shoes. He had left this BMW car and ____ down from his high position. He lifted up the other man when he offered respect，____and real generosity.
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阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
It would be my first Thanksgiving since my father moved to heaven, and it would also be my first Thanksgiving being away from my family. Holidays are when you can’t be with family, and I was mourning （哀悼）the of my dad and feeling sad about being from my family in Indiana. But, that sadness turned into when it hit me: I was going to have to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving myself!
That night at Dubya’s Restaurant, which was our favorite place to , I began discussing the dilemma (困境)with Jeff.“It’s too bad that this place won’t be on Thanksgiving, or we could just come here,”I said.
Dubya, the owner of the restaurant, happened to be by our table when I said those words.“You mean you expect me to for you on Thanksgiving, too?”he teased （取笑）“ Well, I guess you’ll just have to come to our since the restaurant will be closed then.”.
We’d become with Dubya and his wife, as we ate at Dubya’s twice a week; however, I didn’t think we were close enough to Thanksgiving dinner with his family. I was sure he was . But as we headed toward the door, Dubya handed Jeff a note with directions to their house and their phone number. “You’re ?” I asked “Of course,” he said.
And, two days later, we reached Dubya’s house. Everyone us. As expected, the food was marvelous but the company was even better. We truly felt that we there.
Of course, I wrote them a thank-you note the next week, but I couldn’t really into words what that Thanksgiving dinner had meant to us. I’ve never forgotten their kindness and that very Thanksgiving.
So, here’s my suggestion to you this year. If you know someone who will be dining alone on Thanksgiving, why not invite that person over to your family?
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