Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
Britain is not just one country and one people; even if some of its inhabitants think so. Britain is, in fact, a nation which can be divided into several (36) parts, each part being an individual country with its own language, character and cultural (37) . Thus Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do not claim to (38) to "England" because their inhabitants are not (39) "English". They are Scottish, Irish or Welsh and many of them prefer to speak their own native tongue, which in turn is (40) to the others.
These cultural minorities (少數(shù)名族) have been Britain's original inhabitants. In varying degrees they have managed to (41) their national characteristics, and their particular customs and way of life. This is probably even more true of the (42) areas where traditional life has not been so affected by the (43) of industrialism as the border areas have been. The Celtic races are said to be more emotional by nature than the English. An Irish temper is legendary. The Scots would rather (44) about their reputation for excessive thrift and prefer to be remembered for their folk songs and dances, while the Welsh are famous for their singing. The Celtic (45) as a whole produces humorous writers and artists, such as the Irish Bernard Shaw, the Scottish Robert Bums, and the WelshDylan Thomas, to mention but a few.
A) incomprehensible B) temper C) remote
D) separate E) understandable F) forget
G) generally H) temperament I) preserve
J) strictly K) traditions L) reserve
M) growth N) apply O) belong
答案：
36.【解析】 D。此處應填形容詞，修飾名詞parts。文章首句即提出觀點Britain is notjust one country and one people“英國不只是一個國家和一個民族”，又從后文的divided int0，each part以及individual corn.時可知英國被分成幾個分離的部分，選項中只有separate表達了這個意思，故D正確。
37.【解析】 K。此處應填名詞。選項中有四個詞temper temperament，traditions和growth，能和language和character并列且能被cultural修飾只有traditions，其他幾個名詞不符合文意。
38.【解析】 O。此處應填動詞原形。前文中說明英國被分成獨立的幾部分，各自保留自己的文化傳統(tǒng);后文中“because…”說明蘇格蘭、北愛爾蘭以及威爾士的居民不承認自己是“English”，說明他們并不承認自己屬于“England”，故這里應該選擇belong。apply也可以和to連用，但apply to表示“將……應用于”，不符合上下文意思。
39.【解析】 J。此處應填形容詞或副詞修飾English。選項中的副詞有g(shù)enerally和strictly，文中要表達的意思是因為這幾個部分都有自己的語言和文化傳統(tǒng)，所以嚴格來說，他們不是“English”，但他們都屬于English。故strictly符合文意。generally“一般地，大體地”放在原文意義上不夠嚴謹。三個形容詞不能使語義通順。
40.【解析】 A。此處應填形容詞。從前文中“prefer to speak their own native tongue”，即蘇格蘭語、愛爾蘭語和威爾士語，而這些語言對the others來說是陌生的，聽不懂的。那么就不難從選項中的in come.sensible和understandable中選擇前者，故incomprehensible“不能理解的”正確。
41.【解析】I。由manage t0結(jié)構(gòu)可知此處要填的是動詞原形。選項中的動詞原形還有forget，preserve，re.serve和apply。從下文中“traditional life has not been SO affected”可知他們成功地保留了自己的傳統(tǒng)，排除forget和apply;reserve和preserve都有“保留”的意思，前者指存留起來以派別的用場，后者指想辦法保持原樣，強調(diào)抵制破壞因素，故preserve符合文意。
42.【解析】C。此處應填形容詞修飾areas。從后文“where traditional life has not been SO affected by the…of industrialism…人們的傳統(tǒng)生活受工業(yè)化……的影響沒有那么大的地方”可以推知，這些地方是比較偏遠的地方，選項中的remote。偏僻的，遙遠的”符合上下文意思。
