考生注意事项

Section I  Use of English

Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D an ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)

The United States has historically had higher rates of marriage than those of other industrialized countries. The current annual marriage  1  in the United States -- about 9 new marriages for every 1,000 people -- is  2  higher than it is in other industrialized countries.  3  , marriage is no longer as widespread as it was several decades ago. The  4  of American adults who choose to be married  5   from 72 percent in 1970 to 60 percent in 2006.
This, of course, does not  6  that large numbers of people will remain unmarried  7  their lives. All over the 20th century, about 90 percent of Americans, willingly or reluctantly, married at some  8   in their lives. Experts  9  that about the same proportion of today's young adults, though claiming to remain  10  time and again, will eventually marry.
The timing of marriage has  11  over the past century. In 2005 the average age of women in the United States at the time of their  12  marriage was 25. The average age of men was about 27. Men and women in the United States marry for the first time at an average of five years  13  than people did in the 1950s. However, young adults of the 1950s married younger than did any previous  14  in U.S. history. Today’s later age of marriage is  15  that of marriage between 1890 and 1940. Moreover, a greater proportion of the population was married (95 percent) during the 1950s than at any time before  16 .
Experts do not agree on  17  prompts the “marriage rush” of the  18  1940s and 1950s occurrence, but most social scientists believe it represented a  19  to the return of harmonious life and prosperity after 15 years of severe  20  depression and war.
1. A. rate       B. ratio      C. percentage      D. portion
2.   A. quite     B. very     C. over       D. much
3.   A. However    B. Furthermore    C. Therefore       D. Accordingly
4.   A. desire    B. proportion   C. intention      D. concern
5.   A. deduced    B. deteriorated   C. declined       D. demolished
6.   A. convey  B. reveal   C. mean    D. display
7.   A. complete     B. throughout    C. thorough     D. entire
8.   A. period      B. level      C. degree        D. duration
9.   A. project      B. promise      C. predict       D. propose
10.  A. unique   B. naive   C. single    D. sole
11.  A. distinguished   B. varied     C. modified      D. transformed
12.  A. original  B. confidential  C. primitive   D. initial
13.  A. later   B. earlier   C. more    D. less
14.  A. descendants   B. ascendants    C. precedents      D. generation
15.  A. in touch with   B. in line with   C. in conference with D. in mood with
16.  A. and after     B. or after      C. or since        D. ever since
17.  A. why   B. how   C. which    D. what
18.  A. lately   B. late   C. latest    D. latter
19.  A. refusal      B. realization    C. refute      D. response
20.  A. commercial     B. economical     C. economic      D. historic