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 __1__ parts, each part being an individual country with its own language, character and cultural __2__. Thus Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do not claim to __3__ to "England" because their inhabitants are not __4__ "English". They are Scottish, Irish or Welsh and many of them prefer to speak their own native tongue, which in turn is __5__ to the others.

　　These cultural minorities(少數(shù)民族) have been Britain’s original inhabitants. In varying degrees they have managed to __6__ their national characteristics, and their particular customs and way of life. This is probably even more ture of the __7__ areas where traditional ife has not been so affected by the __8__ 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 could rather __9__ 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 __10__ as a whole produces humorous writers and artists, such as the Irish Bernard Shaw, the Scottish Robert Burns, and the Welsh Dylan 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]traditional

　　[L]reserve

　　[M]growth

　　[N]apply

　　[O]belong

　　Answers:

　　1.選 D此處應(yīng)填形容詞，修飾名詞parts。文章首句即提出觀點Britain is not just one country and one people“英國不只是一個國家和一個民族”，又從后文的invided into, each part以及Individual country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。

　　2.選 K此處應(yīng)填名詞。選項中有四個詞temper, temperament, traditions和growth,語言等是一個民族的文化傳統(tǒng)，故這里應(yīng)該填K)traditions，其他幾個名詞不符合上下文。

　　3.選 O此處應(yīng)填動詞原形。前文中說明英國被分成獨立的幾部分，各自保存自己的文化傳統(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(yīng)該選擇O)belong。apply也可以和to連用，但apply to表示“將...應(yīng)用于”，不符合上下文意思。

　　4.選 J此處應(yīng)填形容詞或副詞。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(yán)格來說，他們不是“English”，但他們都屬于English。故J)strictly符合文意。generally“一般地，大體地”放在原文意義上不夠嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)。三個形容詞不能使語義通順。

　　5.選 A從前文中prefer to speak their own native tongue即蘇格蘭語、蘇格蘭語和威爾士語，那么這些語言對the others(見注釋1)來說是陌生的，聽不懂的。那么就不難從選項中的incomprehensible和understandable中選擇前者，故A)incomprehensible“不能理解的”正確。

　　6.選 I由manage to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和reserve。從下文中traditional life has not been so affected,可知他們成功地保存了自己的傳統(tǒng)，排除forget;reserve和presserve都有“保存”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I)preserve符合文意。

　　7.選 C此處應(yīng)填形容詞。從后文where traditional life has not been so affected by the ... of industrialis"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C)remote“偏僻的，遙遠的”符合上下文意思。

　　8.選 Mborder area“邊界地區(qū)”的工業(yè)化發(fā)展的比remote area要快，所以此處要填的詞是表示上升、增長的詞，表示工業(yè)化的發(fā)展，選項M)growth“增長，發(fā)展”符合上下文意思。

　　9.選 Fwould rather和prefer意思相同，后面是寧愿讓人記住他們的好的東西：民歌，舞蹈等。前面說的是過分節(jié)儉的壞名聲，所以填入動詞的意思應(yīng)該與remember意思相反，選項中的F)forget符合上下文意思。

　　10.選H 此處應(yīng)填名詞。選項中的名詞還有temper和temperament。前者指脾氣，指情緒上的主要特征，后者指特征、氣質(zhì)，尤指帶感******彩的個性和在社交上的個性。這里指的是整個凱爾特民族的特征，故H)temperament正確。