# 单空

# SECTION 1

# XXGSC0001

The composer's music had been criticized for being simple and accessible to a fault, but defenders countered that music need not be _____ to be great.
A. innovative
B. capricious
C. inscrutable
D. meritorious
E. bombastic

# XXGSC0002

Unlike other rap artists, who often _____ behind the microphone, Drake writes out every word of his rhymes before he performs them.
A. linger
B. proselytize
C. extemporize
D. fulminate
E. compromise

# XXGSC0003

His lackadaisical approach to this project belies his well-known reputation for _____.
A. flippancy
B. mordancy
C. preciosity
D. prodigality
E. assiduity

# XXGSC0004

The danger of valuing animals in proportion to their apparent possession of human characteristics is the subject of Budiansky's new book, an extended critique of _____ in animal behavior research.
A. pragmatism
B. humanitarianism
C. anthropomorphism
D. empiricism
E. cynicism

# XXGSC0005

Gluten -- a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye -- was formerly avoided only by those suffering from celiac disease but has recently become a popular dietary _____, with gluten-free foods popping up everywhere.
A. fad
B. substitute
C. panacea
D. scam
E. villain

# XXGSC0006

In seventeenth-century science, we witness the first instance of technological _____: scientific tools, constructed from existing scientific knowledge, led to the acquisition of new knowledge that in turn contributed to improving the tools' design.
A. breakthrough
B. feedback
C. controversy
D. cooperation
E. malaise

# XXGSC0007

There is a rather _____ reason for astronomers' sudden interest in comets: most other bodies in the solar system have been explored already.
A. pedantic
B. prosaic
C. controversial
D. untenable
E. mysterious

# XXGSC0008

Because we participate in the dynamics of ecosystems as we restore them, restoration practice is in essence antithetical to the idea of a _____ wilderness.
A. managed
B. developing
C. rehabilitated
D. pristine
E. degraded

# XXGSC0009

It is ironic that the scientist's work was criticized recently for its _____ research methodology, since other researchers have argued for years that this same methodology was based absolutely on impeccable logic.
A. fastidious
B. esoteric
C. abstruse
D. impervious
E. specious

# XXGSC0010

Central control of the country's power grid is difficult because of the _____ of the electricity industry -- it is made up of hundreds of local networks with separate owners.
A. bifurcation
B. interdependence
C. nationalization
D. tractability
E. balkanization

# SECTION 2

# XXGSC0011

Hotels in major urban markets seem to offer the biggest potential _____ seasoned investors looking to make an investment in the lodging sector; those hotels took the hardest hit during the recession, and analysts expect them to bounce back just as steeply.
A. risk for
B. concession from
C. source of
D. disincentive to
E. windfall to

# XXGSC0012

Given the extraordinary _____ of its arguments, it is surprising that the central thesis of the book can be stated so simply.
A. nuance
B. insensitivity
C. lucidity
D. spuriousness
E. rationality

# XXGSC0013

The Internet is an eternally unfinished monument to _____, a text that aspires to be as big and multifarious as the world it describes.
A. inclusion
B. self-promotion
C. innovation
D. triviality
E. abstraction

# XXGSC0014

In nineteenth-century Japan, the national government's template for presenting annual statistical information proved, in practice, to be _____: regional statistical yearbooks reveal a subtle reshuffling of the template's categories to showcase what mattered most to local officials.
A. intractable
B. malleable
C. provident
D. inviolable
E. practicable

# XXGSC0015

The distance between Tibetan villages is sometimes _____ by the number of cups of tea necessary to sustain a person traveling that route: three cups of tea are roughly equal to eight kilometers.
A. amplified
B. foreshadowed
C. eclipsed
D. constrained
E. reckoned

# XXGSC0016

Archaeopteryx had feathers on its hind limbs that helped stabilize it and acted as air brakes, allowing the otherwise _____ creature to turn more adeptly and fly steadily.
A. docile
B. ungainly
C. unpredictable
D. torpid
E. reckless

# XXGSC0017

The fiftieth birthday of this much-admired musician has, predictably, given rise to various _____, including two flattering television documentaries about her life.
A. encomiums
B. diatribes
C. controversies
D. exposés
E. conundrums

# XXGSC0018

The results of the latest survey being _____, earlier results gave researchers little relevant experience for the new data's interpretation.
A. superfluous
B. inconsequential
C. tedious
D. unexampled
E. familiar

# XXGSC0019

In proto scientific times (for example, in ancient Greece), claims about the physical world were often accepted as true if they were reasonable; experimental verification, if thought necessary at all, was _____.
A. utilitarian
B. perfunctory
C. egregious
D. empirical
E. inductive

# XXGSC0020

In order to put their own ideas to a scrupulous test, scientists should actively try to falsify them, though in practice such attempts at _____ rarely have the vigor theorists of scientific method would prefer.
A. empiricism
B. disavowal
C. self-refutation
D. countermanding
E. circuitousness

# SECTION 3

# XXGSC0021

In recent years, the country's farmers have been extremely _____, contributing a major portion of the disturbances and protests against government policies.
A. discerning
B. tractable
C. restive
D. mercurial
E. circumspect

# XXGSC0022

Concerned about the growing tendency of universities to sometimes reward celebrity more generously than specialized expertise, many academics have deplored the search for _____ to which that practice leads.
A. approbation
B. collegiality
C. erudition
D. renown
E. prowess

# XXGSC0023

The design of many seventeenth-century scientific instruments was not entirely _____: in their construction, such instruments already involved many assumptions about aspects of the phenomena that they were aimed to investigate.
A. consistent
B. original
C. precise
D. impartial
E. versatile

# XXGSC0024

While Pompeian houses vary in their size, ground plan, and decorative schemes, they do tend to _____ certain consistent design motivations: their owners all seem to have aimed toward creating a certain kind of domestic space.
A. inform
B. defy
C. inspire
D. thwart
E. betray

# XXGSC0025

Historically, it has been unusual for scientific terms, once coined, to enter common usage with much _____: "scientist" and "dinosaur" (coined in 1833 and 1842, respectively), for instance, were rarely used before the late nineteenth century.
A. recognition
B. dispatch
C. accuracy
D. controversy
E. acclaim

# XXGSC0026

It would be a disservice to the novel's intricate construction to provide its readers in advance with even _____ summation of its unfolding events: the book should be allowed to reveal its own surprises.
A. a subjective
B. a cursory
C. an incisive
D. a comprehensive
E. a predictable

# XXGSC0027

Robin's words were not without emotion: they retained their level tone only by a careful _____ imminent extremes.
A. equipoise between
B. embrace of
C. oscillation between
D. limitation to
E. subjection to

# XXGSC0028

The regulatory agency's attempts to impose new and harsher restrictions on the business community were met with such _____ that the agency finally opted to maintain its existing rules.
A. impunity
B. probity
C. recalcitrance
D. indemnity
E. approbation

# XXGSC0029

Few meteorites are _____: most languish for many years before being found, their untold stories slowly fading from extended exposure to wind and rain.
A. hazardous
B. massive
C. invaluable
D. pristine
E. prehistoric

# XXGSC0030

The movie has a surfeit of inscrutable characters and tortuous subplots, so it is no surprise that viewers leaving the recent screening appeared _____.
A. complacent
B. phlegmatic
C. nonplussed
D. unsated
E. beguiled

# SECTION 4

# XXGSC0031

The _____ of the Internet has a price: because the Internet was designed to suit a wide variety of applications, the service it delivers is almost certainly not optimal for any particular application.
A. immediacy
B. generality
C. complexity
D. ubiquity
E. interactivity

# XXGSC0032

Age data from meteorites suggests that, in contrast to the relatively _____ pace of planetary evolution we are witnessing today, the first ten million years or so of our solar system history were extremely eventful.
A. structured
B. uncertain
C. pedestrian
D. productive
E. menacing

# XXGSC0033

Thanks to their importance as components in the catalytic converters that reduce vehicle emissions, platinum, palladium, and rhodium have all become _____ in the fight against air pollution.
A. paradigms
B. aberrations
C. novelties
D. bulwarks
E. exceptions

# XXGSC0034

While the theory that volcanic activity enables the venting of methane gas from subsurface reserves offers a reasonable explanation for the replenishing of methane in Titan's atmosphere, volcano-like structures on Titan's surface are _____.
A. relatively typical
B. slowly evolving
C. truly fascinating
D. geologically active
E. still undiscovered

# XXGSC0035

Despite having been designated as an interdepartmental effort, the project involved no real _____ of viewpoints.
A. distillation
B. synthesis
C. explication
D. dilution
E. encapsulation

# XXGSC0036

Because the weight of melting ice sheets and glaciers is increasing pressure on the Earth's ocean floors, causing them to sink, measurements of sea-level rise have probably _____ the increasing volume of water in the oceans.
A. anticipated
B. included
C. exaggerated
D. underestimated
E. pinpointed

# XXGSC0037

To write convincing fiction about the tedium of ordinary life may be one of the hardest challenges facing a novelist, who must find a way to engage the reader despite a focus on _____ events.
A. distressing
B. dubious
C. quotidian
D. unwonted
E. nebulous

# XXGSC0038

The myth of the scientific method as a neat progression from hypothesis to experiment to conclusion is dispelled once you enter a lab and observe the _____ process by which researchers actually make discoveries.
A. meticulous
B. unproductive
C. imperturbable
D. haphazard
E. sequential

# XXGSC0039

Before divulging the nature of their experiments, the researchers anticipated _____, thinking that their work might appear macabre; hence they prepared carefully for a press conference at which they emphasized the project's scientific and medical value.
A. trifling criticism
B. adverse repercussions
C. indecipherable outcomes
D. widespread indifference
E. spontaneous approval

# XXGSC0040

Woody plant responses to herbivory were always thought to be _____; however, some scientists have reported localized responses to herbivory in certain woody plants.
A. timely
B. marginal
C. unpredictable
D. adequate
E. systemic

# 六选二

# SECTION 1

# XXGSC0111

The fact that no single Cantonese dictionary is seen as ____ is one of the main reasons why most Hong Kong authors do not depend on formal reference tools when writing in Cantonese.
A. dependable
B. authoritative
C. meticulous
D. indefinite
E. topical
F. comprehensive

# XXGSC0112

Because it has usually been impossible to eradicate exotic species once they have become established, it is ____ to minimize introductions of species that have substantial probabilities of unwanted impacts.
A. prudent
B. customary
C. provident
D. superfluous
E. essential
F. pointless

# XXGSC0113

The biographer laments the ____ that abound in texts from antiquity they are so prevalent, she says that they nearly amount to a "conspiracy of silence".
A. fallacies
B. myths
C. misrepresentations
D. elisions
E. lacunae
F. distortions

# XXGSC0114

Meteorology is one of the few fields of applied science that demands prediction; since prediction involves considerable uncertainty and uncertainty is ____ scientists, meteorology will continue to exist in a fraught intellectual space.
A. mysterious to
B. anathema to
C. discredited by
D. pivotal for
E. repellent to
F. familiar to

# XXGSC0115

Faced with so much conflicting information on the internet, many people come to believe that all sources are so ____ that efforts to discriminate between the true and the false are inevitably futile.
A. slanted
B. imprecise
C. splenetic
D. tendentious
E. surreptitious
F. acrimonious

# XXGSC0116

This novel is not great literature: there are too many characters, too many subplots, and no clearly defined protagonist, making for ____ story.
A. a banal
B. a diffuse
C. a mawkish
D. an innocuous
E. an amorphous
F. a hackneyed

# XXGSC0117

Over the past hundred years, numerous experiments on elementary particles have ____ the classical paradigm of a causal, deterministic universe by showing that some natural phenomena are truly random.
A. augmented
B. supported
C. upended
D. investigated
E. undermined
F. probed

# XXGSC0118

Recent research has shown that memories are not unchanging physical traces in the brain; instead, they are constructs that are ____, rebuilt every time they are recalled.
A. complex
B. intricate
C. fragile
D. malleable
E. ephemeral
F. pliable

# XXGSC0119

Ancient coins displayed in museums are almost by definition ____, on display precisely because they are the most beautiful, the most elaborate, and the best-preserved samples.
A. diverse
B. atypical
C. precious
D. exceptional
E. disparate
F. enigmatic

# XXGSC0120

An academic with a questionable record in either teaching, administration, or research may still be well regarded at many schools, but simultaneous failure in all three areas normally results in ____ by superiors.
A. exculpation
B. dismissal
C. impeachment
D. disapprobation
E. censure
F. acquittal

# SECTION 2

# XXGSC0121

The airline might receive fewer complaints if it got passengers to their destinations on time: in the past few years, only one airline has been more ____.
A. unprofitable
B. aggressive
C. remiss
D. dilatory
E. impeccable
F. assiduous

# XXGSC0122

The author argues that by setting the agenda, constraining the issues discussed, and crafting "talking points", political elites are ultimately able to ____ the choices available to voters.
A. explicate
B. obfuscate
C. demarcate
D. multiply
E. widen
F. circumscribe

# XXGSC0123

Laboratory experiments testing whether memories can be purposely erased or implanted seem decidedly ____ compared to the sensational depictions of memory manipulation in movies, but such research has nevertheless yielded dramatic results.
A. sinister
B. outdated
C. ominous
D. prosaic
E. frivolous
F. pedestrian

# XXGSC0124

The landmasses that form our continents are notably ____: they are plates of rock continuously shifting around within the Earth's crust, in movements that are not just horizontal but also vertical.
A. coordinated
B. dispersed
C. itinerant
D. ancient
E. peripatetic
F. scattered

# XXGSC0125

Although Wanda Coleman's sonnets sometimes employ ____ word choices, they aptly bring to the fore a distinctly modern anxiety.
A. ambiguous
B. archaic
C. puzzling
D. surprising
E. fusty
F. disturbing

# XXGSC0126

The actor was quick to warn new members of the cast that the director's cherubic countenance belied ____ temperament.
A. a deceitful
B. a choleric
C. a morose
D. an imperious
E. a vengeful
F. an irascible

# XXGSC0127

The fear that otherwise ____ economies could fall victim to external shocks is one of the scariest aspects of the world's economic troubles and one of the most portentous.
A. insignificant
B. small
C. progressive
D. robust
E. mature
F. healthy

# XXGSC0128

Proponents of the legislation argued that its critics' valid but minor points did not ____ the assertion that the bill would be far more beneficial than hurtful to the nation's citizens.
A. revoke
B. bolster
C. vitiate
D. undercut
E. address
F. legitimize

# XXGSC0129

Even though no other urban center on Earth thrived for so long, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk remains ____ in comparison with its more famous neighbor, Babylon.
A. prominent
B. obscure
C. unknown
D. ornate
E. popular
F. prosperous

# XXGSC0130

There are several strange ____ in the book India; for instance, though subtitled An Intimate Biography of 1.2 Billion People, it finds no place for the nearly 800 million Indians who depend on agriculture for a living.
A. elisions
B. omissions
C. censures
D. critiques
E. biases
F. digressions