The warden set out three steel traps that night. In the morning one was empty. The other two had been stolen by the beavers and used to strengthen the dam. The warden, cursing the state law against hunting beavers with firearms, got his traps back and set them out again and again. And every night the beavers stole them.

Town manager Stanley enlisted additional troops. He telephoned his police chief. Those beavers were breaking a state law against blocking up a natural watercourse. “Why aren’t yoout there to uphold the law?” Stanley asked. “You’re the police chief. So remove them. Arrest them. Do something.”

Three mornings later, the police chief proudly announced the end of the dam. At 2:00 A.M., he said, he and a licensed dynamiter (炸药使用者) had blown it to small pieces. Stanley said he’d believe it when he saw it.

They drove out to the culvert and found a new dam already half-built. They also found the highway choked with mud and remains thrown up by the dynamite.

Stanley said maybe they should call in the Army Corps of Engineers. But the police chief’s faith in explosives was unshaken. He launched an all-out campaign，but the beavers always managed to have the holes plugged by the time the fire department appeared on the scene for its morning mop-up.

In time, the beavers tired of this nonsense and moved their dam “inside” the culvert-where it couldn’t be blown up without destroying the road too.

Stanley and his general staff held a council of war and agreed that fresh strategy was called for. Then they came up with an inspired idea. If we remove every branch of the dam by hand, we’ll force the beavers to go in search of new building material to replace what we’ve taken. Then we can place box traps along their runways and seized them.

The plan was completely approved. Moreover it worked. On July 30, town manager Stanley was able to announce that the beaver group had been trapped and removed to a remote wilderness area. And there was great joy in Hampden-until the middle of October, that is, when a group of young beavers was spotted swimming in the same waters from which its elders had recently been taken away.

But to make a long story short, the strategy that worked with the older beavers worked with the young ones too.

66. What was the annoying problem for the authorities in Hampden, Maine?

A. They failed to destroy the dam repeatedly built by the beavers.

B. They didn’t know who to send to deal with the dam trouble.

C. The beavers were building dams in every corner of the town.

D. The political situation in the town was becoming much worse.

67. What did the local game warden do?

A. He made steel traps to strengthen the dam.

B. He set out to hunt the beavers with firearms.

C. He learned a lot about the construction of the dam.

D. He used petrol-soaked bags to drive the beavers away.

68. Which is the correct order of the following events?

① The land on both sides of the culvert was flooded.

② The local leaders worked out a strategy.

③ The game warden set out steel traps.

④ The beavers rebuilt their dam inside the culvert.

⑤ The police chief used explosives to destroy the dam.

A. ①③②⑤④ B. ①③⑤④② C. ②①④③⑤ D. ②①⑤③④

69. The underline word “uphold” in Paragraph 6 probably means ________.

A. revise B. resist C. violate D. maintain

70. What can we learn about beavers from the passage?

A. The beavers seem to be stubborn about building dams.

B. The beavers are allowed to be killed when causing trouble.

C. The beavers can’t adapt themselves to living in wilderness.

D. The beavers finally returned to the culvert with their young.

第Ⅱ卷 (两部分 共35分)

第四部分 任务型阅读 (共10小题;每小题1分，满分10分)

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。

注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。

Deep reading, as opposed to superficial (shallow) reading we do on the Web, is an endangered practice, one we ought to take steps to preserve as we would a historic building or a significant work of art.

Recent research has illustrated that deep reading, characterized as a unique experience different kind from the mere understanding of words, is slow, immersive (沉浸的), rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity. Although deep reading does not, strictly speaking, require a conventional book, the limits of the printed page are uniquely helpful to the deep reading experience. A book’s lack of hyperlinks (超链接), for example, frees the reader from making decisions—should I click on this link or not—allowing her to remain fully absorbed in the story.

That immersion is supported by the way the brain handles language rich in detail, indirect reference and figures of speech: by creating a mental representation that draws on the same brain regions that would be active if the scene were unfolding in real life. The emotional situations and moral dilemmas that are the material of literature are also vigorous (有活力的) exercise for the brain, driving us inside the heads of fictional characters and even, studies suggest, increasing our real-life capacity (能力) for recognition.