A study shows the students who are engaged in after-school  activities are happier than        who are not.

ones

those

these

them

考查代词。句意：一项研究表明，参加课外活动的学生比不参加课外活动的学生更开心。空格处代词与the students是对应关系，可以用the ones 或者those替代。“them”指代前面提到的复数名词，不能与the students形成对应关系，“these”一般不用定语从句修饰。故选B项。

Though ____ the dangers of smoking to their health, smokers still find it hard to give up smoking.

aware of

are aware of

be aware of

考查状语从句的省略：句意：虽然很多经常吸烟的人已经意识到抽烟对他们健康造成了很严重的后果，但是他们仍然发现很难戒烟。Though引导的让步状语从句是省略句，完整的句子是：though smokers are aware of the dangers of smoking to their health。当主从句的主语一致的时候，可以省略从句的主语和be动词，选B

Writing out all the invitations by hand was more time-consuing than we             .

will except

are  excepting

except

had excepted

考查时态。句意：手工写下所有的邀请函要比我们预料的花去更多的时间。根据句意可知我们预料是在实际上写之前发生的，而本句中实际写花去的时间使用了过去时was，所以expect用过去完成时。故D项正确。