He          and wept when he heard the news.

took down

put down

turned down

broke down

考查动词短语辨析。句意：当他听到这个消息时，整个人都崩溃了并哭起来。A. took down  记下；B.put down记下；C.turned down调小，拒绝；D.broke down崩溃，坏掉。根据wept 可知此处应填"broke down"符合语境。故选D项。

The number of deaths from a powerful typhoon sweeping across China’s east coast          to 30 on Sunday.

raised

rose

aroused

arose

考查动词词义辨析。句意：周日，异常席卷中国东海岸的强台风造成的死亡人数上升到30人。A.raised提升，增加； B.rose 增加（原形是rise）C.aroused激起，引起；D.arose发生，出现。分析句子可知，这里要表达“人数增长到30”，而A,B选项中，raise是及物动词，后面直接接宾语，而rise为不及物动词，用“rise to”表示“增长到.....”。故选B项。

          is a pity           you didn't attend the lecture last night. It was wonderful.

What; that

It; that

What; why

It; why

考查固定句型。句意：很遗憾，你昨晚没去听讲座。那太美妙了。此处为句型“It is a pity that.....”，表示“遗憾的是....", It 作形式主语，that 引导主语从句是真正的主语，从句句意完整，成分齐全，that不做成分，仅起引导作用。故选B项。

 Is _______ three hours _______ the poor boy to come to school on foot?

it; that it takes

there; that it takes

there; when

it; that

考查强调句。强调句的结构为It’s + 强调部分 + that从句。本题强调时间状语three hours。句意：可怜的男孩步行到学校花了3个小时吗？故A正确。

As a matter of fact,           beauty of           nature there made an excellent impression on me.

a; the; /

a; the; the

the; the; /

a; /; the

考察冠词。句意：事实上，那里的自然之美给我留下了极好的印象。as a matter of fact “ 事实上”，为固定短语。第二个空表示特指，用定冠词the。Nature表示“大自然，自然界”时，前面一般不加冠词。故选A项。

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。