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【完形填空】Cloze: The Station That Learned to Wait
The alarm rang at 04:12, and Lena Orlova did not (1) ______. She had rehearsed this moment for 18 months, ever since the station lost its last three workers to the city.
Her boots hit the floor; the corridor smelled (2) ______ antiseptic and old insulation. Outside, the wind was carrying dust across the crater field, and the thermometer read minus 41.
The station's only reliable crop, a brittle barley variant, produced 2.3 tonnes per hectare, (3) ______ enough for 60 residents. Every item on the shelf required a decision.
"You assume the storm will miss us," she said to the receiver, as if the radio could (4) ______.
Her counterpart was Dmitri Vale, a 34-year-old engineer who had (5) ______ worked on submarine defence systems. He arrived in 2039 with a blueprint for an ultraclean greenhouse and a dissertation on convection.
"The likelihood of a breach is low," he told her, "but the disadvantage is fatal." He had the modish habit of quoting his own reports, (6) ______ his hands were practical.
Between 2039 and 2041, the pair assembled 14 modular beds, each one situated under a translucent dome. The yield rose by 27 percent. Poverty in the settlement fell. For a while, the future felt (7) ______.
Then the emissions came. Not from their station, but from the mining empire 200 kilometres north, where shareholders had (8) ______ a casual attitude toward waste.
The plume carried a nasty mix of sulphur and fine debris. The barley began to distort; its leaves would flutter, then solidify into grey curls. Dmitri proposed an exhaustive survey. Lena wanted to (9) ______.
"We can revise the layout," he said. "We can divert the intake." She wrestled with the numbers for a week. The crop loss reached 44 percent. The station's self-esteem, never grand, (10) ______.
Choices
(1) A. stumble B. hesitate C. wander D. tremble
(2) A. for B. with C. of D. in
(3) A. nearly B. hardly C. barely D. merely
(4) A. congratulate B. complain C. commiserate D. compensate
(5) A. once B. ever C. yet D. never
(6) A. but B. or C. so D. for
(7) A. tangible B. fragile C. distant D. vague
(8) A. adopted B. adapted C. adjusted D. admitted
(9) A. float B. flee C. flash D. flow
(10) A. collated B. collided C. collapsed D. collected