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【完形填空】Cloze: The Woman Who Listened to Bees
Mira Novak had never planned to become a beekeeper. In 2008, she was a lecturer in soil science, publishing papers on how urban grasses (1) heavy metals from polluted ground.
Then a recession hit, and her department was (2) by budget cuts. The redundancy came as a shock she had not expected.
A colleague mentioned an old petroleum depot that had been (3) since 1987. Curious, Mira went to see it.
The site was (4) with weeds and strange plants. Tests showed high levels of lead and benzene, making commercial development impossible.
But the sample sheets also revealed something (5): 62 species of bee, more than anyone had recorded in the surrounding countryside.
Mira felt (6) to an idea. She would not clean up the land; she would let it speak for itself.
With a small grant, she and her assistant Owen organized 40 volunteers. They planted hedgerows, built log piles, and dug a pond by hand. They ploughed nothing and sprayed nothing. 'You have to be (7),' she told the volunteers. 'A bee doesn't need your pity. It needs a map.'
The results were (8). By 2015, the site held 118 bee species. A local paper ran the story under the headline 'The Woman Who Gave a Wasteland a Second Life.'
The turn came in 2017 when a developer bought the land for 2.4 million pounds. He planned to build apartments with a 'green roof' that his brochure described as a haven for wildlife. Mira was not (9) housing; she was against the arithmetic. The developer's survey had found only 9 bee species in February, when most bees are dormant. 'That is not a survey,' she said. 'That is an alibi.'
What followed was a slow defeat. Mira launched an appeal, raised 31,000 pounds, and got 4,700 signatures on a petition. But the council approved the scheme by 7 votes to 4. The first excavator arrived on 3 November 2019. Mira stood at the barrier and watched the earthwork begin. She did not stop. She and Owen moved the surviving colonies to a patch of land behind a hospital. The move cost 12,000 pounds and most of her savings. Two colonies failed within a month. 'Grief is not a strategy,' Owen said one evening, and she laughed, because he was right and because she had no other (10).
Choices
(1) A. take in B. take up C. take on D. take over
(2) A. beaten B. hit C. struck D. knocked
(3) A. empty B. vacant C. bare D. hollow
(4) A. filled B. full C. packed D. covered
(5) A. curious B. strange C. peculiar D. odd
(6) A. pulled B. dragged C. drawn D. attracted
(7) A. consistent B. constant C. persistent D. insistent
(8) A. surprising B. stunning C. amazing D. astonishing
(9) A. opposed to B. against C. opposite D. opposed
(10) A. selection B. choice C. option D. alternative