2006年12月真题（新题型） The National Endowment for the Arts recently released the results of its “Reading at Risk” survey, which described the movement of the American public away from books and literature and toward television and electronic media. According to the survey, “reading is on the decline on every ___1___ region, within every ethnic group, and at every educational level.” The day the NEA report released, the U.S. House, in a tie ___2___ Vote, upheld the government’s right to obtain bookstore and library records under a provision of the USA Patriot Act. The House proposal would have barred the federal government from demand library records, reading lists, book customer ___3___ lists and other material in terrorism and intelligence investigations. These two events are completely unrelated to, yet they ___4___ echo each other in the message they send about the place of books and reading in American culture. At the heart of the NEA survey is the belief in our democratic ___5___ System depends on leaders who can think critically, analyze texts and writing clearly. All of these are skills promoted by ___6___ reading and discussing books and literature. At the same time, through a provision of the Patriot Act, the leaders of our country are unconsciously sending the message that reading may be connected to desirable activities that might ___7___ undermine our system of government rather than helping democracy flourish. Our culture’s decline in reading begin well before the___8___ existence of the Patriot Act. During the 1980s’ culture wars, school systems across the country pulled some books from library shelves because its content was deemed by parents ___9___ and teachers to be inappropriate. Now what started in schools across the country is playing itself out on a nation stage and ___10___ is possibly having an impact on the reading habits of the American public.
答案及解析: 1. on -> in. 本行中According to the survey在语义和结构上都没有错；on the decline为固定搭配，意为“呈下降趋势”，符合文意，也正确；故将错误锁定为介词on。on意为“在…之上”，而此处表示“在任何地区/区域”，故将on改为in(在；在…之内)。
2. report后加was. 分析句子结构，the U.S.House(美国众议院)为句子主句，upheld(支持，赞成)为谓语，The day the NEA report released是一个时间状语从句，此处关系代词when被省略；report应该是被发表的，所以应在report和released之间插入was，released对此也有很好的提示作用。注意此处应该使用系动词的过去时态。in a tie vote为习惯用法，意为“以微弱优势胜出”。
4. to -> /. “unrelated to”为固定搭配，意为“与…无关”，其后须接名词；如果保留介词to,根据语义此处需添加名词性词组each other，这与命题规律不符，故将to去掉。unrelated意为“无关的，不相关的”。
5. in -> that. 分析句子结构，本句为介词短语提前引起的倒装句，句子的谓语is被提到主语the belief之前。本句中同时出现两个动词，系动词is在主句中作谓语，因此depends应该是从句中的谓语。本句中，our democratic system depends on leaders...clearly是the belief的同位语从句；同位语从句中，先行词为物时，一般由关系代词that来引导，且that不能省略，故将in改为that。belief in为习惯用法，意为“相信…，对…有信心”，但介词in不能引导从句。
7. desirable -> undesirable. be connected to为固定用法，意为“与…有关”，其后一般接名词。此处的定语从句that might undermine our system of government rather than helping democracy flourish修饰名词activities，根据从句中的undermine(损坏，破坏)及rather than helping(而不是帮助)可知，这些活动(activities)应该是消极的，desirable(可取的，有利的)与语义不符，故将desirable改为undesirable。
8. begin -> began. “decline in”为习惯用法，意为“在某方面有所下降”；well可以表示程度，意为“相当的；充分的”，well before表示“早在…之前就已经”。before表示动作已经发生，因此本句中的动词应使用过去时态，故将begin改为began。
9. its -> their. because在本句中引导原因状语从句，从句中的主语content(内容)为不可数名词，且本句描述的是过去发生的事，故从句中的was为单复数形式和时态都正确。此处的its对应的是主句中的some books,二者在语意上矛盾，故将its改为their 。