Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Worst man extinctions may have been caused by rising mountains

The birth of a mountain range in 【小题1】 is now South Africa may have helped to drive one of the most severe mass extinctions in Earth’s history.

The Permian extinction 【小题2】(strike) about 252 million years ago. It is traditionally thought 【小题3】(wipe) out at least 80 percent of species in the sea and on land.

But we have discovered that another mass extinction happened not long before, with most of the land extinctions happening during the 【小题4】(early) period, roughly 260 million years ago at the end of the Capitanian Age by leaving ecosystems depleted of species, 【小题5】(make) them vulnerable to disruptions from the volcanic eruptions.

The extinction on land was huge, says Spencer Lucas at the New Mexico museum of Natural History. The team he led studied the fossilized teeth of DiictodonFelikeys, 【小题6】 plant-eating, mammal-like reptile that was common at that time. But there was no sign 【小题7】 temperatures rose during that period. The team was puzzled 【小题8】 they realized the fossils 【小题9】(date) back to that period belonged to South Africa’s Cape Fold mountains, which may once have been as the Himalayas are today.

The mountains could have stopped moisture 【小题10】 the sea reaching Pangaea’s interior, thus leading to drying and ultimately die-offs — without a corresponding increase in temperature.

The 1975 film Jaws was a great success,【小题1】 (attract) huge audiences and winning many awards. People have always been 【小题2】 (scare) of sharks, but Jaws made things worse. Many people 【小题3】 saw the film considered sharks as bad animals. Some even began to fish for sharks. As 【小题4】 result, the number of sharks fell quickly. This was not only due to fear of sharks,【小题5】 also finning. After finning, the sharks 【小题6】 (throw) back into the sea where they die painfully. In 1980, Peter Benchley came across an awful sight. He 【小题7】 (admit) that his book was wrong about sharks’【小题8】 (behave).【小题9】 (fortunate), more people become interested in sharks now, and they want 【小题10】 (protect) them from extinction.

Chocolate was first used as a drink over 3,500 years ago in Central America. It was very popular with the Mayans and the Aztecs. In fact, cocoa beans were very important to people there. That was 【小题1】 they were used as money. In the beginning, cocoa   【小题2】   (plant) in Ecuador, which was, for a long time, the world’s number-one producer of cocoa beans. It is still one of the top 【小题3】 (producer) of the beans, but nowadays more than 70 per cent of cocoa beans come from West Africa.