四、短文填空(在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的适当形式)
There is a carpenter（木匠）who is good at making beautiful doors. He has been 1. (interest) in making things since childhood. He learned how to make doors from his father when he was young. When he 2. (grow) up, he was very skilled at making all kinds of doors and people in the local area all knew him. So many people invited him to make doors for them.
When his family started building a new house, he spent several days 3. (make) a front door for it and thought it was strong. As time went by, with the brush of the heavy rain and the burning of the hot sun, the door slowly became old. It has broken down many times over the years and the carpenter would repair it 4. (careful) over and over again. So the door looked not as beautiful as it was before. 5. he still thought that the door was as popular as it was many years ago.
One day, a neighbour came by and said, “Look 6. your front door! How terrible it looks!” The carpenter took a closer look at his door which had a lot of 7. (hole). And to his surprise, his neighbour's front door was much 8. (modern) in style and better than his.
“It's true that you're 9. good carpenter with great skills,” said his neighbour. “But it's also your skills that keep you from seeing the changes of the outside world. To keep up with the times, you are supposed to develop your way of thinking and always keep 10. (learn) new things.” After hearing this, the carpenter thanked his neighbour for his advice and was lost in thought.

1. interested 2. grew 3. making 4. carefully 5. But 6. at 7. holes 8. more modern 9. a 10. learning

【分析】这是一道短文填空题，需结合语境、语法规则及固定搭配完成填空。解题时先通读短文理解主旨，再逐空分析：1. 考查固定搭配be interested in，需用形容词interested；2. 由主句时态（一般过去时）可知，when引导的时间状语从句用一般过去时，故填grew；3. 固定搭配spend time (in) doing sth，填making；4. 修饰动词repair需用副词，careful变副词为carefully；5. 前后为转折关系，填But；6. 固定搭配look at，填at；7. a lot of后接可数名词复数，hole变复数为holes；8. 由than可知用比较级，modern的比较级是more modern；9. 泛指“一个好木匠”，用不定冠词a；10. 固定搭配keep doing sth，填learning。
【解析】1. 固定搭配be interested in表示“对……感兴趣”，故填interested；2. 主句为一般过去时，when引导的时间状语从句需用一般过去时，grow的过去式为grew；3. 固定结构spend time (in) doing sth，故填make的动名词形式making；4. 此处修饰动词repair，需用careful的副词形式carefully；5. 前后句为转折关系，用连词But；6. 固定短语look at表示“看”，故填介词at；7. a lot of后接可数名词复数，hole的复数为holes；8. 由句中than可知，需用形容词比较级，modern的比较级是more modern；9. 此处泛指“一位好木匠”，good以辅音音素开头，用不定冠词a；10. 固定搭配keep doing sth表示“一直做某事”，故填learn的动名词形式learning。
【答案】1. interested 2. grew 3. making 4. carefully 5. But 6. at 7. holes 8. more modern 9. a 10. learning
【知识点】固定搭配、动词形式变化、形容词比较级
【点评】本题为初中英语常见的短文填空题，侧重考查基础词汇的运用，结合语境、语法规则及固定搭配即可解答，难度适中。
【难度系数】0.6