8．The jacket is all right ________ color, but it's a bit out of style, I'm afraid.

　　A．in spite of B．on top of

　　C．in terms of D．for the sake of

　　解析：选C。句意：这个夹克在颜色方面还是说得过去的，但是恐怕有点过时了。in terms of"在......方面，就......而言"，符合句意。

　　9．The new technology, if ________ to farming, will help increase the grain output.

　　A．applying B．to apply

　　C．applied D．having applied

　　解析：选C。考查省略。if引导的条件状语从句中省略了与主句相同的主语及系动词，补全后为：if the new technology is applied to farming，因此选C。

　　10．-That must have been a lot of work.

　　-Yeah, it ________ us three days to finish it.

　　A．takes B．had taken

　　C．took D．was taking

　　解析：选C。考查时态。句意："工作量一定很大。""是呀！我们花了三天时间才完成它。"根据题意可知，动作已经发生，应用一般过去时。

　　Ⅳ.阅读理解

　　Imagine something between a computer game and a pet that helps make you thin. One inventor, Cory Kidd, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, did just that and came up with Autom - a robot that will look dieters in the eye and tell them what they need to hear. Users can have daily conversations with the 38­centimetre­tall robot, which will provide feedback (反馈) and encouragement on their weight­loss progress.

　　Its blue eyes open and its head turns as a computer inside its head allows it to search for a human face in front of it and have eye contact. "Hello, I'm Autom! Press one of the buttons below to talk to me，" it says in a female voice with an American accent. "I'm ready to get started. Let's keep working together." Users tap their details onto the robot's screen in response to its spoken questions about weight, diet, exercise plans and goals and over time it builds up a knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the people who want to lose weight to design its questions and advice.

　　Autom will hit the US market later this year, and will sell for around $500. The $86 billion US weight­loss market has already been targeted by Wii Fit and My Weight Loss Coach games, but Kidd wants Autom to offer a more personalized (个性化的) way of using technology to lose weight.

Lona Sandon, professor at the University of Texas, had not seen Autom in action and said