The outbreak of swine flu that was first detected in Mexico was declared a global epidemic on June 11, 2009. It is the first worldwide epidemic (1) _____ by the World Health Organization in 41 years.

    The heightened alert (2) _____ an emergency meeting with flu experts in Geneva that assembled after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, and rising (3) _____ in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere.

    But the epidemic is “ (4) _____ ” in severity, according to Margaret Chan, the organization’s director general, (5) _____ the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the (6) _____ of any medical treatment.

    The outbreak came to global (7) _____ in late April 2009, when Mexican authorities noted an unusually large number of hospitalizations and deaths (8) _____ healthy adults. As much of Mexico City shut down at the height of a panic, cases began to (9) _____ in New York City, the southwestern United States and around the world.

    In the United States, new cases seemed to fade (10) _____ warmer weather arrived. But in late September 2009, officials reported there was (11) _____ flu activity in almost every state and that virtually all the (12) _____ tested are the new swine flu, also known as (A) H1N1, not seasonal flu. In the U. S., it has (13) _____ more than one million people, and caused more than 600 deaths and more than 6,000 hospitalizations.

    Federal health officials (14) _____ Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began (15 ) _____orders from the states for the new swine flu vaccine. The new vaccine, which is different from the annual flu vaccine, is (16) _____ ahead of expectations. More than three million doses were to be made available in early October 2009, though most of those (17) _____ doses were of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not (18) _____ for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with breathing difficulties, heart disease or several other (19) _____. But it was still possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups: health care workers, people (20) _____ infants and healthy young people.

答案精析：形容词辨析题。本空应填入一个形容词，用于形容主语The new vaccine（新疫苗）的特点。空格后的ahead of expectations表示“在预期之前”，根据语意，与年度流感疫苗不同的是，这种新疫苗比预期提前 ，结合选项意思和逻辑推断，此处应该说的是比预期提前投入使用。再根据空格后的内容，2009年10月初将有超过三百万种剂量可供使用，该句中的be made available，就是对前一句新疫苗比预期提前投入使用的进一步解释。故本空应填入available。

错项排除：A项feasible和C项reliable用于强调事物的效果是如何的，此处说的是疫苗投入使用的时间，并非在讲药效如何，故排除A、C两项。D项applicable通常和to连用，用于表示可以用在什么地方，和文意不符，故排除D。