Question

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in an ugly multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’  hoofs(馬蹄) from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d lie on Mom’s bed and stare for hours at the TV screen.

But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses where she cleaned books. So she came home one day, switched off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”

We moaned（不滿,發牢騷） and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”

So pretty soon there were these two peevish（壞脾氣的）boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly（不情愿） among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.

The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers（河貍）. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this virtue visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.

It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip（快速翻動）of a page.

Soon I began to look forward to visiting this quiet sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.

Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery(兒童神經外科)at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.

But I know when the journey began the day Mom switched off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.

1.We can learn from the beginning of the passage that ___________.

A．the author and his brother had done well in school

B．the author had been very concerned about his school work

C．the author had spent much time watching TV after school

D．the author had realized how important schooling was

2.Which of the following is not true about the author’s family?

A．He came from a middle-class family.

B．He came from a single-parent family.

C．His mother worked as a cleaner.

D．His mother had received little education.

3.How did the two boys feel about going to the library at first?

A．They were afraid	B．They were reluctant.
C．They were impatient.	D．They were eager to go.

4.The author began to love books for the following reasons EXCEPT that ___________.

A．he began to see something in his mind

B．he could visualize what he read in his mind

C．he could go back to read the books again

D．he realized that books offered him new experience

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.C

2.A

3.B

4.D

【解析】本文作者講述了自己童年的一段經歷：他和他的哥哥如何在母親的督促下，放棄看電視轉而去圖書館閱讀書籍，從一開始的不情愿到后來逐漸被書中的知識所吸引，進而對書愛不釋手，最終學業有成、事業成功。

1. C 細節理解題。由第一段最后一句可知，Wagon Train”， “Cheyenne” “I Love Lucy”,，“Mister Ed”均是電視劇名，最后一句的stare for hours at the tube(顯像管)，指的也是長時間看電視。此處tube(顯像管)，at the tube其實就是指看電視，由下段的前兩句表示轉折的話也可知前段是說他兩兄弟花很多時間看電視。

2.A 推理判斷題。由第二段第三句Our mother had only been able to get through third grade.可知D正確；由第二段第四句中in the suburban houses she cleaned可知C正確；由第一段第三句My older bother and I lived with Mom可知B正確；排除B，C和D可知選A。另外，從第一段第三句和第四句描寫的他們生活的環境情況看，也可知選項A不合事實。

3.B 細節理解題。由第三段第一句We moaned and complained…可知，他們最初是“不愿意的”。

4.D 細節理解題。由第六段第一句but the experience…可知選項D對；由第二句images forming in my mind可知選項B對；由There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes可知A 、B均是作者喜歡讀書的原因；由最后一句I could return to them again and again可知選項C對。由It didn’t dawn on me at the time可知作者當時并未意識到讀書能給他予新的體驗，故選D。dawn on sb. 意為“使某人明白什么”。