Question

Peanuts to This

Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher. Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”
Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real talk I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice：flip (擲) a coin. Heads—the commander, and tails—the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.
Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly mass, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quite! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?
Obviously, my grade was awful. Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted: No re-dos; no new grade. I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance. Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster’s office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade. Justice is sweet!
小題1:What did the author’s classmates think about his report?

A．Controversial.	B．Ridiculous.
C．Boring.	D．Puzzling.

小題2:Why was the author confused about the task?

A．He was unfamiliar with American history.

B．He followed the advice and flipped a coin.

C．He forgot his teacher’s instruction.

D．He was new at the school.

小題3:The underlined word “burning” in Para. 3 probably means _______.

A．a(chǎn)nnoyed	B．a(chǎn)shamed
C．ready	D．eager

小題4:In the end, the author turned things around _______.

A．by redoing his task

B．through his own efforts

C．with the help of his grandfather

D．under the guidance of his headmaster

Answer 1

小題1:B
小題2:A
小題3:D
小題4:B

記敘文，作者采用了插敘的敘事手法，時空的反復變換給考生理解帶來了一些難度。用圖畫來解釋英文單詞，文章中畫了一個花生來解釋peanuts這個詞，但這個圖像對理解文章和解題的意義并不大。
小題1:考查推理題，文章開頭說，“我自豪的讀文章，同學們強忍住笑，眼里甚至笑出了淚花”不難判斷除同學們應(yīng)該覺得我的文章是“荒謬的、可笑的”，即ridiculous。
小題2:考查細節(jié)題，考生在第一看掃讀文章的時候必然能發(fā)現(xiàn)George Washington這個名字，略有一些美國歷史知識基礎(chǔ)的同學都應(yīng)該知道這是美國第一任總統(tǒng)喬治·華盛頓，但作者竟然不知道，可見他對美國的歷史很不熟悉。本題在文中第二自然段第四句話也是直接的對應(yīng)。
小題3:考察詞意推測題。文中第一和第三自然段在時空上處于一個場景之中，“我”自豪的讀完文章，卻受到同學們的嘲笑，必然是應(yīng)該“急切的”（eager）想知道自己哪做錯了。下一句話"終于真相大白"（It all became clear）也是對本題的一個印證。
小題4:考查細節(jié)題，最后一題題干中有In the end，應(yīng)該在最后一自然段找答案。最后一自然段第五句話，"I threw myself heartily into my work"對應(yīng)了B選項，"我"依靠的是自己的努力。