Question

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful old man who loved everything on the land —— animals and plants.

One day while walking through the woods, the old man found a cocoon of a butterfly. He took it home. A few days later, a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and cut the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then came out easily.

But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, or they would be smaller. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled （枯萎）wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and hurry did not understand was that the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening was nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any difficulties, it would cripple (无能) us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

1.The old man cut the cocoon in order to ____.

A. kill the butterfly

B. play with the butterfly

C. make the butterfly come out easily

D. have the butterfly

2.The reason why the butterfly could not fly is that _____.

A. the old man broke its wings

B. it was too small

C. newly born butterflies can’t fly

D. it came out of its cocoon without enough struggle

3.What can we know from the passage?

A. That old man was fond of everything except the butterfly.

B. It was the old man that stopped the butterfly flying.

C. The old man realized his mistake.

D. It’s not hard for the butterfly to come out of the cocoon.

4.What does the author want to tell us by writing the passage?

A .We should help others.

B. Without others' help we can still succeed.

C. Struggles in our life can make us stronger.

D. Butterflies can fly without people’s help.

Answer 1