Question

　　An old Indian story says that the game of chess（国家象棋）was invented by Sissa Ben, Prime Minister of King Shirham. As soon as the invention was finished, he gave it to the king, who was glad and asked him what he would like to have in return. To the king’s surprise, what Sissa wanted seemed very little.“Your Majesty,”said the minister, kneeling in front of the king.“I want nothing but some wheat. Please put a grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard（棋盘）, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourthand so on, doubling the number for each following square, give me enough grains to cover the 64 squares of the chessboard.”

　　“You don’t ask for much, my honest servant. You might have asked for gold or money,”said the king and then ordered a bag of wheat brought to the palace.

　　But when the counting began, with one grain for the first square, two for the second, four for the third, and so on, the bag was emptied before the 20th square. More bags were brought, but the number of grain needed for the following squares increased so rapidly that the king soon realized that he was not able to keep his promise even with all the crops in the whole India! In fact, he would have needed 8 466 744 073 709 511 615 grains, which would be as much as that they would produce in about 2000 years!

　　Now the king found himself keep in debt to his minister. He had either to face the terrible trouble all his life or to cut off Sissa’s head, which, it is said, he finally chose.

(1) This story tells us ________.

[　　]

A．how cruel the king was

B．how clever the minister was

C．Sissa was a famous mathematician

D．how the game of chess came into being

(2) According to the story, the game of chess was invented by an ________.

[　　]

A．American Indian

B．ancient Indian official

C．Indian king

D．Indian officer

(3) The king was glad to know that Sissa only wanted some wheat because ________.

[　　]

A．wheat was not expensive

B．it didn’t seem much

C．Sissa was honest to him

D．both A and B

(4) A bag of wheat was enough for ________.

[　　]

A．19 squares

B．one third of the squares

C．the first 19 squares

D．20 squares

Answer 1

答案：B;B;B;C
解析：

(1) B 通过阅读全文，我们知道那个臣民的要求看似简单，实质却使国王有负于他，故可判断他是何等的聪明，所以选B项。(2) B 文章的首句就告诉了我们国际象棋的发明者是古印度的一位官员，故选B。(3) B 根据第一段中的：To the king’s surprise，what Sissa wanted seemed very little．令国王惊讶的是，西萨想要的东西似乎很少。(4) C 文章第三段中：“...the bag was emptied before the 20th square.”在填第二十个方格之前，那袋麦子空了。可以推知一袋麦子够填到第十九个方格，故选C项。