题目内容
The wind made the girl pull her woollen _____(围巾) tightly around her neck.
scarf
It was Saturday . As always, it was a busy one, for “Six days shall you labor and do all your work” was taken seriously back then. Outside,Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning.
Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having Brother caught to beat carpets , they had sent him to the kitchen for string(线). It seemed there was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.
My mother looked at the sitting room ,its furniture disorderd for a thorough sweeping, Agun she cast a look toward the window. “Come on, girls ! Let’s take string to the boys and watch them
On the way we met Mrs. Patrick, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something
wrong, together with her girls.
There never was such a day for flying kited! We played all our fresh string into the boys’ kites and they went up higher and higher .We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down it the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth , just for the joy of sending it up again.
Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. “Perhaps it’s like this in the kingdom of heaven,” I thought confusedly.
It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to house. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been a surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was , we didn't mention that day afterward. I flt a little embarrassed .Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep“the things that cannot be and yet they are.”
The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to “go park ,see duck.”
“I can’t go!” I said. “I have this and this to do, and when I’m through I’ll be too tired to walk that for.”
My mother , who was visiting us , looked up from the peas she was shelling ,“It’s a wonderful day,”she offered,“Really warm , yet there’s a fine breczc . Do you remember that day we flew kites?”
I stopped in my dash between stove and sink . The looked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. “Come on.”I told my little girl. “You’re right , it’s too good a day to miss.”
Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath (余波)of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely , but now for a long time he had been silent . What was he thinking of – what dark and horrible things?
“Say!” A smile slipped out from his lips . “Do you remember --- no, of course you wouldn’t . It probably didn’t make the impression on you as it did on me.”
I hardly dared speak.“Remember what ?”
“I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp(战俘营), when things weren’t too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?”
【小题1】
Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought .
A.she was too old to fly kites |
B.her husband would make fun of her |
C.she should have been doing her housework then |
D.her girls weren’t supposed to play the boy’s game |
By“we were all beside ourselves”, the writer means that they all .
A.felt confused | B.went wild with joy |
C.looked on | D.forgot their fights |
What did the writer think after the kite-flying?
A.The boys must have had more fun than the girls. |
B.They should have finished their work before playing. |
C.Her parents should spend more time with them. |
D.All the others must have forgotten that day. |
Why did the writer finally agree to take her little girl for an outing?
A.She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother. |
B.She was reminded of the day they flew kites. |
C.She had finished her work in the kitchen. |
D.She thought it was a great day to play outside. |
The youngest Patrick Boy is mentioned to show that _____ .
A.the writer was not alone in treasuring her fond memories |
B.his experience in POW camp threw a shadow over his life |
C.childhood friendship means so much to the writer |
D.people like him really changed a lot after the war |
Bertie knew there was something in the wind. His mother had been sad in recent days, not sick, just strangely sad. The lion had just lain down beside him, his head warm on Bertie's feet when Father cleared his throat and began," You'll soon be eight, Bertie. A boy needs a proper education. We've found the right place for you, a school near Salisbury in England."
His heart filled with a terrible fear, all Bertie could think of was his white lion. "But the lion," he cried, "What about the lion?"
"I'm afraid there's something else I have to tell you," his father said. Looking across at Bertie's mother, he took a deep breath. Then he told Bertie he had met a circus(马戏团) owner from France, who was over in Africa looking for lions to buy. He would come to their farm in a few days.
"No! You can't send him to a circus!" said Bertie. "People will come to see him. He'll be shut up behind bars. I promised him he never would be. And they will laugh at him. He'd rather die. Any animal would! " But as he looked across the table at them, he knew their minds were quite made up.
Bertie felt completely betrayed. He waited until he heard his father's deep breathing next door. With his white lion at his heels, he crept downstairs in his pyjamas, took down his father's rifle from the rack and stepped out into the night. He ran and ran till his legs could run no more. As the sun came up over the grassland, he climbed to the top of a hill and sat down, his arms round the lion's neck. The time had come.
"Be wild now," he whispered. "You've got to be wild. Don't ever come home. All my life I'll think of you. I promise I will." He buried his head in the lion's neck. Then, Bertie clambered down the hill and walked away.
When he looked back, the lion was still sitting there watching him; but then he stood up, yawned, stretched, and sprang down after him. Bertie shouted at him, but he kept coming. He threw sticks. He threw stones. Nothing worked.
There was only one thing left to do. With tears filling his eyes and his mouth, he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired over the lion's head.
【小题1】Bertie's mother was sad probably because she ______.
A.had been seriously ill recently |
B.had decided to send Bertie to school |
C.knew selling the lion would upset Bertie |
D.knew Bertie would hate to go to England |
A.some audience | B.other animals | C.Bertie's parents | D.circus owners |
A.kill the lion out of fear |
B.threaten the lion back to the wild |
C.protect himself from the lion |
D.show his anger towards his father |
A.animal-hunting is popular in Africa |
B.parents are sometimes cruel to their children |
C.animals usually lead a miserable life in circuses |
D.people and animals can be faithful to each other |
Norah had a cottage on a cliff(悬崖)above a big bay. In winter it could be very unpleasant because of strong winds and sea waves. In fact, when a gale was blowing, Norah and her husband got used to sleeping in a small room downstairs, because their bedroom upstairs, which faced the gales, had a very big window, and they were afraid that an extra violent wind might break it and blow pieces of broken glass over them.
Also, the salt wave from the sea put an end to many of the colorful plants Norah planted in her garden. She tried putting up a fence to protect them, but the wind just hit it, went up over the top and then down the other side, so in the end she filled the garden with trees and bushes that liked salt.
But most of the summer Norah enjoyed her cottage and garden very much. At weekends she could sit out-of-doors in the sun, looking at the beautiful view, with interesting ships and boats passing by, and she could very easily cycle down to the sea for a swim.
Now, Norah and her husband had plenty of friends and relations. In the summer lots of them used to come to enjoy the beautiful place, and in the end it really became quite annoying for the couple. When they were at home, they found friends and relations arriving, expecting to be given unlimited drinks and meals, and to sit in the sun for hours, talking as if Norah and her husband had nothing else to do but entertain and listen to them.
This went on for several years. Norah didn’t wish to appear rude by refusing to let her friends and relations in, but on the other hand, she was getting tired every summer.
Then one day Norah was complaining about this to her hairdresser while she was doing her hair. “You’re disturbed by too many uninvited guests, are you?” said the hairdresser. “Why don’t you try my way of escaping?”
“What’s that?” asked Norah.
“Well,” the hairdresser answered, “when the bell rings, I put on my coat and take my shopping bag. If it’s someone I don’t want to see, I say innocently, ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go out.’ But…”
【小题1】The underlined word “gale” can be replaced by _____.
A.wind | B.ship | C.sea | D.animal |
A.lots of friends cam to visit them in winter |
B.few friends came to visit them in winter |
C.friends came to visit them only for drinks and meals |
D.Norah was a good cook |
A.She went there by ship. | B.She walked there. |
C.She swam there. | D.She went there by bicycle. |
A.if I’m tired, I say ‘Sorry, can you come next time?’ |
B.if it’s someone I like to see, I say ‘How lucky! I’ve just come in!’ |
C.if it is fine that day, I say, ‘I’m tired of this, but I’ll show you around the place.’ |
D.if it’s someone I like to see, I say, ‘How happy to see you! But I was going shopping now .’ |
A.A Good Place of Enjoying the Sea | B.A Visit to Norah |
C.A clever Way of Escaping | D.A Warm-hearted Couple |