Question

A long time ago, in an Italian city, the people there built a tower which was admired by everyone passing through. A little further down the road, in a neighboring city, they had built a tower of similar beauty. The two towers were equally well known. The people of the second city, envious (妒忌的) and filled with pride, planned to destroy the neighboring tower so it wouldn’t take attention away from their own. One night, they came to the tower and began to quietly undermine its foundations(地基).
The next morning, the tower was leaning(倾斜) slightly ,but nobody noticed. The same happened for the following few days, until a little girl who was passing by pointed up at the tower and said: “ I think the tower is going to fall down.” And everyone around looked closely, and could see that she was right .Nervousness spread through the city. And they tried many methods to try to straighten the tower, but nothing seemed to work. That was, until one day when the same little girl was walking up again, and she put her arm on the side of the tower to rest. She felt the tower shaking slightly. When she took her hand off it, the movement stopped. And when she put it back on again, the same thing happened. The girl spent a while doing this, until she was completely certain of what she had discovered: “ The tower is ticklish ( 怕痒的) ！” She ran to get some plants, and she planted them right next to the tower. Now if the tower leant over any further it would be tickled by the leaves of those plants. Being a ticklish tower, it would then return to where it had been. In this way, the girl managed to make sure that the tower didn’t fall down, but still kept it leaning a little.
The fact that it was leaning made it even more famous, and this taught a fine lesson to the envious people of the neighboring city.

1. 1.
   Why did the people of the second city plan to destroy the neighboring tower?
   1. A.
      Because the tower blocked the way of their tourists.
   2. B.
      Because the tower had the same building style as theirs.
   3. C.
      Because they hoped that the tower could lean slightly.
   4. D.
      Because they hoped that visitors just liked their own tower.
2. 2.
   The underlined word“undermine”（in Paragraph1）probably mean “_________”.
   1. A.
      test
   2. B.
      raise
   3. C.
      damage
   4. D.
      strengthen
3. 3.
   When local people heard the news that their tower was going to fall down, they were _________.
   1. A.
      very anxious
   2. B.
      very happy
   3. C.
      very ashamed of themselves
   4. D.
      angry at the people in the neighboring city
4. 4.
   What lesson can we learn from the practice of the envious people in the neighboring city?
   1. A.
      All that ends well is well.
   2. B.
      Every dog has his day.
   3. C.
      A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
   4. D.
      A friend is never known till a man has need.

Answer 1

DCAC
1.细节理解题。结合第一段的The people of the second city, envious (妒忌的) and filled with pride, planned to destroy the neighboring tower so it wouldn’t take attention away from their own可知“摧毁附近的塔的目的是为了让游客只参观自己的塔”。
2.词义理解题。结合上文可知，他们想摧毁附近的塔，晚上来做的一定不是好事，划线之词应是贬义词。
3.细节理解题。结合Nervousness spread through the city可知答案。
4.推理判断题。那些嫉妒的人本想通过破坏附近的塔以让自己的吸引更多的游客， 结果却是适得其反。所以选C：恶其始者必恶其终。