I came to live here where I am now between Wounded Knee Creek and Grass Creek. Others came too, and we made there little gray houses of logs that you see, and they are square. It is a bad way to live, for there can be no power in a square. You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation"s hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children. But the Wasichus have put us in these square boxes. Our power is gone and we are dying, for the power is not in us any more. You can look at our boys and see how it is with us. When we were living by the power of the circle in the way we should, boys were men at twelve or thirteen years of age. But now it takes them very much longer to mature.

单选题 From the passage, we can see that the Indians ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：考查根据文章意思推断结论的能力。本文从一个印第安人的角度，以非常形象的叙事方式，通过圆与方的对比，表达了印第安人对保留地(reservation)上生活的不满和对他们原生活方式的怀恋。这一点在第一、四段中表达得尤其清楚。从第二、三段的叙述可以看出，印第安人怀恋的与其说是他们的物质生活，不如说是他们原有的精神文化生活。

单选题 To the narrator, roundness stands for ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：考查对段落细节的分析能力。文章第二段第二句指出，在他们强盛幸福的日子里，他们的一切活动都在一个圆形的环境下进行。注意本段中的下列用问：circle，round，hoop，unbroken。印第安人住的帐篷(tepee)也是圆形的，伟大的神灵让他们在里面繁衍后代，代代不息(见第三段最后一句)。由此可见，"圆形"对印第安人来说象征着力量和他们失去的美好生活。

单选题 In the third sentence of Paragraph 2, the "four quarters" refers to ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】解析：考查对细节的分析理解能力。本段第四句是对第三句的诠释，可见，这里 four quarters指的是东西南北四方位，印第安人居其中并受益于四方。"被认为是构成万物的四大元素"不正确；许多民族认为世界万物是由水、土、气、火四元素构成的(如古希腊人)。第三段才提到了周而复始、循环不已的四季，所以，这里不可能指四季。