单选题 {{B}}Passage Four{{/B}}
I still remember--my hands and my fingertips still remember--what used to lie in store for us on our return to school from the holidays. The trees in the school yard would be in full leaf again and the old leaves would be lying around in scattered heaps like a muddy sea of leaves.
"Get that all swept up!" the headmaster would tell us. "I want the whole place cleaned up, at once!" There was enough work there, to last for over a week. Especially since the only tools with which we were provided were our hands, our fingers, our nails. "Now see that it's done properly, and be quick about it," the headmaster would say to the older pupils, "or you'll have to answer for it!"
So at an order from the older boys we would all line up like peasants about to cut and gather in crops. If the work was not going as quickly as the headmaster expected, the big boys, instead of giving us a helping hand, used to find it simpler to whip us with branches pulled from the trees. In order to avoid these blows, we used to bribe our tyrants with the juicy cakes we used to bring for our midday meal. And if we happened to have any money on us the coins changed hands at once. If we did not do this, if we were afraid of going home with an empty stomach or an empty purse, the blows were redoubled. They hit us so violently and with such devilish enjoyment that even a deaf and dumb person would have realized that we were being flogged not so much to make us work harder, but rather to beat us into a state of obedience in which we would be only too glad to give up our food and money.
Occasionally one of us, worn out by such calculated cruelty, would have the courage to complain to the headmaster. He would of course be very angry, but the punishment he gave the older boys was always very small--nothing compared to what they had done to us. And the fact is that however much we complained our situation did not improve in the slightest. Perthaps we should have let our parents know what was going on, but somehow we never dreamed of doing so; I don't know whether it was loyalty or pride that kept us silent, but I can see now that we were foolish to keep quiet about it, for such beatings were completely foreign to our nature.
单选题 At the beginning of the passage, the writer says "My hands and my flnger-tirps still remember!" because ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】从文章后来叙述的“校长要求孩子们用双手迅速清理完所有的垃圾”,以及孩子们劳动时所遭受的一切,可判断,作者说my hands and my finger-tips still remember,可能是由于当时的劳动使他的双手遭受了很多苦痛,选项A正确。
单选题 From the way the headmaster spoke, we can learn that ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】第2段,校长让年幼的孩子劳动时,对年长的孩子说“你们要看着这些工作做得又快又好”,or you'll have to answer for it“否则,你们就自己做”,可见他是让大孩子监督,而不是让他们干清理之类的活儿,故选项D正确。
单选题 The reason that the older boys beat the younger ones so hard is that ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】第3段,作者讲到年幼的孩子为了少挨打就会贿赂大孩子,而如果不愿贿赂,则blows were redoubled,随后,作者指出“大孩子打我们不是为了让我们更努力地工作,而是让我们顺从地把钱和零食交纳给他们”,故选项B正确。
单选题 When the younger boys complained to the headmaster about their sufferings, ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】最后一段谈到,年幼的孩子有时无法忍受虐待去向校长告状,但校长给予大孩子的惩罚was always very small,而且无论我们怎么抱怨,our situation did not improve in the slightness。可判断,向校长抱怨并不能改变状况,故选项D正确。
单选题 It is implied in the passage that ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】从义中最后一段we should have let our parents know what was going on“我们本应该让父母知道所发生的一切”,以及we were foolish to keep quiet about it等处可判断,作者后悔没有将在学校遭受的一切告诉父母。