单选题 Even happy families have secrets that run with no statute of limitations. Twenty years after my mother died, I discovered she had kept a scrapbook. It was delivered to me inside an old chest of drawers left by my father, who survived her by 18 years. The drawers were stuffed with memories and junk: his legal papers, his beloved mandolin sheet music, his college yearbooks and, in among some old photographs, a battered, yellowing composition notebook -- a scrapbook kept by my mother for a short time in 1934. I was shocked.
My mother was a thrower-outer -- the scourge of packed closets, the emptier of overfilled drawers. I was a bringer-backer. We once clashed over my cherished tennis shoes, which she mistakenly took to the garbage simply because I was stuffing card- board in the soles to plug the holes. I had to rescue them twice.
Ours was a fundamental clash in human nature, surely as old as the species itself. Some of our hominid ancestors were gatherers who also picked up bright pebbles; others were hunters of clutter who demanded: "Can't we get rid of some of this stuff?" From those who amassed, we have museums, libraries, attics that groan. From the winnowers, we have public sanitation, rarity (if everything were saved, nothing would be rare) and a way to the front door.

单选题 The passage implies that
A. keeping secrets is rarely done.
B. happy families seldom have secrets.
C. unhappy families usually have secrets.
D. family secrets are short-lived.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】从第一段的首句“Eyen happy families have secrets that run with no statute of limitations.”我们能看出作者认为即使是幸福家庭也会有某些秘密。言外之意,如果在不怎么幸福的家庭中,存在一些秘密是常有的事了。A、B、D都不太符合事实。
单选题 The author's mother
A. deceased in 1934. B. scoured closets.
C. cherished shoes. D. saved mementos.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】A说作者的母亲死于1934年,这在文章中没有证据,1934年是作者的母亲保存剪贴本的时间。文中没有提到她的去世具体时间。B说她擦拭壁橱,这实际上是对“the scourge of packed closets”的误解,这里的scourge,不是指擦拭,而是作者夸张地把她母亲称作为“给挤满东西的壁橱带来麻烦的人”,意思是只要壁橱里有东西,她母亲就会翻箱倒柜地进行清除。C说她母亲爱护鞋子,事实上文章中只提到她把孩子的鞋子扔掉的事,而没有讲到过她是否爱护鞋子。D说她曾保存过纪念物,这与她保存过剪贴本的事实相仿。
单选题 The author suggests that all of the following are true of human nature EXCEPT that
A. it is inexplicable. B. it is consistent over time.
C. it encompasses dichotomies. D. it is often surprising.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】关于人的本性在文章的最后一段有阐述:“Ours was a fundamental clash in human nature,surely as old as the species itself.”首先人性是具有延续性的,从古至今,历史久远。这与B的内容接近。然后,文章讲到有些人惯于收藏,而有些人喜欢抛弃,这就是截然不同的态度,与C的内容相近。同时,人性带给人的往往是惊奇,就像作者一样,怎么也料想不到像她母亲那样的thrower-outer竟然也会保存什么东西。四个选项中,只有A的内容无法在文中找到相应证据。