单选题 {{B}}B{{/B}}
It was summer in a small town in Illinois, and it was hot. Insects were all around. They were outside! They were inside! They bit people! They crawled on food! The people didn't know what to do.
Some people wanted to kill the insects with sprays. Others said, "Insect spray will harm the birds and the butterflies. That is a bad idea."
Someone said, "Birds can help. Purple martins eat insects. We need purple martins." The people made bird houses and put them along the streets. Soon purple martins built nests in the bird houses. They had baby birds and fed them insects. As the babies got bigger, they ate more and more.
The people of the town were happy. They had found a good way to get rid of the insects and not harm the birds and the butterflies. Now there are bird houses in many places and hardly any more insects in the town.
单选题 The people tried to get rid of ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推理判断题。文章第一段指出人们发现到处都是昆虫，并在该段最后一句说人们不知该如何是好(The people didn't know what to do)。而在接下来的几段中，文章描述了人们为了消灭昆虫而想办法、最终通过建鸟窝、让鸟吃昆虫而使得昆虫减少。由此可以推知，人们当然是为了消灭昆虫，故选[B]。
单选题 Which of the following does the story lead you to believe?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。第二段的直接引语中明确指出：Insect spray will harm the birds and the butterflies，即杀虫剂对鸟类和蝴蝶有害，故答案为[B]其余三项都属于臆造文意。
单选题 What kind of birds came to the bird houses?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。第三段倒数三句描述的都是purple martin这种鸟在鸟窝里筑巢、并消灭昆虫的情况，由其中Soon purple martins built nests in the bird houses一句可知本题答案为[C]。
单选题 The main idea of the whole story is that ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】主旨题。由上面各题的分析、特别是第61题的分析可知，故事讲述的就是人们用鸟类来消灭昆虫的经过，故可推断出文章的目的是告诉读者用鸟类灭虫要比用杀虫剂来灭虫更好，故答案为[B]。