单选题 Most West African lorries are not in what one would call the first flush of youth, and I had learnt by bitter experience not to expect anything very much of them. But the lorry that arrived to take me up to the mountains was worse than anything I had seen before: it tottered on the borders of senile decay. It stood there on buckled wheels, wheezing and gasping with exhaustion from having to climb up the gentle slope to the camp, and I consigned myself and my loads to it with some fear. The driver, who was a cheerful fellow, pointed out that he would require my assistance in two very necessary operations: first, I had to keep the hand brake pressed down when travelling downhill, for unless it was held thus almost level with the floor it sullenly refused to function. Secondly, I had to keep a stern eye on the clutch, a willful piece of mechanism that seized every chance to leap out of its socket with a noise like a strangling leopard. As it was obvious that not even a West African lorry-driver could be successful in driving while crouched under the dashboard, I had to take over control of those instruments if I valued my life. So, while I ducked at intervals to put on the brake, amid the rich smell of burning rubber, our noble lorry jerked its way towards the mountains at a steady twenty miles per hour: sometimes, when a downward slope favoured it, it threw caution to the winds and careered(猛冲)along in a reckless fashion at twenty-five. For the first thirty miles the red earth road wound its way through the lowland forest, the giant trees standing in solid ranks alongside and their branches entwined(盘绕)in an archway of leaves above us. Slowly and almost imperceptibly the road.started to climb upwards, looping its way in languid curves round the forested hills. In the back of the lorry the boys lifted up their voices in song: Home again, home again, When shall I see ma home? The driver hummed the refrain(副歌)softly to himself glancing at me to see if I would object. To his surprise I joined in and so while the lorry rolled onwards, the boys in the back maintained the chorus while the driver and I harmonized and sang complicated bits. Breaks in the forest became more frequent the higher we climbed, and presently a new type of undergrowth began to appear: massive tree-ferns standing at the roadside on their thick, squat, hairy trunks. These ferns were the guardians of a new world, for suddenly, as though the hills had shrugged themselves free of a cloak, the forest disappeared. It lay behind us in the valley, while above us the hillside rose majestically, covered in a coat of waist-high grass. The lorry crept higher and higher, the engine gasping and shuddering with this unaccustomed activity. I began to think that we should have to push the wretched thing up the last two or three hundred feet, but to everyone’s surprise we made it, and the lorry crept on to the brow of the hill, trembling with fatigue, spouting steam from its radiator like a dying whale. We crawled to a standstill and the driver switched off the engine. " We must wait small-time, engine get hot," he explained, pointing to the forequarters of the lorry, which were by now completely invisible under a cloud of steam. Thankfully I descended from the red-hot inside of the cab and strolled down to where the road dipped into the next valley. From this vantage point I could see the country we had travelled through and the country we were to enter.

单选题 That it tottered on the borders of senile decay means that the lorry was______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】语义理解题。根据题干关键信息it tottered on the borders of senile decay定位到文章首段第二句，从定位句可以看出，tottered是指“步履蹒跚”，senile是指“高龄的，年迈的，老衰的”，decay可指“(健康、体力)衰退的，衰弱的”，由此可知，这句话形容的是这辆车非常老旧。如果对这几个词的词义不清楚，可从文中的描述进一步分析，第一段第三句中提到，弯曲变形的车轮支撑着它，爬上缓坡开往营地的路程让它气喘吁吁，精疲力竭。上个坡都气喘吁吁，这与对老年人体力的描述类似，而且下文司机还要求作者帮忙按住手刹，否则它会一声不响地罢工。这些都说明这辆车极度老旧，因此[B]为正确答案。文中这句话只是描述了车的老旧，并未说它会抛锚，[A]属于过度推断，故排除；后文证实，作者最后靠着这辆车到达了山顶，[C]与文章事实不符，故排除；文中作者确实提到了“危险”，但指的是如果自己不帮司机忙的话，乘车会很危险，所以[D]陈述错误，故排除。

单选题 Which of the following words in the first paragraph is used literally?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】语义理解题。根据题干提示定位到第一段，该段中作者通过一系列的比喻与拟人修辞将车况的不堪描绘得淋漓尽致。司机请作者帮忙进行两项操作，Operations取的就是其本义，因此[C]为正确答案。Flush原意是指“脸红，激动”，而在文中the first flush of youth指的是“卡车正值壮年”，即车况极佳的时期，使用的是其比喻义与引申义，故排除[A]；Borders原意是“边缘，边界”，而文中on the borders of的意思是“临近，将要”，使用的是其比喻义与引申义，故排除[B]；Gasping本义是“喘气，喘息”，文中采用的是拟人手法，将车比作人，极力渲染车况之差，故排除[D]。

单选题 We learn from the first paragraph that the author regards the inadequacies of the lorry as______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】细节理解题。根据题干提示定位到第一段，在该段中，作者通过细致入微的描写，以及运用比喻、拟人的手法使得卡车车况之糟跃然纸上，首句便提到“惨痛的经历教会了我不要对它们有太多的期许”，所以车况差是作者可以预料到的，作者知道不可避免要乘坐这种车，因此inevitable得以证实；继而作者的笔触轻松幽默，谈笑间将车况之差刻画得入木三分，尤其是该段第四句和第七句提到的cheerful fellow和noblelorry等词表达出了作者开朗的性格和轻松的心情，觉得这些不足都很有趣，故证实了amusing一词，由此可推知，[A]为正确答案。该段第三句虽然提到，我带着些许担心将自己和行李托付给了它，但这种担心并未达到“危险”和“令人恐惧”的程度，整个行文的笔触还是轻快的，故排除[B]；该段第一句已经提到作者对车况差早有预期，所以unexpected与文意相悖，故排除[C]；从整个行文可以看出作者苦中作乐的乐观主义情怀，但是说welcome就有点过犹不及了，故排除[D]。

单选题 All the following words in the last but one paragraph describe the lorry as a human EXCEPT______.

单选题 We can infer from the passage that the author was______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】细节推理题。作者在文章第一段第一句虽然预测到了卡车的车况不太好，但并未想到差到如此地步，甚至还要自己帮着司机开车，因此有点惊讶，故[D]为正确答案。文中倒数第二段第三句提到，它留在了我们背后的山谷里，在我们上方，山坡傲然屹立，一层齐腰高的草覆盖其上。这里提到了grass，但不是[A]中所说的“对前方草原的样子感到厌烦”，故排除；文章最后一段第二句提到卡车的驾驶室炽热，然后作者闲逛到通向下一个山谷的小路上，所以[B]陈述错误，故排除；文章第二段第四句提到，令他吃惊的是，我和他一起唱了起来，车轮滚动向前，司机和我琴瑟和鸣，唱着复杂的部分，与此同时，后面的男孩们和我们一起合唱着，可知[C]陈述错误，故排除。