单选题 Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my house. No card came with it. Calls to the flower- shop were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to discover the sender"s name and just delighted in the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper.
But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged these imaginings. She"d ask me if there was someone for whom I had done special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man across the street whose mail I"d delivered during the winter. As a girl, though, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy I had run into.
One month before my graduation, my father died. I felt so sad that I became completely uninterested in my upcoming graduation dance, and I didn"t care if I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In truth, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia — lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery(神秘).
My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

单选题 Why did the author"s mother encourage her imaginings?

A、 She wanted to know if there was someone for whom the author had done special kindness.
B、 She wanted to know whether it was the old man across the street whose mail the author had delivered during the winter.
C、 She wanted her daughter loved and lovable.
D、 Mothers always encourages children"s imagination.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 作者在试图找出送花者未果后，转而对他或她展开了幻想。此时，母亲鼓励她的这种“daydreaming”。她问女儿是否帮过什么人特别的忙，是不是她在冬天里帮送报纸的那位老人送的花，这些都是母亲在帮助女儿展开自己的幻想，而不是她自己想知道。所以，选项A和B不正确。对于选项D，作者并没有透露出这样的观点，我们也不能做这样的假设。剩下的就只有选项C了。作者在文中第三段中讲到了母亲的一些想法，其中就有这么一条。因此，本题的正确选项是C。

单选题 The passage is intended to ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题是一道很好的意图揣测题。作者一开头就用了两段文字来讲述儿时的一件“怪事”，而且这一件事贯穿全文，使文章以“栀子花”开头，并以“栀子花”结尾。但是，“栀子花”始终都附带着她母亲的影子，不论是从最开始母亲鼓励她对送花人所作的幻想，还是最后母亲去世后不再有人送花。文章第三段还对母亲的感情进行了直接的表达。所以，作者写本文的目的是怀念母亲。因此，本题的正确选项是B。

单选题 Why did the author mention the death of her father?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 考生在阅读和解题的时候，一定要牢牢把握住文章的叙述对象和主旨，并要时刻清醒地认识到作者引入文章中的一切材料都是为这个主旨服务的。从上题的分析中，我们知道了本文是为怀念母亲而作，那么提到父亲的去世也是为这个主旨服务。所以，我们首先要排除A和B两项。选项C的推论十分荒唐可笑，考生很容易就能排除。从第三段的内容来看，作者提到父亲的去世，是为了说明母亲即使在自己承受巨大悲痛的同时，也仍然为女儿着想，让女儿感受到爱。所以正确答案为D。

单选题 What"s the point of mentioning that the gardenia stopped coming after her mother"s death?

A、 The author suggested that it was her mother who had sent the white gardenias.
B、 The stranger who sent the author gardenias wanted to please her mother.
C、 The author wanted to express her sadness for not receiving a gardenia on her birthday.
D、 The author wanted to tell readers that a married woman couldn"t have gardenia as present.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本文是怀念母亲之作，却又以一个“栀子花”的故事来贯穿全文，是极不寻常的。作者必须给这样的安排提供一个合理的解释，而读者也想知道这个送花人究竟是谁。“That was the year the gardenia stopped coming”强烈地暗示着这个送花人就是她的母亲。这短短的一句话，似乎让作者和读者在这一时刻才突然意识到了这一点，激起所有人的惋惜之情。作者之所以不直接说是母亲送的花是为了制造一种“神秘的氛围”，与母亲选择匿名送花的神秘(注意文中的mystery这个词)行为相照应，这正是本文构思的高超之处。了解这些之后，考生再回头去看前几个题的选项，就会对编者的题目设置有一个更深刻的认识。本题的正确选项是A。