单选题 It was the day I froze a household pet that I began to worry about my memory. Technically, it was not a real household pet I froze but a bag of tropical fish, which on the scale of beloved members of any home, rank somewhere below the family cat and above an attractive set of coasters. And technically, I didn' t completely freeze my fish. Rather, I absent-mindedly tossed them into the refrigerator with a bag of other things I had bought and fortunately found them just before my highly sensitive tropical fish could turn into lightly breaded dinner fish.
Nonetheless, that near-death experience--for the fish, if not for me--woke me up to the fact that my memory might not be all it once was:
In the hope of improving my memory, I decided I would first try the memory books. How-ever, much of what I read was, at first blush, utterly forgettable.
If I was truly going to juice up my recall, however, book reading wouldn't cut it. What I needed was some kind of memory pill. The big bat in the memory-pill lineup is ginkgo biloba, the dried leaf of the maidenhair tree, thought to improve circulation and, in theory, memory. I decided to try it. The package warned that in addition to any other problems, ginkgo can cause "mild stomach discomfort". After just one pill, I discovered that the package was--how best to put this? --not kidding. It' s hard to say if my memory improved in the little time l was on ginkgo, but I can say I had no trouble at all remembering to' eat a tasteless diet for several days afterward.
For me, the answer to memory problems was not in the medicine chest, but that didn't mean I was a hopeless case. My recall had improved after two weeks in the memory-improvement battle. I may not be able to read a magazine and instantly memorize it, but I now remember to buy it when I get to the store. I may not be able to memorize hundreds of names and faces, but at least I won' t meet an Alex at a party and find myself calling him Alan or Alvin or Evelyn.

单选题 The writer became aware of her memory problem when she realized that she had ______.
A. forgotten to feed her fish
B. forgotten to freeze her fish
C. misplaced a bag of dinner fish
D. misplaced a bag of tropical fish
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。文章第一段第一句说“It was the day I froze a household pet that I began to worry about my memory.”,且从下文可知这里的“household pet”指的是一袋热带鱼,可知作者是在发现自己将热带鱼放错时意识到她的记忆问题的。故选D。
单选题 According to the writer, the memory books she read ______.
A. didn't help at all
B. caused new problems
C. wouldn' t work at once
D. made her problem worse
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。文章第三段最后一句说自己所读的关于提高记忆的书一开始全都忘了,可推理出这些书并非立刻见效。故选C。
单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that ginkgo ______.
A. can improve memory
B. works after the first pill
C. can produce several side effects
D. causes mild stomach discomfort
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。本题答案的原文在第四段第四、五行。
单选题 The writer ate a tasteless diet for several days ______.
A. as a result of her failing taste
B. as was advised by her doctor
C. as a result of taking the drug
D. as was warned on the package
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。文章第四段第五句话说包装上警告说这种药会引起胃不舒服,所以作者吃淡味的食物是因为包装上的警告,故选D。
单选题 The writer' s tone can best be described as one of ______.
A. relief
B. humor
C. worry
D. solemnity
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。我们可以从文中的几处看出作者写这篇文章的基调,“…tropical fish could turn into lightly breaded dinner fish”“It’s hard to say if my memory improved in the little time...for several days afterward.”“...but at least I won’t meet an Alex at a party...or Alvin or Evelyn.”,可见作者用的是幽默的手法。故选B。