单选题 When I was about six years old, my mother came home one clay and found that I had collected half a dozen babies of the neighborhood-all of them too young to walk-and had them sitting before me on the floor while I was teaching them to wave their arms. When she asked the explanation of this, I informed her that it was my school of dance. She was amused, and placing herself at the piano, she began to play for me. This school continued and became very popular. Later on, little girls of the neighborhood came and their parents paid me a small sum to teach them. This was the beginning of what afterwards proved a very lucrative occupation.
My mother took me to a very famous ballet teacher, but his lessons did not please me. When the teacher told me to stand on my toes I asked him why, and when he replied "because it is beautiful," I said that it was ugly and against nature and after the third lesson I left his class, never to return. This stiff and commonplace gymnastics which he called dancing only disturbed my dream. I dreamed of a different dance. I did not know just what it would be, but I was feeling out towards an invisible world into which I guessed I might enter if I found the key.
My art was already in me when I was a little girl, and it was owing to the heroic and adventurous spirit of my mother that it was not stifled. I believe that whatever the child is going to do in life should begin when it is very young. I wonder how many parents realize that by the so-called education they are giving their children, they are only driving them into the commonplace, and depriving them of any chance of doing anything beautiful or original.

单选题 When her mother came home one day, the narrator of the story ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据第一句:…,my mother came home one day and found that I had collected half a dozen babies of the neighborhood…and had them sitting before me on the floor while I was teaching them to wave their arms.母亲一天回家发现我正在教一群小孩子挥舞手臂,也就是在教他们跳舞,和A符合。
单选题 The attitude of the narrator's mother toward her school of dance was one of ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 推断题。根据文章中:She was amused, and placing herself at the piano, she began to play for me.她被逗笑了,接着坐在钢琴前开始为我伴奏。My mother took me to a very famous ballet teacher我母亲带我去上一个著名芭蕾舞老师的课,这些细节可以推断出作者的母亲支持她的舞蹈学校,选C。despise和contempt意思都是轻视,鄙视;indifference:冷漠。
单选题 The narrator thought that ballet was ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。文章第二段中提到:it was ugly and against nature. This stiff and commonplace gymnastics.难看而且违背自然规律,僵直的、陈腐的体操,A选项和这一内容矛盾;C选项和I dreamed of a different dance.她梦想的另外一种舞蹈,而不是芭蕾;根据第二段最后几句:I dreamed of a different dance. I did not know just what it would be, but I was feeling out towards an invisible world into which I guessed I might enter if I found the key.我不知道这种舞蹈是什么,但我感觉到我正在靠近一个无形的世界。而且一旦我找到钥匙,我就可以进入这个世界,因此这个世界并不是芭蕾,排除D。
单选题 According to the narrator, she owed her success in art to ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。根据最后一段第一句:My art was already in me when I was a little girl, and it was owing to the heroic and adventurous spirit of my mother that it was not stiffed.作者把她艺术上的成功归功于母亲的英雄和冒险主义精神,和B的内容一致。
单选题 The central idea of the passage is that ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。最后一段中,作者说:I believe that whatever the child is going to do in life should begin when it is very young.文章作者通过以自己的切身经历为例,讲述了父母要善于发现孩子身上的天赋并在孩子小时候起就加以培养,这是文章的主题。B选项虽然有在文中提到,但是从反面说明,显然没有A选项更适合表达文章的主题,而且信息也不够充分;C、D选项仅是描述作者自己的经历和看法,没有概括性。