Question

A baby giraffe is born 10 feet high and usually lands on its back. Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a new-born giraffe learns its first lesson.

The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she puts herself directly over her child. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She throws her long leg and kicks her baby, so that it’s sent sprawling (四脚朝天).

When it doesn’t get up, what the mother has done is repeated again and again. The struggle (挣扎) to rise is important. As the baby giraffe grows tired, the mother kicks it again. Finally, it stands for the first time. Then the mother giraffe kicks it off again. Why? She wants it to remember how it can get up. In the wild, a baby giraffe must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with its group, where there’s safety.

Another writer named Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying great people, writing stories about such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin.

Stone was once asked if he had found something unusual about these great people. He said, “I write about people who sometime in their life have a dream of something. They’re beaten over the head, knocked down and for years they get nowhere. But every time they stand up again. And at the end of their lives they’ve realized some small parts of what they set out (着手) to do.”

1.The expression “a tall order” in Paragraph 1 most probably means ______.

A. a happy thing B. a difficult task

C. a big dream   D. a beautiful place

2.A View from the Zoo is a book written by      .

A. Gary Richmond    B. Charles Darwin

C. Irving Stone     D. Vincent van Gogh

3.The mother giraffe puts herself over her child and throws her long leg and kicks her baby because she       .

A. is an unkind mother

B. likes watching her bay sprawling

C. doesn’t want her baby to live with her

D. wants to train her baby to get up in this way

4.The writer mainly wants to tell the readers that       .

A. the giraffe is an unusual animal

B. we should learn to be a careful writer

C. learning to get up leads to success

D. A View from the Zoo is a good book to read

Answer

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.C

【解析】

试题分析：短文大意：该文通过母长颈鹿训练小长颈鹿的事告诉读者为了走向成功必须学会如何从困境中爬起来。

1.词义猜测题。根据In the wild, a baby giraffe must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with its group, where there’s safety.可知这是一件困难的事，所以该选B。

2.细节理解题。根据第一段最后一句In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a new-born giraffe learns its first lesson.可知该选A。

3.细节理解题。根据第三段第三行中She wants it to remember how it can get up.可知该选D。

4.主旨大意题。根据短文的描述可推知作者旨在告诉人们为了走向成功必须学会如何起来，所以该选C。

考点：故事类阅读。