Question

Last Sunday I made a visit to some new neighbors down the block. No specific purpose in mind, just an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table, have some tea and chat. As I did so, it occurred to me how rare the Sunday visit has become.

When I was a kid in the New Jersey of the 1960s, Sunday visits were routine. Most stores were closed and almost nobody worked. My family normally traveled eight city blocks to the home of my grandmother, where adults would sit on the front porch and chat while we children played hide-and-seek.

The Sunday visit was something to desire strongly. It was the repetition to church, our reward for and hour of devotion, and opportunity to take advantage of the fact that Dad was not at work, we were not in school, and there were no chores that couldn’t wait until Monday. Sunday was, indeed, which means that there was one day when everyone seemed to have time for everybody else.

Sunday as a day of rest is, or was, so deeply rooted in the culture that it’s surprising to consider that, in a short span of time, it has almost entirely lost this association.^① In my childhood, it was assumed that everyone would either be home or visit someone else’s home on Sunday. But now the question is, “What do you plan to Do this Sunday?” The answer can range from going to the mall to participating in a road to jetting to Montreal for lunch. If one were to respond, “I’m making a Sunday visit to family,” such and answer would feel strange, an echo from another era.

I suppose I should be grateful to live in Maine, a state of small towns, abundant land tight relationships. Even though folks work as hard here as they do anywhere else, the state’s powerfully rural cast（特质）still harbors at least remnants（剩余部分）of the ethic of yesterday’s America, where people had to depend on one another in the face of economic vagaries（反复无常的情况）and a challenging environment.^②

1.The writer’s general impression of the Sunday in the past was a day when_________.

A．everyone would pay a visit to some relative far away

B．everyone seemed to be free and could have some leisure

C．Dad was not at work while Mom was busy cleaning the house

D．nearly every adult would go to church and children were not at school

2.What can we learn from the underlined sentence in paragraph 4?

A．People nowadays prefer staying at home on Sunday

B．People in the city dislike being disturbed on Sunday

C．Such answers are rarely heard in our modern society

D．Visiting someone on Sunday might take a lot of time

3.From the last paragraph we may infer that people in Maine____________.

A．suffer more from economic depression and the changed environment

B．have abandoned their tradition and lived an absolute new life

C．have tense relationships with each other

D．always help each other when they are in need

4.What is the writer’s attitude towards the Sunday today?

A．Unsatisfied

B．confused

C．Respectful

D．Thankful

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.D

4.A

【解析】略