Question

In the kitchen of my mother's houses there has always been a wooden stand with a small notepad and a hole for a pencil.

I'm looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can't be the same pencil. The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely the original one.

"I'm just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these years." I say to her, walking back into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. "You still use a pencil. Can't you afford a pen?"

My mother replies a little sharply. "It works perfectly well; I've always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in these days. "

Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, "One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on."

This story, which happened before I was born, reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is also a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have traveled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible exhibits at every meal.

1.Why has the author's mother always kept the notepad and pencil in the kitchen?

A．To leave messages.

B．To list her everyday tasks.

C．To note down math problems.

D．To write down a flash of inspiration.

2.What is the author's original opinion about the wooden stand?

A．It has great value for the family.

B．It needs to be replaced.

C．It brings her back to her lonely childhood.

D．It should be passed on to the next generation.

3.The author feels embarrassed for____________.

A．blaming her mother wrongly

B．giving her mother a lot of trouble

C．not making good use of time as her mother did

D．not making any breakthrough in her field

4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．The mother is successful in her career.

B．The family members like traveling.

C．The author had little time to play when young.

D．The marks on the breadboard have disappeared.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.C

4.A

【解析】本文从母亲一直在厨房使用的木头笔架说起，反映了母亲在繁重的家务工作中能抓住片刻的灵感做数学方面的记录，成为一个成功的数学家。

1.细节理解题。从I never knew when I might want to note down an idea到下一段的and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. 可知正确答案时D.

2.根据第三段中I'm just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these year. 可推断，作者认为the wooden stand该换成更好的了。

3.细节理解题。最后一段中有I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. 可知答案。

4.推理判断题。根据最后一段的第一句This story-which happened before I was born-reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is also a gifted mathematician. 推断。