Question

I still remember --- my hands and my fingers still remember --- what used to lie in store for us on our return to school from the holidays. The trees in the school yard would be in full leaf again and the old leaves would be lying around like a muddy sea of leaves.

“Get that all swept up!” the headmaster would tell us. “I want the whole place cleaned up, at once!” There was enough work there, to last over a week. Especially since the only tools with which we were provided were our hands, our fingers, our nails. “Now see that it’s done properly, and be quick about it,” the headmaster would say to the older pupils, “or you’ll have to answer for it!”

So at an order from the older boys we would all line up like peanuts about to cut and gather in crops. If the work was not going as quickly as the headmaster expected, the big boys, instead of giving us a helping hand, used to find it simpler to beat us with branches pulled from the trees. In order to avoid these blows, we used to bribe(贿赂) the older boys with the juicy cakes we used to bring for our midday meal. And if we happened to have any money on us, the coins changed hands at once. If we did not do this, if we were afraid of going home with an empty stomach or an empty purse, the blows were redoubled. They hit us so violently and with such evil enjoyment that even a deaf and dumb person would have realized that we were being whipped so much not to make us work harder, but rather to beat us into a state of obedience(服从) in which we would be only too glad to give up our food and money.

Occasionally one of us, worn out by such calculated cruelty, would have the courage to complain to the headmaster. He would of course be very angry, but the punishment he gave the older boys was always very small --- nothing compared to what they had done to us. And the fact is that however much we complained, our situation did not improve in the slightest. Perhaps we should have let our parents know what was going on, but somehow we never dreamed of doing so; I don’t know whether it was loyalty or pride that kept us silent, but I can see now that we were foolish to keep quiet about it, for such beating were completely foreign to our nature.

1.The statement “my hands and my fingers still remember” (Para.1) means that___________.

A．the author’s hands were severely injured in the cleaning up

B．the author seldom did such hard work as the cleaning up

C．the author was bullied by the big boys in the cleaning up

D．the author’s hands were his only tool for the cleaning

2.The headmaster asked the older boys to_____________.

A．beat those who worked slowly

B．treat the small boys as peanuts

C．take charge of the process of the cleaning

D．do the cleaning all by themselves

3.According to Para. 3, if the author had any money on him, he most probably_________.

A．gave it to the big boys so as to please them

B．gave it as a bride to the headmaster

C．spent it all on his midday meal

D．spent it buying midday meals for the big boys

4.When receiving complaints, the headmaster would deal with the big boys by means of _________.

A．slight punishment                       B．strict criticism

C．complete indifference                   D．good beating

Answer

1.D

2.C

3.A

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：本文为记叙文，文中作者回忆了早年读书期间，暑假返校清除落叶的一段经历。给作者留下了深刻的印象。

1.句意猜测题。根据作者一开始用了两个remember表明他对暑假返校要清除落叶一事记忆深刻。第二段提到自己在为学校清除落叶时没有别的工具，唯一的工具就是手，由此可推断“手和指尖都记得”是因为在大扫除中，作者的手作为唯一的清洁工具受了不少的罪。故选D。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句，特别是其中的see，表明校长让大孩子们做大扫除的“监工”，负责带领其他孩子们把学校打扫干净。这也可以从该段最后一句的“or you’ll answer for it!”(否则你们就要为此负责)可以看出答案。故选C。

3.细节理解题。根据第三段第四句中的the coins changed hands at once可理解为“钱马上就会易主”，即到了大孩子们的口袋里。故选A。

4.细节理解题。根据题干中的complaints可定位到最后一段开头两句。该段第二句表明校长对大孩子的惩罚很轻微，因此本题应选A项。

考点：故事类短文阅读。