Question

Eddie’s father used to say he’d spent so many years by the ocean, breathing seawater. Now, away from that ocean, in the hospital bed, his body began to look like a beached fish. His condition went from fair to stable and from stable to serious. Friends went from saying, “He’ll be home in a day,” to “He’ll be home in a week.” In his father’s absence, Eddie helped out at the pier (码头), working evenings after his taxi job.

When Eddie was a teenager, if he ever complained or seemed bored with the pier, his father would shout, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?” And later, when he’d suggested Eddie take a job there after high school, Eddie almost laughed, and his father again said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?” And before Eddie went to war, when he’d talked of marrying Marguerite and becoming an engineer, his father said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?”

And now, regardless of all that, here he was, at the pier, doing his father’s labor.

Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. It is not until much later, as the heart weakens, that children understand: their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit on top of the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

Finally, one night, at his mother’s urging, Eddie visited the hospital. He entered the room slowly. His father, who for years had refused to speak to Eddie, now lacked the strength to even try.

“Don’t sweat it, kid,” the other workers told him. “Your old man will pull through. He’s the toughest man we’ve ever seen.”

When the news came that his father had died, Eddie felt the emptiest kind of anger, the kind that circles in its cage.

         In the weeks that followed, Eddie’s mother lived in a confused state. She spoke to her husband as if he were still there. She yelled at him to turn down the radio. She cooked enough food for two. One night, when Eddie offered to help with the dishes, she said, “Your father will put them away.” Eddie put a hand on her shoulder. “Ma,” he said, softly, “Dad’s gone.”

         “Gone where?”

1.In Paragraph four, the writer indicates that __________.

A. Children like moving away from their parents

B. Children often feel regretful because they leave their parents

C. Children wouldn’t have achieved so much without their parents’ support

D. Children can never understand how much their parents have devoted to them

2. The underlined sentence “Don’t sweat it” (Para. 6) probably means __________.

A. Don’t touch it                                              B. Don’t give it up

C. Don’t let him down                                   D. Don’t worry about it

3.Which of the following shows the right order of the story?

a. Eddie’s father died.

b. Eddie married Marguerite.

c. Eddie worked as a taxi driver.

d. Eddie was bored with his father’s job.

A. dbca                        B. dcab                        C. bcda                        D. bacd

4.From the last paragraph, we learn that __________.

A. Eddie’s mother liked to listen to the radio

B. Eddie’s mother missed her husband so much that she was at a loss

C. Eddie and his wife lived in his mother’s apartment

D. Eddie often helped his mother wash the dishes

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.A

4.B

【解析】

试题分析：文章讲述Eddie和他爸爸的故事，在Eddie的生活中，爸爸一直让Eddie对生活满足，在爸爸生病后，Eddie也是忙于生机，没什么时间照顾他，直到爸爸去世，他才感到内心的空虚。

1.推理题：从第四段的句子：children understand: their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit on top of the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.作者暗示没有父母的支持孩子不会有这么大的成就，选C

2.句意理解题：从后面的句子：“Your old man will pull through. He’s the toughest man we’ve ever seen.” 可知老工人是在安慰Eddie，说他爸爸会度过难关的，就是说“没关系”，选D

3.排序题：从第二段的内容：可知Eddie抱怨爸爸的码头工作是发生最早的，最后的是Eddie爸爸的去世，符合这个条件的只有A项。

4.推理题：从最后一段的句子：In the weeks that followed, Eddie’s mother lived in a confused state. She spoke to her husband as if he were still there.可知Eddie的妈妈很想念丈夫以至于神思恍惚，选B

考点：考查故事类短文