Question

Even then my only friends were made of paper and ink. At school I had learned to read and write long before the other children. Where my school friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible pages, I saw light, streets and people. Words and the mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I saw in them a key with which I could unlock a boundless world, a haven from that home, those streets, and those troubled days in which even I could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me. My father didn’t like to see books in the house. There was something about them---apart from the letters he could not recognize---that offended him. He used to tell me that as soon as I was ten he would send me off to work and that I’d better get rid of all my scatterbrained ideas if I didn’t want to end up a loser, a nobody. I used to hide my books under the mattress and wait for him to go out or fall asleep so that I could read. Once he caught me reading at night and flew into a rage. He tore the book from my hands and flung it out of the window.

“If I catch you wasting electricity again, reading all this nonsense, you’ll be sorry.”

My father was not a miser and, despite the hardships we suffered, whenever he could he gave me a few coins so that I could buy myself some treats like the other children. He was convinced that I spent them on sunflower seeds, or sweets, but I would keep them in a coffee tin under the bed, and when I’d collected enough coins I’d secretly rush out to buy myself a book.

My favorite place in the whole city was the Sempere & Sons Bookshop on Calle Santa Ana. It smelled of old paper and dust and it was my refuge. The bookseller would let me sit on a chair in a corner and read any book I liked to my heart’s content. He hardly ever allowed me to pay for the books he placed in my hands, but when he wasn’t looking I’d leave the coins I’d managed to collect on the counter before I left. It was only small change---if I’d had to buy a book with that pittance (极少的报酬), I would probably have been able to afford only a booklet of cigarette papers. When it was time for me to leave, I would do so dragging my feet, a weight on my soul. If it had been up to me, I would have stayed there forever.

One Christmas Sempere gave me that best gift I had ever received. It was an old volume, read and experienced to the full.

“Great expectations, by Charles Dickens,” I read on the cover.

I was aware that Sempere knew a few authors who frequented his establishment and, judging by the care with which he handled the volume, I thought perhaps this Mr. Dickens was one of them.

“A friend of yours?”

“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your friend too.”

That afternoon I took my new friend home, hidden under my clothes so that my father wouldn’t see it. It was a rainy winter, with days as gray as lead, and I read Great Expectations about nine times, partly because I had no other book at hand, partly because I did not think there could be a better one in the whole world and I was beginning to suspect that Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.

1.The underlined word “haven” in Paragraph 1 probably means “______”.

A. favor    B. mask    C. consultant    D. shelter

2.Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ______.

A. the people who played a part in the author’s story

B. the difficulties the author ran into in his childhood

C. the author’s affection for books as a child

D. the author’s dreams before he met Sempere

3.The word “friend” is used twice by Sempere to ______.

A. emphasize the emotional connection Sempere feels to reading

B. imply that Sempere had one close friend in his lifetime

C. underline the importance of the author’s connection to Sempere

D. stress how friendships helped the author deal with difficulties

4.Why does the author consider Great Expectations to be the best gift?

A. Because he wanted to make the acquaintance of the book’s author.

B. Because the gift meant that Sempere regarded him as a special friend.

C. Because reading the book convinced him that he wanted to be a writer.

D. Because he’d only ever been given sweets and snacks as gifts in the past.

Answer

1. D

2. C

3. A

4. C

【解析】

本文是一篇记叙文。文章描述了作者从小对书籍的热爱以及如何躲避家人对他读书的阻拦。作者认为Great Expectations这本书是最好的礼物，因为读这本书使他相信他想成为一名作家。

1.词义猜测题。根据第一段中Words and the mystery of their hidden science fascinated me, and I saw in them a key with which I could unlock a boundless world, a haven from that home, those streets, and those troubled days in which even I could sense that only a limited fortune awaited me. 文字和它们所隐藏的科学的神秘使我着迷，我从它们中看到了一把钥匙，用它我可以打开一个无边无际的世界，它是来自那个家、那些街道和那些我甚至都能感觉到只有有限的财富在等着我的烦恼的日子的避风港。由此推知划线词的意思是“避风港，避难所”，故选D。

2.段落大意题。根据第一段中Even then my only friends were made of paper and ink. At school I had learned to read and write long before the other children. Where my school friends saw notches of ink on incomprehensible pages, I saw light, streets and people.可知，第一段主要讲述了作者小时候对书籍的喜爱。故选C。

3.推理判断题。根据倒数第二段“A lifelong friend. And from now on, he’s your friend too.”可知，“朋友”这个词被Sempere用了两次来强调Sempere对阅读的情感联系。故选A。

4.推理判断题。根据最后一段中I was beginning to suspect that Mr. Dickens had written it just for me. Soon I was convinced that I didn’t want to do anything else in life but learn to do what Mr. Dickens had done.可知，作者认为Great Expectations是最好的礼物是因为读这本书使他相信他想成为一名作家。故选C。