Question

The Pillow

At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer(拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.

We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house — something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.

On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, “What do you want for your new room?” Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were surprised when Josh responded, “I just want a bed.”

The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.

When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.

That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.

As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, “What is that?”

“A pillow,” he replied.

“What do you do with it?” Eric continued to ask.

“When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to our eyes as she handed Eric the pillow.

“Oh . . . that’s soft,” he said, hugging it tightly.

Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my Dad gently asks, “Do you have a pillow?”

We know exactly what he means.

1.The writer’s first volunteer project was ________.

A.working on a poor trailer B.helping a poor family

C.donating beds and bedding D.dealing with a housing problem

2.On bearing Josh’s answer, the writer was shocked because ________.

A.the family lived in a trailer B.he expected to get some toys

C.he didn’t know what a bed was D.the boys had no bed to sleep in

3.From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen before ________.

A.a trailer B.a truck C.a pillow D.a house

4.By sayg “Do you have a pillow?”, the writer’s father means that ________.

A.what they want to get may be unnecessary

B.they should not waste money on small things

C.they should do more volunteer work for the poor

D.what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow

Answer

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.A

【解析】

本文是记叙文。文章讲述作者十六岁时和父亲一起做志愿者时所见所闻。一个家庭的贫穷深深的震撼了他们：他们从来没有睡过床，从来没有见过枕头。

1.推理判断题。根据第一段第三句we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer...和第二段的第二句The family was overjoyed with their new house可知，作者的第一个志愿者项目是帮助一个贫困家庭。故选B。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句we were surprised when Josh responded, “I just want a bed.”及第三段第一句The boys had never slept in a bed!可推知，听到Josh的回答，作者很震惊，因为这些男孩们连睡觉床都没有。故选D。

3.细节理解题。从第七段至第十段Eric与父亲的对话可知，Eric不知枕头是什么。由此可知，Eric以前从未见过枕头。故选C。

4.推理判断题。根据上文的内容Eric一家连枕头都没见过，结合最后一段内容可推断：父亲认为我们要求的东西只是看起来急需实际，可能并是不必要的。故选A。