Question

    I' m a seven year old girl but I understand that it is this fact, more than any other, that makes my family different: We don't go to school.

Dad worries that the government will force us to go but it can't because it doesn't know about us. Four of my parents' seven children don't have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we've never set foot in a classroom. When I'm 9, I will be issued a Delayed Certificate of Birth, but at this moment, according to the state of Idaho and the federal government, I do not exist.

Of course, I did exist. I had grown up watching for the sun to darken, for the moon to drip as if with blood. I spent my summers bottling peaches and my winters rotating supplies.

I had been educated in the rhythms of the mountain, rhythms in which change was never fundamental, only cyclical. The same sun appeared each morning, swept over the valley and dropped behind the peak. The snows that fell in winter always melted in the spring. Our lives were a cycle—the cycle of the day, the cycle of the seasons—circles of lasting change that, when complete, meant nothing had changed at all. I believed my family was a part of this immortal pattern, and that we were, in some sense, eternal(永恒的). But eternity belonged only to the mountain.

All my father's stories were about our mountain, our valley. He never told me what to do if I left the mountain, if I crossed oceans and continents and found myself in a strange land. He never told me how I'd know when it was time to come home.

1.Why don't the kids in the writer's family go to school?

A.There are no schools nearby. B.They have delayed birth certificates.

C.The government doesn't know their existence. D.Their father doesn't want them to go to school.

2.What does the underlined word “cyclical” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A.Normal. B.Irregular.

C.Circular. D.Traditional

3.What does the writer try to express mainly in the last paragraph?

A.She wasn't prepared for her future life. B.Her father loved the mountain and valley.

C.She enjoyed listening to her father’s stories. D.Her father didn't want her to leave the family.

4.Where is this text most probably taken from?

A.An interview. B.An autobiography.

C.A play script. D.A news report.

Answer

1.D

2.C

3.A

4.B

【解析】

这是一篇记叙文。文章讲述了作者的家庭与众不同，虽然孩子们不上学，但他们体验着不一样的教育。

1.

细节理解题。由第二段中的“Dad worries that the government will force us to go but it can't because it doesn't know about us.”（爸爸担心政府会强迫我们去，但政府不能，因为政府不了解我们。）可知作者家的孩子不去上学是因为他们的父亲不想让他们上学。故选D项。

2.

词义猜测题。由第四段中的“I had been educated in the rhythms of the mountain, rhythms in which change was never fundamental, only cyclical. The same sun appeared each morning, swept over the valley and dropped behind the peak. The snows that fell in winter always melted in the spring. Our lives were a cycle—the cycle of the day, the cycle of the seasons—circles of lasting change that, when complete, meant nothing had changed at all.”（我在高山的节奏中受教育，在这种节奏中，变化从来不是根本的，只是循环性的。每天早晨同样的太阳出现，掠过山谷，落在山顶后面。冬天下的雪总是在春天融化。我们的生活是一个循环——一天的循环，四季的循环——持续变化的循环，一旦完成，意味着什么都没有改变。）可知每天、四季都是循环的，是一个圆圈，cyclical在此处意为“Circular”（圆形的/循环的）。故选C项。

3.

推理判断题。由最后一段“All my father's stories were about our mountain, our valley. He never told me what to do if I left the mountain, if I crossed oceans and continents and found myself in a strange land. He never told me how I'd know when it was time to come home.”（我父亲所有的故事都是关于我们的山，我们的山谷。他从来没有告诉我，如果我离开了山，如果我跨越海洋和大陆，发现自己在一个陌生的土地上该怎么办。他从来没告诉我怎么知道什么时候该回家了。）可知作者对于离开了山和家园，作者很茫然，不知道干什么，可推断出作者没有对将来的生活做好准备。故选A项。

4.

推理判断题。由第一段“I' m a seven year old girl but I understand that it is this fact, more than any other, that makes my family different: We don't go to school.”（我是一个七岁的女孩，但我明白，正是“我们不上学”这个事实，比其他任何事情都更让我的家庭与众不同。）和其他段落可知，全文都用“I”（我）的口吻讲述自己的事情，可推断出这篇文章很可能来自“自传”。故选B项。