When I was a child, my parents often took me to an old house in a thick forest. No other children ever stayed there. I didn’t even have the choice of playing with a brother or sister.
I could never understand what the attraction(吸引) of the house was, even for my parents, who enjoyed nothing better than to sit in silence with a good book. The woman in the house, my father’s distant cousin, was a terrible cook and her food was
inedible.
One day, when I was wandering around the garden behind the house, I noticed a wooden house which had clearly been abandoned(被遺棄的). As I walked towards it, I heard a noise, like an animal moving hurriedly away. Then I saw a man with a long beard standing at the door. I was greatly surprised.
“Please don’t tell them you saw me,” he said. “They never use this place, and I have nowhere else to live.” “Don’t worry,” I said. “I won’t tell anyone. But are you all right out here? I mean—do you have enough to eat?” The old man shook his head.
The same evening, I took a small plastic bag into the dining room and, while no one was looking, emptied some of the food into it. Later, I got out of the back door secretly and gave the food to the old man, whose name I had discovered was Taff.
I had never seen anything else as lovely as the smile of satisfaction on Taff’s face when he ate the food. From then on, my visits to the old house had a purpose, and I enjoyed every minute of the rest of my stay.
小題1: How did the writer feel about staying in the old house at first?
| A．He was happy to be with his parents. |
| B．He enjoyed reading good books there. |
| C．He was pleased with the woods. |
| D．He felt very lonely. |
小題2: The underlined word “inedible” is closest in meaning to “_______”.
| A．too bad for him to eat | B．nice to look at |
| C．not enough to eat | D．a(chǎn)s delicious as usual |
小題3: The writer discovered the old man _______ the old house.
| A．near the back door of | B．in the dining room of |
| C．in the garden behind | D．a(chǎn)mong the bushes before |
小題4:What can we know about the old man from the passage?
| A．He was poor and hungry. |
| B．He helped to repair the old house. |
| C．He liked to play hide-and-seek with the writer. |
| D．He raised many animals. |
小題5: The story mainly tells us _______.
| A．it’s nice to raise wild animals |
| B．it’s valuable to help others |
| C．it’s good to live in the forest |
| D．it’s comfortable to live in the old house |
