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 (碼頭), 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 achievements, 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 wants to say that __________.

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

B. Children often feel regretful because they leave their parents

C. Children like moving away from their parents

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 worry about it

C. Don’t let him down                                   D. Don’t give it up

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 and his wife lived in his mother’s apartment

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

D. Eddie often helped his mother wash the dishes

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.A

2.B

3.A

4.C

【解析】

試題分析：文章講述了發生在Eddie家里的事情。Eddie的爸爸常年在碼頭工作，他想讓Eddie也在那里工作，但是Eddie不喜歡他爸爸的工作。父親因病去世以后，Eddie感到空虛和憤怒，Eddie的媽媽也無法接受這樣的事實。

1.根據“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them...their stories, and all their achievements, sit on top of the stories of their mothers and fathers”可知，父母舍不得離開孩子，孩子們只好離開他們。到后來，孩子們才意識到，他們的所有成就都是以父母的支持為基礎的，故選A。

2.根據后面一句““Your old man will pull through. He’s the toughest man we’ve ever seen.””可知，其他人在安慰Eddie，他爸爸會好轉的，勸他不要緊張。故選B。

3.根據地一、二、七段“Eddie helped out at the pier (碼頭), working evenings after his taxi job”和“if he ever complained or seemed bored with the pier, ...when he’d talked of marrying Marguerite”及“When the news came that his father had died,”可知，Eddie不喜歡爸爸的工作；后來Eddie結婚、上戰場；再后來，父親生病，Eddie白天開出租晚上在碼頭幫忙；最后，得知爸爸去世。故選A。

4.根據“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，父親去世后，Eddie的媽媽處于一種神志不清的狀態，幻想著在和Eddie的父親說話。故選C。

考點：生活類短文閱讀