阅读理解
阅读下列四篇短文，从每小题后所给的A,B,C或D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for “Six days shall you labor and do all your work” was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy in chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning.
Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having Brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string(线). It seemed there was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.
My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she cast a look toward the window. “Come on, girls! Let’s take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute.”
On the way we met Mrs. Patrick, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls.
There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys’ kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.
Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. “Perhaps it’s like this in the kingdom of heaven,” I thought confusedly.
It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the houses. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been a surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn’t mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep“the things that cannot be and yet they are.”
The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to“go park, see duck.”
“I can’t go!” I said. “I have this and this to do, and when I’m through I’ll be too tired to walk that far.”
My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling. “It’s a wonderful day,” she offered, “really warm, yet there’s a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?”
I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. “Come on,” I told my little girl. “You’re right, it’s too good a day to miss.”
Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath(余波)of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of—what dark and horrible things?
“Say!” A smile slipped out from his lips. “Do you remember—no, of course you wouldn’t. It probably didn’t make the impression on you as it did on me.”
I hardly dared speak. “Remember what?”
“I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp(战俘营), when things weren’t too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?”
1. Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought .
A. she was too old to fly kites
B. her husband would make fun of her
C. she should have been doing her housework then
D. her girls weren’t supposed to play the boys’ game
2. By“we were all beside ourselves”, the writer means that they all .
A. felt confused
B. went wild with joy
C. looked on
D. forgot their fights
3. What did the writer think after the kite-flying?
A. The boys must have had more fun than the girls.
B. They should have finished their work before playing.
C. Her parents should spend more time with them.
D. All the others must have forgotten that day.
4. Why did the writer finally agree to take her little girl for an outing?
A. She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother.
B. She was reminded of the day they flew kites.
C. She had finished her work in the kitchen.
D. She thought it was a great day to play outside.
5. The youngest Patrick Boy is mentioned to show that .
A. the writer was not alone in treasuring her fond memories
B. his experience in POW camp threw a shadow over his life
C. childhood friendship means so much to the writer
D. people like him really changed a lot after the war
【参考答案】1--5 、CBDBA
More than half of rich Americans have not shown their full wealth to their children，a new survey showed last Tuesday.
The survey，published by the Bank of America，studied the rich with $3 million or more in assets.It found that “surprisingly few of those surveyed have welldeveloped plans to preserve and pass on their assets to their children”.
The majority of the 457 people surveyed are selfmade，firstgeneration rich.Fiftytwo percent of parents have chosen not to tell their children just how wealthy they are，and 15 percent have given away nothing about the family wealth.One in three parents said they had never thought to do it.
They are worried that their children would become lazy，spend money freely，make bad decisions and even become a target for gold diggers.
Only 34 percent strongly agreed that their children would be able to handle any inheritance (遗产) they plan to leave them.
“There is an expectation about the wealthy parents that they have a responsibility to pass down their fortune to the next generation，” said Sallie Krawcheck，president of the Global Wealth and Investment Management of the Bank of America.“Our research，however，uncovered changing views of what one generation owes the next.”
The trend is led by the world’s richest man Bill Gates，who promised in 2008 that he would leave his $58 billion fortune to the charity started by him and his wife，the Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation (基金会)，and not to his children.
“We want to give it back to society in the way that it will have the most positive impact，” he said.
Of his plans for his children，Gates said：“I will give the kids some money but not a meaningful percentage...they will need to work but they will feel reasonably taken care of.”
5.We can learn from the passage that________.
A.rich parents may not know how to manage their inheritance
B.rich parents don’t equal rich kids，at least in the US
C.American children don’t get to inherit their parents’ wealth
D.poor children don’t expect themselves to be as rich as their parents
解析 推理判断题。第二段的后半部分提到在被调查的美国富人中，几乎没有人计划为他们的孩子保留资产或者将资产传给孩子，由此可推断在美国，父母富有并不意味着孩子富有。
答案 B
6.According to the survey，most rich Americans________.
A.think they owe their children nothing
B.think it best to give their money back to society
C.doubt their children’s ability to handle wealth
D.are confident of their children’s ability to handle wealth
解析 推理判断题。根据第四段内容可推知，大部分美国富人怀疑他们的孩子处理财富的能力。
答案 C
7.The underlined word “they” in Paragraph 6 refers to________.
A.responsible children B.Bill Gates and his wife
C.firstgeneration rich D.rich parents
解析 猜测词义题。人们期望富裕的父母把他们的财富传给下一代，此处they指代的是画线词前面的“the wealthy parents”，即“rich parents”。
答案 D
8.From the last paragraph，we can see that Bill Gates wants to show________.
A.the trend of leaving no inheritance to children
B.the positive impact of charity on society
C.the way of giving back to society
D.the importance of independence for children
解析 推理判断题。根据本段中比尔·盖茨所说的话可推知，他更强调孩子的个人奋斗，认为培养孩子的自立很重要。
答案 D
