2. 外语
  3. Passage One (1) Frank had driven his mother into Wahine to buy Meggie’s doll, and he was still wondering what had prompted

Passage One (1) Frank had driven his mother into Wahine to buy Meggie’s doll, and he was still wondering what had prompted

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问题     Passage One
    (1)  Frank had driven his mother into Wahine to buy Meggie’s doll, and he was still wondering what had prompted her to do it. She wasn’t given to impractical birthday presents, there wasn’t the money for them, and she had never given a toy to anyone before. They all got clothes; birthdays and Christmases replenished sparse wardrobes. But apparently Meggie had seen the doll on her one and only trip into town, and Fiona had not forgotten. When Frank questioned her, she muttered something about a girl needing a doll, and quickly changed the subject.
    (2)  Jack and Hughie had the doll between them on the front path, manipulating its joints callously. All Frank could see of Meggie was her back, as she stood watching her brothers desecrate Agnes. Her neat white socks had slipped in crinkled folds around her little black boots, and the pink of her legs was visible for three or four inches below the hem of her brown velvet Sunday dress. Down her back cascaded a mane of carefully curled hair, sparkling in the sun; not red and not gold, but somewhere in between. The white taffeta bow which held the front curls back from her face hung draggled and limp; dust smeared her dress. She held the doll’s clothes tightly in one hand, the other pushing vainly at Hughie.
    (3)   "You bloody little bastards!"
    (4)  Jack and Hughie scrambled to their feet and ran, the doll forgotten; when Frank swore it was politic to run. "If I catch you flaming little twerps touching that doll again I’ll brand your shitty little arses!" Frank yelled after them.
    (5)  He bent down and took Meggie’s shoulders between his hands, shaking her gently.
    (6)   "Here, here there’s no need to cry! Come on now, they’ve gone and they’ll never touch your dolly again, I promise. Give me a smile for your birthday, eh?"
    (7)  Her face was swollen, her eyes running; she stared at Frank out of grey eyes so large and full of tragedy that he felt his throat tighten.
    (8)   "Oh, Fruh-Fruh-Frank, they too-too-took Agnes away from me!" She sniffled. "Her huh-huh-hair all failed down and she loh-loh-lost all the pretty widdle puh-puh-pearls in it! They all failed in the gruhgruh-grass and I can’t find them！"
    (9)  The tears welled up again, splashing on Frank’s hand; he stared at his wet skin for a moment, then licked the drops off.
    (10)  "Well, we’ll have to find them, won’t we? But you can’t find anything while you’re crying, you know, and what’s all this baby talk? I haven’t heard you say ’widdle’ instead of ’ little’ for six months! Here, blow your nose again and then pick up poor...Agnes? If you don’t put her clothes on, she’ll get sunburned. "
    (11)  He made her sit on the edge of the path and gave her the doll gently, then he crawled about searching the grass until he gave a triumphant whoop and held up a pearl.
    (12)   "There! First one! We’ll find them all, you wait and see. "
    (13)  Meggie watched her oldest brother adoringly while he picked among the grass blades, holding up each pearl as he found it; then she remembered how delicate Agnes’s skin must be, how easily it must burn, and bent her attention on clothing the doll. There did not seem any real injury. Her hair was tangled and loose, her arms and legs dirty where the boys had pushed and pulled at them, but everything still worked. A tortoise-shell comb nestled above each of Meggie’s ears; she tugged at one until it came free, and began to comb Agnes’s hair, which was genuine human hair, skillfully knotted onto a base of glue and gauze, and bleached until it was the color of gilded straw.
    (14)   "Come on now, it’s time you went inside," he told her, swinging her up into his arms and tucking the doll between his chest and hers. "We’ll get Mum to fix her up, eh? We’ll wash and iron her clothes, and glue on her hair again. I’ll make you some proper hairpins out of those pearls, too, so they can’t fall out and you can do her hair in all sorts of ways. "
    (15)  Fiona Cleary was in the kitchen, peeling potatoes. She was a very handsome, very fair woman a little under medium height, but rather hard-faced and stern; she had an excellent figure with a tiny waist which had not thickened, in spite of the six babies she had carried beneath it. Her dress was grey calico, its skirts brushing the spotless floor, its front protected by an enormous starched white apron that looped around her neck and tied in the small of her spine with a crisp, perfect bow. From waking to sleeping she lived in the kitchen and back garden, her stout black boots beating a circular path from stove to laundry to vegetable patch to clotheslines and thence to the stove again.
    (16)  She put her knife on the table and stared at Frank and Meggie, the corners of her beautiful mouth turning down.
    (17)   "Meggie, I let you put on your Sunday-best dress this morning on one condition, that you didn’t get it dirty.  And look at you! What a little grub you are!"
    (18)  " Mum, it wasn’t her fault," Frank protested. " Jack and Hughie took her doll away to try and find out how the arms and legs worked. I promised we’d fix it up as good as new. We can, can’t we?"
    (19)   "Let me see. " Fee held out her hand for the doll.
    (20)  She was a silent woman, not given to spontaneous conversation. What she thought, no one ever knew, even her husband; she left the disciplining of the children to him, and did whatever he commanded without comment or complaint unless the circumstances were most unusual. Meggie had heard the boys whispering that she stood in as much awe of Daddy as they did, but if that was true she hid it under a veneer of impenetrable, slightly dour calm. She never laughed, nor did she ever lose her temper.
    (21)  Finished her inspection, Fee laid Agnes on the dresser near the stove and looked at Meggie. "I’ll wash her clothes tomorrow morning, and do her hair again. Frank can glue the hair on after tea tonight, I suppose, and give her a bath. "
    (22) The words were matter-of-fact rather than comforting, Meggie nodded, smiling uncertainly; sometimes she wanted so badly to hear her mother laugh, but her mother never did. She sensed that they shared a special something not common to Daddy and the boys, but there was no reaching beyond that rigid back, those never still feet. Mum would nod absently and flip her voluminous skirts expertly from stove to table as she continued working, working, working.
    (23) What none of the children save Frank could realize was that Fee was permanently, incurably tired. There was so much to be done, hardly any money to do it with, not enough time, and only one pair of hands. She longed for the day when Meggie would be old enough to help; already the child did simple tasks, but at barely four years of age it couldn’t possibly lighten the load. Six children, and only one of them, the youngest at  that, a girl.
We can conclude from the last two paragraphs that_________.
选项 A、tough housekeeping tasks had worn down Fiona’s body
B、Frank was the one who loved his mother most in the family
C、the mother was supposed to spare more love for her only girl
D、only a girl was expected to share household duties in the family
答案D
解析 推断题。文章最后一段结尾处提到菲奥娜盼望梅吉长大能帮把手，尽管这个年仅四岁的孩子已经开始帮忙了，但是六个孩子中只有这一个女孩能够有所指望，据此可推知，在家中只有女孩要分担家务，因此[D]为答案。最后一段中虽然提到菲奥娜的疲惫难以缓解，但是并没有说消耗了她的健康，故排除[A]；最后一段第一句提到孩子们中，只有弗兰克可以理解他母亲的艰辛，但是不能由此推知其他人都不爱母亲，故排除[B]；倒数第二段中提到，梅吉意识到她和母亲分享着与父兄不同的东西，这究竟是什么，她并不明白，母亲也没有给她任何暗示，更不要说给她额外的关爱，故排除[C]。
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