三： 阅读理解 (共11小题; 每小题2分, 满分22分)

A

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was the favourite child of his family. He was the only boy among a great many girl cousins. That was enough to make him important, but the father loved him especially, because he knew his son was going to be an artist. Pablo knew the word for pencil even before he could see Mamma and Papa. When he was small, he spent hours by himself making delightful little drawings of animals and people. If his mother sent him out to play in the square, he went on drawing in the dust under the trees.

Don Jose Ruiz, Pablo’s father, was director of the museum in southern Spain. He earned only a small salary, but there was not much work to do and he was able to practice his hobby, which was painting pigeons. Don loved pigeons very much. He painted them dead or alive in ones and twos and in dozens. Sometimes he painted them on paper, cut them out and stuck them onto canvas (画布); sometimes he stuck real feathers onto his pictures. He knew a great deal about the technique of painting and he taught it all to Pablo.

Life in Malaga was very pleasant. In the hot sunshine father and son would walk down to the beach to look at the boats on the shore or wander around the open markets. They made a strange pair. Don was tall and thin, with red hair and beard, sad gray eyes and a fine set of whiskers (腮须). He was so shy and correct that he was nicknamed “the Englishman”. Pablo was quite the opposite. He had his mother’s small, strong build (体格); he had straight black hair, and bright black eyes that noticed everything that was going on around him.

36. Picasso’s father loved him especially, because .

A. he was the only boy in the family

B. he was going to be an important person to his family

C. he showed the gift of an artist in his early childhood

D. he looked like his mother

37. Pablo’s father painted a lot because .

A. he didn’t have enough money B. he had plenty of time

C. he liked the pigeons, especially the dead ones D. he looked after the museum

38. Don Jose Ruiz and Pablo were a strange pair because .

A. they liked to wander about the town

B. they noticed everything that was going on around them

C. one was tall and thin, the other was small and strong

D. they looked so different from each other

39. The best title of the passage might be .

A. Pablo Picasso: the great artist B. The Boyhood of Pablo Picasso

C. Father of A Great Artist D. Father’s Influence (影响) on His Son

B

Benjamin Franklin was truly what we call a “jack of all trades”. Although best known for his experiments with electricity, Franklin was a scientist, a politician, and almost everything in between.

Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, the tenth and youngest of his father’s sons. When he was 12, Franklin worked as an apprentice. He worked in his older brother James’ printing shop. He secretly started publishing his writing under the false name of Silence Dogood. James wasn’t pleased when he found out the writer was Ben. Ben stopped his job and set out for Philadelphia.

In 1732, Franklin began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack, where most of his sayings can be found. Many of these , such as “A penny saved is a penny earned”, remain popular today.

Franklin is known as a Founding Father. This means that he was part of the group of men who founded their nation. He was a member of the Continental Congress and also the oldest person to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Electricity and weather were especially interesting to Franklin. He proved that lightning is electricity by catching sparks from a cloud while flying a kite in a storm.

As Ben says, “If you would not be forgotten when you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing about. ”

His theory seems to work, because Ben followed both pieces of his own advice, and we still remember him centuries later!

40. Though Franklin did many kinds of work, he .

A. is mostly remembered for his experiments with electricity

B. is better known as a Founding Father

C. is best known as the oldest man who signed the Declaration

D. is remembered mostly as the author of Poor Richard’s Almanack

41. The underlined word in the second paragraph probably means someone .

A. who owns a printing shop

B. who learns a trade by working with a skilled person

C. who is skilled at his work

D. who does business with a printing shop

42. From the last paragraph we can see that ______.

A. Franklin not only wrote things worth reading but also did things worth writing about

B. Franklin listened to others’ advice and was remembered by the Americans

C. Franklin wrote things worth reading rather than did things worth writing about

D. many people followed his advice and succeeded at last