,knowing I’d wake up and there would still be no food for breakfast.

My father would leave early in the morning carrying a little basket to ask for food on credit (赊欠). Each night he would return home around 10:00p.m. My mother would try to encourage me by telling me to keep the water in our pot boiling so that when my father arrived we could quickly cook any food he brought in the already prepared water . I would keep the fire burning and the water boiling , along with the hopes that we would eat that night. But my father would arrive frustrated and empty -handed. And I would sleep like that.

【小题1】The best title for the text is ________.

A. A Hungry Childhood Caused by Droughts

B. Food and Hunger

C. Protecting the Environment

D. Droughts and Their Names

【小题2】What does the drought of the “ longoza”refer to (指代)?

A. Many animals needed food dropped by planes.

B. People had to eat animals because of hunger.

C. Many animals died because of the droughts.

D. People died of hunger even if they had money.

【小题3】Why would the author keep the fire burning and t he water boiling?

A. To wait for her father to come back to have supper.

B. To cook the food that her father would bring back.

C. To keep her house warm all night.

D. To make her hungry mother happy.

【小题4】The sentence “I slept like that ” means “ ________.”

A. I was disappointed when my father came back empty-handed

B. I felt sorry because my family got hungry again

C. I went to sleep with no food for breakfast.

D. I went to bed with nothing to eat

【答案】

【小题1】A

【小题2】C

D

While we are still children ,most of us live at home with our parents, more or less peacefully . But as we become teenagers , things change ,and we begin to grow apart from our parents . This means we are almost ready to leave the house where we grew u p and make a new home of our own .

All humans must do this ,but they don’t all do it in the same way . If ,for instance ,you belong to a primitive tribe (原始部落) ，then as you grew up ,you’d learn the skills you needed as an adult---how to catch fish ,how to keep the house and look after children . You would be ready to marry in your early teens and you would build a house and live near your family in the village.

This seems a very old way of life , but it is what humans have been used to through hundreds of years. And it is what we are still used to in the 21st century ,for man hasn’t changed in the short time since he became civilized(文明的). But could you leave home and lo ok after yourself during the teen years ? Most people would not do very well . Why ? Because although man hasn’t changed very much , the society he lives in has changed greatly ,which means that we have to learn more and m ore before we are ready to leave our parents’ shelter( 居所 ) and live alone .

However ,sometimes it is very frustrating to live at parents’ home . Parents can be very upset about late nights ,criticizing friends and always saying that we are noisy and dirty . But we still need our emotional (情感的 ) shelter till we finish our studies , and that is why we usually stay in our parents’ home until we feel grown up enough to deal with living alone .