Question

In the kitchen of my mother’s houses there has always been a wooden stand (木架) with a small notepad (記事本)　and a hole for a pencil.

I’m looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can’t be the same pencil? The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely  the original one.

 “I’m just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these years.” I say to her, walking back into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. “You still use a pencil. Can’t you afford a pen?”

My mother replies a little sharply. “It works perfectly  well. I’ve  always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in those days.”

Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, “One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on.”

This story—which happened before I was born—reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is, as a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have travelled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible (看不到的) exhibits at every meal.

1.Why has the author’s mother always kept the notepad and pencil in the kitchen?

A．To leave messages.

B．To list her everyday tasks.

C．To note down maths problems.

D．To write down a flash of inspiration.

2.What is the author’s original opinion about the wooden stand?

A．It has great value for the family.

B．It needs to be replaced by a better one.

C．It brings her back to her lonely childhood.

D．It should be passed on to the next generation.

3.The author feels embarrassed for             .

A．blaming her mother wrongly

B．giving her mother a lot of trouble

C．not making good use of time as her mother did

D．not making any breakthrough in her field

4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．The mother is successful in her career.

B．The family members like travelling.

C．The author had little time to play when young.

D．The marks on the breadboard have disappeared.

5.In the author’s mind, her mother is             .

A．strange in behaviour

B．keen on her research

C．fond of collecting old things

D．careless about her appearance

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.D

2.B

3.C

4.A

5.B

【解析】

試題分析：【文章大意】本文是一篇故事。文章講述了母親廚房里的紙、鉛筆及放置它們的木架的故事。

1.D考查推理判斷。根據文章第一段中的In the kitchen of my mother’s houses there has always been a wooden stand (木架) with a small notepad (記事本)　and a hole for a pencil.可知D正確。

2.B考查推理判斷。根據文章第二段中的The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely  the original one.可知，記事本是現代的了，而木架還絕對是原來的。這表明作者的心理態度是：其他都變了，這個架子也該變了。故選B。

3.C考查推理判斷。根據文章倒數第一段中的This story—which happened before I was born—reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is, as a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work.可知，使我感到難堪的是我總是抱怨沒有時間。故選C。

4.A考查推理判斷。根據文章最后一段中的This story—which happened before I was born—reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is, as a gifted mathematician.可推知A正確。母親是一個天才的數學家。

5.B考查推理判斷。根據文章最后一段中的Those symbols have travelled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible (看不到的) exhibits at every meal.可知B正確。

考點：考查記敘文的閱讀理解。