Question

 My favourite English teacher could draw humour out of the driest material. It wasn’t forced on us either. He took Samuel Johnson’s dictionary,Addison’s essays,and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hilarious,even at eight o’clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own,some of them seemed dead,but the second time,after his explanation,I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen the humour. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with allusions (典故) and irony and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.

  My least favourite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be wonderfully funny. Many others did not. He assigned journals over a six-week period,to be written every day. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of bits and pieces about my ideas,short stories,reactions to what we had read,and so on.   Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other’s journals. Mine was passed to Joe,that class clown,who always behaved in a funny or silly way. He saw it fit to make a joke of and said, “This writing isn’t fit to line the bottom of a birdcage. ” Our teacher laughed at that funny remark. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.

  So what makes the difference? Humour is one of the most powerful tools teachers or writers have. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing,or it can tear them apart. It is true that humour is either productive or counter-productive and self-defeating.

(   ) 1. The passage mainly discusses        .

   A. teaching   B. literature

   C. humour   D. knowledge

(   ) 2. The underlined word “hilarious” in Paragraph 1

probably means “________”.

   A. funny   B. tiring

   C. inspiring   D. brilliant

(   ) 3. With his favourite English teacher,the writer found it most amazing that________.

   A. his teacher was very learned

   B. his teacher was very humorous

   C. the works by Johnson and Addison were very humorous

   D. few were able to find humour in works by Johnson and others

(   ) 4. The English teacher the writer disliked most        .

   A. was not able to make students laugh

   B. hurt his students’ feelings

   C. didn’t let his students do the grading

   D. had no sense of humour

Answer 1

[文章大意]本文叙述了英语老师能从一些干瘪的材料中找出幽默。一些小说、诗和剧本经过老师解释，学生能够读出其中的幽默之处。幽默对于老师或作家是最有力的工具之一。

1. C主旨大意题。本文作者写了自己最喜欢的英语老师和最不喜欢的英语老师所表达的不同的幽默，一位让他很喜欢，一位让他不喜欢。故c正确。

2. A词义猜測题。根据"My favourite English teacher could draw humour out of the driest material. It wasn't forced on us either."可知这里叙述英语老师能从干瘪的材料中找出幽默，后面是举例，所以猜出这个词是"滑稽的，可笑的"之意，故选A.

3. C细节理解题。根据第一段提到"He took Samuel Johnson's dictionary,Addison's essays,and many other liter?ary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hi?larious even at eight o'clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own,some of them seemed dead,but the second time) af?ter his explanation,I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen the humour."可知Johnson's dictionary,Addison's essays是非常幽默的，故选C项。

4. B推理判断题。根据文章倒数第二段最后一句"It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since."可知，这位英语老师的话伤害了作者的感情，故选B项。