Jack used to curse(咒骂) the front yard as if it were a living thing. He was the man who lived with my grandmother for thirty years. He was not my grandfather, but an Italian who came down the road one day, selling fruit in Florida.
Jack stopped at my grandmother’s house to sell her some oranges just a stone’s throw from downtown Miami, and he was delivering her whiskey a week later. He stayed for thirty years. Jack hated the front yard because he thought it was against him. There had been a beautiful lawn(草坪) there when Jack came along, but he let it wander off into nothing. He refused to water it or take care of it in any way.
Now the ground was so hard that it gave his car flat tires(轮胎) in the summer. The yard was always finding a nail to put in one of his tires or the car as always sinking out of sight in the winter when the rains came on. The lawn had belonged to my grandfather, who lived out the end of his life in an insane hospital. It had been his pride and joy and was said to be the place where his powers came.

1. 1.

   It can be inferred that the real reason Jack had problems with the yard was that _______.

   1. A.
      he didn’t like the lawn.
   2. B.
      the author’s grandfather was against Jack working on the lawn
   3. C.
      the lawn was full of living things
   4. D.
      he himself did not take care of the lawn
2. 2.

   We can learn from the passage that when the lawn belonged to the author’s grandfather, it had been _______.

   1. A.
      beautiful
   2. B.
      worn out
   3. C.
      wasted
   4. D.
      full of nails
3. 3.

   What do we know about Jack and the author’s grandfather?

   1. A.
      They both hated the front lawn.
   2. B.
      Jack was jealous of the author’s grandfather.
   3. C.
      They sold fruit in Florida.
   4. D.
      They came from Italy and lived together.

　　Mr Jones woke very early one morning when the sun had risen . It was a beautiful morning , so he went to the window and looked 1 . He was surprised to see a neatly dressed, middle-aged professor, who worked in the university just up the road from Mr Jones's house, coming 2 the direction of town. He had gray hair and thick glasses, and was carrying an umbrella, 3 newspaper and a bag. Mr Jones thought that he 4 by the night train and decided to walk to the university 5 taking a taxi .

　　Mr Jones had a big tree in his garden, and the children had tied a long rope to one of its branches, 6 they could swing 7 it .Mr Jones was surprised to see the professor stop when he saw the rope and look carefully up and down the 8 . When he saw that there was 9 in sight, he stepped into the garden (there was no fence) , put his umbrella, newspaper, bag and hat neatly on the grass and took hold of the rope . He 10 it hard to see whether it was 11 enough to take his 12 , then 13 as fast as he could and swing into the 14 on the end of the rope, his grey hair 15 all around his face. Backwards and forwards he swung occasionally 16 a few more running steps on the grass when the rope began to swing too 17 for him.

　　At last the professor stopped, straightened his tie, combed his 18 carefully, put on his hat, picked up his umbrella, newspaper and bag and continued 19 his way to the university, looking as quiet and correct and respectable as one would 20 a professor to be .

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