5. One of the reasons why some people are not in favor of fairy tales is that _______.

A. they are full of imagination

B. they just make up the stories which are far from the truth

C. they are not interesting

D. they make teachers of history difficult to teach

[答案解析]

本文为论说文，作者驳斥了对神话故事的种种指责和误解。

4. The author’s mention of sticks and telephones is meant to suggest that _______.

A. fairy stories are still being made up

B. there is some misunderstanding about fairy tales

C. people try to modernize old fairy stories

D. there is more concern for children's fears nowadays

3. The advantage claimed(提出) for repeating fairy stories to young children is that it _______.

A. makes them less fearful

B. develops their power of memory

C. makes them believe there is nothing to be afraid of

D. encourages them not to have strange beliefs

2. According to the passage, great fear can take place in a child when the story is _______.

A. in a realistic setting　　　　　 　　　　　　 B. heard for the first time

C. repeated too often　　 　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　 D. told in a different way

1. The author considers that a fairy story is more effective when it is _______.

A. repeated without any change　　　　　　　　　 B. treated as a joke

C. made some changes by the parent　　　　　　 D. set in the present

4. B。主旨题。纵观全文，文章主要讲了美国崇尚自我奋斗，尊重体力劳动的文化习惯。故答案为B。

(2)

A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.

A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises(出现) from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.

There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so peculiar(奇怪的) that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend.

No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.

3. D。词义猜测题。wait on table 意为“服务顾客”，注意其后的 washing dishes 也有一定的暗示意义，故答案为 D。

2. B。推断题。根据This attitude toward manual(体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life.(在美国生活的方方面面，尊重体力劳动态度的现象仍然随处可见)，可以推断女主人亲自下厨，是因为她以能做这样的体力活而自豪。

1. A。细节题。 根据 A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made made 我们可以了解到，“崇尚自我奋斗”是美国文化的特点。

4. Which of the following may serve as the best title of the passage?

A. A Respectable Self-made Family　　　　　　 B. American Attitude toward Manual Labor

C. Characteristics of American Culture　　　　 D. The Development of Manual Labor

[答案解析]

本文介绍了崇尚自我奋斗，尊重体力劳动的美国文化。