【資料圖】

The young people who talk of the village as being"dead"are talking nothing but nonsense,as in their hearts they must surely know.

No,the village is not dead.There is more life in it now than there ever was.But it seems that"village life"is dead.Gone for ever.It began to decline about a hundred years ago.When many girls left home to go into service in town many miles away,and men also left home in increasing numbers in search of work,and home was where work was.There are still a number of people alive today who can remember what"village life"meant in the early years of the present century.It meant finding your entertainment in the village of within walking distance of it.It meant housewives tied to the home all day and every day.It meant going to bed early to save lamp-oil and coal.

Then came the First World War and the Second World War.After each war,new ideas,new attitudes,new trades and occupations were revealed to villagers.The long-established order of society was no longer taken for granted.Electricity and the motorcar were steadily operating to make"village life"and"town life"almost alike.Now with the highly developed science and technology and high-level social welfare for all,there is no point whatever in talking any longer about"village life."It is just life,and a better life.

Finally,if we have any doubts about the future,or about the many changes which we have seen in our lives,we have only to look in at the school playground any mid-morning;or see the children as they walk homeward in little groups.Obviously there children are better fed,better clothed,better educated,healthier,prettier and happier than any generation of children that ever before walked the village street.

1、From the passage we can see that the writer"s attitude toward"village life"is _____.

A.positive

B.negative

C.neutral

D.unclear

參考答案：C

參考解析：作者在文章中只講農村生活的變化，并未對農村生活進行評價，所以作者的觀點是中立的。因此答案是C.

2、By saying that village is not dead,but"village life"is dead,the writer suggests that _____.

A.those young people who talk of the village as being"dead"are wrong

B.the two statements are against each other

C."village life"today is rather uninteresting

D."village life"today is no longer like what it used to be

參考答案：D

參考解析：本文第二段對過去和現在的農村生活進行對比，由此得出現在的農村生活已經不再像過去的農村生活那樣了。所以本題正確參考答案：應該是D.而不是A：那些談論農村已經不存在的年輕人是錯誤的，B：農村和農村生活相反，C：今天的農村生活很乏味。

3、The expression"...there is no point whatever in talking about..."in paragraph 3 means that _____.

A.there is no end to the talking about...

B.it is harmful to talk about...

C.it is not meaningless to talk about...

D.there is no reason for talking about...

參考答案：D

參考解析：point在這里可以理解成“有道理，有理由”所以，答案應該是D.

4、It was _____ that"village life"began to take a sharp turn.

A.about a century ago

B.during the two world wars

C.with electricity and motorcars introduced into the village

D.only recently

參考答案：C

參考解析：本題問的是從什么時候起，農村生活有了一個轉折點。從文章第三段第四句話：“電和機動車輛在拉近農村生活和城市生活的距離方面起著決定性的作用”，可知選項C正確。

5、As is suggested in paragraph 2,villagers in the past _____.

A.lived a simpler life than villagers today

B.knew fewer people than villagers today

C.found it difficult to enjoy themselves

D.liked to wash themselves with cold water

參考答案：A

參考解析：第二段最后四句話講述的是：過去的村子里的每一個人都相互了解；不必走很遠就可以娛樂；家庭主婦們每天都呆在家里；為了節省煤和燈油，人們很早就睡了。由此，我們可知，選項A是正確答案。

示例模擬題：

那些把村里說成“死”的年輕人只會胡說八道，他們心里一定知道。

不，這個村莊沒有死。現在的生活比以往任何時候都多。但似乎“鄉村生活”已經死了。一去不復返了。大約一百年前開始下降。當許多女孩離家在數英里外的小鎮上服役時，男人也越來越多地離家去尋找工作，而家就是工作的地方。今天仍有許多人能記住本世紀初“鄉村生活”的含義。這意味著你可以在離村子不遠的地方找到娛樂場所。這意味著家庭主婦整天和家里聯系在一起。這意味著要早點睡覺以節省燈油和煤炭。

接著是第一次世界大戰和第二次世界大戰。每一次戰爭之后，新的想法、新的態度、新的行業和職業都向村民們展示。長期確立的社會秩序已不再被視為理所當然。電力和汽車穩定運行，使“鄉村生活”和“城鎮生活”幾乎相同。現在，隨著科學技術的高度發展，社會福利水平的不斷提高，再談“鄉村生活”也沒有意義，它只是生活，更美好的生活。

最后，如果我們對未來有任何疑問，或者對我們生活中所看到的許多變化有任何疑問，我們只需要在任何一個上午查看學校操場；或者看到孩子們成群結隊地回家。很明顯，那里的孩子們比任何一代以前走過村落街道的孩子們都有更好的食物，更好的衣服，更好的教育，更健康，更漂亮，更快樂。