My favorite English teacher could draw humor 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 humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with allusions (典故) and irony (反讽) and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.
My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be 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 joke of and said, This writing isn't fit to line (衬垫) the bottom of a birdcageOur 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? Humor 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 humor is either productive or counter-productive and self-defeating.
【小题1】The passage mainly discusses .A．teachingB．literatureC．humorD．knowledge【小题2】The underlined word hilarious in Paragraph 1 probably means .A．funnyB．tiringC．inspiringD．brilliant【小题3】The English teacher the writer disliked most .A．was not able to make students laughB．hurt his students' feelingsC．didn't let his students do the gradingD．had no sense of humorC
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(答案→)C
解析：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、诗和剧本经过老师的解释学生能够读出其中的幽默之处，幽默对于老师和作家是最有力的工具之一。
【小题1】主旨大意题。根据全文的内容可知主要谈论的是幽默的话题，故选C。
【小题2】词义猜测题。根据My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn't forced on us either. 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”，故选A。
【小题3】细节理解题。根据It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.最不喜欢的是伤害学生的感情，故选B。