When my brother and I were young, my mom would take us on Transportation Days.
It goes like this: You can’t take any means of transportation more than once. We would start from home, walking two blocks to the rail station. We’d take the train into the city center, then a bus, switching to the tram, then maybe a taxi. We always considered taking a horse carriage in the historic district, but we didn’t like the way the horses were treated, so we never did. At the end of the day, we took the subway to our closest station, where Mom’s friend was waiting to give us a ride home—our first car ride of the day.
The good thing about Transportation Days is not only that Mom taught us how to get around. She was born to be multimodal (多方式的). She understood that depending on cars only was a failure of imagination and, above all, a failure of confidence—the product of a childhood not spent exploring subway tunnels.
Once you learn the route map and step with certainty over the gap between the train and the platform, nothing is frightening anymore. New cities are just light-rail lines to be explored. And your personal car, if you have one, bees just one more tool in the toolbox—and often an inadequate one, limiting both your mobility and your wallet.
On Transportation Days, we might stop for lunch on Chestnut Street or buy a new book or toy, but the transportation was the point. First, it was exciting enough to watch the world speed by from the train window. As I got older, my mom helped me unlock the mysteries that would otherwise have paralyzed my first attempts to do it myself: How do I know where to get off? How do I know how much it costs? How do I know when I need tickets, and where to get them? What track, what line, which direction, where’s the stop, and will I get wet when we go under the river?
I’m writing this right now on an airplane, a means we didn’t try on our Transportation Days and, we now know, the dirtiest and most polluting of them all. My flight routed me through Philadelphia. My multimodal mom met me for dinner in the airport. She took a train to meet me.
【小题1】Which was forbidden by Mom on Transportation Days?A．Having a car ride. B．Taking the train twice.C．Buying more than one toy.D．Touring the historic district.【小题2】According to the writer, what was the greatest benefit of her Transportation Days?A．Building confidence in herself.B．Reducing her use of private cars.C．Developing her sense of direction.D．Giving her knowledge about vehicles.【小题3】The underlined word “paralyzed” (in Para. 5) is closest in meaning to “ ”.A．displayedB．justifiedC．ignoredD．ruined【小题4】Which means of transportation does the writer probably disapprove of?A．Airplane.B．Subway. C．Tram.D．Car.B
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(答案→)B
解析：我和我弟弟小时，在交通运输日，母亲总带着我们乘坐火车、公共汽车、出租车等，让我们感受到了自信与快乐。
【小题1】细节理解题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据第二段第一句中“You can’t take any means of transportation more than once.”可知母亲禁止乘坐两次火车，故B项正确。
【小题2】细节理解题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据第三段第二句中“…above all, a failure of cnfidence— the product of a childhood …”可知，作者认为最大的受益在于增强自信，故A项正确。
【小题3】词义猜测题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据语境可知，该句意为：当我长大时，我母亲帮我解密了可能使我无法作自我首次尝试的秘密。D项意为“毁灭”，符合语境，故D项正确；A项意为“陈列”，B项意为“证明……是正当的”，C项意为“不理睬”，都与语境不符。
【小题4】细节理解题。难度中等。
【解题思路】根据最后一段第一句中“…a means we didn’t try on …the dirtiest and most polluting of them all.”可知，作者不赞同飞机，故A项正确。