A school master of Thurso in Caithness, William Munro, wrote in a report in THE TIMES on September 8, 1809 that twelve years earlier he had been walking along Sandside Bay shore when he saw what he first thought was a naked woman, sitting on a rock and bing her light brown hair. The face was fatty round, with reddish cheeks and blue eyes. If the rock where the woman sat had not been so dangerous for swimmers, Munro would have thought it was human. After a few minutes it dropped into the sea and swam away. Others had seen it too.
The island of Benbecula in the outer Hebrides, about 1830, women cutting seaweed reported they had met a creature of female form playing happily off the shore. A few days later her dead body was found two miles from where she had first been seen. The description of the creature was recorded thus, “the upper part of the creature was about the size of a well-fed child of three or four years of age, with an extraordinarily developed breast. The hair was long, dark and glossy(有光泽), while the skin was white, soft and tender. The lower part of the body was like a salmon(鲑鱼). ”
【小题1】From the description given by the witnesses, we know that . A．mermaids did existB．mermaids shaped like femalesC．mermaids looked terribleD．mermaids shaped like fish【小题2】 This passage most probably es from . A．scientific booksB．tales collectionC．travel guide D．fishing webpages【小题3】 Which of the following is TRUE? A．The school master and the women saw a mermaid in the same year. B．The school master saw a mermaid swimming in the sea. C．The women saw a mermaid swimming in the sea. D．It was said that mermaids developed from salmons.【小题4】 Which of the following is WRONG? A．Not all the people believe they were mermaids. B．People have taken photos of the creature. C．The creature in the second case looked like a woman with a fish’s tail. D．Both of these two tales may not be true.B
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(答案→)B
解析：
文章描述了两起美人鱼的目击事件, 都是当事人口述, 事情发生的时间较久远, 没有照片、录像等证据, 所以文章的口气属于猜测性质。
【小题1】选B。细节理解题。根据“he first thought was a naked woman”和“had met a creature of female form. . . ”可知美人鱼具有女人的体形。
【小题2】选B。主旨大意题。本文主要介绍美人鱼目击证人对它的描述, 这只是传说, 所以B项为最佳选项。
【小题3】选C。推理判断题。off the shore指“离海岸不远的水中”。且文中提及的是women, 不是school master。
【小题4】选B。推理判断题。文中没有提到为它们拍照, C项在最后几句可以看到, A和D两项都属于不确定的推断, 符合本文的表达内容。