Peanuts to This
Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher. Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”
Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real talk I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked pletely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice：flip (掷) a coin. Heads—the mander, and tails—the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.
Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly mass, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quite! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?
Obviously, my grade was awful. Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted: No re-dos; no new grade. I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance. Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster’s office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade. Justice is sweet!
【小题1】What did the author’s classmates think about his report?A．Controversial.B．Ridiculous.C．Boring.D．Puzzling.【小题2】Why was the author confused about the task?A．He was unfamiliar with American history.B．He followed the advice and flipped a coin.C．He forgot his teacher’s instruction.D．He was new at the school.【小题3】The underlined word “burning” in Para. 3 probably means .A．annoyedB．ashamedC．readyD．eager【小题4】In the end, the author turned things around .A．by redoing his taskB．through his own effortsC．with the help of his grandfatherD．under the guidance of his headmasterB
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(答案→)B
解析：记叙文，作者采用了插叙的叙事手法，时空的反复变换给考生理解带来了一些难度。用图画来解释英文单词，文章中画了一个花生来解释peanuts这个词，但这个图像对理解文章和解题的意义并不大。
【小题1】考查推理题，文章开头说，“我自豪的读文章，同学们强忍住笑，眼里甚至笑出了泪花”不难判断除同学们应该觉得我的文章是“荒谬的、可笑的”，即ridiculous。
【小题2】考查细节题，考生在第一看扫读文章的时候必然能发现George Washington这个名字，略有一些美国历史知识基础的同学都应该知道这是美国第一任总统乔治·华盛顿，但作者竟然不知道，可见他对美国的历史很不熟悉。本题在文中第二自然段第四句话也是直接的对应。
【小题3】考察词意推测题。文中第一和第三自然段在时空上处于一个场景之中，“我”自豪的读完文章，却受到同学们的嘲笑，必然是应该“急切的”（eager）想知道自己哪做错了。下一句话终于真相大白（It all became clear）也是对本题的一个印证。
【小题4】考查细节题，最后一题题干中有In the end，应该在最后一自然段找答案。最后一自然段第五句话，I threw myself heartily into my work对应了B选项，我依靠的是自己的努力。