三、阅读理解(共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分)

　　请阅读下列短文，从每篇短文后所给各题的A，B，C，D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。并在答题卡上将该项的标号涂黑。

A

Father’s Garden

　　My father was always a good gardener. One of my earliest memories is standing without shoes in the freshly tilled(翻耕的) soil, my hands blackened from digging in the ground.

　　As a child, I loved following Dad around in the garden. I remember Dad pushing the tiller(耕作机) ahead in perfectly straight lines. Dad loved growing all sorts of things yellow and green onions, watermelons almost as big as me, rows of yellow corn, and our favorite—red tomatoes.

　　As I grew into a teenager, I didn’t get so excited about gardening with Dad. Instead of magical land of possibility, it had turned into some kind of prison. As Dad grew older, his love for gardening never disappeared. After all the kids were grown and had started families of their own, Dad turned to gardening like never before. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he still took care of his garden.

　　But then, the cancer, bit by bit, invaded his body. I had to do the things he used to do. What really convinced me that Dad was dying was the state of his garden that year. The rows and rows of multicolored vegetables were gone. Too tired to weed them, he simply let them be. He only planted tomatoes.

　　For the first few years after he died, I couldn’t even bear to look at anyone’s garden without having strong memories pour over me like cold water from a bucket. Three years ago, I decided to plant my own garden and started out with just a few tomatoes. That morning, after breaking up a fair amount of soil, something caught the corner of my eye and I had to smile. It was my eight-year-old son Nathan, happily playing in the freshly tilled soil.

36．Why did the author like the garden when he was a child?

　　A．He wanted to be a garden-crazy like his father.

　　B．He loved being in the garden with his father.

　　C．The garden was full of his favorite food.

　　D．The garden was just freshly tilled.

37．When all the kids started their own families, the author’s father _____.

　　A．stopped his gardening.          B．turned to other hobbies.

　　C．devoted more to gardening.      D．focused on planting tomatoes.

38．What happened to the garden when the author’s father was seriously ill?

　　A．There was a great harvest.        

　　B．The garden was almost deserted. 

　　C．No plant grew in the garden at all.

　　D．The author’s son took charge of the garden.

39．Why did the author start his garden with tomatoes?

　　A．He wanted to honor his father.        

　　B．His son liked the fields of tomatoes.

　　C．He only knew how to grow tomatoes.

　　D．He thought tomatoes were easy to manage.

B

　　You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it. But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.

　　“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette (礼仪) is sort of odd (奇怪的),” Gray told the BBC. “They (elevators) are socially very interesting but often very awkward places.”

　　We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, lift users unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.

　　He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want – it’s your own little box. If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally (对角线地) across from each other to create distance. When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.

　　New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple – look down, or look at your phone.

　　Why are we so awkward in lifts?

　　“You don’t have enough space,” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us. And that’s not possible in most elevators.”

　　In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed (理解) as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.

40．The main purpose of the article is to _____.

　　A．remind us to enjoy ourselves in the elevator

　　B．tell us some unwritten rules of elevator etiquette

　　C．share an interesting but awkward elevator ride

　　D．analyze what makes people feel awkward in an elevator

41．According to Gray, when people enter an elevator, they usually _____.

　　A．turn around and greet one another

　　B．look around or examine their phone

　　C．make eye contact with those in the elevator

　　D．try to keep a distance from other people

42．Which of the following describes how people usually stand when there are at least two people in an elevator?  

43．The writer wrote the passage in a tone of ___________. 

　　A．disapproved        B．objective          C．negative       D．supportive  
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