2. 职称英语
  3. On one of the shelves of an old dresser, in company with old and dusty sauce

On one of the shelves of an old dresser, in company with old and dusty sauce

游客2023-10-23  9
问题     On one of the shelves of an old dresser, in company with old and dusty sauce-boats, jugs, dishes and plates, and paid bills, rested a worn and ragged Bible, on whose front page was the record, in faded ink, of a baptism dated ninety-four years ago. "Martha Crale" was the name written on that yellow page. The yellow, wrinkled old dame who moved slowly and muttered about the kitchen, looking like a dead autumn leaf which the winter winds still pushed here and there, had once been Martha Crale; for seventy old years she had been Martha Mountjoy. For longer than anyone could remember she had paced to and fro between oven and wash-house and dairy, and out to chicken-run and garden, grumbling and muttering and scolding, but working unceasingly. Emma Ladbruk, of whose coming she took as little notice as she would of a bee wandering in at a window on a summer’s day, used at first to watch her with a kind of frightened curiosity.  She was so old and so much a part of the place, it was difficult to think of her exactly as a living thing. Old Shep, the white-nosed, stiff-limbed shepherd dog, waiting for his time to die, seemed almost more human than the withered, dried-up old woman. He had been a noisy, excited puppy, mad with the joy of life, when she was already a weak and tottering dame; now he was just a blind, breathing animal body, nothing more, and she still worked with frail energy, still swept and baked and washed, fetched and carried. If there were something in these wise old dogs that did not perish utterly with death, Emma used to think to herself, what generations of ghost-dogs there must be out on those hills, that Martha had reared and fed and tended and spoken a last goodbye word to in that old kitchen. And what memories she must have of human generations that had passed away in her time. It was difficult for anyone, let alone a stranger like Emma, to get her to talk of the days that had been; her shrill, quivering speech was of doors that had been left unfastened, pails that had got mislaid, calves whose feeding-time was overdue, and the various little faults that change a farmhouse routine. Now and again, when election time came round, she would unstore her recollections of the old names round which the fight had waged in the days gone by. There had been a Palmerston, that had been a name down Tiverton way; Tiverton was not a far journey as the crow flies, but to Martha it was almost a foreign country. Later there had been Northcotes and Aclands, and many other newer names that she had forgotten; the names changed, but it was always Libruls and Toories, Yellows and Blues. And they always quarrelled and shouted as to who was right and who was wrong. The one they quarrelled about most was a fine old gentleman with an angry face鈥攕he had seen his picture on the walls. She had seen it on the floor too, with a rotten apple squashed over it, for the farm had changed its politics from time to time. Martha had never been on one side or the other, none of "they" had ever done the farm a stroke of good. Such was her sweeping verdict, given with all a peasant’s distrust of the outside world. [br] The description of Old Shep and the wise old dogs was intended to illustrate _______.
选项 A、Emma’s frightened curiosity about Martha Crale
B、the mysterious life of Martha Crale
C、Martha Crale’s frail but tough physical condition
D、Martha Crale’s closer relation with dog than with human
答案 A
解析 从第9句中的插入成分Emma used to think to herself可以推断从第5句到第9句都是为了说明Emma对Martha Crale的感觉。第5句首先提到Emma对Martha Crale充满了frightened curiosity，第7、8句对比Old Shep和Martha Crale，第9句Emma对wise old dogs以及Martha Crale的猜测，都是为了说明为什么Emma会对Martha Crale充满了frightened curiosity，可见本题应选A。
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