Many thousands of years ago, people lived only in hot countries. They did not live in cold countries because they could not keep warm. And they did not know how to make fire either. Sometimes lightning hit a forest and started a fire. Then people took some of this fire to make a fire near their homes. A fire was important for three reasons. It kept them warm. It frightened wild animals. They did not attack people when they saw a fire. And if you cook food, it tastes much better!

　　But men still did not know how to make fire. When they had a fire, they did not let it stop burning. If it went out, they could not start it again. They had to wait for lightning to start another fire! Sometimes they had to wait for years.

　　Later, they found how to make fire. If you rub two pieces of wood together, they become hot and burn. Of course you have to rub very fast! One way of doing it is to make a little hole in a piece of wood, pieces of wood or dry leaves are put into the hole, then you put the end of a stick into the hole. You rub the sticks between the hands. This makes it turn quickly. The end of the stick in the hole becomes very hot. The small pieces of wood and dry leaves begin to burn.

　　Choose the best answer.

　　1. This passage is a piece of______.

　　A. narrative(记叙文) writing

　　B. expositry(说明文) writing

　　C. story D. novel

　　2. In the past fire was important for the following reasons except ____.

　　A. to keep people warm

　　B. to frighten animals

　　C. to cook

　　D. to light the house

　　3. When a fire goes out, it______.

　　A. leaves B. stops burning

　　C. still burns D. becomes weak

　　4. This makes it turn quickly. Here "turn" means______.

　　A. "move around" B. "go away"

　　C. "happen" D. "change"

　　5. This passage is written in a______ way.

　　A. funny B. joking

　　C. serious D. ironical(讥讽的)

　　［答案及详解］

　　1.选B。短文的主题是"火"，阐述了"火"的一些特性；第一段是火的用途，第二段是远古的人类如何得到火种，第三段是远古的人类如何取火。由此推断得出结论：短文是说明文。

　　2.选D。这是一个细节题，线索词是reasons，出处在第一段的末尾部分：火很重要，原因有三--取暖、驱赶野兽和煮食物。

　　3.选B。这是一个词语释义题，出处在第二段中间部分，提示语有stop burning, start等，猜测词义为"熄灭"。

　　4.选A。这是一个猜测词义题，出处在第三段末尾部分，提示语有rub, between the hands等，猜测词义为"转动"。

　　5.选C。这是一个推理判断题。短文没有什么具有感情色彩的词语，列举的是事实。由此推断：文章的笔调是严肃的。

　　(文/杨俊杰；英语辅导报初三版03--04学年度第35期；版权归英语辅导报社所有，独家网络合作伙伴新浪教育，未经许可，不得以任何形式进行转载。)