5．Elephants are the only species on the earth known to have death ritual（儀式）besides man．
They show a strong interest in the bones of their own kind．They are often seen gently touching the bones with their trunks and feet while remaining very quiet．Sometimes elephants completely unrelated to the dead will still visit their graves．
Elephant researcher Meredith recalls something in his book about a typical elephant death ritual．The entire family of a dead elephant，including her young baby，were all gently touching her body with their trunks，trying to lift her．The elephant herd were all rumbling（低吼）：The baby elephant was even observed to be weeping and made sounds that sounded like a scream，but then the entire herd fell incredibly silent．Then they began to throw leaves and dirt over the body and broke off tree branches to cover her．They spent the next two days quietly standing over her body．They sometimes had to leave to get water or food，but they would always return．
Events of elephants behaving this way around human beings are common throughout Africa．On many occasions，they have buried dead or sleeping humans or helped them when they are hurt．An old woman fell asleep under a tree．When she woke up，there was an elephant standing over her，gently touching her．She kept very still because she was frightened．As other elephants arrived，they began to scream loudly and buried her under branches．She was found the next morning by the local people，unharmed．
George Adamson also recalls when he shot all elephant from a herd that kept breaking into the farmers'gardens．George gave the：elephant's meat to 1ocal men and then dragged the rest of the body miles away．That night，the other elephants found the body，took the leg bones，returned them to the exact spot the elephant was killed，and made the death ritual．
56．Elephants touch the bones of their own kind toA．
A．express sorrow at the death
B．search for the hunter
C．clean their trunks and feet
D．call for other elephants
57．What can we learn about the ritual from Meredith's book？B
A．All the elephants were observed to be weeping．
B．All the elephants felt sad in the ritual．
C．The whole herd screamed for two days．
D．The elephants ate nothing for two days．
58．The elephant watched the woman becauseB．
A．it thought she was sleeping
B．it thought she was dead
C．it tried to protect her
D．it wanted to wake her up
59．The case mentioned in the last paragraph mainly shows thatC．
A．it's cruel of humans to kill elephants for meat
B．elephants can find out who hunted their members
C．elephants tend to make the death ritual for their members
D．there are often conflicts between elephants and humans
60．What is the best title for the passage？D
A．Humans and elephants
B．The intelligenee of elephants
C．The feelings of elephants
D．The death rituals of elephants．
分析 本文是一篇科教類文章，通過講述死亡大象的儀式展示出除了人類以外，大象用這種儀式表現(xiàn)出其群體的團(tuán)結(jié)．
解答 ABBCD
56A 細(xì)節(jié)理解題．根據(jù)文章第二 段Sometimes elephants completely unrelated to the dead will still visit their graves．可知大象觸摸他們同類的骨頭是為了表達(dá)死亡的痛苦，尤其是毫無關(guān)聯(lián)的大象也來參加儀式，故選A．
57B 細(xì)節(jié)理解題．根據(jù)文章第三 段 The entire family of a dead elephant，including her young baby，were all gently touching her body with their trunks，trying to lift her．可知在Meredith書中大象群體用各種不同的行為表達(dá)了各自的痛苦，ACD均為各自的行為表現(xiàn)故選B．
58B 細(xì)節(jié)理解題．根據(jù)文章第四 段On many occasions，they have buried dead or sleeping humans or helped them when they are hurt． 可知大象因為認(rèn)為女士死了才站在她周圍并且關(guān)注她，故選B．
59C 細(xì)節(jié)理解題．根據(jù)文章最后一段the other elephants found the body，took the leg bones，returned them to the exact spot the elephant was killed，and made the death ritual． 可知大象找到尸體并把骨頭帶到它被殺的地方舉行了儀式，說明大象傾向于為死去的同類做儀式．故選C．
60D主旨大議題．通讀全文可知這篇文章主要描述了大象的死亡儀式，故選D．
點評 做閱讀理解時要快速的瀏覽全文，把握文章主旨大意，帶著問題回到原文，尋找細(xì)節(jié)或概括相應(yīng)的答案，最后要理清作者寫作思路．
