Question

The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.

When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country’s rural West. Ranchers(農(nóng)場主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧場) and drive the cattle miles to the market.

With the invention of barbed wire(鐵絲網(wǎng)),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction,  the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.

When movies began to be popular in the 1920s, the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(騎士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.

Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade’s “Cowboy Craze”. While this didn’t last long, it made modern country / western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.

In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(懷舊情緒) has returned. Even though his image is still changing — somewhere between ballad singing country boy and bar room fighter — there’s one thing for sure, you can’t keep the cowboy down.

1.The purpose of this story is to ______.

A．introduce cowboy movies and novels

B．introduce various productions associated with cowboys

C．show the cowboy's everlasting charm

D．inform us about the cowboy’s spirit

2.Before they became cowboys, they ______.

A．served in the army                      B．worked as bar-room fighters

C．owned ranches                         D．were adventurous explorers

3.During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, ______________.

A．the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales

B．the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East

C．cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen

D．country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country

4.By saying “you can’t keep the cowboy down”, the writer means that ______.

A．cowboys are real people in history          B．cowboys still fascinate people

C．you can't make cowboys unhappy           D．you can’t grasp the cowboy spirit

5.Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?

A．The cowboy has been presented in different lights in different eras.

B．Cowboys are gun-shooting hooligans, without doubt.

C．Cowboys have always been a passing phenomenon.

D．Cowboys enjoy Italian foods, for example, spaghetti.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.D

2.A

3.B

4.B

5.A

【解析】

試題分析：文章的主要介紹在不同時(shí)期人們對cowboy的不同理解。美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)結(jié)束后一些小說經(jīng)常把牛仔描繪成殘酷和暴力的男人。當(dāng)電影開始流行在1920年代,牛仔形象又變了�，F(xiàn)在,一個(gè)牛仔成為偉大的白衣騎士。最近牛仔的形象仍然是變化的。

1.主旨大意題。根據(jù)全篇文章來理解，可推測出答案。故選D。

2.細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country’s rural West. Ranchers(農(nóng)場主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧場) and drive the cattle miles to the market. 在第二自然段中可找到答案。 故選A。

3.推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章第三自然段中“But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle.”可得出答案。故選B。

4.推理判斷題。根據(jù)這句話之前的語境可推測出答案。牛仔讓人著迷，故選B。

5.主旨大意題。通讀短文可知文章的主旨為介紹在不同時(shí)期人們對cowboy的不同理解。故選A。

考點(diǎn)：文化類短文閱讀。

點(diǎn)評：推理判斷題需要考生正確的閱讀短文對語篇有個(gè)整體的把握。會根據(jù)語句之間的邏輯關(guān)系、段內(nèi)的語義關(guān)系及篇章的語義關(guān)系，從段落、篇章的角度理解文章的主旨、作者的觀點(diǎn)和態(tài)度。做此類試題要善于抓住某一段話中的關(guān)鍵信息，即某些關(guān)鍵詞或短語去分析、推理、判斷，利用逆向思維或正面推理，從而推斷出這句話所隱含的深層含義。