Question

  Every week,more children arrive to work in the hundreds of primitive mines in the bush. Here they suffer long hours at dangerous jobs,getting gold from the dirt with mercury(水銀) .

 One of them is a 12-year-old boy named Saliou. Momodou is just 13 years old. This is a region of Africa where boys of Saliou’s age are expected to earn money for their families. He works in a bush mine on the Senegal-Mali border in the village of Tenkoto. According to the UN，mining is one of the worst forms of child labour. However,the laws are seldom enforced.

 Children travel from mine to mine，moving with the gold. The AP reports that 6 months after Saliou arrived in Tenkoto,it was decided that the mine was nearly empty. So he and the boys walked for more than a week,crossed theSenegalborder and arrived at another mine inMali.

 The World Health Organization says that mercury can affect the brain. It’s especially dangerous for children since their nervous systems are still developing. Typical symptoms of mercury include mental retardation,loss of balance,blindness and loss of hearing.

The buyers step in offering about $ 19 per gram. Once the deals are done，the gold is taken to the capital of Mali. There the price for gold is almost $ 23 a gram，nearly $ 4 more than the buyers pay the miners.

United Nations mining experts guess that 10% to 20 % of the thousands of mine workers in West Africa are children.

For Saliou，the work in the mines goes on. He says he dreams that one day he’ll own something made of gold.

1. Why do the boys like Saliou go to work in the mines?

   A. They go there to play.

   B. They go there to find gold.

   C. They go there to buy gold.

   D. They go there to make a living.

2. How much money can Saliou get if he offers the buyers about 2 gram gold?

   A. $23.   B.  $46.

   C.  $38.   D.  $19.

3. What are the typical symptoms of the mercury if the children are affected?

   A. Loss of balance.

   B.  Mental retardation.

   C.  Blindness and loss of hearing.

   D.  All of the above.

4. What’s the writer’s attitude towards the situation of child labour in Africa?

   A. Children like to work there.

   B. The laws must be enforced.

   C.  It is right for children to work there.

   D.  It is not referred to in the passage.

Answer 1

1. D細(xì)節(jié)理解題。從文章第二段的“This is a region of Africa where boys of Saliou's age are expected to earn money for their families. ”可知他們是為了謀生。

2. C推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章第五段可知每克金子買(mǎi)主出價(jià)19美元，孩子向買(mǎi)主提供2克金子，那么可以獲得38 美元。

3. D細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文章第四段最后一句話可知答案為D.

4. B觀點(diǎn)態(tài)度題。文中表明作者希望能有法律來(lái)禁止雇用童工，保護(hù)兒童的身心健康。