Question

Every night for a year, Neil Simons quietly went out of his house. He wanted to “talk” to an owl settling for the night at the end of his garden. He made owl cries like a real wild owl and was happy to hear the bird “hooting (大声叫嚣)” back to him.

Last year Fred Cornes moved in next door. He heard an owl hooting and answered back. For 12 months the neighbors got into the back gardens of their homes, thinking they were talking with nature. Mr. Simmons kept a diary of all his talks with his bird friend. They would both be out again tonight if it wasn’t for a chance talk between their wives.

Mr. Simmons said. “My wife Kim was telling Fred’s wife Wendy about my owl watching and described how I got the birds to boot back. She said, ‘That’s funny — that’s just what Fred has been doing.’ Then the penny dropped, I felt such a fool when I found out. The trouble is that owl calls aren’t exactly the same and it’s easy to make a mistake.”

Mr. Cornes said, “I’m really flattered (过奖). I didn’t know I sounded so real. I love nature and I couldn’t resist hooting at the owls. I was very excited when they hooted back. I’m sorry that I was fooling my neighbor who was fooling me.”

After the talk between the wives, the two men would probably _________ .

A. stop observing owls                      B. not stay up hooting again

C. not enter the back garden again          D. make no mistakes about wild owl cries

“Then the penny dropped.” most probably means “Then __________.”

A. I understood                        B. everybody knew about it

     C. I heard the noise                      D. no money was paid

Mr. Simmons felt upset about the whole thing because __________.

A. all his efforts seemed to be meaningless  

B. his wife let out his secret by chance

C. garden owls hooted so differently

D. Fred had been doing the same

The text suggests that __________.

A. Nail seldom heard natural owl calls

B. the owl never hooted back to Neil

C. Fred was always good at pleasing owls

D. owl watching is no longer interesting to Fred

Answer 1

【小题1】B

【小题2】A

【小题3】A

【小题4】B

解析:

【小题1】文章讲的是两位同为邻居的男士晚上模仿猫头鹰的叫声，他们都以为得到了猫头鹰的回应，但是他们的妻子在交谈的时候把秘密揭开，他们把对方的叫声错误理解为猫头鹰的叫声，于是他们从此后不再模仿猫头鹰的叫声。

【小题2】Then the penny dropped这句话是Mr. Simmons在知道事实真相后说的。意思是“我明白了”。

【小题3】Mr. Simmons在最初的时候惊喜地发现猫头鹰的存在，所以他才每晚到花园学猫头鹰，到后来发现是他的邻居模仿猫头鹰的叫声。根据常识推理，令他感到不安是因为他以前做的事情是徒劳的。不是B项“因为他妻子偶然说出了秘密”，C项“花园的猫头鹰叫声不同”，D项“Fred也像他那样做”。

【小题4】Neil Simmons原来以为他得到猫头鹰的回应，事实上回应的是他邻居模仿的声音，言下之意他根本没有收到猫头鹰的回应。Neil既然可以模仿猫头鹰的声音，说明他常常听到猫头鹰的声音，所以A项不对。C项和D项答案从文章中推断不出来。