阅读理解。
I'd been thinking of it so long; it seemed like the only thing to do-to show my baby, who had eyes as
green as water and whose name means the sea, the ocean.
"Babies are supposed to instinctually know who they daddy is," Gerald, Dooriya's daddy, said,
holding Dooriya before him. "But she don't recognize nothing."
Everybody had something to say about raising my baby, but none of them actually did any raising.
Taking Dooriya to see the ocean had become the only thing that kept me from feeling like my life was an
everlasting losing race, this vision of what could be for my little girl.When I told Momma about my plans
to visit the lighthouse (灯塔) at Cape Hatteras, she just spun her broken record.
"That baby'11 never understand a thing of what she's seeing."
"My baby book says I should treat her just like any other child. It's good to show her beautiful things
even if she don't know what she's seeing. It helps her brain develop. How's her brain gonna develop if all
she ever sees is the walls inside this crummy house?"
"That child's brain ain't never gonna develop.We love her, but it's not like she's ever gonna not be a
Mongoloid (先天愚型患者)."
I had read a half-dozen books about Down Syndrome that said stimulation (刺激) might improve a
child's chances of developing to her fullest potential. And what's more stimulating than a trip to see the
ocean?
Guidebooks described the area as the land of beginnings, which I liked the sound of. But before I could
map out a plan, I woke up one night when Dooriya hiccupped (打嗝).Then she just stopped breathing.
The ER doctor gave me a pamphlet on SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and said, children with
Down Syndrome are much more likely to be affected by this sort of thing.
I didn't remember much about driving to Cape Hatteras, especially taking Dooriya from the hospital.
But up on that lighthouse, with its broad spiral running up and around it like a black and white barber's
pole, I saw my life twist into the air.
As I climbed the winding stairs, I counted the steps, 268 in all, stopping on 77, Dooriya's very
number of days on this planet. At the top, I held Dooriya up to the Atlantic, its cold air raising the thin
soft hair on her head.With her eyes closed and her arms spread out, it looked like she was bathing in the
warmth of the sun.
1. From Gerald's words "But she don't recognize nothing." we know ____.
A. The baby was probably born with the eye problem
B. The father thought the baby was abnormal
C. The baby could recognize nothing except her father
D. The father made up an excuse not to care for the baby
2. Did anybody else besides her mother actually take the responsibility to raise the baby?
A. The father.
B. The grandma.
C. Nobody.
D. The doctor.
3. The reason why the mother wanted to take her baby to see the ocean is that ____.
A. She believed seeing the ocean could help cure her baby's disease
B. She wanted her baby to enjoy her remaining time
C. She believed the ocean was the land of beginnings
D. She wanted her baby to enjoy nature
4. Which of the following is true according to the text?
A. The doctor eventually saved the life of the baby.
B. The baby was disabled by her careless mother.
C. The baby enjoyed the sunshine while seeing the ocean.
D. The disease SIDS took away the life of the baby.
