阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中选出最佳选项。

　　I still remembermy hands and my finger - tips still remember! what used to lie in store for us on return to school from holidays. The trees in the schoolyard would be in full of leaves again, and the old leaves would be lying around like a muddy sea of leaves.

　　“Get that all swept up!” the headmaster would tell us. “I want the whole place cleaned up at once!” There was enough work there, to last for over a week. Especially since the only tools with which we were provided were our hand, our fingers, our nails, “Now see that it's done properly, and be quick about it,” the headmaster would say to the other boys, “or you will have to answer for it!”

　　So at an order from the older boys we would all line up like peasants about to cut and gather in crops. If the work was not going as quickly as the headmaster expected, the big boys, instead of giving us a helping hand, used to find it simple to beat us with branches pulled from the trees. In order to avoid these blows, we used to bribe (行贿) them with the juicy cakes we used to bring for our midday meal. And if we happened to have any money on us the coins changed hands at once. If we did not do this, the blows were re - doubled. They hit us so hard and with such enjoyment that even a deaf and dumb (哑) person would have realized that we were being beaten not so much to make us work harder, but rather to get us into a state of obeying in which we would be only too glad to give up our food and money.

　　Sometimes one of us would have the courage to report it to the headmaster. He would of course be very angry, but the punishment he gave the older boys was always small - nothing compared to what they had done to us. And the fact is that however much we explained our situation didn't improve in the slightest. Perhaps we should have let our parents know what was going on, but somehow we never dreamed of doing so; I don't know whether it was loyalty (忠诚) or pride that kept us silent, but I can see now that we were foolish to keep quiet about it, for such beating was completely foreign to our nature.

1．The writer means ________ by saying “My hands and my finger - tips still remember!”

[　　]

A．his hands and finger - tips suffered a lot from the hard work

B．the school work was too hard for the children

C．the work used to be finished by his own hands only

D．his hands proved to be skillful at school work

2．From the way the headmaster spoken, we can learn that ________.

[　　]

A．he was ordering the older boys to do the work at once

B．he actually expected everyone to join in the work

C．he didn't care who did the work as long as it was done quickly and properly

D．he wanted the older boys beat the younger ones so hard

3．When the younger boys complained to the headmaster about their sufferings, ________.

[　　]

A．he decided to give the older boys a lesson

B．he gave the older boys a suitable punishment

C．it only made matters worse

D．it made little difference

4．It can be learned from the passage by inference that ________.

[　　]

A．the headmaster was very unreasonable since he put the older boys in charge of the work

B．the younger boys were willing to offer their food and money to the old ones

C．the older boys didn't get any punishment because they had had the whole work finished quickly

D．the writer seems to feel regret for not having told their parents about their sufferings at school