Ⅳ.阅读理解
(2014·天津)
“Dad，” I say one day, “let's take a trip. Why don't you fly out and meet me?”
My father had just retired after 27 years as a manager for IBM. His job filled his day, his thoughts, his life. While he woke up and took a warm shower, I screamed under a freezing waterfall in Peru. While he tied a tie and put on the same Swiss watch, I rowed a boat across Lake of the Ozarks.
My father sees me drifting aimlessly, nothing to show for my 33 years but a passport full of funny stamps. He wants me to settle down, but now I want him to find an adventure.
He agrees to travel with me through the national parks. We meet four weeks later in Rapid City.
“What's our first stop?” asks my father.
“What time is it?”
“Still don't have a watch?”
Less than an hour away is Mount Rushmore. As he stares up at the four Presidents carved in granite (花岗岩)，his mouth and eyes open slowly, like those of a little boy.
“Unbelievable，” he says. “How was this done?”
A film in the information center shows sculptor Gutzon Borglum devoted 14 years to the sculpture and then left the final touches to his son.
We stare up and I ask myself, Would I ever devote my life to anything?
No directions, no goals. I always used to hear those words in my father's voice. Now I hear them in my own.
The next day we're at Yellowstone National Park, where we have a picnic.
“Did you ever travel with your dad?” I ask.
“Only once，” he says. “I never spoke much with my father. We loved each other—but never said it. Whatever he could give me, he gave.”
That last sentence—it's probably the same thing I'd say about my father. And what I'd want my child to say about me.
In Glacier National Park, my father says, “I've never seen water so blue.” I have, in several places of the world. I can keep traveling, I realize—and maybe a regular job won't be as dull as I feared.
Weeks after our trip, I call my father.
“The photos from the trip are wonderful，” he says, “We've got to take another trip like that sometime.”
I tell him I've decided to settle down, and I'm wearing a watch.
文章大意：本文介绍了一对父子，父亲忙于工作，很少和儿子交流。而儿子整日漂泊，不愿意安定下来，后来通过一次旅行，父子俩都改变了原来的生活态度。
1.We can learn from Paragraphs 2 and 3 that the father ________.
A.followed the fashion
B.got bored with his job
C.was unhappy with the author's lifestyle
D.liked the author's collection of stamps
答案：C 推理判断题。第二段和第三段都描述了父子两人的不同和分歧，和对彼此的期望。故可以推断出父亲对于这一切都是不高兴的。
2.What does the author realize at Mount Rushmore?
A.His father is interested in sculpture.
B.His father is as innocent as a little boy.
C.He should learn sculpture in the future.
D.He should pursue a specific aim in life.
答案：D 推理判断题。从文中的We stare up and I ask myself, Would I ever devote my life to anything?和I realize—and maybe a regular job won't be as dull as I feared.可推知答案。
3.From the underlined paragraph, we can see that the author ________.
A.wants his children to learn from their grandfather
B.comes to understand what parental love means
C.learns how to communicate with his father
D.hopes to give whatever he can to his father
答案：B 句子理解题。上文说道，父亲和他的父亲彼此深爱，但是都不向对方表达。作者认识到自己和父亲也是这样，自己也希望将来自己的儿子能向自己表达爱。故本题选B项。
4.What could be inferred about the author and his father from the end of the story?
A.The call solves their disagreements.
B.The Swiss watch has drawn them closer.
C.They decide to learn photography together.
D.They begin to change their attitudes to life.
答案：D 推理判断题。纵观全文可知，父亲原来只忙于工作;而儿子整天流浪;经过这次旅行之后，父子两人都改变了，儿子要安定下来，脚踏实地，父亲开始欣赏生活中的美好。故本题选D项。
5.What could be the best title for the passage?
A.Love Nature, Love Life
B.A Son Lost in Adventure
C.A Journey with Dad
D.The Art of Travel
答案：C 主旨大意题。纵观全文可知，是这次和父亲的旅行改变了作者和父亲对生活的态度和彼此的关系。故选C项。
