阅读试题

A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes,as a rule,to have it retold in identically the same words,but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as sacred texts.It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and if a parent can produce what, in the actual circumstances of the time and the individual child,is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.

A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or arousing his sadistic(施虐狂的) impulses. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy slories were more often guilty of cruelty than those who had not. Aggressive,destructive, sadistic impulses every child has and, on the whole, their symbolic verbal discharge seems to be rathera safety valve than an incitement (刺激) to overt action.

As to fears, there are, I think, well-authenticated cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however,this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pair of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.

There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc., do not exist; and that instead of indulging his fantasies in fairy tales, the child should be taught how to adapt to reality by studying history and mechanics. I find such people, I must confess, so unsympathetic and peculiar that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York toPhiladelphia on a broomstick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their enchantedgirlfriend.

No fairy stories ever claimed to be a description of the external world and no sane child has ever believed that it was.

参考译文

一般说来，如果一个孩子喜欢一篇童话故事，就会想一字不变地再听一次，但这不应让父母把印在书上的童话故事当成圣经来对待。[1]讲故事比读故事总要来得更好，如果父母可以讲些真实发生的故事，比印出来的故事更胜一筹，那就会更好了。

有人反对童话故事，因为童话会吓坏孩子，或者让孩子产生施虐的冲动，这会让孩子受到伤害。要证明后一种情况，需要有人做一个控制性的实验。证明读了童话故事的孩子比没有读童话故事的孩子更容易做出残酷的行为。[2]每一个孩子都会有攻击性，破坏性或施虐性的冲动，总体上，相对于做出显性行为的刺激来说，他们象征性的语言表达是一道比较安全的阀门。

关于恐惧这一点，我觉得有一些实例表明，确实是有些孩子被一些童话故事吓坏了。[3]但是这通常都发生在只听过相关故事一次的孩子身上。重复听故事，对故事很熟悉以后，孩子就会把痛苦的恐惧转化成快乐的恐惧，能够面对并掌控恐惧。

[4]还有的人反对童话故事，因为童话故事不是客观现实。巨人，巫婆，又头龙，神奇飞毯等等，都并不存在。孩子不应该沉溺于童话故事之中，应该教导孩子学习历史和力学，适应现实。我必须承认，我觉得这些人实在是太冷漠太怪异，我简直不知道怎么跟他们争辩。如果他们的理由是站得住脚的，那么这个世界就应该充满了疯疯癫癫的人，想要坐在扫帚上从纽约飞到费城，或者亲吻电话，以为那就是他们被施予了魔法的女朋友。

从来就没有童话故事声称自己是外在世界的真实描述，也从来就没有神志正常的孩子相信童话就是现实。

测试题

1.According to the author, a fairy story is more effective when it is_________________.

2.The author thinks children's symbolic verbal discharge is not an incitement to overt action, but__________________.

3.If the child hears a fearful fairy story once and again, he may not feel______________________.

4.Why fairy stories are objected to by some people who think the child should be taught how to adapt to reality?

5.What's the author's attitude to fairy stories?

答案详解

1.[adapted by the parent/improved to be told by the parent]
[定位]根据more effective定位于第1段。

解析：作者认为，父母讲故事要比念故事好，如果能够根据实际的时间和小孩个体的情况，相应地改进书上的童话故事就更好。因此可归纳为adapted by the parent或者improved to be told by the parent。

2.[a safety valve]
[定位]第2段最后一句。

解析：题目的not... but结构表明空白处需填人与an incitement一样的名词性结构。在第2段，作者反驳了对神话故事使小孩产生施虐倾向的控诉。他指出，每个小孩都有侵略性和破坏性，但他们的典型言语流露与其说是公然挑衅的行为，还不如说是安全阀（自我保护的威胁性的话）。原文的rather... than结构否定的是than后的内容，因此rather后的名词短语为答案所在。

3.[terrified/frightened]
[定位]根据hears a fearful fairy story once定位于第3段第2、3句。

解析：空白处需填入形容词，作feel的表语。文章第2段提到有人控诉神话使小孩产生恐惧感，第3段作者辩护这种情况通常发生在只听过一遍故事的小孩身上，熟悉故事的小孩反而会消除恐惧，感受面对和掌握恐惧所带来的乐趣。因此，应填入表“害怕的，恐惧的”之义的词，注意要用过去分词形式表示“（人）感到恐惧的”。

4.[Because they think the fairy stories are not objectively true.]
[定位]根据objected to定位于第4段第1句。

解析：第4段中，作者提到有人反对童话故事，理由是它们不真实。原文中的on the grounds that后的内容即答案所在。

5.[Favorable./Positive.]
[定位]全文。

解析：文章类型为议论文，通过对全文的略读，特别是作者在第3、4段对童话故事所做的辩护，可判断作者对童话故事持肯定或赞成的态度。