Question

My wife and I used to feel that it was impossible to be a true friend to someone whose name we didn’t know. How wrong we were! Years of Sunday-morning bus trips through the city with the same group of “nameless” people have changed our thinking.

Before the bus takes off, we all join in a conversation: where’s the silent woman who sits up front and never responds to our cheery greetings? Here she comes. Her worn clothing suggests she doesn’t have much money to spare, but she always takes an extra cup of coffee for the driver.

We get smiles from a Mexican couple as they get on the bus hand in hand. When they get off, they’re still holding hands. The woman was pregnant late last year, and one day her change of shape confirmed that she’d delivered the child. We even felt a little pride at the thought of our extended family.

For many months, our only sadness lay in our inability to establish the same friendship with the silent woman at the front of the bus. Then, one evening, we went to a fish restaurant. We were shown to a table alongside someone sitting alone. It was the woman from the bus.

We greeted her with friendly familiarity we’d shown all year, but this time her face softened, then a shy smile. When she spoke, the words escaped awkwardly from her lips. All at once we realized why she hadn’t spoken to us before. Talking was hard for her.

Over dinner; we learned the stay of a single mother with a disabled son who was receiving special care away from home. She missed him desperately, she explained.

“I love him… and he loves me, even though he doesn’t express it very well,” she murmured. “Lots of us have that problem, don’t we? We don’t say what we want to say, what we should be saying. And that’s not good enough.”

The candles flared on our tables. Our fish had never tasted better. But the atmosphere grew pleasant, and when we parted as friends—we shared names.

1.Which of the following might be the best title of this passage?

A.The Silent Woman on the Bus

B Friends of the Road

C. Going to Work by Bus

D. Different Kinds of Friendship

2.All the following statements can describe the woman except ______.

A. poor       B. warm –hearted

C. cold       D. silent

3.The underlined word “establish” in the fourth passage probably has the same meaning as ______.

A. keep         B. set up

C. discover     D. accept

4.The woman had the same problem with her son in the way that ______.

A. they both disabled people

B. they both liked bus travel

C. they both brought interest to the passengers

D. they both had some difficulty in expressing

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.B

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：文章主要讲述了作者和他的妻子过去常常认为要想与一些不知道名字的人成为真正的朋友是不太可能的事情，但是通过公交车上那位年轻的女人改变了作者的看法。

1. of the Road比较贴切这篇文章；A项的巴士车上的安静女人，太片面；C项的坐巴士车去上班，文章没有提到；D项不同种类的友谊，如果说是不同种类的人更贴切一些。所以选B。

2. the silent woman who sits up front可知，这个女人很安静，故D项排除；根据Her worn clothing suggests she doesn’t have much money to spare可知，这个女人很穷，故A项排除；根据but she always takes an extra cup of coffee for the driver.可知这个女人是热心肠的，排除B，故选C项。

3. many months, our only sadness lay in our inability无能无力 toestablish the same friendship with the silent woman at the front of the bus.由于在巴士车上，这个女人很沉默，所以作者和他的妻子都很悲哀的无能为力去跟这个坐在公交车前面的这个女人建立友谊。故我们可知划横线的单词含义为“建立，确立”。故B项正确。

4. learned the situation of a single mother with a disabled son who……可知，这个女人有一个残疾的儿子；并根据倒数第二自然段的We don’t say what we want to say可知，他们不能说他们想说的话，所以他们都在表达上有困难。选D。

考点: 考查故事类短文