Question

Every August,Spain’s countryside comes alive with fiestas (宗教节日).But hardly anyone actually lives here. People come one week a year to party in the villages of their ancestors.During the other 51 weeks,villages are deserted.“There was a time when this place was growing! But not anymore.” says Felix Sacristan,who’s 55 and unemployed,living in his late grandfather’s house.“The only ones left are the elderly.There are lots of abandoned homes.”It makes for cheap housing,he says.

Like much of Spain’s central Meseta Table Plateau,this land is dusty and the climate is severe.People say it’s like nine months of winter and three months of burning hell.“This land used to be for cereals (谷物),but it’s difficult to grow anything else,”Sacristan says.“And who wants to be a farmer these days now,anyway?”

In northern Europe,the Industrial Revolution pulled people to big cities centuries ago.But in Spain,that migration happened much later.The first wave occurred after the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s;the second,after Spain’s military governing ended in the late 1970s.Now there’s been a third leaving,during the recent economic crisis.But it’s not just on Spain’s severe central land.Even villages in the country’s most fertile northwest region,Galicia,are being depopulated.The Galician landscape once supported Spain’s highest population,and half of all Spanish villages are located there.Now nearly half of these villages are abandoned.

“Some of the places I’m finding have been empty for 50 or 60 years,” Adkinson,a British-born real estate (房地产)agent who searches the countryside for abandoned properties and tries to match them up with foreign buyers,says.

1.The text mainly tells about the present situation of             .

A. countryside life in Spain    B. the aging problem in Spain

C. old buildings in Spain    D. the culture in Spain

2.What is the land where Felix Sacristan lives like?

A. It is as rich as ever.    B. It is polluted by rubbish.

C. It is hard to farm for a living.    D. It is frozen throughout the year.

3.The underlined part “being depopulated” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to “             ”.

A. suffering disasters    B. gaining attention    C. producing more    D. reducing residents

4.Which of the following can we learn from the text?

A. Villages got empty suddenly in Spain.    B. Some rich people are moving to countryside.

C. Spanish have experienced several migrations.    D. Working as a real estate agent in Spain is very easy.

Answer

1.A

2.C

3.D

4.C

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章讲了许多人涌入城市，导致西班牙许多农村遭到遗弃，所以，许多村庄想要整个村子出售。

1.细节理解题。答案定位在第一段Every August,Spain’s countryside comes alive with fiestas (宗教节日).But hardly anyone actually lives here. People come one week a year to party in the villages of their ancestors.During the other 51 weeks,villages are deserted.可知这篇文章主要讲了西班牙乡村生活的现状，故选A。

2.细节理解题。答案定位在第二段this land is dusty and the climate is severe.People say it’s like nine months of winter and three months of burning hell.“This land used to be for cereals (谷物),but it’s difficult to grow anything else,可知在Felix Sacristan居住的地方是很难依靠种植粮食谋生的，故选C。

3.词意猜测题。答案定位在第三段Even villages in the country’s most fertile northwest region,Galicia,are being depopulated.中的Even和后面的The Galician landscape once supported Spain’s highest population中的once，以及Now nearly half of these villages are abandoned.可判断“being depopulated”意为“大大减少某一地区的人口”，故选D。

4.推理判断题。根据文章第三段But in Spain,that migration happened much later.The first wave occurred after the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s;the second,after Spain’s military governing ended in the late 1970s.Now there’s been a third leaving,during the recent economic crisis.可知，在西班牙，发生了三次人口涌入大城市的浪潮，故选C。