From the beginning of human history, wild animals provided food, clothing and sometimes medicine. We may not depend as much on wild animals now. But we hear about them every day. Americans use the names of animals in many ways. Automobile manufacturers(制造商) and gasoline companies especially like to use big cats to sell their products. They like lions, tigers and wildcats. When Americans say wildcat, they usually mean a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat. All these cats attack quickly and fiercely. So wildcats represent something fast and fierce.
An early American use of the word wildcat was quite different. It was used to describe members of Congress(国会) who declared war on Britain in 1812. A magazine of that year said the wildcat congressmen went home. It said they were unable to face the responsibility of having involved their country in an unnecessary war.
Wildcat also has been used as a name for money in the 1800s. At that time, some states permitted banks to make their own money. One bank in the state of Michigan offered paper money with a picture of a wildcat on it. Some banks, however, did not have enough gold to support all the paper money they offered. So the money had little or no value. It was called a wildcat bill or a wildcat bank note. The banks who offered this money were called wildcat banks. A newspaper of the time said those were the days of wildcat money. It said a man might be rich in the morning and poor by night.
Wildcat then was also used for an oil well or gold mine that had almost no oil or gold in it. Dishonest developers would buy such property. Then they would sell it and leave town with the money. The buyers were left with worthless holes in the ground. Today, wildcat oil wells are in areas that are not known to have oil.
小题1: What is the main idea of the passage?
A．Wildcats and their stories.
B．Wildcats and their characters
C．Varieties of animal species.
D．Relationship between animal and humans.小题2:From the passage we can know that______.
A．wildcats represent the state of Michigan
B．the use of wildcat was not always the same
C．wildcats are the best friend of human beings
D．honest developers never buy wildcat oil wells小题3: The underlines words “a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat” in Paragraph 1 may refer to “ ”.
A. gasoline companies B. automobile manufacturers
C. names of wildcats D. brands of automobile
64. Which of the following would people like to have or trust according to the passage?
A. Wildcat congressmen. B. Wildcat oil wells.
C. Wildcat banks. D. Wildcat cars.
小题4: It can be inferred that during the days of wildcat money_________.
A．people couldn’t buy anything with the money
B．people didn’t know how to save money.
C．the rich invested too much on oil wells.
D．people complained and suffered a lot
小题1:A
小题2:B
小题3:C
小题4:D
题目分析：本文叙述了动物在很早的时候是人们赖以生存不可缺少的东西，现在动物的名字又被制造商所利用，本文介绍了不同的国家不同的时期对于wildcat的不同的意义和作用。
小题1:主旨大意题。根据短文额度内容来看主要讲述了各国利用野猫的意义及故事，故选A。
小题2:细节理解题。根据整篇的内容来看各国对野猫的用途是不一样的，故选B。
小题3:词义猜测题。根据When Americans say wildcat， they usually mean可知这是野猫的名字。故选C。
小题4:推理判断题。根据A newspaper of the time said those were the days of wildcat money. It said a man might be rich in the morning and poor by night.可知这是人们的抱怨，故选D。
点评：做主旨大意题时，首先要搞清是问某一段还是全文的大意，可利用文中主要信息来把握文脉，进行综合归纳，概括文章的主题。如有标题，标题中的蕴含的信息往往是关键信息。另外，任何一篇文章都是围绕某个主题展开的，因此，许多文章中最明显的特点之一是有一个反复出现的中心词，即高频词，也叫做主题词。抓住了它，便容易抓住文章的中心。