Reading comprehension.
My elder brother Steve, in the absence of my father who died when I was six, gave me important lessons
in values that helped me grow into an adult.
For instance, Steve taught me to face the results of my behavior. Once when I returned in tears from a
Saturday baseball game, it was Steve who took the time to ask me what happened. When I explained that my
baseball had soared through Mrs. Holt's basement window, breaking the glass with a crash, Steve encouraged
me to confess to her. After all, I should have been playing in the park down Fifth Street and not in the path
between buildings. Although my knees knocked as I explained to Mrs. Holt, I offered to pay for the window
from my pocket money if she would return my ball.
I also learned from Steve that personal property is a sacred thing. After I found a shiny silver pen in my
fifth-grade classroom, I wanted to keep it, but Steve explained that it might be important to someone else in
spite of the fact that it had little value. He reminded me of how much I'd hate to lose to someone else the small
dog my father carved from a piece of cheap wood. I returned the pen to my teacher, Mrs. Davids, and still
remembered the smell of her perfume as she patted me on the shoulder.
Yet of all the instructions Steve gave me, his respect for life is the most vivid in my mind. When I was
twelve, I killed an old brown sparrow in the yard with a BB gun. Excited with my accuracy, I screamed to
Steve to come from the house to take a look. I shall never forget the way he stood for a long moment and
stared at the bird on the ground. Then in a dead, quiet voice, he asked, "Did it hurt you first, Mark?" I didn't
know what to answer. He continued with his eyes firm, "The only time you should ever think of hurting a
living thing is if it hurts you first. And then you think a long, long time." I really felt terrible then, but that
moment stands out as the most important lesson my brother taught me.
1. What is the main subject of the passage? [ ]
A. The relationship between Mark and Steve.
B. The important lesson Mark learned in school.
C. Steve's important role in Mark's growing process.
D. Mark and Steve's respect for living things.
2. In the story about the pen, which of the following lessons did Steve teach his brother? [ ]
A. Respect for personal property.
B. Respect for life.
C. Sympathy for people with problems.
D. The value of honesty.
3. According to the writer, which was the most important lesson Steve taught his young brother? [ ]
A. Respect for living things.
B. Responsibility for one's actions.
C. The value of honesty.
D. Care for the property of others.
4. The underlined word "knocked" in the second paragraph means _____. [ ]
A. tapped
B. beat
C. struck
D. trembled
