阅读理解
My family and I lived across the street from Southway park since I was four years old.Then just last
year the city put a chain link fence around the park and started bulldozing(用推土机推平)the trees and
grass to make way for a new apartment complex.When I saw the fence and bulldozers, I asked myself, "Why don't they just leave it alone?"
Looking back, I think what sentenced the park to oblivion(被遗忘)was the drought(旱灾)we had
about four years ago.Up until then, Southway Park was a nice green park with plenty of trees and a
public swimming pool.My friends and I rollerskated on the sidewalks, climbed the trees, and swam in the
pool all the years I was growing up.The park was almost like my own yard.Then the summer I was fifteen
the drought came and things changed.
There had been almost no rain at all that year.The city stopped watering the park grass.Within a few
weeks I found myself living across the street from a huge brown desert.Leaves fell off the park trees, and
pretty soon the trees started dying, too.Next, the park swimming pool was closed.The city cut down on
the work force that kept the park, and pretty soon it just got too ugly and dirty to enjoy anymore.
As the drought lasted into the fall, the park got worse every month.The rubbish piled up or blew
across the brown grass.Soon the only people in the park were beggars and other people down on their
luck.People said drugs were being sold or traded there now.The park had gotten scary, and my mother
told us kids not to go there anymore.
The drought finally ended and things seemed to get back to normal, that is, everything but the park.It
had gotten into such bad shape that the city just let it stay that way.Then about six months ago I heard
that the city was going to"redevelop"certain wornout areas of the city.It turned out that the city had
planned to get rid of the park, sell the land and let someone build rows of apartment buildings on it.
The chainlink fencing and the bulldozers did their work.Now we live across the street from six rows
of apartment buildings.Each of them is three units high and stretches a block in each direction.The
neighborhood has changed without the park.The streets I used to play in are jammed with cars now.
Things will never be the same again.Sometimes_I_wonder, though, what_changes_another_drought_
would_make_in_the_way_things_are_today.
1. How did the writer feel when he saw the fence and bulldozers?
A. Scared.
B. Confused.
C. Upset.
D. Curious.
2. Why was the writer told not to go to the park by his mother?
A. It was being rebuilt.
B. It was dangerous.
C. It became crowded.
D. It had turned into a desert.
3. According to the writer, what eventually brought about the disappearance of the park?
A. The drought.
B. The crime.
C. The beggars and the rubbish.
D. The decisions of the city.
4. The last sentence of the passage implies that if another drought came, ________.
A. the situation would be much worse
B. people would have to desert their homes
C. the city would be fully prepared in advance
D. the city would have to redevelop the neighborhood
