Now which are the animals really to be pitied in captivity First, those clever beings whose lively urge for activity can find no outlet behind the bars of the cage. This is most conspicuous, even for the uninitiated, in the case of animals which, when living in a free state, are accustomed to roaming about widely. Owing to this frustrated desire, foxes and wolves housed, in many old-fashioned zoos, in cages which are far too small, are among the most pitiable of all caged animals.
Though pinioned swans generally seem happy, under proper care, by hatching and rearing their young without any trouble, at migration time things become different: they repeatedly swim to the lee side of the pond, in order to have the whole extent of its surface at their disposal, trying to take off. Again and again the grand preparations end in a pathetic flutter of their half wings ; a truly sorry picture !
This, however, rarely awakens the pity of the zoo visitor, least of all when such an originally highly intelligent and mentally alert animal has deteriorated, in confinement, into a crazy idiot, a very caricature of its former self. Sentimental old ladies, the fanatical sponsors of the societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, have no compunction in keeping a grey parrot in a relatively small cage or even chained to a perch. Together with the large corvines, the parrots are probably the only birds which suffer from that state of mind, common to prisoners, namely, boredom.
In Paragraph 3, the expression "have no compunction in" most probably means "have no ______".
A．reaction to
B．understanding of
C．second thoughts about
D．enlightenment on
参考答案：C
解析： 本题考查词义辨析。将答题点定位在第三段第二句，根据语境可知，老妇女对于自己把鹦鹉放在一个小笼子里或是把鹦鹉拴起来没有任何悔恨之意。have no compunction about“毫无悔恨”；reaction to“对……的反应”；understanding of“对……的理解”；second thoughts about“重新考虑”，与上面词组意思接近。enlightenment“启迪”。由此可知，答案是C。