Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe is born 10 feet high and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over its legs under its body. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its children to the reality(现实) of life.
In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a new-born giraffe learns its first lesson.
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she puts herself directly over her child. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable(不合情理的) thing. She throws her long leg and kicks her baby, so that it’s sent sprawling(四脚朝天).
When it doesn’t get up, the process is repeated again and again. The struggle to rise is important. As the baby giraffe grows tired, the mother kicks it again. Finally, it stands for the first time on its shaky(摇晃的) legs. Then the mother giraffe kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, a baby giraffe must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with its group, where there’s safety.
Another writer named Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing stories about such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin.
Stone was once asked if he had found something that runs through the lives of all these great people. He said, “I write about people who sometime in their life have a dream of something. They’re beaten over the head, knocked down and for years they get nowhere. But every time they stand up again. And at the end of their lives they’ve realized some small parts of what they set out(着手) to do .”
小题1:What does the underlined part “a tall order” in Paragraph 1 mean?
A．A happy thing.
B．A difficult task.
C．A big dream.
D．A beautiful scene.小题2:What does the book A View from the Zoo talk about?
A．A new-born giraffe’s first lesson.
B．A mother giraffe’s story.
C．The lives of some great people.
D．The way for a giraffe to stand up.小题3:Why were some great people mentioned in the passage?
A．Because they all worked hard.
B．Because they all liked to read some special stories.
C．Because they were born with some illnesses.
D．Because they were similar to giraffes in some ways.小题4:Which of the following statements is True according to the passage?
A．This passage is a description of giraffes’ living habits.
B．Baby giraffes can’t stand up until three months old.
C．Irving Stone spent a lifetime studying and writing stories about great people.
D．The great people can’t stand up after they’re knocked down for years.小题5:What would be the best title for the passage?
A．How to Raise a Baby Giraffe.
B．Learning to Get Back Up.
C．Stories about the great people.
D．A Mother Giraffe and Its Baby Giraffe.
