第二部分阅读理解(共25小题。第一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分；满分45分)
第一节阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
There’s a man in the habit of hitting me on the head with an umbrella．At first I couldn’t stand it, now I’m used to it.
I don’t know his name．I know he’s average in appearance, wears a gray suit, and has a common face．I met him five years ago one hot morning when I was sitting on a tree-shaded bench in Palermo Park, reading the paper．Suddenly I felt something touch my head．It was the very same man who now, as I’m writing, keeps hitting me, mechanically (机械地) and impassively, with an umbrella．
On that occasion I turned around filled with anger．He just kept on hitting me．I asked him if he was crazy, he didn’t even seem to hear me．Then I threatened to call a policeman．Calmly, cool as a cucumber, he stuck with his task．After a few moments of hesitation, and seeing that he was not about to change his attitude, I stood up and hit him on the nose．The man fell down, but he immediately got back on his feet, obviously with great effort, and without a word again began hitting me on the head with the umbrella．His nose was bleeding and, at that moment, I felt sorry for him．I felt regret for having hit him so hard．After all, the man wasn’t exactly hitting me; he was merely tapping me lightly with his umbrella, not causing any pain at all．Of course, those taps were extremely bothersome．As we all know, when a fly lands on your forehead, you don’t feel any pain; what you feel is annoyance．Well then, that umbrella was one huge fly that kept landing on my head time after time.
Convinced that I was dealing with a madman, I tried to escape．But the man followed me, wordlessly continuing to hit me．So I began to run (I should point out that not many people run as fast as I do)．He took off after me, trying to land a blow．The man was out of breath so that I thought, if I continued to force him to run at that speed, he would drop dead right then and there．
41．When the man began to strike the author with an umbrella, the author ________.
A．became angry                  B．called the police
C．turned around and escaped    D．turned around and fought back
42．The author would most probably agree that the man was ________.
A．deaf          B．blind           C．dead           D．mad
43．The author felt sorry for the man because ________.
A．the man formed a bad habit of beating others
B．he hit the man so hard that his nose bled
C．the man couldn’t catch up with him
D．there was a fly on the man’s head
44．It can be learned from the passage that the man ________.
A．shouted loudly while hitting the author
B．wanted to tell the author something
C．ran after the author breathlessly
D．acted as if he were a fly