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。
AThere’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