It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers (祖先) had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frogs’ legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was to catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent to the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if (好像) the crops(庄稼) were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money they’d just had to buy pesticides (杀虫剂) and medicine. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized that what was happening. It was the frogs. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job—eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, soon there were more and more insects. They were doing harm to both crops and people.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evening they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of night now have a much deeper meaning.
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Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
| A．They needed money to buy medicine. |
| B．They wanted to please the visitors. |
| C．The frogs were easy money. |
| D．The frogs made too much noise. |
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What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?
| A．The crops didn’t do well. |
| B．There were too many insects. |
| C．The visitors brought in disease. |
| D．The pesticides were overused. |
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What can we learn from the last sentence of the passage?
| A．Good old days will never be forgotten. |
| B．Health is more important than money. |
| C．The harmony between man and nature is important. |
| D．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country. |
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