单选题Passage 1Khalida's father says she's 9 or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer can't keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side, trying to hide beneath her chador and hea

题目
单选题
Passage 1Khalida's father says she's 9 or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer can't keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side, trying to hide beneath her chador and headscarf. They both know the family can't keep her much longer. Khalida's father has spent much of his life raising opium, as men like him have been doing for decades in the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan and on the dusty southern plains. It's the only reliable cash crop most of those farmers ever had. Even so, Shah and his family barely got by: traffickers may prosper, but poor farmers like him only subsist. Now he's losing far more than money.I never imagined I'd have to pay for growing opium by giving up my daughter,says Shah.The family's heartbreak began when Shah borrowed S2,000 from a local trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 kilos of opium at harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest,a government crop-eradication team appeared at the family's little plot of land in Laghman province and destroyed Shah's entire two and a half acres of poppies. Unable to meet his debt, Shah fled with his family to Jalalabad, the capital of neighboring Nangarhar province. The trafficker found them anyway and demanded his opium. So Shah took his case before a tribal council in Laghman and begged for leniency. Instead, the elders unanimously ruled that Shah would have to reimburse the trafficker by giving Khalida to him in marriage. Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-olddrugrunner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible.It's my fate,the child says.Afghans disparagingly call them loan brides-daughters given in marriage by fathers who have no other way out of debt. The practice began with the dowry a bridegroom's family traditionally pays to the bride's father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to S8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistan's No.I opium-growing province. For a desperate farmer, that bride price can be salvation-but at a cruel cost. Among the Pashtun, debt marriage puts a lasting stain on the honor of the bride and her family. It brings shame on the country, too. President Hamid Karzai recently told the nation:I cal on the people [ not to] give their daughters for money; they shouldn't give them to old men, and they shouldn't give them in forced marriages.All the same, local farmers say a man can get killed for failing to repay a loan. No one knows how many debt weddings take place in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world's heroin and other opiates originate. But Afghans say the number of loan brides keeps rising as poppy-eradication efforts push more farmers into default.This will be our darkest year since 2000,says Baz Mohammad,65,a white-bearded former opium farmer in Nangarhar.Even more daughters will be sold this year.The old man lives with the anguish of selling his own 13-year-old daughter in 2000, after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned poppy growing.Lenders never show any mercy,the old man says. Local farmers say more than one debtor has been bound hand and foot, then locked into a small windowless room with a smoldering fire, slowly choking to death.Efforts to promote other crops have failed. Wheat or corn brings $250 an acre at best, while poppy growers can expect 10 times that much. Besides, poppies are more dependable: hardier than either wheat or corn and more tolerant of drought and extreme heat and cold. And in a country with practically no govermment-funded credit for small farmers, opium growers can easily get advances on their crops. The borrower merely agrees to repay the cash with so many kilos of opium, at a price stipulated by the lender-often 40 percent or more below market value. Islam forbids charging interest on a loan, but moneylenders in poppy country elude the ban by packaging the deal as a crop-futures transaction-and never mind that the rate of return is tantamount to usury.The relationship between the first and second paragraph is that.
A

the second is the logical result of the first

B

the second offers the main reason of the first

C

each presents the good side of the Afghan society

D

both present the actions taken by the Afghan government


相似考题

2.Section B (10 marks)Directions: Read the following passage, Answer the questions according to theinformation given in the passage.Secret SantasOn Christmas morning, Linda wakes up, and tries to imagine the wide-eyed surprise of children in another household as they unwrap the presents she carefully chose for them. Linda has never met the children, but that’s all part of the joy of giving as secret Santas, she says."It's an amazing feeling to buy gifts on an anonymous (匿名的) basis," says Linda."It brings a whole new meaning to the holidays."Linda and Tony are an American couple living in Toronto, Canada, and Linda did charitable work as a member of the American Women's Club of Toronto. As the name suggests, members are U.S. citizens living in Toronto, who join together for fellowship and community service.To find her "adopted" family, Linda goes to the local schools and requests a wish list for a family that's struggling to survive. Last year she helped a single mother with three children. The mother works as a cleaning lady in a nursing home."The list is always heartbreaking. They have an opportunity to ask for anything and do just the opposite, asking for basic clothes or simple toys," she says. "We always buy the kids a new winter coat, hats, and gloves." She also buys gifts for the parents.Last year Linda asked the mother for a second wish list--one that didn't include the basics. "Every child should have a Christmas that sticks with them for a lifetime." She purchased iPods for the two older children and a video game system for the youngest."I have learned a very valuable lesson in all of this," says Linda. "Pay attention to what's going on in your own backyard--no matter where you live."The joy of giving as secret Santas is much sweeter when the gift is anonymous.81. What reaction does Linda imagine the children will have?(No more than 5 words) (2 marks)

4.Anna is our only daughter. My wife and I have two sons, and Anna is the youngest in the family, but she's twenty-five now. Anna was not well when she was little. It was a very worrying time and she stayed at home a lot. She was seen first by the local doctors, and then she was sent to a specialist in Cardiff where she was diagnosed as diabetic. It was my wife who mainly took care of her then. I am not very good at looking after little children. I suppose I am a bit traditional in that way. But when she grew up a bit, we spent a lot of time together. We loved walking and talking and discussing life. We still love it today. We get on very well. Although she looks like me (tall, dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin), she takes after her mother: she is artistic and musical, and like her mother she's attractive. She loves looking after animals - she has two dogs, three cats and a goat. She lives in a little house in the country. I like animals too. I like riding and hunting, but Anna hates hunting. She thinks it's cruel. We discuss it a lot. She is quiet and a bit shy with strangers. I am more outgoing and I love meeting new people. But she's not boring - actually, she's very funny. She always has lots of stories of her life in the country. She's an art and music teacher in a little village school. She is very good-natured. Anna says we brought her up well, and she's going to bring her children up to be honest and loyal. But I think she was easy to bring up. I don't remember ever telling her off.1.According to the passage, when Anna was a child, she ().2. It can be inferred from the passage the author thinks looking after little children is ().3. What does 'take after' mean in the first sentence of Para. 2?4. My daughter and I have little in common in terms of ().5. From the passage, we can see the author's description of his daughter is ().(1).A、got an illnessB、was very queerC、didn't look like the author(2).A、his advantageB、mainly a woman's responsibilityC、really enjoyable(3).A、look afterB、be different fromC、look like(4).A、loving walking and talkingB、characterC、loving animals(5).A、affectionateB、humorousC、critical

更多“Passage 1Khalida's father says she's 9 or maybe 10. As much”相关问题
  • 第1题:

    23._______.birthday is September 9th.

    A. My

    B. Joe's

    C.Joe's father's

    D.Joe's mother's


    正确答案:B
    23.B【解析】短文中Joe介绍“September 9th is my birthday,,。”可知,本题应选Joe:s,B为正确答案。本题极易不作人称的转换而误选A.短文是以Joc的第一人称写的,做题时应转换为第三人称.

  • 第2题:

    Jim and Ronald are ( ).

    A、my father's and mother’s friends

    B、friends of mine father and mother

    C、my father and mother's friends

    D、my father and mother friends


    参考答案:C

  • 第3题:

    This is a girl. She’s (11) English girl. Her name's Becky.She's twelve. She’s in (12) 0f No.l Middle School in Beijing. She studies(学习) (13) in it. Mr Liu is .her Chinese teacher.(14 ) name is Liu Yong. He-s a good teacher.He reaches(教)her Chinese very well. Her home .(15) number is(010)65268559. He loves his students very much.

    Becky's father and mother (16) teachers. Her father is (17) Green.

    (18) works(l作) in Beijing now. He teaches us English. He (19) to work(20) his bike. He's our good English teacher and good friend.

    ( )11.

    A.a

    B.an

    C.the

    D./


    正确答案:B
    11.B【解析】an用在“元音开头的形容词十单数名词”之前。

  • 第4题:

    Andrew,my father’s younger brother,will not be at the picnic,( )to the family's disappointment.

    A.much
    B.more
    C.too much
    D.much more

    答案:A
    解析:
    从题干看,空格处应填一修饰“to the family’s disappointment”的词,首先排除C选项,too much修饰名词,而D选项中much more修饰形容词,选项B为形容词不能修饰介词短语,故答案为A。much是副词修饰介词短语,其中副词在句中可修饰动词,形容词,副词,介词短语及整个句子。

  • 第5题:

    A young woman rode with her new husband in a wagon(四轮马车).They came to a log cabin(小木屋).The man shouted and a little boy came running out of the cabin.Sarah,the young woman,got down from the wagon,opened wide her arms and heldthe boy close.
    "Hello,Abe Lincoln,"she said."I think we′ll be good friends."
    The new mother with the smiling face went to work at once.She washed Abe and hissister and tidied(弄整齐)their hair.And that night she threw away the boy′s mattress(床垫)of leaves and gave him a soft mattress and enough blankets to keephim warm at night.
    Sarah wove cloth and made new shirts for Abe.She made him new deerskin trousers and even deerskin shoes.
    Maybe,if she hadn′t come to the cabin,he wouldn′t have lived to be a man.When Abe′s father told him not to go to school any more and help on the farm,Sarah took Abe′s part against his father.Abe would rather read than eat,and when hisfather told him to stop,Sarah said,"Let the boy read."
    In 1830 the day came when Abe would leave home to work in New Salem.For the last time she had taken Abe′s part against his father.For the last time she had kept the cabin quiet so that Abe could read.More than twenty years later,when Abe,who had then become famous,was going to make a speech in a nearby town,Sarah went there just to watch him.In the crowd she tried to make herself small,but he saw her,and in front of everybody,got out of his carriage and went overand put his arms around her and kissed her.Yes,that was her Abe.
    "Heloved me truly,"she said later.

    If Sarah hadn′t come to the cabin,

    A.Abe's father wouldn't have told him not to go to school
    B.Abe wouldn't have helped his father on the farm
    C.Abe wouldn't have had so much time to read
    D.Abe's father wouldn't have told him to stop reading

    答案:C
    解析:
    考情点拨:事实细节题。应试指导:从第五段可知,Abe的父亲反对他读书,但是Sarah来到之后,坚持让Abe读书。

  • 第6题:

    How is your father today? () thanks.

    AHe is over forty 

    BHe's a doctor 

    CHe's much better

    DHe's Brown


    C

  • 第7题:

    单选题
    — I'm trying to call Marie, but there's no answer. —()
    A

    I didn’t realize that

    B

    Here is a message for her

    C

    I’m really sorry about it

    D

    Really? Maybe she’s out


    正确答案: A
    解析: 暂无解析

  • 第8题:

    单选题
    1 immediately______Luke's father from the crowd because they two looked like each other so much.
    A

    researched

    B

    recognized

    C

    reported

    D

    reduced


    正确答案: A
    解析:

  • 第9题:

    单选题
    According to the passage, _____ may NOT be the character of the author’s father.
    A

    demanding

    B

    practical

    C

    stubborn

    D

    liberal


    正确答案: A
    解析:
    推理题。本题为反选题。原文第四段的前两句话说到:So we enjoyed Mrs. Orr’s cake with white icing twice a year. Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious—just like Dad.可见,作者将父亲比作朴实无华的蛋糕,说明了父亲务实的性格,故B选项的说法正确,可排除。原文第三、五两段的段末,均出现了silly question一词,来表明作者觉得句没自己必要提出前面的问题,同时也说明了父亲固执不愿意改变的性格,故C选项的说法正确,可排除。原文第五段第一句话中的generous一词说明父亲慷慨大方性格,故D选项的说法也是正确的,也可排除。而A选项“苛求的”在原文中并没有体现,因此本题正确答案为A。

  • 第10题:

    单选题
    She doesn't talk much, but what she says makes _____.
    A

    sense

    B

    idea

    C

    meaning

    D

    significance


    正确答案: D
    解析:

  • 第11题:

    单选题
    Passage 1Khalida's father says she's 9 or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer can't keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side, trying to hide beneath her chador and headscarf. They both know the family can't keep her much longer. Khalida's father has spent much of his life raising opium, as men like him have been doing for decades in the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan and on the dusty southern plains. It's the only reliable cash crop most of those farmers ever had. Even so, Shah and his family barely got by: traffickers may prosper, but poor farmers like him only subsist. Now he's losing far more than money.I never imagined I'd have to pay for growing opium by giving up my daughter,says Shah.The family's heartbreak began when Shah borrowed S2,000 from a local trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 kilos of opium at harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest,a government crop-eradication team appeared at the family's little plot of land in Laghman province and destroyed Shah's entire two and a half acres of poppies. Unable to meet his debt, Shah fled with his family to Jalalabad, the capital of neighboring Nangarhar province. The trafficker found them anyway and demanded his opium. So Shah took his case before a tribal council in Laghman and begged for leniency. Instead, the elders unanimously ruled that Shah would have to reimburse the trafficker by giving Khalida to him in marriage. Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-olddrugrunner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible.It's my fate,the child says.Afghans disparagingly call them loan brides-daughters given in marriage by fathers who have no other way out of debt. The practice began with the dowry a bridegroom's family traditionally pays to the bride's father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to S8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistan's No.I opium-growing province. For a desperate farmer, that bride price can be salvation-but at a cruel cost. Among the Pashtun, debt marriage puts a lasting stain on the honor of the bride and her family. It brings shame on the country, too. President Hamid Karzai recently told the nation:I cal on the people [ not to] give their daughters for money; they shouldn't give them to old men, and they shouldn't give them in forced marriages.All the same, local farmers say a man can get killed for failing to repay a loan. No one knows how many debt weddings take place in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world's heroin and other opiates originate. But Afghans say the number of loan brides keeps rising as poppy-eradication efforts push more farmers into default.This will be our darkest year since 2000,says Baz Mohammad,65,a white-bearded former opium farmer in Nangarhar.Even more daughters will be sold this year.The old man lives with the anguish of selling his own 13-year-old daughter in 2000, after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned poppy growing.Lenders never show any mercy,the old man says. Local farmers say more than one debtor has been bound hand and foot, then locked into a small windowless room with a smoldering fire, slowly choking to death.Efforts to promote other crops have failed. Wheat or corn brings $250 an acre at best, while poppy growers can expect 10 times that much. Besides, poppies are more dependable: hardier than either wheat or corn and more tolerant of drought and extreme heat and cold. And in a country with practically no govermment-funded credit for small farmers, opium growers can easily get advances on their crops. The borrower merely agrees to repay the cash with so many kilos of opium, at a price stipulated by the lender-often 40 percent or more below market value. Islam forbids charging interest on a loan, but moneylenders in poppy country elude the ban by packaging the deal as a crop-futures transaction-and never mind that the rate of return is tantamount to usury.Which of the following is not true about debt marriagein the third paragraph?
    A

    It forces the girls to marry old men.

    B

    It enables the girls to pay off their debts.

    C

    The girl's family can get much money from it.

    D

    It is a shame for the girls and their family.


    正确答案: D
    解析:

  • 第12题:

    单选题
    From the passage, we can infer (推断) ______.
    A

    Anne was born in Germany

    B

    Anne was a Jew

    C

    Anne’s father collected the diaries

    D

    Anne was a Nazi


    正确答案: B
    解析:
    由原文第二段中的“Because the German Nazis hated the Jews and wanted to kill them,her family had to move to another country”可推断出Anne是犹太人。A项、C项分别在原文第二段和第三段中直接给出,不需要推断,故应排除。D项与文意不符。因此应选B项。

  • 第13题:

    -I’m trying to call Marie, but there’s no answer.-().

    A、Really? Maybe she’s out

    B、Here is a message for her

    C、I’m really sorry about it

    D、I didn’t realize that


    参考答案:A

  • 第14题:

    10. The beef is __________dear. Let-s not buy .

    A. much too ,too much

    B. much too ,much too

    C. too much ,too much

    D. too much ,much too


    正确答案:A

  • 第15题:

    10. Sally is a cute and lively girl. We all like_________ .

    A. she

    B. her

    C. hers

    D. she's


    正确答案:B
    10.B【解析】用人称代词的宾格作宾语。

  • 第16题:

    共用题干
    Sport or Spectacle?

    Muhammad Aui is probably the most famous sports figure on earth:he is recognized on every continent
    and by all generations. The__________(51)of his illness as Parkinson's disease after his retirement fuelled
    the debate about the dangers of boxing and criticism__________(52)the sport. That,plus his outspoken
    opposition___________(53)women's boxing,made people wonder how he would react when one of his daugh-
    ters decided to____________(54)up the sport.His presence at Laila's first professional fight,however,seemed
    to broadcast a father's support.Of course Muhammad Aui wanted to___________(55)his daughter fight.
    The ring announcer introduced him as the"the greatest"and as he sat down at the ringside the crowd
    chanted.
    Twenty-one-year-old Laila's debut fight(首次亮相)was a huge success and there was as much publicity for
    the___________(56)as her father's fights once attracted Laila's opponent was much weaker than she was
    and__________(57)the fight lasted just 31 seconds.Since then, Laila has won most of her fights by knoc-
    king out her opponent"She knows ______ (58)she's doing,"said one referee about her."She knows
    about moving well.You can see some of her dad's moves."
    Laila Ali would rather not
    _________ (59)herself to her father. She prefers to make. __________(60).
    Her father supports her decision to enter the sport but he has not spared her the details of what can happen.
    Laila__________(61)that her father wants her to understand the worst possible scenario to see_________(62)
    she still wants to go forward with it.She knows she's going to get hit hard at times,that she may get a broken
    nose or a swollen(肿胀的)face , but at least she is prepared for it.
    Laila's decision to start boxing despite her father's__________(63)with the symptoms of Parkinson's
    disease has of course sparked a mixture of praise and__________(64).But Laila is a determined individual
    and it is her famous last name that has made her a magnet for worldwide media attention.Of course,the
    ___________(65)on the boxing scene of a woman with her family history attracts even more questions about
    whether women's boxing is sport or spectacle.

    _________(53)
    A:in
    B:on
    C:to
    D:by

    答案:C
    解析:
    由空后的病可知应填“诊断出(diagnosis) "。
    criticism of the sport意为“对该运动的批评”,中间应用介词of 。
    opposition后一般加to,表示“对······的反对”。
    take up为固定搭配,意为“从事”。
    have sb.do sth.意为“让某人做某事”,在此符合语境。
    空前的“fight”也是提示,此处表示首次亮相引起了广泛的注意。
    由空后的“just 31 seconds(只有31秒)”可知,应选unfortunately表示遗憾。
    此处应填关系词作主句的宾语且作从句的主语,故选B。
    此处表示Laila宁愿不和她父亲进行比较。
    Laila不想和父亲进行比较只想表演而已。
    通过父亲的所作所为;Laila意识到父亲是想让她意识到最糟糕的状况。故选A。
    when表示“当······时”,在此符合语境。
    struggle with sth.表示“与······斗争”,struggle with the symptoms of Parkinson's disease意 为“与帕金森病抗争”。
    因为前有mixture,故与praise相反的应是criticism。
    The attention on sth.意为“对······的关注”,在此符合语境。

  • 第17题:

    A young woman rode with her new husband in a wagon(四轮马车).They came to a log cabin(小木屋).The man shouted and a little boy came running out of the cabin.Sarah,the young woman,got down from the wagon,opened wide her arms and heldthe boy close.
    "Hello,Abe Lincoln,"she said."I think we′ll be good friends."
    The new mother with the smiling face went to work at once.She washed Abe and hissister and tidied(弄整齐)their hair.And that night she threw away the boy′s mattress(床垫)of leaves and gave him a soft mattress and enough blankets to keephim warm at night.
    Sarah wove cloth and made new shirts for Abe.She made him new deerskin trousers and even deerskin shoes.
    Maybe,if she hadn′t come to the cabin,he wouldn′t have lived to be a man.When Abe′s father told him not to go to school any more and help on the farm,Sarah took Abe′s part against his father.Abe would rather read than eat,and when hisfather told him to stop,Sarah said,"Let the boy read."
    In 1830 the day came when Abe would leave home to work in New Salem.For the last time she had taken Abe′s part against his father.For the last time she had kept the cabin quiet so that Abe could read.More than twenty years later,when Abe,who had then become famous,was going to make a speech in a nearby town,Sarah went there just to watch him.In the crowd she tried to make herself small,but he saw her,and in front of everybody,got out of his carriage and went overand put his arms around her and kissed her.Yes,that was her Abe.
    "Heloved me truly,"she said later.

    Which of the following is not true?

    A.The young woman in the wagon was Abe's new mother.
    B.The man in the wagon was Abe's new father.
    C.The little boy was the young woman's new son.
    D.The little boy running out of the cabin was Abe.

    答案:B
    解析:
    考情点拨:推理判断题。应试指导:文章前三段介绍了人物之间的关系。年轻的妇女Sarah和丈夫是新婚。丈夫还有两个孩子,其中的男孩叫Abe。故B项是正确答案。

  • 第18题:

    单选题
    Why did she take up journalism?
    A

    Because of her family background.

    B

    Because of her father’s support.

    C

    Because of her love of books.


    正确答案: B
    解析:
    根据I think the biggest influence was my school, not so much the people, but the materials that gave me access to. The hours and hours spent in the library可以推断,Tina成为新闻工作者是因为在学校图书馆里读了很多的书。

  • 第19题:

    单选题
    Maggie’s father died ______.
    A

    when she finished high school

    B

    before she was born

    C

    when she was very young

    D

    after she got married


    正确答案: C
    解析:
    细节理解题。根据文章第一段提到的“When Maggie was very young, a thief killed her father”可以知道,在玛吉很小的时候,一个小偷杀了她的父亲。所以答案为when she was very young。C项为正确答案。

  • 第20题:

    单选题
    Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
    A

    Dancy drove his father home.

    B

    The reporter was really a hero.

    C

    Shine sent Dancy’s father to hospital.

    D

    Dancy saved his father with his something skills.


    正确答案: B
    解析:
    细节理解题。由最后一段中的 “Dancy’s spelling skills helped him seize the moment. ”可知,Dancy的拼写技能救了他的爸爸。故选D。

  • 第21题:

    单选题
    How is your father today? () thanks.
    A

    He is over forty 

    B

    He's a doctor 

    C

    He's much better

    D

    He's Brown


    正确答案: B
    解析: 暂无解析

  • 第22题:

    单选题
    Passage 1Khalida's father says she's 9 or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer can't keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side, trying to hide beneath her chador and headscarf. They both know the family can't keep her much longer. Khalida's father has spent much of his life raising opium, as men like him have been doing for decades in the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan and on the dusty southern plains. It's the only reliable cash crop most of those farmers ever had. Even so, Shah and his family barely got by: traffickers may prosper, but poor farmers like him only subsist. Now he's losing far more than money.I never imagined I'd have to pay for growing opium by giving up my daughter,says Shah.The family's heartbreak began when Shah borrowed S2,000 from a local trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 kilos of opium at harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest,a government crop-eradication team appeared at the family's little plot of land in Laghman province and destroyed Shah's entire two and a half acres of poppies. Unable to meet his debt, Shah fled with his family to Jalalabad, the capital of neighboring Nangarhar province. The trafficker found them anyway and demanded his opium. So Shah took his case before a tribal council in Laghman and begged for leniency. Instead, the elders unanimously ruled that Shah would have to reimburse the trafficker by giving Khalida to him in marriage. Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-olddrugrunner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible.It's my fate,the child says.Afghans disparagingly call them loan brides-daughters given in marriage by fathers who have no other way out of debt. The practice began with the dowry a bridegroom's family traditionally pays to the bride's father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to S8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistan's No.I opium-growing province. For a desperate farmer, that bride price can be salvation-but at a cruel cost. Among the Pashtun, debt marriage puts a lasting stain on the honor of the bride and her family. It brings shame on the country, too. President Hamid Karzai recently told the nation:I cal on the people [ not to] give their daughters for money; they shouldn't give them to old men, and they shouldn't give them in forced marriages.All the same, local farmers say a man can get killed for failing to repay a loan. No one knows how many debt weddings take place in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world's heroin and other opiates originate. But Afghans say the number of loan brides keeps rising as poppy-eradication efforts push more farmers into default.This will be our darkest year since 2000,says Baz Mohammad,65,a white-bearded former opium farmer in Nangarhar.Even more daughters will be sold this year.The old man lives with the anguish of selling his own 13-year-old daughter in 2000, after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned poppy growing.Lenders never show any mercy,the old man says. Local farmers say more than one debtor has been bound hand and foot, then locked into a small windowless room with a smoldering fire, slowly choking to death.Efforts to promote other crops have failed. Wheat or corn brings $250 an acre at best, while poppy growers can expect 10 times that much. Besides, poppies are more dependable: hardier than either wheat or corn and more tolerant of drought and extreme heat and cold. And in a country with practically no govermment-funded credit for small farmers, opium growers can easily get advances on their crops. The borrower merely agrees to repay the cash with so many kilos of opium, at a price stipulated by the lender-often 40 percent or more below market value. Islam forbids charging interest on a loan, but moneylenders in poppy country elude the ban by packaging the deal as a crop-futures transaction-and never mind that the rate of return is tantamount to usury.What does the underlined word“elude”mean in last paragraph?
    A

    Bypass.

    B

    Follow.

    C

    Violate.

    D

    Break.


    正确答案: B
    解析:

  • 第23题:

    单选题
    Maggie's father died______.
    A

    when she finished high school

    B

    before she was born

    C

    when she was very young

    D

    after she got married


    正确答案: A
    解析:

  • 第24题:

    单选题
    Passage 1Khalida's father says she's 9 or maybe 10. As much as Sayed Shah loves his 10 children, the functionally illiterate Afghan farmer can't keep track of all their birth dates. Khalida huddles at his side, trying to hide beneath her chador and headscarf. They both know the family can't keep her much longer. Khalida's father has spent much of his life raising opium, as men like him have been doing for decades in the stony hillsides of eastern Afghanistan and on the dusty southern plains. It's the only reliable cash crop most of those farmers ever had. Even so, Shah and his family barely got by: traffickers may prosper, but poor farmers like him only subsist. Now he's losing far more than money.I never imagined I'd have to pay for growing opium by giving up my daughter,says Shah.The family's heartbreak began when Shah borrowed S2,000 from a local trafficker, promising to repay the loan with 24 kilos of opium at harvest time. Late last spring, just before harvest,a government crop-eradication team appeared at the family's little plot of land in Laghman province and destroyed Shah's entire two and a half acres of poppies. Unable to meet his debt, Shah fled with his family to Jalalabad, the capital of neighboring Nangarhar province. The trafficker found them anyway and demanded his opium. So Shah took his case before a tribal council in Laghman and begged for leniency. Instead, the elders unanimously ruled that Shah would have to reimburse the trafficker by giving Khalida to him in marriage. Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-olddrugrunner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible.It's my fate,the child says.Afghans disparagingly call them loan brides-daughters given in marriage by fathers who have no other way out of debt. The practice began with the dowry a bridegroom's family traditionally pays to the bride's father in tribal Pashtun society. These days the amount ranges from $3,000 or so in poorer places like Laghman and Nangarhar to S8,000 or more in Helmand, Afghanistan's No.I opium-growing province. For a desperate farmer, that bride price can be salvation-but at a cruel cost. Among the Pashtun, debt marriage puts a lasting stain on the honor of the bride and her family. It brings shame on the country, too. President Hamid Karzai recently told the nation:I cal on the people [ not to] give their daughters for money; they shouldn't give them to old men, and they shouldn't give them in forced marriages.All the same, local farmers say a man can get killed for failing to repay a loan. No one knows how many debt weddings take place in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world's heroin and other opiates originate. But Afghans say the number of loan brides keeps rising as poppy-eradication efforts push more farmers into default.This will be our darkest year since 2000,says Baz Mohammad,65,a white-bearded former opium farmer in Nangarhar.Even more daughters will be sold this year.The old man lives with the anguish of selling his own 13-year-old daughter in 2000, after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned poppy growing.Lenders never show any mercy,the old man says. Local farmers say more than one debtor has been bound hand and foot, then locked into a small windowless room with a smoldering fire, slowly choking to death.Efforts to promote other crops have failed. Wheat or corn brings $250 an acre at best, while poppy growers can expect 10 times that much. Besides, poppies are more dependable: hardier than either wheat or corn and more tolerant of drought and extreme heat and cold. And in a country with practically no govermment-funded credit for small farmers, opium growers can easily get advances on their crops. The borrower merely agrees to repay the cash with so many kilos of opium, at a price stipulated by the lender-often 40 percent or more below market value. Islam forbids charging interest on a loan, but moneylenders in poppy country elude the ban by packaging the deal as a crop-futures transaction-and never mind that the rate of return is tantamount to usury.What is mainly discussed in this passage?
    A

    The Afghan farmers.

    B

    Best place for heroin.

    C

    Loan marriage.

    D

    Man is born with greedy nature.


    正确答案: B
    解析: