One of the most famous nursery rhymes(摇篮曲) in the English language is Mary Had a Little Lamb(羔羊). It has touched many children who have read it. It is about the deep love between a young girl and her pet lamb. The poem is from a true story that happened in the early part of the 19th century in the town of Sterling, Massachusetts, in the USA.
Mary Sawyer (1806－1889) lived on a farm with her family. One day, when she was about nine years old, she saw a little lamb that had just been born and left behind by its mother. It was very weak and looked as if it would die at very moment. Mary took pity on the lamb and spent the whole night looking after it. Eventually, it grew strong and became a very close friend with Mary, following her everywhere she went.
One day, the lamb even followed Mary to school. At first she wanted to turn it back but her brother suggested that it would be fun to take the lamb to school. During the class, she hid the lamb under her desk. But when she was called to go to the front of the class, to her surprise, the lamb followed her. Though the students and the teacher thought it was funny to see a lamb at school, the teacher had to ask Mary to keep the lamb outside of the school.
That very day, a young man called John Roulstone was visiting Mary’s school. He was so moved by the love between the child and her little pet lamb that he wrote a poem which he handed to Mary the next day. His poem contained twelve lines.
Later, Sara Josepha Hale added another twelve lines to the poem and published it in 1930 under the title “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. The poem has become a classic, loved by children all over the world. The appeal (吸引力) of the poem lies not only in the funny idea of a sheep going to school but also in the true love between the little girl and her pet. The town of Sterling has honoured Mary’s lamb by building a statue (雕像) of the lamb with Mr Roulstone’s poem below the statue.
小题1:What is the best title for the passage?
A．Mary Had a Little Lamb
B．The Life of Mary Sawyer
C．The Origin of a Poem
D．An Animal Friend小题2:The underlined word “eventually” in the second paragraph most probably means .
A．fortunately
B．gradually
C．finally
D．kindly小题3: Why did the poem become a classic?
A．It had another twelve lines added.
B．It was written by a young man.
C．It describes the true love between a little girl and her pet lamb.
D．A statue of lamb was built in the town of Sterling.小题4:Which could be the right order of the following events according to the passage?
a. The poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb”became popular.
b. Mary’s brother suggested that she take the lamb to school.
c. People built a statue to honor the lamb.
d. Mary found a little lamb.
e. A young man was moved by the story and wrote a poem.
A． d. b. e. c. a
B． d. b. e. a. c
C． d. e. b. c. a
D． d. e. b. a. c小题5:Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
A．Mary’s mother was also fond of the little lamb.
B．Mary and the little lamb developed a very close friendship.
C．Mary wrote to John Roulstone and asked him to write the poem.
D．All children were allowed to take their pets to school in America.