The elephant was lying heavily on its side,fast asleep.A few dogs started barking at it.The elephant woke up in terrible anger:it chased(追逐) the dogs into the village where they ran for safety.
That didn’t stop the elephant.It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people.The villagers were scared and angry.Then someone suggested calling Parbati,the elephant princess.
Parbati Barua’s father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer(驯兽师).He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk.He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up—how to catch wild elephants.
Parbati hasn’t always lived in the jungle.After a happy childhood hunting with her father,she was sent to a boarding school in the city.But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old life.“Life in the city is too dull.Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days after the chase,”she said.
But Parbati doesn’t catch elephants just for fun.“My work,”she said,“is to rescue men from the elephants,and to keep the elephants safe from men.”And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years.Increasingly,the Indian elephant is angry:for many years,illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land.It is now fighting back.Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village,Parbati is called to guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.
The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion.A good elephant tamer will spend hours a day singing love songs to a newly captured elephant.“Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never forget them.They are also more loyal than humans,”she said,as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat on the giant,happy animal.An elephant princess indeed!
【语篇导读】本文介绍了大象公主Parbati的故事。
1.For Parbati,catching elephants is mainly to .
A.get long lasting excitement
B.keep both men and elephants safe
C.send them back to the jungle
D.make the angry elephants tame
答案:B
解析:细节理解题。根据第五段的第二句“‘Mywork,’shesaid,‘istorescuemenfromtheelephants,andtokeeptheelephantssafefrommen.’”可知,Parbati捕捉大象主要是为了保障大象与人的安全,故选B项。
2.Before Parbati studied in a boarding school, .
A.she had spent her time hunting with her father
B.she had learned how to sing love songs
C.she had already been called an elephant princess
D.she had been taught how to hunt tigers
答案:A
解析:细节理解题。根据第四段的第二句“Afterahappychildhoodhuntingwithherfather,shewassenttoaboardingschoolinthecity”可知,Parbati与父亲一起打猎度过了一个幸福的童年,之后被送去市里的一个寄宿学校,故选A项。
3.Indian elephants are getting increasingly angry and they revenge because .
A.they are caught and sent for heavy work
B.illegal hunters capture them and kill them
C.they are attacked and their land gets limited
D.dogs often bark at them and chase them
答案:C
解析:细节理解题。根据第五段的第四句“Increasingly,theIndianelephantisangry:formanyyears,illegalhuntershaveattackeditanditshomeinthejunglehasbeenreducedtosmallpiecesofland”可知,大象因遭到非法狩猎者的袭击以及领地受限而对人类进行报复,故选C项。
4.The passage starts with an elephant story in order to explain that .
A.people easily fall victim to elephants’ attacks
B.the man-elephant relationship is getting worse
C.elephant tamers are in short supply
D.dogs are as powerful as elephants
答案:B
解析:推理判断题。根据文章整体内容可推知,文章以一个大象的故事开头是为了展现人类和大象日益紧张的关系,故选B项。
