B
Pip meets a stranger
My first name was Philip, but when I was a small child I could only manage to say Pip. So Pip was what everybody called me. I lived in a small village in Essex with my sister, who was over twenty years older than me, and married to Joe Gargery, the village blacksmith(铁匠). My parents had died when I was a baby, so I could not remember them at all, but quite often I used to visit the churchyard, about a mile from the village, to look at their names on their gravestones(墓碑).
My first memory is of sitting on a gravestone in that churchyard one cold, grey, December afternoon, looking out at the dark, flat, wild marshes divided by the black line of the River Thames, and listening to the rushing sound of the sea in the distance.
“Don’t say a word!” cried a terrible voice, as a man jumped up from among the graves and caught hold of me. “If you shout I’ll cut your throat!” He was a big man, dressed all in grey, with an iron chain(铁链) on his leg. His clothes were wet and torn. He looked tired, hungry, and very fierce(凶狠的). I had never been so scared in my whole life.
“Oh! Don’t cut my throat, sir!” I begged in fear.
“Tell me your name, boy! Quick!” he said, still holding me. “And show me where you live!”
“My name’s Pip, sir. And I live in the village over there.”
He picked me up and turned me upside down. Nothing fell out of my pocket except a piece of old bread. He ate it in two bites, like a dog, and put me back on the gravestone.
“So where are your father and mother?” he asked.
“There, sir,” I answered, pointing to their graves.
“What!” he cried, and was about to run, when he saw where I was pointing. “Oh!” he said. “I see. They’re dead. Well, who do you live with, if I let you live, which I haven’t decided yet?”
“With my sister, sir, wife of Joe Gargery, the blacksmith.”
“Blacksmith, you say?” And he looked down at his leg. Then he held me by both arms and looked fiercely down into my eyes.
“Now look here. You bring me a file. You know what that is? And you bring me some food. If you don’t, or if you tell anyone about me, I’ll cut your heart out.”
“I promise I’ll do it, sir,” I said. I was badly scared and my whole body was shaking.
“You see,” he continued, smiling unpleasantly, “I travel with a young man, a friend of mine, who roasts boys’ hearts and eats them. He’ll find you, wherever you are, and he’ll have your heart. So bring the file and the food to that wooden shelter over there, early tomorrow morning, if you want to keep your heart.”
I watched him turn and walk with difficulty across the marshes, the chain hanging clumsily(笨拙地) around his leg. Then I ran home as fast as I could.
—Taken from Great Expectations
() 4. What does the writer want to tell us in paragraph 1?
A. What Pip liked to do in the village at present.
B. How Pip’s parents lost their lives many years ago.
C. When Pip’s sister married the village blacksmith.
D. Why the story happened in the churchyard near the village.
() 5. How might the man feel at first when he saw Pip pointing to the graves?
A. Excited.
B. Scared.
C. Relaxed.
D. Worried.
() 6. What does the underlined word “file” probably mean?
A. A coat that can keep the man warm.
B. A tool that can help the man run away.
C. A tool that can break the man’s chain.
D. A knife that can help the man eat food.
() 7. What’s the CORRECT order of the following events about the man?
① He asked Pip to keep the secret.
② He quickly caught hold of Pip.
③ He told Pip about his young friend.
④ He ate the bread from Pip like a dog.
A. ②④③①
B. ②④①③
C. ④②①③
D. ④③②①
() 8. What would probably happen after Pip ran home?
A. Pip would do as what the man told him to do.
B. Pip would hide himself far away from the village.
C. Pip would try his best to fight against the two men.
D. Pip would tell everything about the man to his sister.