My Dear child, I am very well pleased with your last letter. The writing was very good, and the promise you make exceedingly fine. You must keep it, for an honest man never breaks his word. You engage to retain the instructions which I give you. That is sufficient, for though you do not properly comprehend them at present, age and reflection will, in time, make you understand them.
With respect to the contents of your letter, I believe you have had proper assistance; indeed, I do not as yet expect that you can write a letter without help. You ought, however, to try, for nothing is more requisite than to write a good letter. Nothing in fact is easier. Most persons, who write will, do so because they aim at writing better than they can, by which means they acquire a formal and unnatural style. Whereas, to write well, we must write easily and naturally. For instance, if you want to write a letter to me, you should only consider what you would say if you were with me, and then write it in plain terms, just as if you were conversing. I will suppose, then, that you sit down to write to me unassisted, and I imagine your letter would probably be much in these words:
My dear Papa: I have been at Mr. Maittaire’s this morning, where I have translated English into Latin and Latin into English, and, so well that at the end of ray exercise he has written optimal. I have likewise repeated a Greek verb, and pretty well. After this I ran home, like a little wild boy, and played till dinner-time. This became a serious task, for I ate like a wolf, and by that you judge that I am in very good health. Adieu.
Well, sir, the above is a good letter, and yet very easily written, because it is exceedingly natural. Endeavour then sometimes to write to me of yourself, without minding either the beauty of the writing or the straightness of the lines. Take as little trouble as possible. By that means you will by degrees use yourself to write perfectly well, and with ease. Adieu. Come to me tomorrow at 12, or Friday morning at 8 o’clock.
1. How the author think about the instructions he gave to his child?
2. In order to write well, one should do the following except _____.
3. What does the word optimal (Paragraph 3) mean?
4. According to the passage, which of the following is CORRECT?
5. The general tone of this letter is _____.
问题1选项
A.Efficiency.
B.Sufficient.
C.Accuracy.
D.Not enough.
问题2选项
A.write a letter without any help
B.write as easily and naturally as possible
C.consider what you will say before writing
D.try to write in plain terms
问题3选项
A.Positive.
B.Optimistic.
C.Ideal.
D.Inferior.
问题4选项
A.The author is not quite satisfied with his child’s writing.
B.The author thinks his child would never understand the instructions he gave to him.
C.Writing a letter is such an easy thing.
D.In order to write naturally, one may not care too much about the beauty of the lines.
问题5选项
A.encouraging
B.arbitrary
C.imposing
D.exaggerate
第1题:B
第2题:A
第3题:C
第4题:C
第5题:B
第1题:
【选项释义】
How the author think about the instructions he gave to his child? 作者如何看待他给孩子的指导？
A. Efficiency. A. 效率。
B. Sufficient. B. 足够的。
C. Accuracy. C. 精确。
D. Not enough. D. 不够的
【考查点】事实细节题。
【解题思路】根据题干定位到原文第一段第四、五句“你必须遵守我给你的指示（instructions），这就够了（sufficient）”，由此可知，选项B符合原文。
【干扰项排除】
A、C、D选项不属于文章事实，属于无中生有。
第2题:
【选项释义】
In order to write well, one should do the following except _____. 为了写好，除_____，你应该做到以下几点。
A. write a letter without any help A. 不用别人帮忙写信
B. write as easily and naturally as possible B. 尽量写得轻松自然
C. consider what you will say before writing C. 写之前考虑一下你要说什么
D. try to write in plain terms D. 尽量用通俗易懂的语言写作
【考查点】推理判断题。
【解题思路】根据题干定位到原文第二段倒数第二三句“然而，要写得好（write well），我们必须写得轻松自然（write easily and naturally）。比如，你要给我写信，你只需要考虑（only consider）如果你和我在一起，你会说些什么（what you would say），然后把它写得通俗易懂（write it in plain terms），就像你们在交谈一样”，由此可知，选项B、C、D都属于写好要做到的几点，只有选项A不是。
【干扰项排除】
B、C、D选项属于反向干扰。
第3题:
【选项释义】
What does the word optimal (Paragraph 3) mean? “optimal”（第3段）是什么意思？
A. Positive. A. 积极的。
B. Optimistic. B. 乐观的。
C. Ideal. C. 理想的。
D. Inferior. D. 次的，较差的。
【考查点】词义推测题。
【解题思路】根据题干定位到第三段第一句“我亲爱的爸爸：今天早上我到梅泰尔先生家去了，我把英语翻译成拉丁语，把拉丁语翻译成英语，翻译得非常好，在练习的最后，他写了‘optimal’”，结合该句语境可知，这里应该是说“理想的，最优的”，选项C正确。
【干扰项排除】
A、B、D选项不符合词义，属于曲解原文。
第4题:
【选项释义】
According to the passage, which of the following is CORRECT? 根据文章，下列哪个选项是正确的？
A. The author is not quite satisfied with his child’s writing. A. 作者对他孩子的写作不太满意。
B. The author thinks his child would never understand the instructions he gave to him. B. 作者认为他的孩子永远不会理解他给他的指导。
C. Writing a letter is such an easy thing. C. 写信是一件很容易的事。
D. In order to write naturally, one may not care too much about the beauty of the lines. D. 为了写得自然，人们可能不会太在意线条的美。
【考查点】推理判断题。
【解题思路】根据题干定位到原文第二段第三句“事实上，没有什么比这更容易了（Nothing in fact is easier）”以及最后一段第一句“好吧，先生，上面这封信写得很好，而且写起来很容易（easily written）”，由此可知，作者认为写信是一件容易的事，选项C符合原文。
【干扰项排除】
A选项“作者对他孩子的写作不太满意”，原文第一段第二句提到“The writing was very good写得很好”，所以该选项属于曲解原文；
B选项“作者认为他的孩子永远不会理解他给他的指导”，原文第一段最后一句提到“你目前（at present）还不能完全理解它们，随着时间的推移，年龄和思考（age and reflection）会让你理解他们”，由此可知，该选项表述不对，属于曲解原文；
D选项“为了写得自然，人们可能不会太在意线条的美”，原文最后一段第二句提到“那么，你就尽量偶尔给我写信谈谈你自己的情况吧，不要计较文字的优美（the beauty of the writing）和线条的笔直（the straightness of the lines）”，由此可知，该选项不符合原文，属于曲解原文。
第5题:
【选项释义】
The general tone of this letter is _____. 这封信的基调是_____。
A. encouraging A. 鼓励的
B. arbitrary B. 随意的
C. imposing C. 印象深刻的
D. exaggerate D. 夸大的
【考查点】观点态度题。
【解题思路】根据最后一段的作者的口吻，以及最后一句约定见面时间可知，这封信的基调比较轻松，随意，选项B符合。
【干扰项排除】
A、C、D选项不是信的基调，属于曲解原文。
