In some parts of the United States, farming is easy. But farming has always been

In some parts of the United States, farming is easy. But farming has always been difficult in the northeasterncorner of the country, which is called New England.

New England has many trees and thin, rocky soil. Anyonewho has wanted to start a new farm there has had to work very hard. The firstjob has been cutting down trees. The next job has been digging stumps (树桩) of the trees out of thesoil. Then the farmer has had the difficult job of removing stones from hisland.

The work of removing stones never reallyends, because every winter more stones appear. They come up through the thinsoil from the rocks below. Farmers have to keep removing stones from thefields. Even today, farms which have been worked on for 200 years keep producingmore stones.

That is why stone walls are used instead offences around New England fields. The stone walls are not high: A man caneasily climb over them. But they keep the farmer’s cows from joining hisneighbour’s cows.

1.New England is an area ______.

A.  in the northeastern part of Britain    

B.  which has been newly discovered by theEnglishmen

C.  which lies between Australia andNew Zealand

D.  which lies in the northeastern partof the USA

2.According to the passage, farming isdifficult in New England because ______.

A. the winter is very long there        B.the farms are very old

C. the soil is rocky and thin           D.there are not enough machines for farming

3.From this passage, we know the removing ofstones ______.

A.  must be done again and again       

B.  is usually done during the winter

C.  is an interesting job childrenenjoy doing

D.  was more difficult before machineswere used

4.In NewEngland, stone walls are used to ______.

A.  keep dangerous beasts out

B.  keep the farmer’s cows fromwandering away

C.  protect the farmers fields fromthieves

D.  provide comfortable livingconditions for the farmer’s family

试题答案

【答案】

1.D

2.C

3.A

4.B