Unit 3 life in the future using language课时作业

第一节　阅读理解

　　I was sent，at an early age，to a public school against my mother's wishes，but my father insisted that it was the only way to make boys hardy. The school was kept by a responsible person of the ancient system; that is to say，we were flogged(鞭打) soundly when we did not get our lessons. We were put into classes and flogged on in groups along the highways of knowledge，in the same manner as cattle are driven to market，where those that are heavy in pace or short in leg have to suffer for the superior quickness or longer legs of their companions.

　　For my part，I admit it with shame-I was quite poor in lessons. I have always had the poetical feeling. I used to get away from my books and school whenever I could，and wander about the fields.

　　In spite of all the floggings I suffered at that school to make me love my book，I can not but look back upon the place with fondness. Indeed，I considered this frequent flogging as the regular mode in which scholars were made. My kind mother used to be sad about my details of the painful trials I underwent in the course of learning; but my father turned a deaf ear to her disapproval. He had been flogged through school himself，and swore there was no other way of making a man of (many) parts(多才多艺)；though，let me speak it with all due respect，my father was but an indifferent illustration of his own theory，for he was considered quite a stupid.

　　My poetical temperament(气质) showed itself at a very early period. The village church was attended every Sunday by a neighbouring squire(庄园主)，whose park stretched quite to the village，and whose spacious country seat seemed to take the church under its protection. Indeed，you would have thought the church had been devoted to him instead of to the God. He always entered a little late，striking his cane(敲着拐杖) emphatically(明显地) on the ground，and looking proudly to the right and left. The priest never began service until he appeared. He sat with his family in a large church bench，reading lessons and lowliness of spirit out of prayer­books. Whenever the priest spoke of the difficulty of a rich man's entering the Kingdom of heaven，I thought the squire seemed pleased with the application.

　　The aristocratical (贵族的) air of the family struck my imagination wonderfully，and I fell desperately in love with a little daughter of the squire's about twelve years of age. It made me more absent from my studies than ever. I used to wander about the squire's park，and would wait secretly near the house to catch glimpses of this girl at the windows.

I was not brave enough to take the risk to express my love until I read one or two of Ovid's Met a morphoses，when I pictured myself as some wood god，and her as a shy wood goddess，whom I was in pursuit of. There is something extremely delicious in these early awakening soft he loving passion. Then I began to read poetry. I carried about in my chest a book of poems by Waller