2018年专八阅读理解《印第安人的生活》

　　印第安人是美洲大陆最古老的居民。这么一个古老而神秘的族群，你是否好奇他们的生活是怎样的?下面这篇2018年的专八阅读理解带你走进印第安人的'生活。

　　As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North America were building with adobe-sun baked brick plastered with mud. Their homes looked remarkably like modern apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained quarters for perhaps a thousand people, along with store rooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them "pueblos", which is Spanish for town.

　　The people of the pueblos raised what are called "the three sisters" - corn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain.

　　The way of life of less settled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as small rabbits and snakes. In the Far North the ancestors of today’s Inuit hunted seals, walruses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the lordly caribou.

　　The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the grasslands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison, commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these tribes, and its hide was used to make their clothing and covering of their tents and tipis.

　　1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

　　A. The architecture of early American Indian buildings.

　　B. The movement of American Indians across North America.

　　C. Ceremonies and rituals of American Indians.

　　D. The way of life of American Indian tribes in early North America.

　　2. It can be inferred from the passage that the dwellings of the Hopi and Zuni were______.

　　A. very small

　　B. highly advanced

　　C. difficult to defend

　　D. quickly constructed

　　答案详解：

　　1. D) 根据阅读短文可知，作者主要描述了北美地区不同印第安部落的不同的生活方式。故选项D为正确答案。