The brush pen, one of the “Four Treasures of the Study”, was invented thousands of years ago. However, the oldest pen was just a stick or a piece of bamboo. It was difficult for people to write well on thin silk.

It is said that Meng Tian, a general of the Kingdom (王国) Qin, improved the pen. When Meng was leading an army to fight against the Kingdom of Chu, he had to report the situation to his king in time. But his pen was too hard and caused him much trouble, so he was thinking of ways to improve it.

One day after hunting (狩猎), Meng made his way home with some wild rabbits on the horse back. Fat and heavy, one rabbit’s tail left a long trail (痕迹) on the ground when they moved on. Suddenly a good idea came to his mind when he saw it, “If I tie the rabbit’s hair to a stick, would it be easy to write with?”

On arriving home, he tied the rabbit’s hair to a stick and tried writing with it. But the rabbit’s hair was too smooth to write well and wasted a lot of silk. Meng was so disappointed that he threw away his “invention” into a stone hole in the yard.

However, Meng never gave up and kept trying all the time. A few rainy days later, he happened to find his “invention” fatter in a stone hole. He picked it up with hope. The brush worked beautifully on silk. It turned out that the special water had cleaned the oil from the hair. Meng succeeded at last.

Thanks to Meng, the brush pen is playing a key role in Chinese culture. Today, students are taught to use the brush pens in school. It makes their life more colorful and helps them better understand Chinese culture.

(1). Why did Meng Tian want to improve the pen?

A．	Because the king asked him to do so.	B．	Because he wanted to be an inventor.
C．	Because he didn’t have silk to write on.	D．	Because the pen brought him much trouble.

(2). When did Meng think of the good idea in Paragraph 3?

A．	Before hunting animals.	B．	When he saw the trail.
C．	During cleaning the hair.	D．	After he wrote a report.

(3). Which is the right order of improving the brush pen?

a. The brush pen could write well.

b. Meng tied the rabbit’s hair to a stick.

c. The special water washed the oil away.

d. Meng dropped the stick into a stone hole.

A．

b-d-a-c

B．

d-b-a-c

C．

b-d-c-a

D．

c-d-b-a

(4). How can the students understand Chinese culture better?

A．	By learning to use brush pens.	B．	By playing a role.
C．	By planting more bamboo.	D．	By inventing things.

(5). What can we learn from the passage?

A．	Make friends with animals.	B．	Value fantastic memories.
C．	Keep trying and never give up.	D．	Build a peaceful world.

科目 英语   题型 阅读理解   难度 中等