For many people the subject of hiccups (嗝) is a joke, but for Harry Mendes, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy from Birmingham, it was something quite different.
His hiccups began one Sunday lunchtime and continued day and night for two weeks. After the first week, Harry's parents took him to hospital, but it took another week for the doctors to cure his attack.
Harry, who is now back at school, described what happened to him.
"When I began to hiccup, I drank a glass of water but that didn't do any good. That evening I had hiccups every four seconds. We tried everything to stop them. I held my breath and drank cold drinks. My father even tried to give me a shock but that didn't work either."
After a week of sleepless nights, he went to hospital. The doctors took an X-ray of his chest but they couldn't find anything wrong.
"They gave me some medicine and my hiccups slowed down, but it was another week before the medicine worked completely and my hiccups stopped."
Harry was very lucky. The world record holder is the American farmer Charles Osborne, who hiccupped for sixty-eight years. He stopped in 1990 at last, but nobody knows why.
1.Harry's hiccups lasted ____.
A. a week B. fourteen days C. twenty-eight days D. one month
2.His hiccups started after he ____.
A. drank a glass of water B. went to hospital
C. ate an Indian meal D. finished his homework
3.His parents decided to take him to hospital when he ____.
A. hiccupped for four seconds B. held his breath
C. hiccupped at night D. couldn't stop hiccupping
4.His hiccups completely stopped one week after the doctor ____.
A. gave him some medicine B. took an X-ray of his chest
C. gave him a shock D. let him drink cold drinks
5.What does "shock" in this passage mean?
A. 震惊 B. 休克 C. 喷嚏 D. 哈欠
【答案与解析】
打嗝是很常见的生理现象。本文向我们讲述了这样一个小故事:哈利从某一个周日开始打嗝,日夜不停地持续了两个星期。父母将他送到医院,大夫花了一个星期的时间才将其治愈。短文最后说,哈利是幸运的,因为世界记录保持者,查利斯打嗝时间长达六十八年,并且最终也没有查明他打嗝的原因。
1. 选B 由文中第二段"His hiccups began one Sunday lunchtime and continued day and night for two weeks."一句可知His hiccups lasted fourteen days.
2. 选C 标题下的那句话对此题有很大的启示作用。亨利是因为吃了Indian food才开始打嗝的。
3. 选D 去医院的原因应该是不停地打嗝,其它选项提供的理由不充分,也不全面。
4. 选A 亨利服药一周后痊愈,其它方法均无效。
5. 选A 可用"惊吓"治疗打嗝。文中提到"My father even tried to give me a shock but that didn't work either."