阅读理解。
That summer an army of crickets (蟋蟀) started a war with my father. Dad didn't care for insects much
more than Mamma, but he could tolerate a few living in the basement. Mamma was a city girl and she said
a cricket was just too noisy. Then to prove her point she wouldn't go to bed. She drank coffee and smoked
my father's cigarettes and paced between the sofa and the TV. Next morning she threatened to pack up and
leave, so Dad drove to the store and hurried back. He sprayed poison from a jug. When he was finished he
told us that was the end of it.
For a couple of weeks we went back to find dead crickets in the laundry. He suggested that we'd all be
better off to hide as many as we could from Mamma. I fed a few dozen to the cat who I didn't like because
he scratched for no reason.
However, soon live crickets started showing up in the kitchen and bathroom. Mamma was upset because
she thought they were the dead crickets come back, but Dad said these were certainly new ones. He fetched
his jug of poison and sprayed all over until the whole house smelled of poison, and then he sprayed the
basement again.
A couple of weeks later, when both live and dead crickets kept turning up, Dad emptied the basement of
junk. Then he burned a lot of old newspapers and magazines which he said the crickets had turned into nests.
While we ate supper that evening, the wind lifted some flames onto the wood pile. The only gasoline was
in the lawn mower's (割草机) fuel tank but that was enough to create an explosion big enough to reach the
house. Once the roof caught, there wasn't much anyone could do.
After the fire trucks left, Mamma took the others to Aunt Gail's. I helped Dad and Uncle Burt carry things
out of the house and pile them by the road. We worked into the night and we didn't talk much, while all around
the noise of crickets broke our silence.
1. What do we know about the author's mother?
A. She didn't like insects at all.
B. She liked insects more than his father.
C. She cared for insects very much.
D. She could only tolerate a few insects.
2. The author's father drove to the store to buy ____.
A. cigarettes for himself
B. more coffee for his wife
C. some poison
D. some gasoline
3. The author fed a few dozen crickets to the cat probably to ____.
A. make his mother happy
B. help clear away the crickets
C. play with the cat
D. harm the cat
4. The author's father burned the old newspapers and magazines because he thought ____.
A. they were no longer useful
B. the crickets were afraid of fires
C. they became the home of crickets
D. the dead crickets came back to life
5. We learn from the last paragraph that ____.
A. the author's family lost their battle against the crickets
B. the author's parents learned to put up with insects
C. the author's family didn't suffer much in the fire
D. the author's parents got divorced

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