题文
To take the apple as a forbidden fruit is the most unlikely story the Christians (基督教徒) ever cooked up. For them, the forbidden fruit from Eden is evil. So when Colu brought the tomato back from South America, a land mistakenly considered to be Eden, everyone jumped to the obvious conclusion. Wrongly taken as the apple of Eden, the tomato was shut out of the door of Europeans.What made it particularly terrifying was its similarity to the mandrake, a plant that was thought to have come from Hell. What earned the plant its awful reputation was its roots which looked like a dried-up human body occupied by evil spirits. Though the tomato and the man were quite different except that both had bright red or yellow fruit, the general population considered them one and the same, too terrible to touch.
Cautious Europeans long ignored the tomato, and until the early 1700s most of the Western people continued to drag their feet. In the 1880s, the daughter of a well-known plant expert wrote that the most interesting part of an afternoon tea at her father's house had been the "introduction of this wonderful new fruit -- or is it a vegetable?" As late as the twentieth century some writers still classed tomatoes with mandrakes as an "evil fruit".
But in the end tomatoes carried the day. The hero of the tomato was an American named Robert Johnson, and when he was publicly going to eat the tomato in 1820, people journeyed for hundreds of miles to watch him drop dead. "What are you afraid of?" he shouted. "I'll show you fools these things are good to eat!" Then he bit into the tomato. Some people fainted. But he survived and, according to a local story, set up a tomato-canning factory.
小题1:The tomato was shut out of the door of early Europeans mainly because _______.A．it made Christians evilB．it was the apple of EdenC．it came from a forbidden landD．it was religiously unacceptable小题2:What can we infer from the underlined part in Paragraph 3?A．The process of ignoring the tomato slowed down.B．There was little progress in the study of the tomato.C．The tomato was still refused in most western countries.D．Most western people continued to get rid of the tomato.小题3:What is the main reason for Robert Johnson to eat the tomato publicly?A．To make himself a hero.B．To remove people's fear of the tomato.C．To speed up the popularity of the tomato.D．To persuade people to buy products from his factory.小题4:What is the main purpose of the passage?A．To challenge people's fixed concept of the tomato.B．To give an explanation to people's dislike of the tomato.C．To present the change of people's attitudes to the tomato.D．To introduce the establishment of the first tomato-canning factory. 题型：未知 难度：其他题型
答案
小题1:D
小题2:C
小题3:B
小题4:C
解析
本文主要讲的是西红柿在刚开始进入西方社会的时候，被人们认为是禁果，不能食用。这样的情况持续了很久，后来在一些勇敢者尝试了以后，被人们所接受。主要讲述的是人们对西红柿的态度的转换。
小题1:D 推理题。根据文章第一段For them, the forbidden fruit from Eden is evil. So when Colu brought the tomato back from South America, a land mistakenly considered to be Eden, everyone jumped to the obvious conclusion. Wrongly taken as the apple of Eden, the tomato was shut out of the door of Europeans.可知在基督教里吧tomato当成了禁果，这主要是因为宗教方面的原因，故D正确。
小题2:C 推理题。根据本句Cautious Europeans long ignored the tomato, and until the early 1700s most of the Western people continued to drag their feet.可知谨慎的欧洲人仍然忽视了西红柿，知道18世纪早期人们仍然持有这样的观点，也就是西红柿是禁果，不能食用。故C正确。
小题3:B 推理题。根据文章最后三行"What are you afraid of?" he shouted. "I'll show you fools these things are good to eat!" Then he bit into the tomato. Some people fainted. But he survived and, according to a local story, set up a tomato-canning factory.可知他这样做是为了告诉人们西红柿可以吃，是为了去除人们的偏见。故B正确。
小题4:C 主旨大意题。本文主要讲的是西红柿在刚开始进入西方社会的时候，被人们认为是禁果，不能食用。这样的情况持续了很久，后来在一些勇敢者尝试了以后，被人们所接受。主要讲述的是人们对西红柿的态度的转换。故C正确。
点评：主要讲述的是人们对西红柿的态度的转换。测试考生在阅读基础上的逻辑推理能力，要求考生根据文章所述事件的逻辑关系，对未说明的趋势或结局作出合理的推断；或根据作者所阐述的观点理论，对文章未涉及的现象、事例给以解释。考生首先要仔细阅读短文，完整了解信息，准确把握作者观点。
考点
据考高分专家说，试题“To take the apple as.....”主要考查你对 [政治经济类阅读 ]考点的理解。政治经济类阅读
政治经济类文章的概念：
要做好这类阅读，平时就要注意了解国内外发生的政治经济大事，掌握一定背景知识，对这类文章的叙述特点及内容安排有一定了解，还要扩展这方面的词汇。阅读这类文章，要抓住文章的核心，即文章整体和各段主要在说什么，也要注意段落之间的逻辑关系。
如何备考政治经济类阅读理解题：
【题型说明】政治经济类阅读文章是高考常选材料之一。该类文章时代气息浓郁，语言鲜活，但熟字新义词、超纲词及专业词语多，长句、难句多。政治类文章大多数是同学们感性趣的内容，读起来倒有似曾相识的感觉，经济类文章读起来就像是雾里看花，文章看完，一头雾水。再加之这类文章的命题侧重于词义猜测、推理判断和文章主旨，同学们对这类题材是望而生畏。
【备考策略】建立心理优势。针对不同体裁的文章，我们要采取相应的阅读方法和技巧。政治类文章多采用记叙文形式，我们可采取“顺读法”，以便抓关键语句，领会文章主旨；而经济类文章则多采用说明文形式，我们则可以采取“逆读法”，先读试题，再从文章中查找有用信息。若遇到的确难读的材料。千万不用着急，因为你觉得难，其他人也一定是同感。在高考前，我们就要有这种心理准备，高考试卷肯定有一、两篇难以阅读的材料。不过，我们平时可以有意识地从报刊杂志上找一些较难的阅读材料来阅读，以培养自己迎难而上的心理素质。
【答题方法】
1、寻找主干：
根据英语中五种基本句型结构，把句子中的主语、谓语、宾语、表语等主要成分找出来，其他成分如定语、状语、补语等则易于理解。找到了句子主干，句子的意思至少明白了一半。
2、剔除从句：
在一个长句中可能会出现若干个从句，在理解时，如果把各个从句剔除出来单独理解，然后把大意拼凑起来，整个长句的意思就会明白六、七分。
3、辨别分句：
一个长句如果是由几个并列、转折、递进、对比关系的分句组成，句中往往有表示这些分句关系的连接词，只要能弄清楚分句和分句之间的逻辑关系，再把各层分句的意思加以连贯，整个长句的句意基本上能跃然脑中。
4、寻找关键词：
如果一个句子看完，一点句意的感觉也没有，下下策就是抓住句中的关键词，通过关键词大体弄懂这个长句的意思。
