阅读理解。
Three rich ladies met every day by the river. They sat there and talked the whole day. Once the three ladies
quarreled. One of them said. "Look, how white and beautiful my hands are!" Another one said, "My hands are
more beautiful." The third one said, "Mine are the most beautiful ones." An old beggar woman came up to them.
"Beautiful ladies," she said, "I'm old and can't work, I'm hungry. Please give me something to eat."
But the three ladies gave her nothing. They only asked, "Tell me, old woman, which one of us has the most
beautiful hands?"
A peasant (农民) woman was also sitting by the river. She was poor and her hands were rough be-cause of
hard work. The old woman came up to her and said, "I'm hungry. Please give me something to eat." The peasant
woman took out her only cake she had and gave her a half.
The old woman ate it and drank some water. Then she took the peasant woman by the hand, brought her
before the rich ladies and said, "Now, I shall tell you whose hands are the most beautiful. The hands of the poor
peasant woman are rough because of work, but they give us food; they are far more beautiful than your hands
which have never done anything."
1. The three ladies _____.
A. had a quarrel every day
B. were rich but unkind
C. had a talk about their hands every day
D. lived by the side of the river
2. The old woman asked for something to eat, _____.
A. but none of the three rich ladies gave anything to her
B. but only one of the three ladies gave her half a cake
C. because she wanted to know whose hands were beautiful
D. because she wanted to know which lady was the richest
3. The peasant woman's hands were not so white as the three ladies' _____.
A. because of the hard work she had done
B. but she was stronger than any of them
C. so she didn't quarrel with the three ladies
D. but she was more beautiful than any of them
4. The old woman said that the peasant woman's hands were more beautiful than the three ladies' because
_____.
A. she liked dark hands better than white hands
B. the peasant woman gave her half a cake
C. her hands had worked hard to provide food for people
D. the three ladies didn't give her anything to eat
5. Which of the following is the best tide for the passage?
A. Half a Cake
B. A Peasant Woman's Hands
C. The Rich Woman's Hands
D. Smooth (光滑的) Hands and Rough Hands
nothing before falling. 
