1 / 26 句0 词已学
【完形填空】Cloze: The Ferryman's Farewell
Chen Wei had been ferrying people across the strait for 27 years when he first (1) a young girl on the pier.
She was holding a disposable camera, aiming its lens at a rusted turret that had not fired a shot (2) 1978.
"You missed the ferry," he called out. "By four minutes." She did not answer, but just kept pressing the shutter, as (3) the pier itself might eject her at any moment.
Chen liked to say that his profession was mostly a conversation with weather. He could quote the wind speed from memory; he could read the (4) of a storm in the colour of the water. But he could not read his own body.
In March 2019, a doctor told him his immune system had begun to (5) its own instructions—a lethal misreading of cells.
"You have maybe 14 months of adequate mobility," the doctor said. "Possibly 20." Chen laughed. He thought it was a trivial joke. It was not.
He kept working. In 2020, he enrolled in a clinical trial. The drug, designed to counteract the inflammation, cost 41,000 yuan per month, covered partly by a charity. The side effects were brutal. His hands would bounce against the wheel; his cognition would (6) at dusk.
"You cannot conduct a ferry in this condition," his wife, Liu Min, told him. "You will kill someone." He ignored her. He owed the strait something, he said. He had ferried 1.2 million passengers across it. He had carried brides, corpses, immigrants, parliament members. He had carried himself.
By 2021 the disease had (7). He could no longer traverse the 6.4-kilometre route without a siesta. He hired a young mate, Zhou Kai, 24, who was excellent with engines but insecure with people.
"The passengers deserve a captain who can stand," Zhou said one morning. Chen stared at him. "The passengers," Chen said, "deserve a captain who knows the water." But the numbers did not favour him. His percentage of safe crossings had dropped from 99.8 to 94.1. The port authority sent a letter: his licence would be suspended (8) he passed a physical. His status, once privileged, was now a liability.
So he trained Zhou. For six months, Chen sat beside him, pointing at currents, naming every rock. "Beware the third buoy," he said. "It (9)." He taught Zhou to harness the tide, to read the facade of the sky, to feel the boat's motion before the boat felt it. Zhou learned.
In June 2022, Chen passed the wheel for the last time. He stood on the pier and watched the ferry pull away. The engine's sound was familiar, then faint, then gone. He did not cry. He took a photograph with his phone. "For the journal," he said.
Liu Min found him there an hour later. "You are not the ferry," she said. "You are a man." He nodded. "A man with a deficiency," he said. "A man who cannot conduct his own body." She took his hand. They walked to the car. The tide was coming in. Somewhere across the water, a girl—maybe the same girl—was taking pictures of a sunrise she would never sell. Chen wondered if she had ever (10). He wondered if she knew what it cost. He wondered, briefly, whether the strait would remember him at all. Then he got into the car, and Liu Min drove him home.
Choices
(1) A. spotted B. glimpsed C. observed D. witnessed
(2) A. since B. for C. from D. in
(3) A. though B. if C. when D. because
(4) A. magnitude B. size C. force D. scale
(5) A. violate B. obey C. ignore D. follow
(6) A. brighten B. sharpen C. clear D. fog
(7) A. escalated B. decreased C. improved D. stabilized
(8) A. unless B. if C. when D. because
(9) A. lies B. guides C. warns D. helps
(10) A. sailed B. traveled C. crossed D. journeyed