Way back in Victorian times, around 1872,Christina Rossetti wrote a collection of nursery rhymes entitled Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book, and in it she composed (创作) all sorts of neat little poems that were favorably received. British author Lewis Carroll, a friend of the Rossetti family, lauded the poems, and the public was particularly pleased by the illustrations.

Some of the poems improve children’s mind and character;some are memory aids for learning about numbers, time and colors; others deal with nature, including wind, rain, growth, and death. Rossetti’s delightful poems have a kind of simplicity and effortlessness that audiences today still appreciate. They refresh our memories of being a kid.

Why is the sky blue? Will my head explode if I think too much? You used to ask such fun questions when you were a little one, right? Hey, we all did. And that’s kind of what makes being a kid so cool. In fact, kids often try their hardest to come up with the silliest questions that will inspire a little laughter from others. It’s kind of their duty as kids.

“Who has seen the wind?” It is a silly question, isn’t it? But Rossetti can break nature down for us in a way that not only makes sense but sounds nice, too. The poem reopens our days of innocent imagination.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you.

But when the leaves hang trembling,

The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I.

But when the trees bow down their heads,

The wind is passing by.

The poem opens with the title that asks, “Who has seen the wind?” The speaker informs us that neither she nor anyone else has ever seen it. But we do see the leaves “trembling,” which informs us that the wind is passing through. The speaker then repeats the same question. The answer remains the same, but when the trees “bow down their heads,” we again realize that the wind is passing by.

【小题1】What does the underlined word “lauded” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Discovered.	B．Praised.
C．Wrote.	D．Hid.

【小题2】Where can you find the introduction to the collection’s themes?

A．In Paragraph 1.	B．In Paragraph 2.
C．In Paragraph 3.	D．In Paragraph 4.

【小题3】How does the author look at kids’ silly questions?

A．It is natural for kids to ask them.

B．There is no need to answer them.

C．They are harmful to kids’ growth.

D．They often annoy others.

【小题4】How do we know the existence of the wind according to Rossetti?

A．By learning from adults.

B．By feeling the moving air.

C．By watching the movements of trees.

D．By listening to the sounds of the wind.