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中考英语专项突破：阅读理解精练（8）

New York is one of the last large American cities to have some of its policemen on horseback. The New York police have 170 horses working in certain parts of the city. The horses are expensive to feed, but it is even more expensive to look after them. Because the horses must walk on the streets, they need special horseshoes. In fact , they need more than 8,000 of them each year. Every police horse in New York gets new shoes every month. Keeping these shoes in good repair is the job of six blacksmiths. There are only about thirty-five of these blacksmiths in the whole United States.

The cost of shoing a horse is between twenty dollars and thirty-five dollars, and it takes a good blacksmith two or three hours to do the job.

A blacksmiths job is not an easy one. He must be able to shape a shoe from a piece of metal and then fit it to the horses foot. The blacksmith must bend over all the time when he is fitting the shoe and must hold the weight of the horses leg while he works. Clearly, a blacksmith must be very storng. But even more important, he must be able to deal with horses---for before the blacksmith can begin his work, he has to get the horse to lift its leg.

One of the blacksmiths in New York is James Corbin. He came to the country from Ireland in 1948. He not only makes horseshoes for the police but also works for a group of horse owners near the city. Corbin became interested in blacksmithing because his father did it, and,as the puts it, Its a good way to make a living.

1. According to the reading passage, a blacksmith must be likely a______ man.

A. clever B. rich C. strong D. lucky

2. James Corbin became a blacksmith because he__________.

A. was interested in horses B. was needed by the policemen

C. drew a picture of the horseshoe D. had a make a living

3. In the reading passage to shape a shoe is to__________.

A. fit it on the horses foot

B. use it for two or three hours

C. make the from of a horseshoe from a piece of metal

D. draw a picture of the shoe

4. The best title for the passage is __________.

A. Policemen on Horseback B. Blacksmiths and Horseshoeing