四、阅读理解。
The brush pen, one of the “Four Treasures of the Study”, is an important symbol of traditional Chinese culture. It was invented thousands of years ago, but the earliest pens were just simple sticks or bamboo. It was hard to write smoothly on thin silk.
It is said that Meng Tian, a general of the Qin Kingdom, improved the brush pen. When he led his army to fight, he had to write reports to his king quickly. His old pen was too hard and caused him much trouble, so he wanted to make it better.
One day after hunting, he saw a rabbit's tail leave a soft trail on the ground. He got an idea: “If I tie rabbit hair to a stick, will it be easier to write with?”
At first, the rabbit hair was too smooth to hold ink well. He was disappointed and threw it away. But he never gave up. After rainy days, he found his “invention” wet in a stone hole. The rainwater cleaned the oil from the hair, and the brush worked beautifully on silk. He succeeded at last.
Today, students learn to use brush pens at school. It helps them better understand the beauty of traditional Chinese culture.
(一)根据短文内容，回答问题。
1. Why did Meng Tian want to improve the pen?

2. What gave Meng Tian the idea for a new pen?

(二)根据短文内容，选择正确答案。
()3. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refers to .
A. the rabbit's tail B. the soft trail
C. the new brush pen D. the idea of tying rabbit hair to a stick
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()4. What can we infer from the story?
A. The brush pen was invented by Meng Tian completely on his own.
B. Failure and persistence(坚持) helped Meng Tian succeed in the end.
C. People stopped using the brush pen after modern pens appeared.
D. Meng Tian invented the brush pen just for fun in his free time.
()5. The writer's purpose in writing this passage is to .
A. tell us the history and cultural importance of the brush pen
B. teach us how to make a brush pen with rabbit hair
C. introduce the life story of the general Meng Tian
D. show that ancient Chinese people were good at hunting animals

1. Because his old pen was too hard and caused him much trouble, and he needed to write reports to his king quickly.
2. He saw a rabbit's tail leave a soft trail on the ground after hunting.
3. C
4. B
5. A

1. 细节定位题：根据原文第二段内容，蒙恬带兵作战时需要快速向君主呈交报告，他的旧笔质地过硬，给他带来了很多麻烦，因此他想要改良笔。
2. 细节定位题：根据原文第三段内容，打猎结束后，他看到兔子的尾巴在地面上留下了一道柔软的痕迹，这个场景给了他制作新笔的灵感。
3. 词义指代题：划线词it所在句的前半部分提到蒙恬设想“把兔毛绑在棍子上”，这个新制作出来的物品就是他构思的新毛笔，因此it指代这支新毛笔，对应选项C。
4. 推理判断题：A选项错误，原文说明毛笔数千年前就已经被发明，蒙恬是改良毛笔而非完全独立发明毛笔；B选项，文中提到最初兔毛无法很好地吸附墨水，蒙恬遭遇了失败，但他没有放弃，最终成功改良了毛笔，说明失败和坚持最终帮助他获得成功，表述正确；C选项错误，文章最后提到如今学校里的学生还会学习使用毛笔，人们并没有停止使用毛笔；D选项错误，蒙恬改良毛笔是为了方便快速书写军报，不是出于玩乐，因此选B。
5. 主旨大意题：文章开篇介绍毛笔是文房四宝之一，是中国传统文化的重要象征，接着讲述了蒙恬改良毛笔的相关历史故事，最后说明现在学习使用毛笔能帮助人们感受中国传统文化的美感，整体是向读者介绍毛笔的历史和文化重要性，对应选项A。