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2017高考英语一轮阅读理解训练（5）及答案 [故事型阅读理解] I still remember—my hands and my fingers still remember—what used to lie in store for us on our return to school from the holidays. The trees in the school yard would be in full leaf again and the old leaves would be lying around like a muddy sea of leaves. “Get that all swept up！” the headmaster would tell us. “I want the whole place cleaned up, at once！” There was enough work there, to last over a week. Especially since the only tools with which we were provided were our hands, our fingers, and our nails. “Now see that it's done properly, and be quick about it，” the headmaster would say to the older pupils, “or you'll have to answer for it！” So at an order from the older boys we would all line up like peanuts about to cut and gather in crops. If the work was not going as quickly as the headmaster expected, the big boys, instead of giving us a helping hand, used to find it simpler to beat us with branches pulled from the trees. In order to avoid these blows, we used to bribe(贿赂) the older boys with the juicy cakes we used to bring for our midday meals. And if we happened to have any money on us, the coins changed hands at once. If we did not do this, if we were afraid of going home with an empty stomach or an empty purse, the blows were redoubled. They hit us so violently and with such evil enjoyment that even a deaf and dumb person would have realized that we were being whipped not so much to make us work harder, but rather to beat us into a state of obedience(服从) in which we would be only too glad to give up our food and money. | 
