第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A,B,C,D）中，选出最佳选项。
A
One day, when we had been riding in the burning sun for five hours, we came to a narrow, shaky bridge where a railways crossed a stagnant pond (发臭的池塘)。 For 30 feet there was nothing but the widely-spaced wooden sleepers（枕木）under ore wheels, and nothing to stop us from falling into the steaming bog (沼泽) below if we overbalanced. Right under the bridge lay the bridge and rode straight over, without even slowing down. I stopped.
“What’s up?” he shouted, from the other side.
“I’m not riding over that thing. If I fall, I’ll be there with that cow!”
“There’s nothing to it. I just did it, didn’t I?”
“You’re stronger and taller. My feet can’t touch the ground. You do it for me!”
Mat said strength didn’t come into it and rode off, leaving me staring down into the sickly brown soup. He would be waiting for me around the next corner, but I knew he would give me at least an hour before coming to help. The sun burned my face; sweat ran off my forehead into my eyes and stuck my shirt to my body; mosquitoes flew into my mouth when I breathed. To stand still in this place was to kill myself; anyway, to sit around waiting for Mat to help was more than my feminist (女权主义) pride could take. I rode back along the track a few hundred yards to get a good run-up, and over I went. Mat was right. All the obstacles were in my mind.
The author stopped near the bridge because ______.
She was tired and wanted to have a rest
She found a dead cow under the bridge
She was afraid of falling off the bridge
She didn’t know how to cross the bridge
Why did Mat refuse to help the author?
A. He wanted to finish the journey as soon as possible
B. He felt she should overcome her fear by herself
C. He didn’t believe she was really afraid
D. He knew she was too proud to accept his help
What does the underlined part “sickly brown soup” in the last paragraph refer to?
A. The body of a dead cow        B. The mud on the wheals
C. The dirty water in the pond      D. The author’s food for the journey
59. According to the last paragraph, the author seems to believe that ______.
A. nothing is difficult to the man who will try
B. a friend in need is a friend indeed
C. you can’t make something out of nothing
D. well begun is half done