A
The Gilroy Garlic(大蒜) Festival started with a “crazy idea” by Dr. Rudy Melone.
In 1978, Melone, the President of Gavilan College in Gilroy, read an article in a newspaper which was about a small town in France. The town hosted a garlic festival every year and regarded itself as the “Garlic Capital of the World”. He doubted that Gilroy’s garlic production and processing were far greater. In fact, Christopher Ranch was then the largest shipper of garlic in the world.
So Melone set about trying to convince Christopher Ranch’s owner Don Christopher, to host a garlic festival of their own. At first, the idea seemed crazy. Outside of Italian families, garlic at the time was considered an esoteric material. It wasn’t something thought to be normal and it wasn’t something you generally shared in polite company.
But Melone had passion for Gilroy and garlic. He decided to stick to his idea. He and Christopher hired a local cook, Val Filice, to prepare a meal with a few garlicky dishes. They invited local media and food writers as well. The meal was a success, and the city leaders agreed to support them.
The first Gilroy Garlic Festival was held at Bloomfield Ranch in 1979. Rudy Melone served as the president; Don Christopher supplied all the garlic from his farm; and Val Filice was the head chef. They got about 50 community volunteers to help them and decided to give all profits back to the community. Festival organizers weren’t sure at first if anyone would come, but were quickly shocked by the number of visitors. Despite all the chaos, the first Gilroy Garlic Festival served over 15，000 guests and produced D|S19，000 for the local community.
To date, the Gilroy Garlic Festival has given the city of Gilroy a sense of true community pride as well as worldwide recognition. Not bad for one man’s crazy idea!
【解题导语】 本文主要介绍了吉尔罗伊大蒜节的由来。
1．What is Christopher Ranch?
A．A ship. B．A farm.
C．A shop. D．A businessman.
B 解析：推理判断题。根据第二段的“...the largest shipper of garlic in the world.”和第三段的“Christopher Ranch’s owner Don Christopher”以及第五段的“garlic from his farm”可知，Christopher Ranch是一个农场。
2. What does the underlined word “esoteric” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A．Very expensive. B．Very strange.
C．Very ordinary. D．Very popular.
B 解析：词义猜测题。根据第三段的“It wasn’t someting...shared in polite company.”可知，大蒜在当时被认为是很奇怪的东西，并不受欢迎。由此可推断，画线词意为“稀奇的；古怪的”。
3．What can be learned from the first Gilroy Garlic Festival?
A．Its purpose was to attract city leaders.
B．It benefited the local community a lot.
C．Its organizers were certain that no one would come.
D．It made Gilroy become the garlic capital of the world.
B 解析：推理判断题。根据第五段的“...decided to give all profits back to the community.”和本段最后一句话可推断，第一次吉尔罗伊大蒜节的举办为当地社区带来了很大的收益。
4．What is the main purpose of the passage?
A．Spreading the food culture.
B．Praising a man’s crazy idea.
C．Showing the benefits of eating garlic.
D．Introducing the history of Gilroy Garlic Festival.
D 解析：写作意图题。根据文章内容可知，作者写这篇文章的目的是介绍吉尔罗伊大蒜节的历史由来。
