Question

Some time ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there are a whole lot of antique(古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception(接待). I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth—so I decided that my approach must be wrong.

  I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, “Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said, “Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?”“Twenty pounds,”I said. “OK,”he said. “I'll give you twenty pounds.”“It's got a slightly broken leg,” I said. “Yes, I saw that, it's nothing.”

Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?” I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.”“I'll buy it,” I said. “What do you mean?” “You've just sold it to me,” he said. “Yes, I know but I've changed my mind. I am sorry. I'll give you twenty?seven pounds for it.” “You must be crazy,”he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.” “You're right,”I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said,‘Would you mend this chair for me?’”“I wouldn't have agreed to do it,”he said. “We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I'll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?” He was a very nice man and was greatly amused(感到有趣) by the whole thing.

1.We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer_________.

A. was rather impolite

B. was warmly received

C. asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair

D. asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair 

2.The underlined word “approach” in the second paragraph means _________.

A. plan for dealing with things

B. decision to sell things

C. idea of repairing things

D. way of doing things 

3.The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper _________.

A. changed his mind

B. accepted the offer

C. saw the writer's purpose

D. decided to help the writer 

4. How much did the writer pay?

A. ￡5.            B. ￡7.              C. ￡20.              D. ￡27.

5. From the text, we can learn that the writer was _________.

A. honest          B. careful           C. smart              D. funny 

Answer 1

1----5   DDCAC    

解析:

1.可用排除法，根據文意B、C很容易被排除，而A“作者很無禮”，并沒有這樣的提示，故答案為D。

2.這是一道語意猜測題。根據上下文猜詞義，作者前四次的境遇基本相同，當他走進第五個店時“I entered … with a plan… Would you like to buy a chair?”我們知道他這次改變了方法，不再說修理，而是問店主是否愿意買他的椅子，所以答案應該是D，“做事的方式”。

3.這也是一道猜詞義題，根據“the penny dropped”的前后店主所說的話“You must be crazy”，店主認為作者給他27磅買自己的椅子是不可理喻的，但是很快他又說“I know what you want.You want me to repair your chair.”表明他明白作者并不是真的自己掏錢買自己

的椅子，而是希望他能幫他修理椅子，這才是他的目的。答案為C。

4.這是一道細節題。fiver意思是五英鎊鈔票，文章倒數第二句說明作者須付五英鎊的勞務費。答案為A。

5.這是一道概括總結題。縱觀全文，作者在前四次碰壁后，馬上調整一下自己的行為方式，最終達到了自己的目的，說明他很聰明。答案為C。