Question

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Auctions（拍卖）are public sales of goods conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd gathered in the auction-room to make offers or “bids”, for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods.

Almost all goods of various qualities are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, fruit, vegetables and wines. Auction sales are also useful for land and property, antique（古董）, furniture, pictures, rare books, old china（瓷器）, and works of art.

An auction is usually advertised beforehand with a full description of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by possible buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues（目录）are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a “lot”, is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with Lot 1, and continue with Lot 2, Lot 3 and so on; he may wait until he sees certain dealers in the room and then produces the lots they are likely to be interested in. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible.

The auctioneer must know quite accurately the current market values of the goods he is selling, and he should be acquainted（熟悉）with regular buyers of such goods. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also encourage the rivals among buyers to bid against each other in order to get a high price. It is largely in his advice that a seller will fix a “reserved” price, that is, a price below which the goods cannot be sold. Even the best auctioneer, however, finds it difficult to stop a “knock-out”（连裆拍货）, because dealers illegally arranged beforehand not to bid against each other, but choose one of them as the only bidder, in the hope of buying goods at very low prices. If such a “ knock-out” succeeds, the real auction sale takes place privately afterwards among the dealers.

1. At what prices are auctioned goods usually sold?

A. The reserved prices fixed by sellers.

B. The prices officially approved.

C. the highest prices offered by bidders.

D. The prices the dealers arranged beforehand.

2. Which of the following statements about an auctioneer is NOT true according to the passage?

A. He encourages buyers to bid higher prices.

B. He gives advice to sellers.

C. He should know the current values of the goods on sale.

D. He is a government official.

3. “A reserved price” in the last paragraph means______.

A. a price which an article can be sold at

B. a price below which an article cannot be sold

C. a price fixed by the local government

D. a price acceptable to possible buyers

4. Even the best auctioneer finds it hard to stop a “knock-out” because______.

A. dealers sometimes arranged in advance not to bid against each other

B. he is not familiar with the regular buyers

C. he does not know the values of the goods

D. he has never heard of such a thing

 

Answer 1

答案：1C2D3B4A
解析：