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，根据文意B、C很容易被排除，而A“作者很无礼”，并没有这样的提示，故答案为D。

2.这是一道语意猜测题。根据上下文猜词义，作者前四次的境遇基本相同，当他走进第五个店时“I entered … with a plan… Would you like to buy a chair?”我们知道他这次改变了方法，不再说修理，而是问店主是否愿意买他的椅子，所以答案应该是D，“做事的方式”。

3.这也是一道猜词义题，根据“the penny dropped”的前后店主所说的话“You must be crazy”，店主认为作者给他27磅买自己的椅子是不可理喻的，但是很快他又说“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钱买自己

的椅子，而是希望他能帮他修理椅子，这才是他的目的。答案为C。

4.这是一道细节题。fiver意思是五英镑钞票，文章倒数第二句说明作者须付五英镑的劳务费。答案为A。

5.这是一道概括总结题。纵观全文，作者在前四次碰壁后，马上调整一下自己的行为方式，最终达到了自己的目的，说明他很聪明。答案为C。