The man sitting opposite Robert was the Financial Controller. Everybody called him “the FC” for short. He made all the decisions about money. Robert needed some more. That was why he had to see him. The two men did not get on very well. In fact, they had always disliked each other.
“Your request is out of the question,” the FC said. Robert had difficulty in controlling himself, but he managed somehow. He explained that he wanted the money in order to make more programmes.
“And why do you want to do that?” the FC asked sharply. Again, Robert almost lost his temper. “Because more and more people are listening to my department’s programmes. There’s great demand for them,” he answered.
The FC did not seem to believe him. But Robert had a report on the numbers of listeners to all EBC programmes. The FC became less confident. Robert threw the report down on the table and told him to read it.
The FC looked at it in silence. The figures (数字) proved that he had been wrong, but he did not want to admit it. “Well,” he finally said, “I may have made a small mistake.” Robert noticed the word “may.” He got up to leave. But he had the feeling that he would get the money after all.
【小题1】In the story the Financial Controller was a person who was in charge of

A.Robert’s department’s programmesB.EBC programmes
C.EBC moneyD.both B and C
【小题2】 “Your request is out of the question.”Here “out of the question”means
A.without any questionB.with some question
C.impossibleD.possible
【小题3】Robert decided to make more programmes because
A.he wanted to meet the needs of the listeners
B.“the FC” disliked him
C.the members of his department wanted him to do so
D.he wanted to show himself off
【小题4】Why were more and more people listening to Robert’s programmes?
A.Because he always lost his temper (脾气)
B.Because he disliked “the FC”
C.Because the programmes were rich and to the taste of the listeners
D.We don’t know
【小题5】Who do you think won the argument(争论)in the end?
A.The Financial Controller B.RobertC.NobodyD.The listeners

I am a German by birth and descent. My name is Schmidt. But by education I am quite as much an Englishman as a 'Deutscher', and by affection much more the former. My life has been spent pretty equally between the two countries, and I flatter myself I speak both languages without any foreign accent.

I count England my headquarters now: it is “home” to me. But a few years ago I was resident in Germany, only going over to London now and then on business. I will not mention the town where I lived. It is unnecessary to do so, and in the peculiar experience I am about to relate I think real names of people and places are just as well, or better avoided.

I was connected with a large and important firm of engineers. I had been bred up to the profession, and was credited with a certain amount of “talent”; and I was considered—and, with all modesty, I think I deserved the opinion—steady and reliable, so that I had already attained a fair position in the house, and was looked upon as a “rising man”. But I was still young, and not quite so wise as I thought myself. I came close once to making a great mess of a certain affair. It is this story which I am going to tell.

Our house went in largely for patents—rather too largely, some thought. But the head partner's son was a bit of a genius in his way, and his father was growing old, and let Herr Wilhelm - Moritz we will call the family name—do pretty much as he chose. And on the whole Herr Wilhelm did well. He was cautious, and he had the benefit of the still greater caution and larger experience of Herr Gerhardt, the second partner in the firm.

Patents and the laws which regulate them are strange things to have to do with. No one who has not had personal experience of the complications that arise could believe how far these spread and how involved they become. Great acuteness as well as caution is called for if you would guide your patent bark safely to port—and perhaps more than anything, a power of holding your tongue. I was no chatterbox, nor, when on a mission of importance, did I go about looking as if I were bursting with secrets, which is, in my opinion, almost as dangerous as revealing them. No one, to meet me on the journeys which it often fell to my lot to undertake, would have guessed that I had anything on my mind but an easy-going young fellow's natural interest in his surroundings, though many a time I have stayed awake through a whole night of railway travel if at all doubtful about my fellow-passengers, or not dared to go to sleep in a hotel without a ready-loaded gun by my pillow. For now and then - though not through me - our secrets did ooze out. And if, as has happened, they were secrets connected with Government orders or contracts, there was, or but for the exertion of the greatest energy and tact on the part of my superiors, there would have been, to put it plainly, the devil to pay.

1. The writer preferred to be called ________.

A. a German                         B. an Englishman

C. both a German and an Englishman      D. neither a German nor an Englishman

2.Which of the following words cannot be used to describe the writer?

A. Talented         B. Modest       C. Reliable             D. Wise

3.The head of the company where the writer works is ________.

A. Schmidt          B. Moritz       C. Wilhelm’s father        D. Gerhardt

4. The writer often stayed awake on the train or kept a ready-loaded gun in the hotel, because  ________.

A. some people sometimes let out the secrets of his company

B. the writer occasionally didn’t keep the secrets of his company

C. patents and the laws are strange things to have to do with

D. the secrets were connected with Government orders or contracts

 

 

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