题目内容
I went on line to check if my pay was in my bank account(账户). To my amazement I discovered that not only had I been paid, but a company I’d never worked for had also paid me! I know I would have been beside myself (情绪失控) if my own salary was not in my account, so I tried to get the money back to the right person. Easier said than done.
The bank couldn’t help as it “wasn’t a bank problem.” The human-resource department at the company that paid me was unable to help as I didn’t have enough details. I rang the bank again. Thankfully I had a sympathetic call operator who gave me a name, so I again rang the company “Daniel” worked for.
I expected the bank would contact me to arrange to take the money from my account and repay Daniel. I heard nothing for a month and the money remained in my account when Daniel called, explaining he’d tried to get back his money but had been unsuccessful as neither the bank nor his company felt it was their error. He had rung to ask if I could speak to the bank, but after chatting for a few minutes we realized we could probably fix this problem ourselves.
We decided I would take the money from my account and he would pick it up from me. Due to my busy job I was unable to meet Daniel personally but he left me a lovely bottle of wine in exchange for what was rightfully his. I never had any intention of keeping Daniel’s pay but red tape(繁琐手续)made it difficult to do the right thing. It all came down to two people being able to do what a huge bank and a large company couldn’t do — admit a mistake has occurred and fix it.
【小题1】What was the attitude of the author towards the extra money in his bank account?
A.He didn’t know what to do with it. | B.He felt lucky to get it. |
C.He thought of keeping it for himself. | D.He wanted to return it to the right person. |
A.The author and Daniel solved the problem themselves. |
B.It cost Daniel a lovely bottle of wine to get back his money. |
C.The author gave the money back to the company. |
D.The call operator offered to solve their problem. |
A.the bank could solve the problem soon and easily with the red tape |
B.some large organizations usually have troublesome official rules |
C.Daniel didn’t know the error until he contacted the author |
D.it was easy for a company to have a mistake which had occurred fixed |
【小题1】D
【小题1】A
【小题1】B
解析
I have this old clock that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me years ago after mom passed away.
I have mixed feelings about having the clock. I love it because it was my mom’s, but it also holds some bad memories.
You see, it chimes. It counts out the hour and rings once on the half hour. Or at least it used to. Now you never know what number it will ring.
When my mother was at home dying from cancer, she asked for the clock to be unplugged. Hearing the hours count down really angered and frightened her.
Mom passed away. I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.
I took it to a local clock shop the other day.
“I know this has no particular value as a clock, but it was my mom’s and I need to get it fixed,” I said to the shop owner.
I went on to describe the problem.
“We get a lot of these in,” he told me. “Here’s what I do. We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery-operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically,” he told me.
“You can’t fix this?”
“No, we don’t have the time nor the parts.”
I thanked him and went home. I called a few other places and was told the same thing.
“How incredibly sad,” I told the last one disappointedly.
How incredibly sad that we have become a society that replaces craftsmanship with convenience and easy fixes. We copy the original instead of creating something new. We duplicate (复制); we don’t originate (发明).
Sadly, the same goes for our attitude to life itself.
Each of us is an original, one of a kind. But we find it so much easier to copy another style than to develop our own.
We are wannabes (崇拜别人的人) rather than hey-world-look-at-mes.
We fail to see the real value in who we are, so we spend our lives trying to be someone else.
【小题1】 Why did the author decide to get the clock fixed?
A.Because it was a really old and valuable clock. |
B.Because it was the only thing that her mother had left her. |
C.Because it brought her memories of being with her mother. |
D.Because it left the author with mixed feelings. |
A.The parts that the clock needed were electronic. |
B.It would cost a lot to repair the clock. |
C.They had never repaired a clock like this before. |
D.They could only make the clock electronic. |
A.criticize the irresponsible clock shop owners |
B.criticize people who do not value things with a history |
C.criticize people who do not have a creative attitude toward life |
D.criticize people’s ignorance of traditional craftsmanship |