Question

When one loves one’s Art no service seems too hard.

Joe was a man with a genius for art. Delia did things in six octaves(音阶) promisingly.

Joe and Delia became in love with one of the other, or each of the other, as you please, and in a short time were married – for (see above), when one loves one’s Art no service seems too hard.

They began housekeeping in a flat. It was a lonesome flat, but they were happy; for they had their Art, and they had each other.

Joe was learning painting in the class of the great Magister — you know his fame. His fees are high; his lessons are light — his high–lights have brought him fame. Delia was studying under Rosenstock — you know his reputation as a disturber of the piano keys.

They were mighty happy as long as their money lasted.

After a while Art flagged. Everything going out and nothing coming in, money was lacking to pay Mr. Magister and Rosenstock their prices. When one loves one’s Art no service seems too hard. So, Delia said she must give music lessons to make the ends meet.

For two or three days she went out looking for pupils. One evening she came home overjoyed “Joe, dear,” she said, cheerfully, “I’ve a pupil. And, oh, the loveliest people! General — General Pinkney’s daughter Clementina — on Seventy-first street.”

“That’s all right for you, Dele,” said Joe, “but how about me? Do you think I’m going to let you work while I play in the regions of high art?”

Delia came and hung about his neck.

“Joe, dear, you are silly. You must keep on at your studies. It is not as if I had quit my music and gone to work at something else. While I teach I learn. I am always with my music.”

“All right,” said Joe. “But I may sell some of my pictures as well.”

The next few weeks, they both busied themselves with their own business and brought back a ten, a five, a two and a one — all legal tender notes — and laid them beside each others’ earnings.

One Saturday evening Joe reached home first. He spread his $18 on the table and washed what seemed to be a great deal of dark paint from his hands.

Half an hour later Delia arrived, her right hand tied up in a shapeless bundle of wraps and bandages.

“How is this?” asked Joe. Delia laughed, but not very joyously. “Clementina,” she explained, “insisted upon a Welsh rabbit(一种奶酪) after her lesson. In serving the rabbit she spilled a great lot of it, boiling hot, over my wrist. Nothing serious, dear.”

“What time this afternoon did you burn your hand, Dele?”

“Five o’clock, I think,” said Dele. “The iron — I mean the rabbit came off the fire about that time.”

“Sit down here a moment, Dele,” said Joe. “What have you been doing for the last few weeks, Dele?” he asked.

She braved it for a moment or two with an eye full of love and stubbornness, but at last down went her head and out came the truth and tears.

“I couldn’t get any pupils,” she wept. “I got a place ironing shirts in that big Twenty-fourth street laundry. A girl in the laundry set down a hot iron on my hand this afternoon. I think I did very well to make up both General Pinkney and Clementina. What made you ever suspect that I wasn’t giving music lessons?”

“I didn’t,” said Joe, “until tonight. And I wouldn’t have then, only I sent up this cotton waste and oil from the engine-room this afternoon for a girl upstairs who had her hand burned with a smoothing-iron. I’ve been firing the engine in that laundry for the last few weeks.”

“And then you didn’t …” said Delia

And then they both looked at each other and laughed, and Joe began:

“When one loves one’s Art no service seems …”

But Delia stopped him with her hand on his lips. “No,” she said – “just ‘When one loves.’”

1.What can we know about the couple from the story?

A. They both became famous for their talents in art.

B. Studying from famous teachers contributed most to their poverty.

C. Art helped them out of the poverty they were faced with.

D. They turned out to be working at the same laundry.

2.What qualities of the couple’s are best conveyed in the story?

A. considerate and giving.

B. faithful and romantic.

C. intelligent and economical.

D. hardworking and loyal.

3.What does the underlined word “flagged” most probably mean?

A. Became weaker.

B. Displayed its power.

C. Went in a wrong direction.

D. Returned to its original condition.

4.Which of the following does NOT give readers a clue that the couple were telling white lies?

A. Joe washed what seemed to be a great deal of dark paint from his hands.

B. Delia’s right wrist was tied up in a shapeless bundle of wraps and bandages.

C. Delia said she must give music lessons to make the ends meet.

D. “The iron – I mean the rabbit came off the fire about that time” said Dele.

5.What can serve as the best title of this story?

A. A Service of Art B. The Love for Art

C. A Service of Love D. No Art No Love

Answer 1