Question

 

I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照), maybe occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, “Can I have one of those?”  He looked perturbed (不安). “Do you want to try it first?” he said. It didn’t quite sound like a question. “Do I need to?” I replied ,“There is nothing wrong with it？” This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. “No, no. But you should try it,” he said encouragingly. “Compare it with the others.”

 I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.

But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out of my chosen camera from cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers… and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.

Why do we think that new options(选择) still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.

1.The shop assistant insisted that the writer should               

A. try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it.

B. compare the camera he had chosen with the others.

C. get more information about different companies.

D. trust him and stop asking questions.

2.What does the writer mean by “it would be worth half what I paid for it ”(paragraph 2)

A. He should get a 50% discount.

B. The price of the camera was unreasonably high.

C. The quality of the camera was not good.

D. The camera would soon fall in value.

3.The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he                  

A. knew very little about it.

B. didn’t trust the shop assistant.

C. wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best.

D. had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers.

4.I t can be inferred from the passage that in the writer’s opinion,            .

A. people waste too much money on cameras

B. cameras have become an important part of our daily life

C. we don’t actually need so many choices when buying a product

D. famous companies care more about profit than quality

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.B

解析：细节理解题。根据第一段作者与推销员之间的对话，可以了解到，推销员一直在劝说作者试一下机器，并且与其他的机器进行比较。故选择B。

2.D

解析：推理判断题。第二段开头，作者分析了在卖场，自己将会被各种照相机的种类，弄的不知如何选择。但是“But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with”，最终我还是必须选择一款，但是无论选择哪一款都会有两个必定的结果：（1）会立马贬值。(2)会很快有新的产品。所以选择D。

3.C

解析：推理判断题。阅读第四段，可知作者经过内心的思量，明白最后还是得做决定，得买一款，所以还是需要作出明智的决定，就是试一下自己最初选择那一款，从而确定自己的选择。

4.C

解析：推理判断题。最后一段作者分析了人们为什么老是喜欢新的事物，因为旧的事物我们了解了，有局限性，而新的事物会带给我们更多我们没想到的。根据作者在购物的过程中，最终选择了试用自己最初的照相机，所以得出作者的观点是：我们并不需要了解很多新的东西，只要达到自己的最初的要求就行。