根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余选项。
A.　Goods for auction (拍卖) sales
　　B.　Definition of bidding
　　C.　Way to sell more goods by auction
　　D.　Auction sales in history
　　E.　Brief introduction to auctions
　　F.　Making a larger profit as an auctioneer
【小题1】______
Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd assembled in the auction-room to make offers, or “bids”, for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called “knocking down” the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer strikes a small hammer on a table at which he stands.
【小题2】 ______
The ancient Roman probably invented sales by auction, and the English word comes from the Latin auction, meaning “increasing”. The Romans usually sold in this way the goods taken in war. In England in the eighteenth centuries, goods were often sold “by the candle”: a short candle was lit by the auctioneer, and bids could be made while it stayed alight.
【小题3】 ______
Practically all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, furs, silk and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property, furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and similar works of art.
【小题4】 ______
An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by potential buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a “lot”, is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with Lot 1 and continue in the order of numbers: he may wait until he notices the fact that certain buyers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in.
【小题5】 ______
The auctioneer’s services are paid for in the form of a percentage of the price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also play on the opponents among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other.

Nancy had just got a secretary’s job in a big company to work in the sales department. Monday was the first day that she went to work, so she was very 　35   . She got up very early and arrived at the office at twenty to eight. She   36　 the door open and found nobody there. “I am the first to arrive.” She thought and came to her desk   37  she was surprised to find a large bunch of flowers on it. They were   38  . She picked up the flowers from the desk and smelled them. “Oh, how lovely!” Nancy cried joyfully. She then   39  for a vase to put them in. “Somebody has sent me flowers the   40  first day!” She thought happily. “But who could it be?” She began to wonder.
The day passed very   41　 and Nancy did everything   42  great interest and enthusiasm. For the following days of the week, the first thing Nancy did was to change water for the flowers. And then she __ 43　 herself in her work.
Then came another Monday. When she came near her desk, she was overjoyed to see a new bunch of flowers there. She quickly put them in the vase, replacing the old ones. The same thing happened again the next Monday. Nancy felt it strange and this time she began to think of ways to find out the 　44　.
On Tuesday afternoon, she was sent to   45　a plan to the general manager's office. She had to stay for a while at his secretary's desk   46  his directives. She happened to see on the desk a big notebook 　47  with “Records of managers' meetings”, and   48  the half-opened pages. Suddenly her eyes fell on these words, “In order to keep the secretaries in high spirits, the company       49   that every Monday morning a bunch of fresh flowers should be sent to each secretary's desk.”
Later, she was told that their general manager was a wise man with the Bachelor of Psychology in Business.