Question

Auctions(拍卖) are public sales of goods conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd gathered in the auction-room to make offers or “bids”, for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods.

  Almost all goods of various qualities are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, fruit, vegetables and wines. Auction sales are also useful for land and property, antique(古董), furniture, pictures, rare books, old china(瓷器), and works of art.

  An auction is usually advertised beforehand with a full description of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by possible buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details，catalogues(目标)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 lot1,and continue with lot2,lot3,and so on; he may wait until he sees certain dealers in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in .The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible.

  The auctioneer must know quite accurately the current market values of the goods he is selling, and he should be acquainted (熟悉) with regular buyers of such goods. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also encourage the rivals among buyers to bid against each other in order to get a high price. It is largely in his advice that a seller will fix a “reserved” price, that is, a price below which the goods cannot be sold .Even the best auctioneer, however, finds itお difficult to stop a “knock-out”（连锁拍货, because dealers illegally arranged beforehand not to bid against each other, but choose one of them as the only bidder, in the hope of buying goods at very low prices. It such a “knock-out” succeeds, the real auction sale takes place privately afterwards among the dealers.

1.At what prices are auctioned goods usually sold?

A. The reserved prices fixed by sellers.

B. The prices officially approved.

C. The highest price offered by bidders.

D. The prices the dealers arranged beforehand.

2．Which of the following statements about an auctioneer is NOT true according to the passage?

A. He encourages buyers to bid higher prices.

B. He gives advice to sellers.

C. He should know the current values of the goods on sale.

D. He is a government official.

3． “A reserved price” in the last paragraph means　　   .

A. a price which an article can be sold at

B. a price below which an article cannot be sold

C. a price fixed by the local government

D. a price acceptable to possible buyers

4．Even the best auctioneer finds it hard to stop a “knock-out” because　　   .

A. dealers sometimes arranged in advance not to bid against each other

B. he is not familiar with the regular buyers

C. her does not know the values of the goods

D. he has never heard of such a thing

 

Answer 1

答案：1C2D3B4A
解析：

1、归纳判断题。关于拍卖品，文中说卖主通常有底价（A），拍卖师是经官方批准的（B），有时竞买者会事先串通（D）但通常出价最高者可以买到该拍卖品（第一段末）。 2、归纳判断题。文中提到拍卖师是官方批准的，并没有说他是政府官员。至于其他项，在文章第一段、第四段（It is in his advice that a seller will fix a “reserved” price.）(The auctioneer must know the current market values…)均提到。 3、语义判断题。最后一段上下文对这个短语有清楚的界定，拍卖师劝告卖主定的价，低于这个价该商品不能卖，由此可知其含义是B项。 4、细节判断题。从题文最后部分可知，这种“联合拍货”很难阻止，因为买主事先串通不互相抬价。