Question

Some time ago, I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn’t think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended , as there are a whole lot of antique（古董）shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception（接待）. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.

　　The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth ---- so I decided that my approach must be wrong.

　　I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper,“Would you like to buy a chair?”He looked it over carefully and said,“Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?”“Twenty pounds,”I said.“OK,”he said,“I’ll give you twenty pounds.”“It ‘s got a slightly broken leg,”I said.“Yes, I saw that, it's nothing.”

　　Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited.“What will you do with it?”I asked.“Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.”“I'll buy it,”I said. “What do you mean？ You’ve just sold it to me,”he said.“Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I'm sorry, I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.”“Your must be crazy,”he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped.“I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.”“You’re right,”I said.“And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, Would you mend this chair for me　I wouldn't have agreed to do it,”he said.“We don’t do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?”He was a very nice man and was greatly amused（感到有趣）by the whole thing.

We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer ________.

　　A. was rather impolite              B. asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair

　　C. was warmly received          　D. asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair

The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper ________.

　　A. changed his mind　　　　　　　 B. accepted the offer

　　C. saw the writer’s purpose　　　　　D. decided to help the writer

How much did the writer pay?

　　A. ￡ 5.　　　　B. ￡ 7.　　　　 C. ￡ 20.　　　　D. ￡ 27.

From the text, we can learn that the writer was ________

A. honest　　　　B. careful　　　　C. smart　　　　 D. funny

Answer 1

【小题1】D

【小题2】C

【小题3】A

【小题4】C

解析:

【小题1】在第一家商店，店家连看都不看一眼，可见他想请人修椅子被拒绝了，后来在第二、三、四家也被拒绝。

【小题2】　从对方的回答“我知道你想干啥，你想让我帮你修椅子”可知他的计谋被识破。

【小题3】“我”主动提出给七英镑作为维修费，而“他”很好（a very nice man），提出“fiver”，可见它的意思是五英镑。

【小题4】　从文中不难看出“我”是什么样的人：随机应变，灵活。