Question

Edward Sims was born in 1892. He was the fifth child and only son of Herbert and Dora Sims. Herbert was a blacksmith(铁匠), and had a thriving trade making horseshoes. He was determined that his first-born son would follow him into the blacksmith. For this reason, Edward had to leave school at the age of 12,and worked with his father.

However, Edward was not cut out to be a blacksmith. Although he has an athletic body, he didn't have strong arms like his father, and he felt dizzy in the heat of the smithy.  When he tried to find alternative employment, he found it difficult because he had never learnt to read or write.

One day, he went for an interview at a solictior’s office. The job was a runner, taking documents from the office to other offices in the city. The solicitor was pleased to see that Edward was physically fit, but when he discovered that the young man couldn't read or write, he decided against employing him. "How can you deliver documents to other offices," he asked, "if you can't read the addresses on them?"

Bitterly disappointed, Edward left the building and went to wait for a tram to take him back to the suburb where his father’s smithy was. Next to the bus stop, a man was selling newspapers from a stand .

"Excuse me, son?" he said. "Would you look after my stand for a moment?"

For the next 20 minutes, Edward sold newspapers, lots of them. When the man came back, he was so delighted with his new assistant's honesty, that he offered him a job. Edward took it immediately.

In the next few months, the two men progressed from working on newspaper stands to selling newspapers, tobacco,confectionery（糖果点心）and other goods in a shop. Then they opened a second shop, and a third. Eventually, they had a chain of 25 shops in three cities.

Edward became very rich, so he employed a tutor to teach him to read and write. The tutor  was amazed at what Edward had achieved. "Imagine what you could do if you’d been able to read and write when you were younger!" he said.

“Yes!” said Edward. “I could have run myself to exhaustion delivering documents for a solicitor!”

1.What would be the best title for the text?

A．Success of illiterate newsboy

B．Local blacksmith becomes famous

C．The thriving trade of the blacksmith

D．Reading and writing-the road to success

2.What can you infer from the underlined expression “not cut out to be” in the second paragraph?

A．Edward Sims did not like being a blacksmith.

B．Edward Sims did not like working with his father.

C．Edward Sims was not strong enough and it made him feel ill.

D．Edward Sims was good at it but wanted to do another job.

3.When Edward applied for the job as a runner for a solicitor,        .

A．the solicitor turned him down because he wasn’t intelligent enough

B．the solicitor offered him the job because he was so fit

C．the solicitor gave him the job but told him he had to learn to read

D．the solicitor didn’t offer him the job because he couldn’t read

4.Which of the following is NOT ture about Edward Sims?

A．He was such a good salesman that he went on to own 25 newsagent shops with another man.

B．The newspaperman liked him so much he gave him a job.

C．He ran himself into exhaustion delivering papers.

D．He learnt to read and write.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.A

2.C

3.D

4.C

【解析】

试题分析：本文叙述了美国人名叫Edward是一个文盲，他一开始他想当一名铁匠，后来发现自己的臂力不好，也就不能当铁匠了，于是又去找工作，结果在律师事务所因为他不会读写，结果他被拒绝了。后来他和另一个人一起开了一个店铺，卖报纸，烟及糖果等，结果发了财，在许多城市开了25家连锁店。

1.标题归纳题。根据文中主要说的是Edward，他是一个文盲，但是在一生中做的生意非常兴隆，故选 A。

2.推理判断题。根据Although he has an athletic body, he didn't have strong arms like his father, and he felt dizzy in the heat of the smithy. 可以推知他不是很强壮，这使他生病了，故选C。

3.细节理解题。根据when he discovered that the young man couldn't read or write, he decided against employing him. 因为他不识字，所以没有雇佣他，故选D。

4.细节理解题。根据I could have run myself to exhaustion delivering documents for a solicitor!”这里是虚拟，故选C。

考点：故事类短文阅读。

点评：推理判断题需要考生正确的阅读短文对语篇有个整体的把握。会根据语句之间的逻辑关系、段内的语义关系及篇章的语义关系，从段落、篇章的角度理解文章的主旨、作者的观点和态度。做此类试题要善于抓住某一段话中的关键信息，即某些关键词或短语去分析、推理、判断，利用逆向思维或正面推理，从而推断出这句话所隐含的深层含义。