Question

Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or merely go there to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find shelter from a sudden shower.

Whatever the reason, you can soon become totally unaware of your surroundings. The desire to pick up a book with an attractive dust-jacket is irresistible but you might end up with a rather dull book. A book-lover rarely adopts this method of selection. All too often you soon become absorbed in some book or other, and usually it is only much later that you realize you have spent far too much time there and must dash off to keep some forgotten appointment — without buying a book, of course.

This opportunity to escape the realities of everyday life is, I think, the main attraction of a bookshop. There are not many places where it is possible to do this. A music shop is very much like a bookshop. You can wander round such places to your heart’s content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will approach you with the unavoidable greeting: “Can I help you, sir?” You needn’t buy anything you don’t want. In a bookshop an assistant should remain in the background until you have finished browsing. Then, and only then, are his services necessary. Of course, you may want to find out where a particular section is, but when he has led you there, the assistant should retire considerately and look as if he is not interested in selling a single book.

You have to be careful not to be attracted by the variety of books in a bookshop. It is very easy to enter the shop looking for a book on, say, ancient coins and to come out carrying a copy of the latest best-selling novel and perhaps a book about brass-rubbing — something which had only uncertainly interested you up till then. This volume on the subject, however, happened to be so well illustrated and the part of the text you read proved so interesting that you just had to buy it. This sort of thing can be very dangerous. Apart from running up a huge account, you can waste a great deal of time wandering from section to section.

1.What is most likely to happen to a book-lover in a bookshop?

A. Lost in some book, he forgets something else important.

B. Annoyed by the shop assistant, he dashes off for an appointment.

C. Attracted by its cover, he buys some book turning out to be a dull one.

D. Unsatisfied with its surroundings, he leaves the shop without buying a book.

2.In the author’s opinion, a shop assistant in a bookshop is supposed to ________.

A. greet customers in a more suitable manner

B. retire from the job if he has no passion for it

C. leave customers alone before services are needed

D. offer nice services from the very moment customers step into the shop

3.In a bookshop with a diversity of books, you tend to ________.

A. ignore the latest best-selling novel

B. be trapped in a dangerous situation

C. buy some book you are not at all interested in

D. buy other books instead of those you initially want

Answer 1