Question

【题目】Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

The Voice in the Box

When I was quite young, my family had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember well the polished the wooden case fastened to the wall on the lower stair landing. But my first personal experience with this genie-in-the-receiver came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench, I hurt my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there didn’t seem to be much use crying, because there was no one home to offer sympathy. I walked around the house, and finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly I ran for the footstool and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver and held it to my ear. “Information Please,” I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

A click or two, and a small, clear voice spoke into my ear, “Information.”

“I hurt my finger…” I cried into the phone. The tears came readily enough, now that I had an audience.

“Isn’t your mother home?” came the question.

“Nobody’s home but me.” I sobbed.

“Are you bleeding?”

“No,” I replied. “I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.”

“Can you open your icebox?” she asked. I said I could. “Then break off a little piece of ice and hold it on your finger. That will stop the hurt. Be careful when you use the icepick(冰锥),” she said, “And don’t cry. You’ll be all right.”

After that, I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was, and the Orinoco, the romantic river that I was going to explore when I grew up. She helped me with my arithmetic, and she told me that my pet chipmunk----I had caught him in the park just the day before----would eat fruit and nuts.

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Answer 1

【答案】There used to be a telephone in the author’s house. One day, the author’s finger was hurt but no one was available to comfort him. Accidently, he dialed the telephone and the answer told him what to do. From then on, he would ask the telephone for help whenever he had difficulties.

【解析】

这是一篇记叙文。作者的家里有一个电话，电话的里面有一个无所不知的Information Please，她给作者很多帮助，也给了他很多安慰，作者和她之间有了很深的友谊。

这是一篇记叙文，首先分析篇章结构：

第一段介绍事件发生的背景①家里有电话②作者手指受伤，没人哭诉。

第二至八段介绍作者与电话里的人第一次交流的全过程：对方教他如何处理受伤的手指。

第九段介绍从此作者几乎什么问题都拨打电话请求Information Please帮忙。

我们将事件发生的背景、原因、经过、结果用分别用一句话表述出来，就可以写成一篇概要。