I was walking along Orchard Road when I realized a tall young man wearing a jacket and tie was following me. I noticed him because not many people wear a jacket and tie in the middle of a hot summer day, and I had already seen this man four times that afternoon.

To make sure he was following me, I walked on quickly, turned right into a shopping center and then stopped to look in a shop window. Soon the man appeared and stopped at another shop window. I walked on and stopped several times. When I stopped , he stopped too.

I began to be rather worried and decided to try to lose this strange man. When I saw a taxi coming, I jumped into it. As I was telling the taxi driver where to go, I found the man get into another taxi, which then followed mine. As the two taxies slowly made their way along Orchard Road, I looked back at the taxi behind, and saw that the stranger was looking out at me. At MRT station, I told the taxi driver to stop and I got out. As I was paying my fare, I saw the man was getting out of his taxi.

By now I got angry, so I turned and walked straight to him. I asked him why he was following me. At first he said he was not following me at all, but when I threatened(威胁) to call the police, he admitted he was. He then told me that he was a journalist(news reporter) and that he was writing an article on how elderly people in Singapore spend their time. He said he was observing me to gather materials for his article.

What is strange about the man who followed the writer?

A. He seemed to be wearing too much.

   B. He was out on such a hot day.

   C. He walked quickly behind.

  D. He was a tall young man.

Why did the writer get into a taxi?

   A. To test the young man.     B. To lose the young man.

   C. To call the police.         D. To get home earlier.

What did the stranger do when the writer jumped into a taxi?

   A. He got into another taxi.

   B. He tried to stop the taxi.

   C. He almost gave up following him.

   D. He made his way along Orchard Road.

How did the writer have the stranger admit he was following him?

   A. He threatened to take him to the police.

   B. He called the police.

   C. He said he would call the police.

   D. He talked to the police.

Why did the stranger follow the writer?

   A. He was interested in elderly people.

   B. He often does such things.

   C. He was writing a book about old people.

   D. He needed materials for his article.

A Strange Greeting, a True Feeling Last week I was invited to a doctor’s meeting at the Ruth hospital for incurables. In one of the wards a patient, an old man, got up shakily from his bed and moved towards me. I could see that he hadn't long to   1   , but he came up to me and placed his right foot close mine on the floor.

    “Frank！” I cried in astonishment. He couldn’t   2  , as I knew, but all the time   3   his foot against mine.

    My   4   raced back more than thirty years to the   5   days of 1941, when I was a student in London. The   6   was an air-raid shelter, in which I and about hundred other people slept every night. Two of the regulars were Mrs. West and her son Frank.

      7   wartime problems, we shelter-dwellers got to   8   each other very well. Frank West   9   me because he wasn’t   10  , not even at birth. His mother told me he was 37 then, but he had   11   of a mind than a baby has. His “  12  ” consisted of rough sounds——sounds of pleasure or anger and   13   more. Mrs. West, then about 75, was a strong, capable woman, as she had to be, of course, because Frank   14   on her entirely. He needed all the   15   of a baby.

    One night a policeman came and told Mrs. West that her house had been flattened by a 500-pounder. She   16   nearly everything she owned.

    When that sort of thing happened, the rest of us helped the   17   ones. So before we   18   that morning, I stood beside Frank and   19   my right foot against his. They were about the same size. That night, then, I took a pair of shoes to the shelter for frank. But as soon as he saw me he came running and placed his right foot against mine. After that, his   20   to me was always the same.

1．A．work         B．stay   C．live   D．expect

2．A．answer       B．speak C．smile        D．laugh

3．A．covering     B．moving     C．fighting    D．pressing

4．A．minds        B．memories  C．thoughts   D．brains

5．A．better         B．dark  C．younger          D．old

6．A．cave          B．place C．sight         D．scene

7．A．Discussing        B．Solving    C．Sharing           D．Suffering

8．A．learn from        B．talk to      C．help         D．know

9．A．needed      B．recognized       C．interested        D．encouraged

10．A．normal           B．common   C．unusual           D．quick

11．A．more       B．worse       C．fewer       D．less

12．A．word       B．speech      C．sentence          D．language

13．A．not          B．no     C．something       D．nothing

14．A．fed          B．kept  C．lived        D．depended

15．A．attention         B．control     C．treatment        D．management

16．A．lost         B．needed      C．destroyed        D．left

17．A．troublesome     B．unlucky    C．angry       D．unpopular

18．A．separated        B．went  C．reunited          D．returned

19．A．pushed     B．tried  C．showed           D．measured

20．A．nodding          B．greeting    C．meeting          D．acting

My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.

The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.

I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed (揭示) a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”

Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.

The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.

A．he wanted to work in the centre of London

B．he could no longer afford to live without one

C．he was not interested in any other available job

D．he had received some suitable training

The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.

A．he often traveled underground       B．he had written many poems

C．he could deal with difficult situations    D．he had worked in a company

The length of his interview meant that _________.

A．he was not going to be offered the job

B．he had not done well in the intelligence test

C．he did not like the interviewer at all

D．he had little work experience to talk about

What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?

A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be.   B．How difficult it is to be a poet.

C．How unsuitable he was for the job. D．How badly he did in the interview.

What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?

A. He was very aggressive.   B. He was unhappy with his job.

C. He was quite inefficient. D. He was rather unsympathetic.

My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.

The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.

I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed (揭示) a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”

Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.

The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.

A．he wanted to work in the centre of London

B．he could no longer afford to live without one

C．he was not interested in any other available job

D．he had received some suitable training

The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.

A．he often traveled underground       B．he had written many poems

C．he could deal with difficult situations    D．he had worked in a company

The length of his interview meant that _________.

A．he was not going to be offered the job

B．he had not done well in the intelligence test

C．he did not like the interviewer at all

D．he had little work experience to talk about

What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?

A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be.   B．How difficult it is to be a poet.

C．How unsuitable he was for the job. D．How badly he did in the interview.

What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?

A. He was very aggressive.   B. He was unhappy with his job.

C. He was quite inefficient. D. He was rather unsympathetic.

A Strange Greeting, a True Feeling Last week I was invited to a doctor’s meeting at the Ruth hospital for incurables. In one of the wards a patient, an old man, got up shakily from his bed and moved towards me. I could see that he hadn't long to   1   , but he came up to me and placed his right foot close mine on the floor.

 “Frank！” I cried in astonishment. He couldn’t   2  , as I knew, but all the time   3   his foot against mine.

My   4   raced back more than thirty years to the   5   days of 1941, when I was a student in London. The   6   was an air-raid shelter, in which I and about hundred other people slept every night. Two of the regulars were Mrs. West and her son Frank.

      7   wartime problems, we shelter-dwellers got to   8   each other very well. Frank West   9   me because he wasn’t   10  , not even at birth. His mother told me he was 37 then, but he had   11   of a mind than a baby has. His “  12  ” consisted of rough sounds——sounds of pleasure or anger and   13   more. Mrs. West, then about 75, was a strong, capable woman, as she had to be, of course, because Frank   14   on her entirely. He needed all the   15   of a baby.

One night a policeman came and told Mrs. West that her house had been flattened by a 500-pounder. She   16   nearly everything she owned.

When that sort of thing happened, the rest of us helped the   17   ones. So before we   18   that morning, I stood beside Frank and   19   my right foot against his. They were about the same size. That night, then, I took a pair of shoes to the shelter for frank. But as soon as he saw me he came running and placed his right foot against mine. After that, his   20   to me was always the same.

1．A．work            B．stay            C．live            D．expect

2．A．answer          B．speak         C．smile          D．laugh

3．A．covering        B．moving          C．fighting         D．pressing

4．A．minds         B．memories       C．thoughts        D．brains

5．A．better            B．dark           C．younger            D．old

6．A．cave             B．place          C．sight                  D．scene

7．A．Discussing        B．Solving      C．Sharing             D．Suffering

8．A．learn from         B．talk to        C．help               D．know

9．A．needed            B．recognized  C．interested          D．encouraged

10．A．normal            B．common    C．unusual          D．quick

11．A．more             B．worse        C．fewer                  D．less

12．A．word            B．speech       C．sentence           D．language

13．A．not               B．no          C．something         D．nothing

14．A．fed               B．kept        C．lived             D．depended

15．A．attention           B．control       C．treatment          D．management

16．A．lost               B．needed       C．destroyed          D．left

17．A．troublesome     B．unlucky      C．angry                  D．unpopular

18．A．separated        B．went          C．reunited                 D．returned

19．A．pushed          B．tried        C．showed                 D．measured

20．A．nodding          B．greeting      C．meeting            D．acting