Passage Nine(Holmes’ Knowledge)

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.

  “You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

  “But the Solar System! ” I protested.

  “What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.

  One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.

  Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.

  “From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”

  This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it.

1.What is the author’s attitude toward Holmes?

[A]Praising.        B.Critical.            [C]Ironical.             [D]Distaste.

2.What way did the author take to stick out Holmes’ uniqueness?

[A]By deduction.       B.By explanation.         [C]By contrast.          [D]By analysis.

3.What was the Holmes’ idea about knowledge-learning?

[A]Learning what every body learned.

B.Learning what was useful to you.

[C]Learning whatever you came across.

[D]Learning what was different to you.

4.What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?

[A]One may master the way of reasoning through observation.

B.One may become rather critical through observation and analysis.

[C]One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.

[D]One may become practical through observation and analysis.

A great man married a woman and they had a little lovely girl.

When the little girl was growing up, the man usually hugged her and said, “I love you, little girl.” The Little girl would say, “I’m not a little girl any more.” Then the man would laugh, “But to me, you’ll always be my little girl.”

The little girl later left her home and went into the world. No matter where she was, the man would call her and say, “I love you, little girl.”

One day the little girl received an unexpected phone call. The great man became ill. He couldn’t talk, smile, walk, hug or dance.

So she went to the side of the great man. He looked at her and tried to speak, but he could not. She sat next to the great man, and drew her arms around his useless shoulders(肩膀). Her head on his chest(胸膛), she thought of many good memories. She felt sad as she couldn’t hear the words of love that had comforted her.

And then she heard from within the man, the beat of heart. The magic happened. She heard what she wanted to hear. His heart beat out the words that his mouth could no longer say… I love you, little girl… I love you, little girl.

1.When the little girl said, “I’m not a little girl any more.” , the great man ______.

A. felt sad          B. was happy                 C. was angry                            D. couldn’t stand

2.What did the man do after the little girl left her home?

A. He left her wife.

B. He learned to sing and dance

C. He left his home and went into the world.

D. He would call her and showed his love to her.

3.The little girl went to her father because ______.

A. he became ill

B. she missed her parents

C. she made lot of money outside

D. she didn’t get his father’s calls

4.What can we learn from what the girl had done after seeing his father?

A. She knew his father would die soon.

B. She felt sorry for leaving his father.

C. She loved her father deeply too.

D. She was sure his father would be well soon.

 

I was doing some Christmas shopping in a toy store and decided to look at Barbie dolls for my nieces. A nicely dressed little girl was excitedly looking through the Barbie dolls as well. As she was looking, a little boy came to the Pokemon toys. He was dressed neatly, but his clothes were obviously old. He was with his father as well, and kept picking up the Pokemon video toys. Each time he picked one up and looked at his father, his father shook his head and said, “No.”

The little girl had chosen her Barbie. However, she stopped and was watching them. Rather dejectedly, the boy had to give up the Pokemon toys and choose something else. The little girl put her Barbie back on the shelf, and ran over to the Pokemon toys. She excitedly picked up one and raced towards the checkout. I picked up my purchases and got in line behind them. Then, much to the little girl’s delight, the little boy and his father got in line behind me. After the toy was paid for and bagged, the little girl handed it back to the cashier (收银员) and whispered something in her ear. The casher smiled and put the package under the counter.

I paid for my purchases and was rearranging things when the little boy came up to the cashier. The cashier checked his purchases and said, “Congratulations, you are my hundredth customer today, and you win a prize!” With that, she handed the little boy the Pokemon toys, and he could only stare in surprise. It was exactly what he had wanted!

The little girl and her father had been standing at the doorway during all of this. Then they walked out. As I walked back to my car, I heard the father ask his daughter why she had done that. I’ll never forget what she said to him. “Daddy, didn’t Grandparents want me to buy something that would make me happy?” He said, “Of course they did, honey.” To which the little girl replied, “Well, I just did!”

I feel very shocked to have witnessed the true spirit of Christmas in that toy store, in the form of a little girl who understands more about the meaning of this festival than most adults I know.

1.The underlined word “dejectedly” in the second paragraph probably means _____.

A．delightedly        B．disappointedly      C．excitedly          D．unexpectedly

2.How did the little boy get the Pokemon toys?

A．His father bought him the Poknemon toys.

                    B．Fortunately, he was the hundredth customer and won the Poknemon toys.

                    C．The cashier felt sympathy for the little boy and gave him the Poknemon toys.

                    D．The little girl bought the Poknemon toys for him.

3.What did the little girl mean when saying “Daddy, didn’t Grandparents want me to buy something that would make me happy?”

A．Her Grandparents wanted her to be happy.

                    B．Making the little boy happy made her happy.

                    C．The Poknemon toys made her happy.

                    D．Her Grandparents hoped that she could help others.

4.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．the story happened before Christmas.

                    B．The little boy had not enough money to buy the Poknemon toys.

                    C．Although the little girl liked the Poknemon toys very much, she gave them to the boy.

                    D．The author was deeply moved by the behavior of the little girl.

 

A well-known manufacturer of weighing machines produced a new model.

The machine had a computer inside it, and this computer could do wonderful things: it could weigh people very accurately; it could tell them their weight in their own language; and it could tell them what they should eat to reduce their weight.

The manufacturer decided to try out his machine before he sold it to the shops.

He looked around for a good place to put it and finally decided on an airport. There were always people at an airport from many different countries.

The first person to use the machine was an Italian woman. She stood on the machine, put a coin in and waited to hear her weight.

The machine took only a second or two to weigh her, decide on her nationality and the language she spoke, and figure out what kind of food she should eat.

“Good morning, madam,” it said in perfect Italian. “Your weight is 72 kilos, three more than it should be for a woman of your height, age and nationality. This is because you have been eating too much spaghetti. I suggest you eat more fruit and vegetables. Please have a nice day”.

The second person to use the machine was a Chinese girl. She stood on the machine, put a coin in and waited to hear her weight.

“Good morning, Miss," the machine said in perfect Chinese. "Your weight is 38 kilos, exactly the correct weight for your height, age and nationality. Continue to eat what you are eating. Please have a nice day.”

The third person to use the machine was a huge Australian woman. She walked up to the machine and looked at it for a long time. At last she found the courage to stand on the machine and put a coin in. The machine spoke immediately.  “Good morning. Will one of you ladies please get off?”

1.What could the computer do?

A．Weigh and talk to people.                 B．Translate information.

C．Give them diet pills.                      D．Make them lose weight.

2.What did the machine say to the Italian woman?

A．She was a little too light.                  B．She was a little too heavy.

C．She disliked spaghetti.                    D．She couldn’t speak Italian.

3.What did the machine say to the Chinese woman?

A．She should eat more.                    B．She could speak Chinese.

C．She would have a nice day.                D．She was fine.

4.What did the machine suggest about the Australian woman?

A．She was unwell.                        B．She was courageous.

C．She was too heavy.                      D．She had dieted well.

 

The day when the jobs were handed out was one of the most exciting moments for all the children in the class. It took place during the first week of the term. Every kid was given a job for which they would be responsible for the rest of that school year.

Some jobs were more interesting than others, and the children were eager to be given one of the best ones. When giving them out, the teacher took into account which pupils had been most responsible during the previous year. During the previous year Rita had carried out the teacher’s instructions perfectly. All the children knew Rita would be given the best job.

But there was a big surprise. Each child received a normal job. But Rita’s job was very different. She was given a little box containing some sand and one ant. Though the teacher insisted that this ant was very special, Rita felt disappointed. Most of her classmates felt sorry for her. Even her father became very angry with the teacher and he encouraged Rita to pay no attention to this insignificant pet. However, Rita preferred to show the teacher her error by doing something special with that job of little interest.

Rita started investigating all about her little ant and gave the ant the best food, and it grew quite a bit bigger.

One day, a man, who looked very important, came into their classroom and declared, “Your class has been chosen to accompany me, this summer, on a journey to the tropical rain forest, where we will investigate all kinds of insects. Among all the schools of this region, your class has best cared for the little ant.”

That day the school was filled with joy and celebration. Everyone thanked Rita for having been so patient and responsible. And many children learnt that to be given the most important task you have to know how to be responsible even in what are the smallest tasks.

1.What did the teacher base his decision on when giving out jobs to the children?

A．Their characters and interests.

B．Their class performance during the previous year.

C．Their working performance during the previous year.

D．Their ability of managing their accounts during the previous year.

2.What does the underlined sentence mean?

A．Each child got an important job.

B．Each child got an interesting job.

C．The perfect student got the job of everyone’s preference．

D．The most responsible student got the job of least interest.

3.What is Rita’s attitude to her father’s suggestion?

A．Negative.          B．Uncertain.         C．Totally positive.     D．Acceptive.

4.We can infer that the man who made the declaration is a _________.

A．hunter           B．director           C．biologist          D．principal

5.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Never complain about life.

B．Small tasks can lead to fortunes.

C．Men are best known by their friends.

D．Responsibility and intelligence bring good luck.