Question

Edward Sims was born in 1892. He was the fifth child and only son of Herbert and Dora Sims. Herbert was a blacksmith(鐵匠), 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（糖果點心）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. 1.
   What would be the best title for the text?
   1. A.
      Success of illiterate newsboy
   2. B.
      Local blacksmith becomes famous
   3. C.
      The thriving trade of the blacksmith
   4. D.
      Reading and writing-the road to success
2. 2.
   What can you infer from the underlined expression “not cut out to be” in the second paragraph?
   1. A.
      Edward Sims did not like being a blacksmith
   2. B.
      Edward Sims did not like working with his father
   3. C.
      Edward Sims was not strong enough and it made him feel ill
   4. D.
      Edward Sims was good at it but wanted to do another job
3. 3.
   When Edward applied for the job as a runner for a solicitor,        
   1. A.
      the solicitor turned him down because he wasn’t intelligent enough
   2. B.
      the solicitor offered him the job because he was so fit
   3. C.
      the solicitor gave him the job but told him he had to learn to read
   4. D.
      the solicitor didn’t offer him the job because he couldn’t read
4. 4.
   Which of the following is NOT ture about Edward Sims?
   1. A.
      He was such a good salesman that he went on to own 25 newsagent shops with another man
   2. B.
      The newspaperman liked him so much he gave him a job
   3. C.
      He ran himself into exhaustion delivering papers
   4. D.
      He learnt to read and write

Answer 1

ACDC
試題分析：本文敘述了美國人名叫Edward是一個文盲，他一開始他想當一名鐵匠，后來發現自己的臂力不好，也就不能當鐵匠了，于是又去找工作，結果在律師事務所因為他不會讀寫，結果他被拒絕了。后來他和另一個人一起開了一個店鋪，賣報紙，煙及糖果等，結果發了財，在許多城市開了25家連鎖店。
1.標題歸納題。根據文中主要說的是Edward，他是一個文盲，但是在一生中做的生意非常興隆，故選 A。
2.推理判斷題。根據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. 可以推知他不是很強壯，這使他生病了，故選C。
3.細節理解題。根據when he discovered that the young man couldn't read or write, he decided against employing him. 因為他不識字，所以沒有雇傭他，故選D。
4.細節理解題。根據I could have run myself to exhaustion delivering documents for a solicitor!”這里是虛擬，故選C。
考點：故事類短文閱讀。
點評：推理判斷題需要考生正確的閱讀短文對語篇有個整體的把握。會根據語句之間的邏輯關系、段內的語義關系及篇章的語義關系，從段落、篇章的角度理解文章的主旨、作者的觀點和態度。做此類試題要善于抓住某一段話中的關鍵信息，即某些關鍵詞或短語去分析、推理、判斷，利用逆向思維或正面推理，從而推斷出這句話所隱含的深層含義。