阅读理解。
I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照), maybe
occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net,
spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top
recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was
one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an
assistant, "Can I have one of those?" He looked perturbed (不安). "Do you want to try it first?" he
said. It didn't quite sound like a question. "Do I need to?" I replied, "There is nothing wrong with it?"
This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. "No, no. But you should try it," he said
encouragingly. "Compare it with the others."
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide
range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based
around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to
spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same
time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the
store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I
paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice,
the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant
seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out of my chosen camera from cupboard, show how it took
excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers… and when he started to introduce the special features, I
interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.
Why do we think that new options (选择) still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they
offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited
than we would like to imagine.
1. The shop assistant insisted that the writer should _____
A. try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it.
B. compare the camera he had chosen with the others.
C. get more information about different companies.
D. trust him and stop asking questions.
2. What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it" (paragraph 2)?
A. He should get a 50% discount.
B. The price of the camera was unreasonably high.
C. The quality of the camera was not good.
D. The camera would soon fall in value.
3. The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he _____
A. knew very little about it.
B. didn't trust the shop assistant.
C. wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best.
D. had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers.
4. I t can be inferred from the passage that in the writer's opinion, _____.
A. people waste too much money on cameras
B. cameras have become an important part of our daily life
C. we don't actually need so many choices when buying a product
D. famous companies care more about profit than quality
