阅读理解。
Some time ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think
there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there are a whole lot of antique
(古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me.
I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man
wouldn't even look at my chair.
The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and
the fourth-so I decided that my approach must be wrong.
I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and
said to the shopkeeper, "Would you like to buy a chair?" "Twenty pounds," I said. "OK,"
he said. "I'll give you twenty pounds." "It's got a slightly broken leg," I said. "Yes,
I saw that. It's nothing."
Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. "What will you
do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done." "I'll buy
it," I said. "What do you mean? You've just sold it to me," he said. "Yes, I know but I've
changed my mind. I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it." "You must be
crazy," he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. "I know what you want. You want
me to repair your chair." "You're right," I said. "And what would you have done if I had
walked in and said, 'Would you mend this chair for me?'" "I wouldn't have agreed to do
it," he said. "We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I'll
mend this for you. Shall we say for a fiver?" He was a very nice man and was greatly
amused by the whole thing.
1. We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer _____. [ ]
A. was rather impolite
B. was warmly received
C. asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair
D. asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair
2. The expression "the penny dropped" in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper _____. [ ]
A. changed his mind
B. accepted the offer
C. saw the writer's purpose
D. decided to help the writer
3. How much did the writer pay? [ ]
A. ￡ 5.
B. ￡ 7.
C. ￡ 20.
D. ￡ 27.
4. From the text, we can learn that the writer was _____. [ ]
A. honest
B. careful
C. smart
D. funny
