阅读理解。
A woman repeated a bit of gossip (流言) about a neighbour. Within a few days the whole neighbourhood
knew the story. The neighbour was deeply hurt. Later the woman responsible (负责) for spreading the gossip
learned that it was completely untrue. She was very sorry and went to a wise old man to find out what she
could do to repair the harm.
"Go to the marketplace," he said, "and buy a chicken, and have it killed, then on your way home, pluck (拔)
its feathers and drop them one by one along the road." Although surprised by this advice, the woman did what
she was told.
The next day the wise man said, "Now, go and collect all those feathers you dropped yesterday and bring
them back to me."
The woman followed the same road, but she was so discouraged when she found the wind had blown all
the feathers away. After searching for hours, she returned with only three in her hand.
"You see," said the old man, "it's easy to drop them, but it's impossible to get them back. So it is with
gossip. It doesn't take much to spread a gossip, but once you do, you can never completely undo the wrong."
1. The woman was very ______ the harm she had done to her neighbour. [ ]
A. happy about
B. angry about
C. sorry for
D. excited about
2. Which of the following statements is TRUE? [ ]
A. The gossip didn't hurt anyone at all.
B. The wise man was not kind enough.
C. The woman found all the feathers at last.
D. The woman was given a lesson.
3. What the wise man said has nearly the same meaning as the Chinese phrase "______". [ ]
A. 覆水难收
B. 无中生有
C. 欲速不达
D. 得道多助
