A book is so much more than mere ink and paper. So insist French booksellers, who for nearly four decades successfully persuade the government to keep the forces of the free market at bay. A law passed in 1981 bans the sale of any book at anything other than the price decided by its publisher. Authorities are cracking down on those trying to sell the latest Thomas Piketty or J.K Rowling at a discount.
The fixed-price rule is meant to keep customers loyal to their local bookshop and out of the control of supermarkets and corporations. But the arrival of e-commerce and e-readers has promoted questions worthy of their own tomes(大部头著作). Can you fix the price of a book if it is part of an all-you-can-read subscription service? Are audio-books books at all? And what of authors who self-publish?
Changes have been made to preserve the principle of “one book, one price”. In 2011, the rule began to apply to digital tomes. Free delivery by online sellers was prohibited because it implied a subsidy(补贴) on the delivered books (encouraging online sellers to charge only €0.01 for postage). But a new challenge to the policy is proving more difficult to deal with.
Used books are exempted from the pricing rule. Third-party sellers on Amazon are accused of using this as a way to apply forbidden discounts: selling brand-new books as “second hand” to make them cheaper. So fans can purchase a copy of the latest Michel Houellebecq novel Serotonine for 11.71 pounds on Amazon, roughly half of its original price. Its seller claims it is in “perfectly new” condition.
Amazon claims its practices are legal. But books sellers are upset, and their political allies with them. “This is a major concern,” said Franck Riester, the culture minister, at a bookseller’s conference this week. He says new laws may be needed.
Defenders of the fixed-price principle (which has spread to other parts of Europe) say it helps keep independent bookshops alive. Others are not so sure. Books are expensive in France — an odd way to encourage people to buy more.
1. What was the function of the law passed in 1981?| A．To stop publishers from publishing poor books. |
| B．To prevent the random price of books in the market. |
| C．To help book consumers benefit from the free market. |
| D．To encourage French booksellers to sell cheaper books. |
| A．It greatly changed people’s reading habits. |
| B．It challenged the principle of “one book, one price”. |
| C．It weakened the ties between publishers and authors. |
| D．It provided local booksellers with some new opportunities. |
| A．are involved in. | B．are threatened by. |
| C．are consistent with. | D．are unrestricted by. |
| A．He is hopeful of them. | B．He is uncertain of them. |
| C．He disapproves of them. | D．He is indifferent to them. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】With all the e-book reader apps flooding the Internet, you can simply download a file and then start reading your favourite story or subject matter.
Printed books aid people with sleep problems. It's a known fact that many people read before going to bed, which can help them sleep well. But note that they are paper books rather than e-books.
Printed books exercise reading comprehension and concentration. In a study of middle schoolers, students who read on iPads had lower reading comprehension than reading traditional printed books. They sometimes skipped text in favor of interactions in the e-books which are designed to enhance comprehension.
That's why so many people prefer printed books.
| A．While that might sound really easy, |
| B．Since e-books are gaining in popularity, |
| C．Is it possible to have the physical books go digital? |
| D．In that case, students fail the practice of reading text itself. |
| E．To be fair though, e-books should also be given some credit. |
| F．The screen light is found to have a negative effect on the user. |
| G．The turning of pages aids the readers to have a visible sense of achievement. |
All newspapers report national and international news. They give the facts but also provide opinions on controversial issues in the editorials and columns of opinion. The readers of the newspaper can also comment on these editorials or articles. There are many informative articles too as well as reviews of new films and books, etc. These are very important, for if a film or book gets good reviews it will often become more successful.
All these articles require many journalists who are experts in different areas of life. All these articles come together and are checked by the chief editor of the newspaper. When he or she has made a decision on the articles, the newspaper is prepared for printing. All this work means that the journalists must work together as a team because there is a lot of pressure when you work in a newspaper office. There are constant deadlines and articles have to be fitted round advertisements, photographs and much, much more.
1. What does the underlined word “be fitted” mean?
| A．be suitable | B．be put |
| C．be read | D．be measured |
| A．Editorials and opinion columns. |
| B．News stories. |
| C．Some of the informative articles. |
| D．Jokes and humour. |
| A．There’s no time limit for their report articles. |
| B．They have no right to influence the readers’ opinions. |
| C．A newspaper can come out with just a journalist working individually. |
| D．Journalists must submit their articles before the due date. |
| A．Good reviews are excellent introduction to books. |
| B．Readers especially favour books with good reviews. |
| C．Good reviews can make readers feel relaxed and comfortable. |
| D．Good reviews can bring a large circulation(发行量) of the books reviewed. |
【推荐3】Apple Seeds
Circulation (发行量):1 Year, 9 Issues
Cover Price: $44. 55
Price For You: $33. 95
Product Description: Apple Seeds is an award-winning magazine filled with stories for kids aged from 7 to 9. The cover is very soft, providing durability (耐用性) that allows each issue to be enjoyed for many year to come. Besides, there is a big surprise for you --- it’s being sold at a more favorable discount than usual.
Better Life
Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues
Cover Price: $44. 55
Price For You: $15. 00
Product Description: Designed for those who have a strong interest in personal lifestyle, Better Life is America’s complete home and family service magazine. It offers help with food, recipes, decorating, building, gardening, family health, money management, and education.
Humor Times
Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues
Cover Price: $36. 00
Price For You: $11. 95
Product Description: Humor Times Magazine is for those who love to laugh! Full of cartoons and humor columns, it shows up in your mailbox once a month and keeps you smiling all year round! In today’s world, you need a reason to laugh. So let’s find it in Humor Times.
News China
Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues
Cover Price: $47. 88
Price For You: $19. 99
Product Description: News China Marine is the English edition of China Newsweek. The magazine covers the latest Chinese domestic news in politics, business, society, environment, culture, sports and travels, etc. It is the first comprehensive news magazine for readers interested in China.
1. What do we know about Apple Seeds?| A．The soft cover enables it to be read and kept long. |
| B．It can be purchased as an award for your children. |
| C．It offers the biggest discount among all the magazines. |
| D．The magazine is going to surprise for many years. |
| A．People who have an interest in personal lifestyle of the Chinese. |
| B．People who have a strong sense of humor and love to laugh. |
| C．People who want to enlarge the knowledge of their kids. |
| D．People who are interested in China’s politics, business and culture. |
| A．beautifying your house. |
| B．finding interesting stories for your kids |
| C．ordering food from restaurants. |
| D．learning about sports and travels. |
【推荐1】A small group of paleontologists (古生物学家) recently discovered 10 species of ancient mammals previously unknown to science with the help of an enormous number of helpers at their dig site: ants.
The study of ancient mammals throws new light on the diversity of mammals that existed in North America around 33 million to 35 million years ago, when the climate was changing dramatically. It also pays attention to the harvester ants, with which researchers have long had a love-hate relationship. “The ants are not fantastic when they’re biting you,” said Samantha Hopkins, a professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon. “But I’ve got to appreciate them because they make my job a whole lot easier.”
Most species of harvester ants live in subterranean caves that sit beneath a small hill of dirt. They strengthen the dirt by covering it with bits of rock and other tough materials. The ants have been known to travel over a hundred feet from their caves and to dig six feet deep in pursuit of materials that help secure their caves. The materials include fossils. Harvester ants can carry materials 10 times to 50 times the weight of their body, although they do not weigh very much, so the heaviest fossil they can collect weighs less than the average pill.
Given the size, harvester ant hills are hot spots for what scientists call microvertebrate (微型脊椎动物) fossils, which are animal fossils too small to see without a microscope. For over a century, scientists like Dr. Hopkins have found sediment (沉积物) off the sides of harvester ant hills in search of these fossils, making it easier to find large numbers of fossilized mammal teeth without spending hours in the field sifting through sand and dirt.
1. What is the purpose of the passage?| A．To compare two different species. |
| B．To provide evidence for discoveries. |
| C．To promote awareness of mammal protection. |
| D．To introduce a kind of ant serving as a helper. |
| A．Ant numbers. | B．Climate. | C．Cave materials. | D．Dirt locations. |
| A．Coastal. | B．Underground. | C．Urban. | D．Mountainous. |
| A．Their caves are miles deep. |
| B．They can carry pills around. |
| C．Fossils may be found around their hills. |
| D．Materials with fossils are their food. |
【推荐2】The concept of planning entire communities before their construction is an ancient one. In fact, one of the earliest such cities on record is Miletus, Greece, which was built in the 4th century BC. Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance various planned communities (both theoretical and actual) were conceived (构思). Leonardo da Vinci designed several cities that were never constructed. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, the architect Christopher Wren created a new master plan for the city, combining park land and urban space. Several 18th century cities, including Washington D.C., New York City, and St Petersburg, Russia, were built according to comprehensive planning.
One of the most important planned city concepts, the Garden City Movement, arose in the latter part of the 19th century as a reaction to the pollution and crowding of the Industrial Revolution. In 1898, Ebenezer Howard published the book To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path for Real Reform in which he laid out his ideas concerning the creation of new economically sustainable towns. Howard believed that these towns should be limited in size and density, and surrounded with a belt of undeveloped land. The idea gained enough attention and financial backing to lead to the creation of Letchworth, in Hertfordshire, England. This was the first such 'Garden City'. After the First World War, the second town built following Howard's ideas, Welwvn Garden City, was constructed.
In the early 1920s, American architects Clarence Stein and Henry Wright, inspired by Howard's ideas and the success of Letchworth and Welwyn, created the city of Radbum, New Jersey. Conceived as a community which would be safe for children, Radbum was intentionally designed so that the residents would not require automobiles. Several urban planning designs were pioneered at Radbum that would influence later planned communities, including the separation of pedestrians and vehicles, and the use of 'superblocks', each of which shared 23 acres of commonly held parkland.
In America, following the stock market crash of 1929, there was great demand for both affordable housing and employment for workers who had lost their jobs. In direct response to this, in 1935 President Roosevelt created the Resettlement Administration, which brought about a total of three greenbelt towns: Greenbelt, Maryland; Greenhills, Ohio; and Greendale, Wisconsin. These towns contained many of the elements of the Garden City Movement developments, including the use of superblocks and a 'green belt' of undeveloped land surrounding the community.
1. The first paragraph talks mainly about ________.| A．famous urban planners | B．the history of urban planning |
| C．the future examples of urban planning | D．problem associated with urban planning |
| A．It came just before the Industrial Revolution. |
| B．It was held back by a war and a lack of funds. |
| C．It resulted in cities that were larger than they had been before. |
| D．It was designed to address problems caused by modernization. |
| A．To reduce the danger for families living in the area. |
| B．To create something totally different from cities elsewhere. |
| C．To make sure people could park their cars close to their home. |
| D．To increase green spaces by designing houses with gardens. |
| A．Their residents were affected by the stock market collapse. |
| B．They were built for the wealthiest people in America. |
| C．They were each surrounded by natural parkland. |
| D．They were all constructed in the same year. |
【推荐3】The next time you’re in a town or city, see if you can spot some street art. Street art is often displayed on walls or buildings and can be all sorts of things including murals (large paintings on a wall), stickers and posters. Graffiti(涂鸦) is similar but it uses words or pictures or both.
It’s important to understand that if you want to do street art in public, such as on a wall or in a park, you must have permission from whoever owns that space. You can’t just spray paint on any wall, and you must not create anything that is rude or that could upset other people.
To get involved, it’s always best to join a street art group or street art workshop. The artist helping will provide the right paints and protective equipment (masks, gloves, sheets to cover the ground), and will show you how to plan your art, how to paint on a large surface and how to make your ideas come to life.
Sophie Wheeler runs Graft, in Bristol, England. Graft holds graffiti and street art workshops. “Graffiti art is fantastic for kids,” she says. “There are no rules—you can create whatever patterns, words or characters pop into your imagination.”
If you can’t find an art group, then maybe your school art teachers can help. They could invite a street artist to visit and do a workshop. If you have a dull, blank space at school, such as a wall by a playground or a corridor, then why not suggest a mural? Besides colourful patterns, the artist often wants to create something to make people think about an issue such as climate change or perhaps to celebrate the life of a local hero.
The beauty of street art is that it doesn’t have to stay forever; it can be easily painted over, making a blank space again for new art.
1. What can we learn about graffiti from Paragraph 1?| A．It is the same as murals. | B．It includes stickers and posters. |
| C．It only uses pictures. | D．It shares something with other street art forms. |
| A．Establishing street art workshops. |
| B．Selecting public places as you like. |
| C．Making protective equipment by yourself. |
| D．Considering the appropriateness of your works. |
| A．It is in desperate need of rules. | B．It is limited to certain patterns. |
| C．It encourages creativity. | D．It appeals to children only. |
| A．Street art often carries a message. |
| B．Heroes affect the life of the public greatly. |
| C．Street art attracts people because it lasts long. |
| D．Climate change is the hottest topic among street artists. |
【推荐1】Oriola Oluwaseyi, 32, makes her way through the busy streets of Ajegunle, a low-income community in Nigeria's commercial center, Lagos.
The Nigerian mother of four is pushing through people and things in the streets to collect plastic waste bottles from retail stores. In the evening, Oluwaseyi will drop the bottles at Moritz International School where her 8-year-old daughter attends primary school. The bottles will act as a down payment for her daughter's tuition. As a small trader earning a little from trading car engine oil at busy Ajegunle Market in Nigeria's economic center, Lagos, Oluwaseyi does not earn enough to cover the annual 18,000- naira( around $ 50) school fees.
"Whenever a new session is about to start, sometimes we get worried when there is no money," Oluwaseyi said. However, thanks to a recent partnership with Africa Cleanup Initiative （ ACI ）, a non-governmental organization with focus on sustainability （可 持续 性），Oluwaseyi's daughter's school now accepts the plastic bottles, also known as PET bottles, in exchange for school fees. Through a program called Recycles Pay, ACI collaborates（合作）with schools in low-income communities to allow parents who are unable to afford fees for their children to pay using plastic bottles they collect.
Twice a month Oluwaseyi visits her daughter's school with bags full of sorted plastic bottle recyclable. The cost of tuition is determined by how many PET bottles she has collected.
“My daughter's headmaster introduced me to this program last year, and I subscribed to the project because I knew it was something to relieve myself of the burden of spending money on the fees," she said. "The program has given me a method to channel the funds I would have spent on school fees," she added.
There are more than 450,000 megatons（百万吨）of plastic waste discarded（丢弃） in Lagos waters every year, according to reports in local media. Nigeria generates huge amounts of plastic waste, and according to a 2017 Ocean Atlas report, Nigeria is ranked number 11 in the world for plastic pollution, posing health risks to citizens and causing environmental damage.
1. What does Oriola Oluwaseyi do while going through streets in her community?| A．Collect plastic waste bottles. |
| B．Trade with retail stores. |
| C．Sell car engine oil. |
| D．Raise money for her daughter's tuition. |
| A．Protecting community environment. |
| B．Helping children who drop out of school. |
| C．Enabling poor students to pay tuition. |
| D．Raising people's sustainable awareness. |
| A．Her daughter's headmaster is the leader of the program. |
| B．She hesitated for a little while about subscription at first. |
| C．She collected bottles to get money to support the poor. |
| D．The program helps her get through the financial problem. |
| A．To highlight the water pollution in Nigeria. |
| B．To show the program is of benefit to the country. |
| C．To prepare for writing about the next topic. |
| D．To criticize the huge amounts of plastic waste in Nigeria. |
【推荐2】When you visit Kinderdijk, one of the most visited villages in the Netherlands, you step right into the middle of Dutch history.
Kinderdijk lies in the Alblasserwaard, where the Lek and Noord rivers meet together. Much of the village is near or even below sea level. Although there are canals and dykes (堤坝), the lowlands of the village are still at risk of flooding (洪灾). Among the most deadly floods was Saint Elisabeth’s flood in 1421, which killed thousands after the dykes broke in several places. To deal with this kind of problem, the Kinderdijk windmills (风车) were built around 1740 to move water from the lower areas to higher ground and into the river.
Nineteen of the 20 Kinderdijk windmills remain and were named a UNESCO World Heritage (遗产) Site in 1997. Of the 19 windmills, 16 still have millers who live inside and control the huge sails (翼板) in the wind. These windmills continue to help manage the Netherlands ongoing fight to stay above water.
For tourists, boat tours are offered along the canals and walkways lead from the visitor center to the windmills. Two windmills serve as museums, filled with old millers’ items and photos. You can climb up inside to see how the windmills work. The windmills also are working, so be prepared to feel the whole building shake when the sails turn in the wind.
Each year, about 500,000 people visit the Kinderdijk windmills and the buildings have become a must-see on any trip to the Netherlands. There are some windmills north of Amsterdam that “were built for tourists, but we’re a historical site where tourists come, so it’s the other way around,” says Kinderdijk communications manager Peter Paul Klapwijk. “Tourism is a good way to support our site.”
1. Why were the Kinderdijk windmills built around 1740?| A．To protect dykes. | B．To produce clean water. |
| C．To prevent floods. | D．To keep the sea level from rising. |
| A．Most of them are working as before. |
| B．Most of them have become museums. |
| C．Several of them have been sold to millers. |
| D．Several of them were destroyed long ago. |
| A．Fearful. | B．Worried. | C．Excited. | D．Surprised. |
| A．The history of Kinderdijk |
| B．A famous historical site |
| C．An amazing village of canals |
| D．The traditions of the Netherlands |
【推荐3】The tons of plastic we’re dumping in the oceans is finding a new home—the stomachs of our beautiful marine animals. Yet another reminder of this fact washed ashore in Eastern Indonesia this week. A large amount of waste, including drinking cups and flipflops, was found in the stomach of a whale that died off the coast near Kapota Island.
The 9.5metre sperm whale (抹香鲸) was found by rescuers from the Wakatobi National Park. “The whale had swallowed 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, and more than 1,000 other kinds of pieces of plastic,” park chief Heri Santoso told the reporter.
“Although we have not been able to deduce the cause of death, the facts that we see are truly awful,” said Dwi Suprapti, a marine species conservation coordinator at WWF Indonesia. She said it was not possible to determine if the plastic had caused the whale’s death because of the animal’s advanced state of decay (腐烂). But this is only the latest.
Four Asian nations—Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand—account for 50% of the plastic waste in the oceans, according to a report by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. The Philippines is second to Indonesia when it comes to putting away plastic waste in the oceans, according to a study published in the journal Science in January. Of the 3.2 million mismanaged waste it produces every year, 1.29 million ends up in the ocean. A report released earlier this year stated that the amount of plastic in the ocean is likely to increase.
1. What can we know about the sperm whale?| A．Its stomach is the home of plastic waste. |
| B．It died of swallowing lots of plastic waste. |
| C．It was the first whale to eat plastic waste. |
| D．It had eaten much plastic waste before its death. |
| A．Figure out. | B．State. | C．Approve of. | D．Contain. |
| A．Thailand. | B．Indonesia. | C．Vietnam. | D．Philippines. |
| A．Philippines puts away 1.29 million tons of plastic. |
| B．A sperm whale was found dead near Kapota Island. |
| C．Much dumped plastic waste was found in a dead whale. |
| D．We should take measures to reduce the waste in whales. |
【推荐1】Coal burning deep underground in China，India and Indonesia is threatening the environment and human life, scientists have warned. These large-scale underground fires cause the ground temperature to heat up and kill surrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases and can even bring about forest fires, a panel（专门小组）of scientists told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver. They warned the resulting release of poisonous elements like arsenic （砷）and mercury（汞）can also pollute local water sources and soils “Coal fires are a global disaster,” said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College in Swainsboro, U.S.A. But surprisingly few people know about them.
Coal can heat up on its own, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not caused to disappear and under the right combinations of sunlight and oxygen, can trigger spontaneous（自然产生的）catching fire and burning. This can occur underground in coal stockpiles（煤堆）, abandoned mines or even as coal is transported. Such fires in China destroy up to 200 million tons of coal per year, delegates were told. In comparison, the U. S. economy consumes about one billion tons of coal annually, said Stracher, whose analysis of the likely effect of coal fires has been accepted for publication in the International journal of Coal Ecology. Once underway, coal fires can burn for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large volumes of greenhouse gases, poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere.
The members of the panel discussed the effect these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, and agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to detect(发现). One of the members of the panel, Assistant Professor Paul Van Dijk of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation in the Netherlands, has been working with the Chinese government to detect and monitor fires in the northern regions of the country.
The remote sensing and other techniques will allow scientists to estimate how much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested method of controlling the fires was presented by Gary Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a beat-resistant grout designed to be pumped into the coal fire to cut off the oxygen supply.
1. According to Paragraph 2, what will happen when the underground heat does not disappear? ________.| A．Coal heats up on its own and catches fire and burns. |
| B．The underground oxygen will be used up. |
| C．Poisonous fumes and greenhouse gases will be accumulated underground. |
| D．There will be an increase of abandoned mines. |
| A．Annual consumption of coal in US. |
| B．Annual consumption of coal in China. |
| C．How long coal fires have lasted in the northern region of China. |
| D．Coal fires may have an effect on the environment. |
| A．He was one of the scientists who have warned against the threats of underground fires. |
| B．He has detected and monitored underground fires in the Netherlands. |
| C．He has worked with the Chinese government on the underground fires issue. |
| D．He works for a research institute in the Netherlands. |
| A．Using remote sensing technique. |
| B．Controlling the release of carbon dioxide. |
| C．Cutting off the oxygen supply. |
| D．Making the soil heat resistant. |
【推荐2】Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy—ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of my life for a few hours for this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean (毕达哥拉斯) power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery (嘲弄) of what human life should be. I long to alleviate (减少) the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
1. Which would be the best title of the essay?| A．The suffering of life. | B．The truth about love. |
| C．The forces driving me. | D．The power of knowledge. |
| A．The shining stars. | B．Great winds. |
| C．A bottomless abyss. | D．A boundless ocean. |
| A．It relieves loneliness. | B．It brings ecstasy. |
| C．It provides a glimpse of heaven. | D．It leads to a marriage. |
| A．He regrets that he could not free himself of pity. |
| B．Human love is ultimately disappointing. |
| C．Heaven is merely a poetic invention. |
| D．A loving person naturally wants to relieve the suffering of others. |
【推荐3】It was Thanksgiving morning and in the crowded kitchen of my small home I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together inside the storm door on the top step.
“Any old paper, lady?” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals, wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet scandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread with jam to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started again on my household budget.
The silence in the front door struck me. I looked in. the girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”
“Am I rich? Mercy, no!”
I looked at my shabby slipcover (家具套). The girl put her cup back in its sauce carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucer.” Her voice was hungry with a need that no amount of food could supply. They left after that, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They didn’t said “Thank you”. They didn’t need to. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof covered over our heads, my man with a good, steady job—these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy prints of small scandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a whole, I thought, just in case I should begin to feel how rich I am.
1. Why did the writer let the children in?:| A．She showed great pity on them. | B．She had old papers to sell. |
| C．She knew them and wanted to make them a cup of coca. | D．She wanted to invite them to her Thanksgiving party. |
| A．she saw that the lady’s room was comfortable. |
| B．she saw the cups matches the saucers. |
| C．the writer’s slipcovers were very new. |
| D．the boy thought so |
| A．how much money you have had | B．how you feel about your life |
| C．how you have helped others | D．what job you are doing |
| A．show her husband that someone had come |
| B．remind her that she had helped two children |
| C．show that she was a kind-hearted woman |
| D．remind her how rich she was |
