Question

 

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(選擇) 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

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.B

解析：細節理解題。根據第一段作者與推銷員之間的對話，可以了解到，推銷員一直在勸說作者試一下機器，并且與其他的機器進行比較。故選擇B。

2.D

解析：推理判斷題。第二段開頭，作者分析了在賣場，自己將會被各種照相機的種類，弄的不知如何選擇。但是“But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with”，最終我還是必須選擇一款，但是無論選擇哪一款都會有兩個必定的結果：（1）會立馬貶值。(2)會很快有新的產品。所以選擇D。

3.C

解析：推理判斷題。閱讀第四段，可知作者經過內心的思量，明白最后還是得做決定，得買一款，所以還是需要作出明智的決定，就是試一下自己最初選擇那一款，從而確定自己的選擇。

4.C

解析：推理判斷題。最后一段作者分析了人們為什么老是喜歡新的事物，因為舊的事物我們了解了，有局限性，而新的事物會帶給我們更多我們沒想到的。根據作者在購物的過程中，最終選擇了試用自己最初的照相機，所以得出作者的觀點是：我們并不需要了解很多新的東西，只要達到自己的最初的要求就行。