Question

Dear Hamilton,

    We are fortunate that in such a large, high-pressure office we all get along so well. You are one of the people who keep the social temperature at such a comfortable setting. I don’t know anyone in the office who is better liked than you.

    You can perhaps help with this. The collection of contributions towards gifts for employees’ personal-life events is becoming a little troubling. Certainly, the group sending of a gift is reasonable now and then. In the past month, however, there have been collections for two baby shower gifts, one wedding shower gift, two wedding gifts, one funeral（葬禮）remembrance, four birthday gifts, and three graduation gifts.

   It’s not only the collected-from who are growing uncomfortable (and poor), but the collected-for feel uneasy receiving gifts from people who don’t know them outside the office, who wouldn’t even recognize their graduating children, their marrying daughters and sons, or their dead relatives.

    This is basically a kind gesture (and one that people think well of you for), but the practice seems to have become too wide-ranging and feels improper in today’s office setting.

    Thank you for understanding.

The underlined word “contributions” probably means ________.

A. money         B. suggestions        C. reports          D. understanding

Hamilton is expected to _______.

A. show more kindness.                  B. discontinue the present practice

C. quit being the organizer for gift giving    D. know more about co-workers’ families

This is basically a letter of ________.

A. apology    B. sympathy      C. appreciation   D. dissatisfaction

Answer 1

【小題1】A

【小題2】B

【小題3】D

解析:

【小題1】第二段說明，收取各種禮物的費(fèi)用，所以contributions指money。

【小題2】考查理解深層含義的能力。這封信對Hamilton說明了一些收取禮物費(fèi)用的好處和帶來的一些麻煩，請求他能夠理解，所以推斷他可能不進(jìn)行這種習(xí)俗了。

【小題3】這封信對Hamilton說明了一些收取禮物費(fèi)用的好處和帶來的一些麻煩，請求他能夠理解，所以推斷他可能不進(jìn)行這種習(xí)俗了。文中最后還說明，這是一慈善的舉動，想說服Hamilton 繼續(xù)維持這種交錢買禮物的習(xí)俗。從寫信人的語氣中可以看出，這是一封表示不滿情緒的信。