Question

Many years ago in a small German town, a Jewish businessman had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the businessman’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.

The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender’s wife and he would forgo her father’s debt. If she picked the white pebble, she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail.

They were standing on a pebble-strewn path. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. The sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag. No doubt she was caught in a dilemma.

What would you have done if you were the girl? Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1.The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2.The girl should know that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.

3.The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral (橫向的)and logical thinking.

Read on…

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. “Oh, how clumsy of me!” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.” Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the moneylender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

1.The underlined word “forgo” in paragraph 2 may mean ________.

A. pay off                              B. run out                             C. take over                                 D. give up

2.Which of the following indicates lateral thinking?

A. The girl refused to take a pebble and fled at once.

B. The girl exposed the cheat and found another way.

C. The girl picked one pebbles and made it disappear.

D. The girl picked a black pebble and accepted the result.

3.It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A. The girl dropped the pebble onto the path on purpose

B. The girl dropped the pebble onto the path by accident

C. The girl didn’t know there were two black pebbles in the bag                 

D. The girl replaced a black pebble in the bag

4.What lesson can we learn from the story?

A. Keeping calm when facing a difficult situation.

B. Thinking about a complicated problem in another way.

C. Thinking twice before making a final choice.

D. Coming up with a clever answer is easy.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.D

2.C

3.A

4.B

【解析】

試題分析：故事講述了這樣一件事：有位猶太商人不幸欠了放債人一大筆金錢。債主對商人貌美的女兒垂涎三尺，想取其為妻。于是讓商人在兩難選擇中進行選擇。債主意為勝券在握，哪知道商人的女兒用她的智慧解決這個兩難的問題。故事告訴我們這樣的寓意： 最復(fù)雜的問題亦有解決辦法。 這只是我們沒有嘗試去思考。 一個人的想法就是一種創(chuàng)意。

1.D詞義猜測題。“If she picked the black pebble, she would become the moneylender’s wife and he

 would forgo her father’s debt.”該句的意思是根據(jù)債主的游戲規(guī)則“如果她挑選的是黑色鵝卵石，她將成

為她的丈夫”那么“他將       她父親的債務(wù)�！彼�以推斷為“放棄(give up)”。

2.C推理判斷題。“l(fā)ateral thinking”是“從多方面考慮即橫向思維”的意思。根據(jù)第四段分析的三

種可能“1.女孩應(yīng)該拒絕選取鵝花石；2.女孩應(yīng)該知道袋子中都是黑色鵝卵石而揭露債主進行欺詐；3.女

孩應(yīng)該選擇黑色卵石犧牲自己以拯救他父親的債務(wù)和監(jiān)禁�！笨梢耘懦鼳BD三個選項，因為它們都不是

橫向思維而是傳統(tǒng)邏輯思維的產(chǎn)物(三種做法都將導(dǎo)致“女孩必須嫁給債主的”的后果)�；蚋鶕�(jù)最后一段

的敘述推斷答案C正確。

3.A推理判斷題。從最后一段“Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.(還沒看，一個沒拿穩(wěn)就掉落到鋪滿鵝卵石的路上，它立刻掉進所有鵝卵石中不見了)”說明她這樣做即把鵝卵石掉下來是“故意的”。

4.B推理判斷題。女孩利用債主的心理用“反證法”擊敗了債主，可見“換個角度來思考復(fù)雜的問題”就有可能“柳暗花明又一村”使問題迎刃而解。故B項正確。

考點：故事類閱讀理解