The story behind the shopping cart

Characters

Sylvan Goldman – owner of a grocery shop

Fred Young – Sylvan’s friend, a mechanic(機(jī)械師)

One night in 1936, in an American city. Inside Fred’s workshop, Sylvan sits next to Fred, who is making adjustments(調(diào)試) to their new i? 1. – a shopping cart.

Sylvan:????????????? My customers don’t like our shopping cart.

Fred:????????????? Really? So they p? 2. shopping with those heavy baskets?

Sylvan:????????????? (nods) I’ve got a huge crowd of customers every day, b 3. none of them wants to use the cart.

Fred:????????????? I don’t understand. We invented the cart so that people don’t need to carry a basket around the shop.

Sylvan:????????????? (laughs) And so that they will buy more groceries!

Fred:????????????? So why don’t they like the shopping cart?

Sylvan:????????????? Young men think that pushing a cart around makes them look w 4. and slow, and young women think it’s unfashionable.

Fred:????????????? Of course it isn’t fashionable right now. It’s only just been invented! But I’m sure older people will appreciate it.

Sylvan:????????????? Um…

Fred:????????????? What? They don’t like the cart e? 5.? ?

Sylvan:????????????? Well, they think pushing it makes them look helpless!

Fred:????????????? Oh no. We need to do something, Fred. We can’t just g? 6. up on this invention!

Sylvan:????????????? We won’t. (He gets up and walks around the room. Suddenly, he stops.) Aha! I’ve got an idea.

Fred:????????????? What is it?

Sylvan:????????????? I’ll hire(雇傭) some good-looking guys and girls to push the carts around and pretend they’re shopping.

Fred:????????????? Oh! So the real shoppers will see these attractive people using the carts and think, “Hey, if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me!”

Sylvan:????????????? E 7. .

Fred:????????????? Hey! Maybe you could get one of the girls to greet your customers and encourage them to use the cart.

Sylvan:????????????? Great idea!

完形填空

Ben woke up on Monday morning. He felt   1 . He always felt sick on Monday mornings. He had to go to school for a whole week. It was so difficult for him to go back to school.

He   2  in bed and wondered what excuse he could make this time. He looked at his body, but couldn’t find   3  wrong. A little headache? No. He had used that excuse many times. Then he realized that one of his teeth was loose (松動(dòng)). Good! He was just going to start groaning (呻吟) when he thought that Aunt Polly would pull the tooth out. That would hurt! He looked   4  something else. Suddenly he remembered the doctor had said something about a certain problem with toes. He pulled his right foot out and looked at it.   5  of the toes was really hurting, and Ben began to groan.

“What’s   6  with you?” Aunt Polly asked. “My toe hurts.” The old lady fell into a chair, smiling a little. “Ben, you frightened me. Now shut up at once and get out of   7 .”

Ben felt like a thief being caught. “Well, it seemed all right. It hurt so much   8  I forgot my tooth.” “Tooth, eh? What’s wrong with your tooth?” “One of them is loose and it hurts   9 .”  “No problem,” answered Aunt Polly. “I can pull it out.” “Please, Aunt! Don’t pull it out. It has  10  hurting now. Please!” “No way! Well, you’d better go to school or you’ll have your tooth out.”

Tom and Fred are talking about the year 2020. “What will our world be like in the year 2020?” “I don't know,” says Fred. “What do you think?” “Well, no one knows, but it’s interesting to guess.” “In the year 2020 everyone will carry a pocket computer. The computer will give people the answers to all their problems. We shall all have telephones in our pockets, too, and we’ll be able to talk to our friends all over the world. Perhaps we’ll be able to see them at the same time. ” “A lot of people will live and work under the sea. Perhaps there will be big towns, factories and farms under the sea, too. ” “Machines will do most of the work, and so people will have more holidays, perhaps they’ll work only two or three days a week. They’ll be able to fly to the moon by spaceship and spend their holidays there. ” “I’m looking forward（期待）to the year 2020. I hope to go to the moon! ” “And 1 hope I’ll be able to live under the sea.” says Fred. “Won’t that be very interesting? Just like a fish! ”

1.Tom and Fred talked about ____ .

2.Machines will ____ .

A. do most of the work instead of people

B. B. do some of the work instead of people  

C. do as much work as people

D. do as little work as people

3.From their talk, we know that ____ .

4.Fred said ____ .

5.Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned?

從方框內(nèi)選擇適當(dāng)?shù)膯卧~，填入短文空白處，使短文完整、通順。

【小題1】Tom and Fred talked about ____ .