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  3. I knew a man who collected English words. He lived in an upturned water tank

I knew a man who collected English words. He lived in an upturned water tank

游客2023-09-13  48
问题     I knew a man who collected English words. He lived in an upturned water tank in the middle of the Australia desert. Unbelievably hot. He was the official town librarian of one of these ghost towns in the outback of Australia. It was founded in the 1890s. People turned up and hammered wooden pegs into the sand and laid out boulevards and avenues. They built a jail and a huge hotel. That% about all except that someone down south had it on his books that this was an official town, and he sent a library to it, 3,000 volumes and a sum of money as a salary for the librarian. This friend of mine, whose name was Roger, had been a no hoper, as they say, wandering about the outback of Australia. He somehow discovered that there was money to be there and, what is more, boxes of unopened books sitting in his deserted hotel. He turned up there, got the job, and settled down in the hotel, to begin with. The hotel did,  actually, just function; that is, it had half a dozen guests a year who .would ride up on horseback, sleep on the floor for an evening, and there push off the next day. This was too much for Roger. It got in the way of his reading. So he took the immense water storage tank, rolled it a mile into the desert, canted his books out there and lived inside it — so, as he said, "I could get a habit of peace and quiet."
     Words were a fascination for Roger, and he used to sit in his tank, just thinking about words. If there were a pause in the conversation he would look at you and ask some such question ass "Do you happen to know what ’transubtantiation’ is? "If you said you knew, he was very cast down, because he wanted to tell you.
    One of his regular visitors was the government officer who went by every six months. Roger would ask him if he knew what a word meant, and then he would have to admit that he didn’t and Roger would be every pleased with himself. Taz, as his name was, got very fed up with this.
    So, on one occasion, before he went, he spent an evening with the Oxford English Dictionary. He rode in, tied up his horse and went in to see Roger, and Roger said, "Do you happen to know what an ’embolism’ is?’ and Taz said; "No, I bloody don’t." Then Taz asked him" Do you happen to know what a ’letoard’ is?" Roger, was upset to be asked a question. He said: SA leotard? I think I saw the skin of one once. "And Taz said: "You bloody didn’t. "SO Roger said: "Well, what is a leotard?’ Taz said: "Urn not going to bloody tell you. ’ He got on his horse and rode off and went to sleep in the desert five miles away.
    Some time later he was suddenly woken up by a steely grasp on his coat. Hands picked him up bodily from the ground and held him in the air and shook him.  He opened his eyes and it was Roger with his eyes glinting in the moonlight, staring at him and saying: "What’s a bloody leotard?" [br] The outback town was given a library because ______.
选项 A、it was expanding rapidly
B、Roger was a collector of English words
C、a government official thought it necessary
D、the people of the town had requested one from, the government
答案 C
解析 细节定位题。A：因为小镇正在快速扩张发展；B；因为罗杰是位英文词汇的收集者，C：因为有位政府官员认为有必要那么做；D：因为镇子里的人们要求政府设立。第1段第7句话是：That’s about all except that someone down south had it on his books that this was an official town, and he sent a library to it, 3,000 volumes and a sum of money as a salary for the librarian. 意思是：有人认为这是官方小镇，并且送了个图书馆，而且捐赠了些书。从该句话能够看出，应该是政府的某官员认为有必要在那里设立图书馆，(因为毕竟那是个官方认可的小镇)。所以，C项正确。
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