2. 职称英语
  3. Passage One (1) When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for C

Passage One (1) When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for C

游客2023-11-24  38
问题     Passage One
    (1)   When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister’s address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother’s farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs (周边地区) of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.
    (2)  To be sure there was always the next station, where one might descend and return. There was the great city, bound more closely by these very trains which came up daily. Columbia City was not so very far away, even once she was in Chicago. What, pray, is a few hours—a few hundred miles? She looked at the little slip bearing her sister’s address and wondered. She gazed at the green landscape, now passing in swift review, until her swifter thoughts replaced its impression with vague conjectures of what Chicago might be.
    (3)  When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness (深情) of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counsellor at hand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognised for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.
    (4)  Caroline, or Sister Carrie, as she had been half affectionately termed by the family, was possessed of a mind rudimentary in its power of observation and analysis. Self-interest with her was high, but not strong. It was, nevertheless, her guiding characteristic. Warm with the fancies of youth, pretty with the insipid prettiness of the formative period, possessed of a figure promising eventual shapeliness and an eye alight with certain native intelligence, she was a fair example of the middle American class—two generations removed from the emigrant. Books were beyond her interest—knowledge a sealed book. In the intuitive graces she was still crude. She could scarcely toss her head gracefully. Her hands were almost ineffectual. The feet, though small, were set flatly. And yet she was interested in her charms, quick to understand the keener pleasures of life, ambitious to gain in material things. A half-equipped little knight she was, venturing to reconnoitre (侦查) the mysterious city and dreaming wild dreams of some vague, far-off supremacy, which should make it prey and subject—the proper penitent (忏悔者) , groveling at a woman’s slipper.
    (5)   "That," said a voice in her ear, "is one of the prettiest little resorts in Wisconsin. "
    (6)   "Is it?" she answered nervously.
    (7)  The train was just pulling out of Waukesha. For some time she had been conscious of a man behind. She felt him observing her mass of hair. He had been fidgetting, and with natural intuition she felt a certain interest growing in that quarter. Her maidenly reserve, and a certain sense of what was conventional under the circumstances, called her to forestall and deny this familiarity, but the daring and magnetism of the individual, born of past experiences and triumphs, prevailed. She answered.
    (8)  He leaned forward to put his elbows upon the back of her seat and proceeded to make himself volubly agreeable.
    (9)  "Yes, that is a great resort for Chicago people. The hotels are swell. You are not familiar with this part of the country, are you?"
    (10)   "Oh, yes, I am," answered Carrie. "That is, I live at Columbia City. I have never been through here, though. "
    (11)  "And so this is your first visit to Chicago," he observed.
    (12)  All the time she was conscious of certain features out of the side of her eye. Flush, colourful cheeks, a light moustache, a grey fedora (软呢帽) hat. She now turned and looked upon him in full, the instincts of self-protection and coquetry (卖弄风情) mingling confusedly in her brain.
    (13)  "I didn’t say that," she said.
    (14)  "Oh," he answered, in a very pleasing way and with an assumed air of mistake, "I thought you did. "
    (15)  Here was a type of the travelling canvasser for a manufacturing house—a class which at that time was first being dubbed by the slang of the day " drummers". He came within the meaning of a still newer term, which had sprung into general use among Americans in 1880, and which concisely expressed the thought of one whose dress or manners are calculated to elicit the admiration of susceptible young women—a "masher". His suit was of a striped and crossed pattern of brown wool, new at that time, but since become familiar as a business suit. The low crotch of the vest revealed a stiff shirt bosom of white and pink stripes. From his coat sleeves protruded a pair of linen cuffs of the same pattern, fastened with large, gold plate buttons, set with the common yellow agates (玛瑙) known as "cat’s-eyes". His fingers bore several rings—one, the ever-enduring heavy seal—and from his vest dangled a neat gold watch chain, from which was suspended the secret insignia (徽章) of the Order of Elks. The whole suit was rather tight-fitting, and was finished off with heavy-soled tan shoes, highly polished, and the grey fedora hat. He was, for the order of intellect represented, attractive, and whatever he had to recommend him, you may be sure was not lost upon Carrie, in this, her first glance. [br] What does the author want to show by saying "Her hands were almost ineffectual. " in Para. 4?
选项 A、Her hands were almost too clumsy to do any delicate work.
B、She could hardly make graceful motions with her hands.
C、She had no specific skills in fact.
D、Her hands were rough and calloused from years of housework.
答案 B
解析 推断题。根据题干提示定位至第四段。该段第六句指出，她凭直觉表现出来的优雅举止仍然显得有些粗俗；紧接着第七句和第九句提到她几乎不能优雅地扬头，她的双脚虽然长得小巧，却只会平稳地站着。由此可知，这两句分别以抬头和站立为倒，说明她的举止还是不太优雅。而第八句提到她的双手也几乎ineffectual，ineffectual原意是“无能力的；不起作用的”，由前后两句可知，此处也是例子之一，作者想要表达的是她的双手也做不出优雅的动作，故[B]为答案。[A]“她的双手过于笨拙，几乎做不了任何细致活”、[C]“她没有一技之长”和[D]“她的双手由于多年的家务劳动而变得粗糙不平，布满老茧”在原文均未提及，故均排除。
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