Poor Martin lost his work and was trying to find a job. One day he read in the newspaper that a man was  _21_  to work in a zoo. He was very  _22_  and went to the boss of the zoo to ask for the job. The boss told him that their monkey had just died and it would be two months  _23_  they could get another one, so they wanted him to take the monkey’s place.

As soon as he heard this, Martin got angry and shouted, “You want me to take the place of a monkey! Take this place yourself. You look more like a monkey than I do.” “Don’t expect it like that,” said the boss, “I know you don’t look like a monkey, but we’ll  _24_  you up.” Martin thought about it for a while. Though he didn’t like the idea, he had to make a living after all. So he __25_  the job in the end.

The next day Martin started to work. It wasn’t  _26_ . The only thing he didn’t like was the tiger in the cage next to him. But, as there were strong bars(铁栏杆)  _27  them, he soon got used to his neighbour.

One afternoon he climbed up to the top of the bars. Suddenly he missed his footing and fell not on his own side of the bars, but into the tiger’s cage. That great animal was asleep at the time, but the noise of Martin’s fall woke him up. Martin had to _ 28_  the bars again quickly to get back into his own cage. He tried to get up, but he had hurt his feet so badly that he couldn’t move. He hid his face in his hands so as not to see the tiger coming. The next few seconds seemed like hours. Then he  _29  the tiger whispered in his ear, “Don’t be  __30_ , old man, I’m in the same boat as you.”

21. A. told              B. paid          C. wanted              D. chosen

22. A. sad             B. worried       C. surprised                 D. happy

23. A. before           B. since         C. after              D. ago

24. A. pick             B. dress         C. bring             D. give

25. A. took             B. gave           C. loved              D. lost

26. A. good            B. clean         C. bad              D. nice

27. A. behind           B. among        C. before            D. between

28. A. climb            B. lift             C. move                    D. jump

29. A. saw            B. heard         C. made             D. thought

30. A. angry            B. sad            C. unhappy          D. afraid

The idea of what shaking the head means is not always the same in different countries. Maybe some visitors would be surprised when they first come to India. When they talk to an Indian, they would find he would often shake his head. The visitors might think that the Indian doesn’t like what they say. But in fact, they would be completely wrong.
Indians always shake their heads when they talk to others. It doesn’t mean “No”. If someone wants to visit India, he should know this, or he will be in trouble.
One day, a foreign officer went to India on business. He hired a car and asked an Indian to drive him. When he told his driver to take him to his office, the Indian shook his head at once. The officer said again and the driver shook his head again. At last the officer, of course, got angry.
“How dare you refuse my order?” he shouted, “Drive me to my office at once!”
The driver answered in quite a loud voice, too. “Yes, sir!” But to the officer’s surprise, the driver shook his head at the same time.
The car started and the foreign officer was now too surprised to say a word. He thought about it for a while, and then he nodded with a smile, “‘No’ means ‘Yes’ here!”
【小题1】What does shaking one’s head mean all over the world?