The story behind the shopping cart

Characters

Sylvan Goldman – owner of a grocery shop

Fred Young – Sylvan’s friend, a mechanic(机械师)

One night in 1936, in an American city. Inside Fred’s workshop, Sylvan sits next to Fred, who is making adjustments(调试) 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(雇佣) 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!

阅读下面短文，根据短文内容，从短文后面每题所给的四个选项中选出能回答所提问题，或完成所给句子的一项最佳答案。

　　A history teacher was talking to his class about the ancient Romans (罗马人). “They were very strong, brave people, and they were good soldiers,”he said. “They always wanted to have strong bodies ,so they played a lot of games. ”

　　“Did they like swimming?”one of the girls asked,“That makes people very strong. ”She was very good at swimming.

　　“Oh, yes, some of them swam a lot, ”the teacher answered.

　　Then he told them a story about one famous Roman.

　　“There was a big, wide river in the middle of Rome,”he said. “It was the Tiber, and this man swam across it three times every day before breakfast. ”

　　The girl laughed when she heard this.

　　“Why are you laughing?”the teacher asked her angrily. “Have I said anything funny(可笑) ?”

　　“Well, sir,”the girl answered,“why didn't he swim across the river four times to get back his clothes?”

1．The students were having a ________ class.

[　　]

2．Romans played a lot of games because ________.

[　　]

A．they wanted to keep themselves healthy

B．they wanted the other people to be interested in them

C．they wanted to be clever and hard working

D．they wanted to be famous in the world

3．The girl asked the teacher the question because ________.

[　　]

A．she liked swimming very much

B．she liked the Romans very much

C．she liked her history teacher a lot

D．she wanted to be the top student in her class

4．Why did the girl laugh after the teacher told them a story about one famous Roman?

[　　]

A．Because her teacher was angry.

B．Because her teacher said something funny.

C．Because she thought the Roman was foolish.

D．Because she had heard the story before.