A bag is useful and the word “bag” is useful, too. Here
is an interesting phrase（短语）, “to let the cat out of the bag”. In
meaning it is the same as “to tell the secret（秘密）”.
And there is an old interesting story about it.
Long ago,
when farmers wanted to sell chickens at the market, they would usually just
throw the chickens in cloth (布) bags. But cats were
cheaper than chickens at that time, so many farmers would put cats into the
cloth bags but not chickens. One day, a woman asked a man for a chicken. The
man gave her a cloth bag in which there was a cat. When
the man opened the cloth bag, a big black cat ran out. Not a chicken! The man’s
secret was out and everyone knew it.
Now when we
say someone gives away a secret, we say “he lets the cat out of the bag”. And
that is the story where the interesting phrase came from.
1.The underlined word “it” in the passage
refers to (指的是) .
A. the useful bag B.
the phrase C.
the cat D.
the chicken
2.The farmers put cats but not chickens in the bags to
when they sold chickens.
A. tell the secret B.
sell the cats
C. get more money D.
keep the cats quiet
3.Which is the best for the blank (空白处) in the passage?
A. The woman was angry to see a cat. B.
The man put a cat in the bag.
C. The man asked her to see the chicken. D.
The woman wanted to see the chicken.
4.The writer wrote the story to tell us .
A. the woman was smart B.
how farmers sold their cats
C. the phrase is useful D.
where the phrase came from
