Question

A man sat at an underground station in Washington, D.C., and started to play the violin. It was a cold day in January. He played six Bach（巴赫）pieces for about 45 minutes. It was rush hour and thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and the first person, a middle-aged man, noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed down and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

After a minute, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a young woman threw the money in the box and continued to walk. Then another few minutes went by and someone stood against the wall to listen to him, but the young man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

During the musician’s performance, only six people stopped and stayed for a while, twenty gave him money but continued to walk. When he finished playing, no one applauded（鼓掌）. No one knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing in the underground station was organized by The Washington Post（《华盛顿邮报》）as part of a social experiment. One of the conclusions from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music, how many other things are we missing?

1.The story took place on __________.

A. a cold morning    B. a winter evening    C. a freezing weekend    D. a January afternoon

2.The first dollar tip for the musician was from __________.

A. a middle-aged man    B. a young man

C. a young woman    D. a small girl

3.The performance in the underground station lasted for about __________.

A. an hour    B. 45 minutes    C. 20 minutes    D. 6 minutes

4.When the musician was playing the violin, 26 people __________.

A. gave him cheers    B. introduced themselves to him

C. recognized him    D. gave response to his performance

5.The people going past Joshua Bell __________.

A. showed interest in his violin    B. seemed in their hurry

C. were on their way home    D. acted rudely to him

6.The purpose of this experiment was to __________.

A. observe what people usually did in the underground

B. let us know more about the importance of saving time

C. do a survey on how many people were fond of music

D. make us pay more attention to nice things around

Answer

1.A

2.C

3.B

4.D

5.B

6.D

【解析】生活中我们总是急忙赶路，却没有时间停下来关注周围发生的事情。这篇短文给我们讲述了一个故事，通过这个故事作者想要告诉我们不要因为匆忙而错过我们周围发生的事情。

1.细节理解题。根据短文第一段中It was a cold day in January.以及most of them on their way to work可知，这个故事发生在一月份的一个寒冷的一天，而且是大部分人在上班的路上，由此可知，这应该是早上。故应选A。

2.细节理解题。根据短文第三段中After a minute, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a young woman threw the money in the box and continued to walk可知，这个小提琴手收到的第一笔小费是来自一个年轻的女士。故应选C。

3.细节理解题。根据短文第一段中He played six Bach（巴赫）pieces for about 45 minutes可知，这个人演奏了六首巴赫的曲目，演奏了45分钟。故应选B。

4.细节理解题。根据短文中During the musician’s performance, only six people stopped and stayed for a while, twenty gave him money but continued to walk可知，在这个音乐家演奏的过程中，有六个人停下来听了一会儿，有二十个人给他钱，然后继续前行。由此可知，只有这二十六个人对他的演奏做出反应。故应选D。

5.推理判断题。根据短文中most of them on their way to work、He slowed down and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule以及a young woman threw the money in the box and continued to walk可知，这几个地方给我们描述了一些过路人，大多数人是在上班的路上，即使有人在这个音乐家前面停下来，也是很短暂，然后又急匆匆的走了。故应选B。

6.主旨大意题。根据文意和短文的最后If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music, how many other things are we missing?可知，如果我们没有一刻停歇去听一听这个世界上最棒的音乐家演奏最好的音乐，那么我们还错过了多少其他的东西？这个实验是想告诉我们要去关注周围发生的事情，不要只急急忙忙的向前赶路。故D选项符合文意。

点睛：这篇短文通过一个小故事告诉了我们一个生活中的道理。掌握故事的大意，体会作者讲这个故事的目的是解题的关键。后面的题目设置以细节理解题为主，也考查了推理判断和主旨大意。细节理解题型比较简单，我们可以先读题目，从题目中定位一个关键词，然后在原文中找到相对应的地方作答。例如第1小题，提问的是故事发生的时间，在寻找答案的时候，我们要特别注意表示时间的数字、月份等等。第5小题是推理判断题，从短文中的几个细节我们可以看出，故事发生的时候是人们上班的高峰时刻，很多人都急忙地走在上班的路上，很匆忙。从短文中举的几个过路人的例子也可以看出来。