Question

I have this old clock that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me years ago after mom passed away.

I have mixed feelings about keeping the clock. I love it because it was my mom’s, but it also holds some bad memories.

You see, it chimes (打钟报时). It counts out the hour and rings once on the half hour. Or at least it used to. Now you never know what number it will ring.

When my mother was at home dying from cancer, she asked for the clock to be unplugged (拔去插头等). Hearing the hours count down really angered and frightened her.

Mom passed away. I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.

I took it to a local clock shop the other day.

“I know this has no particular value as a clock, but it was my mom’s and I need to get it fixed,” I said to the shop owner.

I went on to describe the problem.

“We get a lot of these in,” he told me. “Here’s what I do. We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery -operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically,” he told me.

“You can’t fix this?”  “No, we don’t have the time nor the parts.”

I thanked him and went home. I called a few other places and was told the same thing.

“How incredibly sad,” I told the last one disappointedly.

We copy the original instead of creating something new. We duplicate (复制); we don’t originate (发明). How incredibly sad that we have become a society that replaces craftsmanship (手艺) with convenience and easy fixes.

Sadly, this is also our attitude toward life itself.

Each of us is an original, one of a kind. But we find it so much easier to copy another’s style than to develop our own.

We are wannabes (崇拜别人的人) rather than “hey-world-look-at-me”s.

We fail to see the real value in who we are, so we spend our lives trying to be someone else.

1.The author decided to get the clock fixed because it ______.

A. was a really old and valuable clock

B. left the author with mixed feelings

C. was the only thing that his mother had left him

D. brought him memories of being with his mother

2.What did the clock shop owners tell the author?

A. It would cost a lot to repair the clock.

B. They could only make the clock electronic.

C. The parts that the clock needed were electronic.

D. They had never repaired a clock like this before.

3.The purpose of the article is to criticize ______.

A. the irresponsible clock shop owners

B. people who do not value things with a history

C. people who do not have a creative attitude toward life

D. people’s ignorance (无知) of traditional craftsmanship

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.C

【解析】

试题分析：作者的母亲癌症过世后留下了一个闹钟。闹钟出了问题，作者拿到几个钟表店去修都被告知没有配件。作者感叹人们擅长于复制，而不是发明。人们总是不能找到自己的价值。

1. D细节理解题。根据文章第五段第二句话I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.可知作者想修这个闹钟是因为它能够使作者记起与妈妈在一起的时光。故选D。

2. B细节理解题。根据钟表店店主的话We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery -operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically.可知他们要将闹钟里的某个零件换成电子。选项B他们只能使这个闹钟变成电子闹钟，符合文中句子意思，故选B。

3. C主旨大意题。文章主要通过作者修闹钟这件事情，批评人们不懂创新，只会复制。C选项人们对于生活没有一个积极的态度符合作者的意图。故选C。

考点：考查日常生活类短文阅读