Question

Bill Javis took over our village news-agency at a time of life when most of us only want to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-agency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.

    Every day he opened his shop at six a.m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his door-step before that. Many of Bill’s customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was tailing off by 10 o’clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the afternoon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his nearest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometime in the afternoon, the evening paper landed on the doormat, and at 4 o’clock Bill reopened. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.

    He lived in a flat above the shop, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the afternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was astonished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the water. He had had no luck, I could see, but he was making no effort to move.

    “What’s wrong, Bill?” I called out from the path.

    For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire engine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, “Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right.”

I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before.

1.Bill Javis became a news-agent when ________.

A. he needed the money.  

B. he decided to take things easy

C. he was quite an old man

D. he gave up clock-repairing

2.Bill opened the shop so early in the day because ________.

A. he liked to do as much as possible before he went to work

B. the shop had to be open when the morning papers came

C. he was never sure of time

D. it was then that he did a lot of business

3.On that sunny afternoon, the writer was surprised when he saw Bill because _______.

A. he thought it was late for Bill to be still fishing

B. he thought Bill was ill, since he was not moving at all

C. Bill had not caught anything, and that seemed strange

D. Bill stayed in his flat

4.What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase in paragraph 2?

A. become noisy              B. become less

C. become stronger            D. become busy

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.A

4.B

【解析】

试题分析：讲述了Bill Javis开报亭的事情以及他的生活规律。

1.C推理判断题。根据at a time of life when most of us only wanted to relax和He had been a long-serving sailor这两点说明他已上了年纪，故答案为C。

2.D推理判断题。根据第二段开头说他6点开门，报纸在这之前已送到，而且还可以catch the early trade，赶上早上的生意可知，答案为D。

3.A推理判断题。Bill通常4点会重新开店，而那天作者的表已过4点，Bill还没有离开的意思，所以他非常惊讶。故答案为A。

4.

【名师点睛】

推理判断题要求在理解原文表面文字信息的基础上，做出一定的推理判断，从而得到文章的隐含意义和深层意义。推理判断题所涉及的内容可能是文中的某一句话，也可能是某几句话，所以，推理题的答案只能是根据原文表面文字信息一步推出的答案：即对原文某一句话或某几句话所作的同义改写或综合。推理判断题的题干中通常含有infer, suggest, imply, conclude indicate等标志性词语。 这种题型主要包括细节判断题、态度观点推断题、写作意图推断题、文章出处判断题和猜测想象推断题。

考点：记叙文阅读。