单选题 It is often difficult for a man to be quite sure what tax he 9ught to pay to the government be-cause it depends on so many different things: whether the man is married; how many children he has; whether he supports any relations; how much he earns; how much interest he receives; how much he has spent on his house during the year, and so on and so forth. All this makes it difficult to decide exactly how much the tax is.
There was a certain artist who was always very careful to pay the proper amount.
One year, after posting his check as usual, he began to wonder if he had paid enough, and after a lot of work, with a pencil and paper, he decided that he had not. He believed that he owed the government something.
He was just writing another check to send to the tax-collector when the postman dropped a letter into the box at the front door. Opening it, the artist was surprised to find inside it a check for five pounds from the tax-collector. The official explained that too much had been paid, and that therefore the difference was now returned to the taxpayer.

单选题 It is mentioned in the passage that one has to pay tax according to______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。题干意为“文章提到，一个人应该根据什么来缴税?”由文章的第一段第一句话看出，一个人所缴税款是由很多方面决定的。whether the man is married是其中的一项。所以正确的答案为B。

单选题 The word "proper" in the first line of the second paragraph means______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 词汇释义题。题干询问“第二段第一行‘proper’的意思是什么?”“proper'’的意思是“适当的、合适的”。由文章的最后两段可知，艺术家担心自己这次缴税不够，打算再次补交。所以他以前交的都是合适的。所以正确的答案为C。

单选题 After a lot of work, the artist thought that he had paid the government______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。题干意为“经过计算后，艺术家认为这次他缴纳的税款如何?”从文章的第三段内容可知，He believed that he owed the govemment something．根据意思，他认为自己仍欠政府的钱，缴纳的应该比实际缴的多。所以正确的答案为A。

单选题 Why did the tax-collector send a letter to the artist?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 判断推理题。题干意为“为什么税务官给艺术家钱?”由文章的最后一句话可知，too much had been paid，他的税额交多了，因此，多余的税款现在退还纳税人。所以正确的答案为B。