(1)I cry easily. I once burst into tears when the curtain came down on the Kirov Ballets "Swan Lake". I still choke up every time I see a film of Roger Bannister breaking the "impossible" four-minute mark for the mile. I figure I am moved by witnessing men and women at their best; but they need not be great men and women, doing great things.
(2)Take the night, some years ago, when my wife and I were going to dinner at a friend's house in New York city. It was sleeting. As we hurried toward the house, with its welcoming light, I noticed a car pulling out from the curb. Just ahead, another car was waiting to back into the parking space—a rare commodity in crowded Manhattan. But before he could do so another car came up from behind, and sneaked into the spot. That's dirty pool, I thought; while my wife went ahead into our friend's house. I stepped into the street to give the guilty driver a piece of my mind. A man in work clothes rolled down the window.
(3)"Hey," I said, "this parking space belongs to that guy," I gestured toward the man ahead, who was looking back angrily. I thought I was being a good Samaritan, I guess—and I remember that the moment I was feeling pretty manly in my new trench coat.
(4)"Mind your own business!" me driver told me.
(5)"No," I said. "You don't understand. That fellow was waiting to back into this space." Things quickly heated up, until finally he leaped out of the car. My God, he was colossal. He grabbed me and bent me back over the hood of his car as if I was a rag doll. The sleet stung my face. I glanced at the other driver, looking for help, but he gunned his engine and hightailed it out of there.
(6)The huge man shook his rock of a fist of me, brushing my lip and cutting the inside of my mouth against my teeth. I tasted blood. I was terrified. He snarled and threatened, and then told me to beat it. Almost in a panic, I scrambled to my friend's front door. As a former Marine, as a man, I felt utterly humiliated. Seeing mat I was shaken, my wife and friends asked me what had happened. All I could bring myself to say was that I had had an argument about a parking space. They had me sensitivity to let it go at that.
(7)I sat stunned. Perhaps half an hour later, the doorbell rang. My blood ran cold. For some reason I was sure that the bruiser had returned for me. My hostess got up to answer it, but I stopped her. I felt morally bound to answer it myself.
(8)I walked down the hallway with dread. Yet I knew I had to face up to my fear. I opened the door. There he stood, towering. Behind him, the sleet came down harder than ever.
(9)"I came back to apologize," he said in a low voice. "When I got home, I said to myself, what right I have to do that? I'm ashamed of myself. All I can tell you is that the Brooklyn Navy Yard is closing. I've worked there for years. And today I got laid off. I'm not myself. I hope you'll accept my apology."
(10)I often remember that big man. I think of the effort and courage it took for him to come back to apologize. He was man at last.
(11)And I remember that after I closed die door, my eyes blurred, as I stood in the hallway for a few moments alone.
单选题 Which of the following does "dirty pool" in the second paragraph stand for?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第2段第5句指出,在他把车停入车位之前,后面出现了一辆车,迅速地钻入了那个车位。后文紧接着出现That's dirty pool,据此可以判定dirty pool指的是前文提到的抢车位的不正当行为,所以选C。
单选题 Which of the following contains a simile?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】A中用到了as if,这是典型的明喻修辞,故选A。
单选题 What touched the writer in the end?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】倒数第2段作者指出对那位男子的评价:“他才是个男人”,并且作者为此还在门廊前停留了一会,眼里含着泪水。暗示作者为这个男子勇于承认错误的男子汉气概而感动,故选D。