单选题
My new home was a long way from the centre of London but it was becoming essential to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the tube. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn"t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T. S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I would be a tube guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I would be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test, I must have done all right because after half an hour"s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The examiner sat at a desk. You were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: "Why did you leave your last job?" "Why did you leave your job before that?" "And the one before that?" I can"t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. "You have failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position."
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs—being a postman is another one I still desire—demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.
单选题
The writer applied for the job because ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】推理题。文章第一句指出:My new home was a long way from the centre of London but it was becoming essential to find a job.虽然作者的家离伦敦很远,但是找工作是必要的。由此可见作者很需要一份工作。下文也表达出了作者对工作的热切需求。所以A项符合题意。
单选题
The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】推理题。文章第一段指出:I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis.作者认为自己在危难的时候是很优秀的,因此他认为自己能胜任这份工作,所以D符合题意。
单选题
The length of his interview meant that ______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】推理题。文章第二段指出:Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones...Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.面试的时间越长,成功的可能性就越大,而作者面试的时间只有一分半钟,由此推断出这次面试是失败的,作者未得到这份工作。所以B项符合题意。
单选题
What was the writer"s opinion of the psychologist?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】语义题。文章第三段指出:revealed a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, sensitivity在这里意为体贴,B项unsympathetic意为缺少同情心,与此符合。
单选题
What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】细节题。第四段倒数第二句指出:But I was still far short of full self-understanding.作者对自己还不够了解,因此不清楚什么样的工作适合自己。D项符合题意。