单选题 George had stolen some money, but the police had caught him and he had been put in prison. Now his trial was about to begin, and he felt sure that he would be found guilty and sent to prison for a long time.
Then he discovered that an old friend of his was one of the members of the jury at his trial. Of course, he didn't tell anybody, but he managed to see his friend secretly one day. He said to him, "Jim, I know that the jury will find me guilty of having stolen the money. I cannot hope to be found not guilty of taking it—that would be too much to expect. But I should be grateful to you for the rest of my life if you could persuade the other members of the jury to add a strong recommendation for mercy to their statement that they consider me guilty."
"Well, George," answered Jim, "I shall certainly try to do what I can for you as an old friend, but of course I cannot promise anything. The other eleven people on the jury look terribly strong-minded to me."
George said that he would quite understand if Jim was not able to do anything for him, and thanked him warmly for agreeing to help.
The trial went on, and at last the time came for the jury to decide whether George was guilty or not. It took them five hours, but in the end they found George guilty, with a strong recommendation for mercy.
Of course, George was very pleased, but he didn't have a chance to see Jim for some time after the trial. At last, however, Jim visited him in the prison, and George thanked him warmly and asked him how he had managed to persuade the other members of the jury to recommend mercy.
"Well, George," Jim answered, "as I thought, those eleven men were very difficult to persuade, but I managed it in the end by tiring them out. Do you know, those fools had all wanted to find you not guilty!/

单选题 George expected his friend Jim to ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节推理题。第2段第3句起的描述可以看出George不指望陪审团能让他无罪。他只求Jim能说服陪审团的其他成员在定罪时能宽容几分，以减轻惩罚的力度。所以C项是正确答案。
单选题 The word "mercy" in the last sentence of the second paragraph is closest in meaning to
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】词汇理解。mercy表示“宽容、怜悯”的意思，接近forgiveness。
单选题 According to the passage, jury must be ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。第2段第1句告诉我们George的一位老朋友是陪审团的一名成员，然后，在第3段最后一句中，Jim告诉George "The other eleven people on the jury look terribly strong-minded to me．”可见，Jim加上其他11名成员，总共有12名。因此，答案应是C项。
单选题 George was very pleased about the decision the jury made because ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节推理题。倒数第3段告诉我，最终的结果是“…they found George guilty， with a strong recommendation for mercy．”既然表示宽容，当然在量刑上会减轻，可见，A项是正确选择。
单选题 Who do you think is/are the biggest fool (fools)?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节推理题。让人忍俊不禁的最后一段充分说明了Jim是最大的笨蛋。陪审团的其他成员原先拟判George无罪，正是他刻板地按George的要求，竭力说服他们判 George有罪，附带宽恕减刑。