If you are what you eat, then you are also what you buy to eat. And mostly what people buy is scrawled onto a grocery list, those ethereal scraps of paper that record the shorthand of where we shop and how we feed ourselves. Most grocery lists end up in the garbage. But if you live in St. Louis, they might have a half-life you never imagined: as a cultural document, posted on the Internet. For the past decade, Bill Keaggy, 33, the features photo editor at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has been collecting grocery lists and since 1999 has been posting them online at www. Grocery lists, org. The collection, which now numbers more than 500 lists, is strangely addictive. The lists elicit two-fold curiosity—about the kind of meal the person was planning and the kind of person who would make such a meal. What was the shopper with vodka, lighters, milk and ice cream on his list planning to do with them? In what order would they be consumed? Was it a he or a she? Who had written "Tootie food, kitten chow, bird food stick, toaster scrambles, coffee drinks"? Some shoppers organize their lists by aisle; others start with dairy, go to cleaning supplies and then back to dairy before veering off to Home Depot. A few meticulous ones note the price of every item. One shopper had written in large letters on an envelope, simply, "Milk". The thin lines of ink and pencil jutting and looping across crinkled and torn pieces of paper have a purely graphic beauty. One of life"s most banal duties, viewed through the curatorial lens, can somehow seem pregnant with possibility. It can even appear poetic, as in the list that reads "meat, cigs, buns, treats". One thing Keaggy discovered is that Dan Quayle is not alone—few people can spell bananas and bagels, let alone potato. One list calls for "suchi" and "strimp". "Some people pass judgment on the things they buy," Keaggy says. At the end of one list, the shopper wrote "Bud Light" and then "good beer". Another scribbled "good loaf of white bread". Some pass judgment on themselves, like the shopper who wrote "read, stay home or go somewhere, I act like my mom, go to Kentucky, underwear, lemon". People send messages to one another, too. Buried in one list is this statement: "If you buy more rice, I"ll punch you." And plenty of shoppers, like the one with both ice cream and diet pills on the list, reveal their vices.
单选题 What would people usually do with their grocery list after shopping?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:细节题。文章第一段第三句提到"大多数杂货店购物单都是在垃圾箱里结束",由此可知人们在购物完毕之后通常会将其购物单扔到垃圾箱里,所以答案选项为正确答案。"购买乱写在纸上的东西"是购物时要做的事情,"记录关于我们购物地点的速记"与题意无关,"将其粘贴在因特网上"足后面提到的Bill Keaggy所做的事。因此这三项都与文意不符。
单选题 Bill Keaggy collects grocery lists because
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:细节题。文章第二段开头提到33岁的Bill Keaggy在过去的十年中一直搜集食品购物单,接着第三句提到"这些清单引出两方面的好奇:一是人们计划购买什么样的食品,二是写购物单的是什么样的人",由此可知Bill Keaggy收集购物单是企图发现购物单背后的故事,所以答案选项为正确答案。"他想把它们粘到网上"是他做的事情,而不是真正的目的;"他对写清单的人很好奇"只是其目的之一;"他出于娱乐这么做"与文章的内容不符。因此这三项都不正确。
单选题 Was it a he or a she(Paragraph 2) may be replaced by
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:语义题。根据文章上下文的内容,并结合he和she前面的冠词可判断出此处的he和she已不是代词,而转意为名词,所以"写购物单的是个男人还是女人"为正确答案。"谁做的购物单","写购物单的人是谁","他或她写了购物单吗"都不符合文中的意思。
单选题 Through studying grocery lists, Bill Keaggy finds that
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:细节题。文章第四段的第一句中提到"没几个人能拼写正确bananas和 bagels这两个词,更不用说写对potato了",由此可知"最常见的拼写错误是写potato的时候"为正确答案。"Dan Quayle是惟一拼写错误的一个人"与第四段第一句提到的内容不符;"更少的人能够正确地拼写bananas和bagels",文中只提到没有几个人,并没谈到比以前更少的人;"一些人将sushi误拼为suchi,将shrimp误拼为strimp",文中只是提到"一张清单上写着要买"suchi"和"strimp"",并没有提及人们将哪个词误拼了。因此这三项都不符合文意。
单选题 The last sentence of the passage implies that
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:推理题。文章最后一句提到"而很多的购物者,就像上述食品购物单上买冰淇淋和减肥丸的人那样,暴露了自己的缺陷",也就是说,一个人性格上的缺陷可以反映在食品购物单上,由此可推知答案选项为正确答案。"冰淇淋和减肥丸隐藏了一个人的缺陷"与文章的意思恰好相反,"冰淇淋和减肥丸不是好的食物"并不能从最后一句中推导出来,"大量购物者没有买合适的食物"也不是最后一句所反映的意思。因此这三项都不正确。