Once I invited a group of friends round to my house, telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents, and that it would take only a few minutes. Thus, on one evening, three people turned up at my house and were shown into my front room. When they saw the room they were a bit alarmed, for it was laid out as a studio. In front of each easy chair there was a microphone at head height, with wires leading to a tape-recorder in the middle of the floor. I explained that all I wanted was for them to count from one to twenty. Then we could relax and have a drink.
I turned on the tape-recorder and each in turn seriously counted from one to twenty in their best accent. When it was over, I turned the tape-recorder off and brought round the drinks, and for the rest of the evening there was general cheerful conversation—interrupted only by the fact that I had to take a telephone call in another room, which unfortunately lasted some time.
Or at least that was how it would appear. For, of course, the microphones were not connected to the tape-recorder in the middle of the room at all but to another one, which was turning happily away in the kitchen. The participants, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphones which stayed in front of their chairs, only a few inches from their mouths, thus giving excellent sound quality. And my lengthy absence meant that I was able to obtain as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find.
I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the event was over, and gave them the choice of destroying the tape. None of them wanted to—though for some years afterwards it always seemed to be my round when it came to the buying of drinks. Linguistic research can be a very expensive business.
【小题1】The writer asked his friends to count from one to twenty because . A．he wanted to record the numbers for his researchB．he wanted to find out whether the tape recorder was workingC．he wanted to make his friends relax before real recording startedD．he wanted his friends to think that was all he wanted to record【小题2】The writer went into another room to .A．get a natural recording of his friends’ conversationB．stay away from too much drinking with his friendsC．bring a telephone into the front roomD．answer a long distance phone call【小题3】The writer turned off the tape-recorder because .A．he had to answer a phone callB．he wanted his friends to enjoy some drinksC．he thought the tape-recorder might bother his friendsD．he wanted to make his friends believe he had finished the recording【小题4】Which one is true according to the passage?A．The writer destroyed the tape.B．The writer’s friends destroyed the tape.C．The writer did tell his friends what had happened.D．The writer’s friends like to drink.D
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(答案→)D
解析：作者邀请了一些朋友到他家，作者告诉他们要把他们说的话录下来。当进到一个像录音室一样的房间时，作者的朋友们感到有点不知所措，作者只是简单的让他们数数。在朋友们喝茶聊天的时候，作者通过麦克风把他们额聊天录了下来。
【小题1】根据第一二行“telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents”可知，作者想记录下他们的声音，面对朋友们的吃惊，作者告诉他们只需要从一数到二十就可以了，作者的解释使问题简单化了，因为作者只是要记录他们的声音，故选D。
【小题2】根据第三段“And my lengthy absence meant that I was able to obtain as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find.”可知，通过事先安装好的麦克风，作者能够清晰地记录下他们的谈话，故选A。
【小题3】根据第三段“The participants, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphones which stayed in front of their chairs”可知，参加的被试看到录音机被关掉了，他们以为录音工作已经结束了，故选D。
【小题4】根据最后一段“I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the event was over, and gave them the choice of destroying the tape.”可知，作者告诉了朋友们实情，但是朋友们并未把录音带毁掉，故选C。