Almost everybody in America will spend a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart（购物手推车）. They will, in a lifetime, push the chrome-plated contraptions many miles. But few will know—or even think to ask—who it was that invented them.
Sylvan N. Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937. At that time he was in the supermarket business. Every day he would see shoppers lugging（吃力地携带） groceries around in baskets they had to carry.
One day Goldman suddenly had the idea of putting baskets on wheels. The wheeled baskets would make shopping much easier for his customers, and would help to attract more business.
On June 4, 1937, Goldman’s first carts were ready for use in his market. He was terribly excited on the morning of that day as customers began arriving. He couldn’t wait to see them using his invention.
But Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try.
After a while, Goldman decided to ask customers why they weren’t using his carts. “Don’t you think this arm is strong enough to carry a shopping basket?” one shopper replied.
But Goldman wasn’t beaten yet. He knew his carts would be a great success if only he could persuade people to give them a try. To this end, Goldman hired a group of people to push carts around his market and pretend they were shopping! Seeing this, the real customers gradually began copying the phony（假冒的） customers.
As Goldman had hoped, the carts were soon attracting larger and larger numbers of customers to his market. But not only did more people e—those who came bought more. With larger, easier-to-handle baskets, customers unconsciously bought a greater number of items than before.
Today’s shopping carts are five times larger than Goldman’s original model. Perhaps that’s one reason Americans today spend more than five times as much money on food each year as they did before 1937—before the ing of the shopping cart.
【小题1】The underlined words “chrome-plate contraptions” in Paragraph 1 refer to .（within 3 words）
【小题2】What was the purpose of Goldman’s invention? （within 10 words）
【小题3】Why was Goldman disappointed at first? （within 10 words）
【小题4】Why did Goldman hire people to push carts around his market? （within 10 words）
【小题5】What is the main idea of this article? （within 10 words）
shopping carts
网友回答
(答案→)shopping carts
解析：本文主要介绍Goldman为什么要发明购物车，他的购物手推车是怎么发明的，效果怎样，是如何受到人们的欢迎的。
【小题1】词义猜测题。由上句----a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart（购物手推车）可以得出谈的是.购物手推车。
【小题2】细节理解表达。由二段的Every day he would see shoppers lugging（吃力地携带） groceries和第三段可知他做购物手推车的目的。
【小题3】细节理解表达。由第五段But Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try.可知他很失望，因为很少有购物者用他的购物车。
【小题4】细节推理表达题。由第七段关键词---persuade people to give them a try.可知他是想说服更多的人来用他的购物车。
【小题5】主旨大意表达题。通读全文把握大意，本文主要介绍Goldman的购物手推车是怎么发明的。