Once upon a time there was a crook（骗子）who only thought about how to get money. What he hated most was when people were polite to each other, saying things like “please”, “thank you”, and “don’t mention it”.
The crook thought all those kinds of words were a waste, so he spent a lot of time inventing a machine which could steal words. With this machine, he planned to steal “please”, “thank you”, “don’t mention it”, and similar words people used to be polite. After he stole these words, he intended to take them apart and sell the letters to book publishers. After he started up his machine, people would open their mouths, intending to say kind and polite things, but nothing came out. All those words ended up inside the big machine.
The crook was happy with his success, but he didn’t count on (料想到)a couple of very special little girls. Those girls were deaf, and had to municate with sign language. Because the machine couldn’t steal gestures, these girls continued being kind and polite. Soon they realized what had been happening to everyone else, and they found out about the crook and his plan. The girls followed him and found the machine busy separating all the words into letters. They approached the machine and started being polite to each other.
Try as it might, the machine couldn’t steal those words, and it started to suffer a power overload(超载). Finally, it exploded, sending all the letters it had gathered flying into the sky. These letters started ing down, like rain, and most ended up in the sea. After that, everyone could be polite again.
Seeing all those letters fall into the sea, those little girls had an idea. A little while later they opened a factory, making alphabetic spaghetti soup!
【小题1】What the crook hated most was .A．his machineB．moneyC．languageD．politeness【小题2】The crook spent a lot of time inventing a machine to .A．publish booksB．steal wordsC．write lettersD．make alphabetic soup【小题3】Why did the machine have no effect on the two girls?A．Because they were kind and polite.B．Because they were very clever.C．Because the machine couldn’t steal gestures.D．Because there was something wrong with the machine.D
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(答案→)D
解析：这篇文章是一则小故事，一个讨厌礼貌的骗子发明了一台机器，这台机器可以偷走人们礼貌的语言，后来这台机器被耳朵失聪的小姑娘们所破坏。
【小题1】根据What he hated most was when people were polite to each other, saying things like “please”, “thank you”, and “don’t mention it”.故选D。
【小题2】根据The crook thought all those kinds of words were a waste, so he spent a lot of time inventing a machine which could steal words.故答案应为B。
【小题3】根据Those girls were deaf, and had to municate with sign language. Because the machine couldn’t steal gestures, these girls continued being kind and polite.故选C。