Aldous Huxley was a most unfortunate man.When hedied in 1963 he must have expired in the confidentbelief that the event would be giv en wide coverage inthe press the next day.After all,his career had not beenwithout distinction.Where he made his big mistake wasin dying on the same day that John F.Kennedy wasassassinated.As a result Hu xley got about three columninches at the bottom of page 27.
In the same way the death of Victor Farris has gone widely unnoticed because hefoolishly shuffled off this mortal coil at the same time as Mr.KonstantinChernenko.Now,as you all know,Victor Farris was the ch ap who invented the paperclip.The paper milk carton too.And paper c lips and milk cartons will be in use longafter everyone has forgotten t he name of the comrade who came between Andropovand whatever this new bloke is called.
『The same goes for the inventor of the supermarket trolley who die d in Switzerlanda few months ago.』①Fell off his trolley,so to speak.『For all I know,he may be ahousehold name in his own canton and t hey are putting up a statue of homewheeling his trolley,and are goin g to commemorate him on one of those ever-so-tasteful Swiss postag e stamps we used to collect when we were younger andwiser,』②
but I doubt if his name will be remembered outside the borders of hi ssmall country.Personally I forgot it within minutes of reading of his d ecease.
Not that it matters.Somehow it is hard to imagine things like paper cli ps andsupermarket trolleys having had a named inventor.It’s like disc overing that at aparticular moment of history a particular person inve nted the spoon,or the chair, orsocks.One assumes that these everyda y objects just happened,or evolved throughnatural selection.
It isn’t necessarily so.I read only the other day that Richard Ⅱ invent ed thehandkerchief.Almost everything else was invented either by Le onardo daVinci(scissors,bicycles,helicopters,and probably spoons,soc ks and the Rubik cube aswell)or by Benjamin Franklin(lightning-cond uctor,rocking-chair,bifocals)or else byJoseph Stalin(television).
It’s quite possible that Leonardo or Benjamin Franklin or Stalin also in vented thesupermarket trolley.Certainly it has been invented more th an once.Hardly was HerrEdelweiss(or whatever the Swiss chap was c alled)in his grave,than news came of thedeath of Sylvan N.Goodman at the age of 86.Sylvan also invented the supermarkettrolley or,as the Los Angeles Times report calls it,the shopping cart.
Be that as it may,Herr Edelweiss or Sylvan Goodman,or both,did a gr and job andmade supermarket shopping far less hellish than it would
otherwise be.The next stepwill be to get the trolleys out of the shop s and into the streets.You could put anengine in the front and call it a car.Or give it big wheels and a canopy and call it apram.The possibili ties are endless.
1.It can be inferred from the passage that Herr Edelweiss.
A.was remembered by the people all over world
B.made a lot of money from his invention
C.was not very famous
D.was a business partner of Sylvan Goodman
2.The author writes this article in order to illustrate that.
A.the names of the people who invented the most useful things are u suallyforgotten
B.everyday objects are invented and evolve through natural selection
C.many everyday objects are invented more than once
D.many famous people have passed away without being noticed
3.Who probably invented spoons?
A.Leonardo da Vinci.
B.Benjamin Franklin.
C.Victor Farris.
D.A person unknown.
4. By stating that Leonardo da Vinci invented helicopters, the author means .
A. he really did it
B. he is a military scientist
C. he painted in one of his masterpieces a helicopters
D. people turn to ascribe inventions to him but they are wrong
5.What can be inferred about Aldous Huxley?
A.His death was not reported by the press.
B.He was a famous inventor.
C.He made a very big mistake in his late years.
D.He died on the same day as John F.Kenneddy.
Vocabulary
1.canopy n. 天篷
2.pram n. 婴儿车
长难句解析
①【解析】“the same goes”解析为同样的事情也发生，例:The same goes for ourclassmates.同样的事情也发生在我的同学身上。 who 引导的定语从句修饰inventor。
【译文】同样的事情也发生在超市手推车发明者的身上，他就在几个月以前死于瑞士。
②【解析】a household name 应译为“家喻户晓的名字”，2个“and”连接3个并列句。“for all I know”作(禁止)语，译为“据我所知”。
【译文】据我所知，在他的家乡他的名字家喻户晓，人们甚至为纪念他的手推车为他造了塑像，还将他印在了我们曾经收集过的非常有意义的瑞士邮票上了。
答案与详解
【短文大意】正是由于发明家们的伟大作品，我们的生活才得以更加美好，但是，由于各种原因，他们的名字却并不为人们熟知。生活中有许多看似平常的东西其实都是发明家的杰作。
1. C推断题。虽然文中第三段对他进行了详细的介绍，但是直到第六段才第一次出现Herr Edelweiss这个名字，根据上下文可以看出他是瑞士人，刚刚去世。因为他发明了supermarket trolley，在他的家乡人们以塑像和发行邮票的方式纪念他，但即便如此作者怀疑if his name will be remembered outside the borders of his small coun try，而作者自己也在几分钟后忘掉了他的名字。由此可以推断出Herr Edelweiss was notvery famous。Edelweiss并不是Sylvan Goodman的商业伙伴，但他们都发明了超级市场的手推车。
2. A主旨题。作者在文中提到了几位人们所不熟悉的发明家，如
Victor Farris，HerrEdelweiss，和sylvan Goodman，他们发明了像paper clips，milk cartons，和supermarket trolleys等非常有用的日常物品，但是他们的名字常常不为人所知；人们更不曾记得是谁发明了scissors，bicycles，spoons...，因此文章的主旨是称赞那些默默无闻的发明家，A是最佳选项。3. D推断题。本题的关键是对文中第五段第三句的理解，不能按照字面意思理解成Leonardo da Vinci 发明了剪子、自行车、直升飞机、勺子、袜子和骰子，本杰明·富兰克林发明了避雷针、摇椅和两用眼镜，斯大林发明了电视机，作者的本意是说人们只记得一些著名人物，却根本不知道是谁发明了这些重要的日常用品。
4. D细节题。达芬奇不可能发明直升飞机。答案应为D。人们只是喜欢把他想像成发明了很多东西的人.
5. D推断题。从文中第一段我们可以得知Aldous Huxley很有名(his career had notbeen without distinction)，但文中并没说他是个发明家；他的不幸之处是dying on thesame day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated，报纸以大量篇幅报道肯尼迪遇刺，Huxley的死讯只出现在报纸第27版的末尾部分，因此D为正确选项。
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