One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingness
to admit one's mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing
like “I was wrong about that”, and it is even harder to say, “I was wrong, and
you were right about that.”
I had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made
a mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain
grocery store in the neighbourhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I
remembered the egg boxes. Then he related an incident and I began to remember
vaguely the incident he was describing.
I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gone into the store with
my mother to do the weekly grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have
found my way to the dairy food department where the incident took place.
There must have been a special sale on eggs that day because there was an impressive display of eggs in dozen and half-dozen boxes. The boxes were stacked three or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of boxes. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back together, so I went to work.
The manager heard the noise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting some of the boxes to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as if I was the culprit(肇事者). He severely scolded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs. I tried to explain it wasn't me who had broken them, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, obviously the manager did not.
问题：
1.How old was the author when he wrote this article?
A.About 8.
B.About 18.
C.About 23.
D.About 15.
【参考答案】C
[考点]推理判断题
【精析】C 根据第二段第一句“…that he had made a mistake fifteen years ago.”和第三段第一句“I was about eight years old at the time…”可推知，作者写这篇文章时大约是23岁。故选C。
2. Who was to blame for knocking off the stacks of boxes?
A.The author.
B.The manager.
C.A woman.
D.The author's mother.
【参考答案】C
[考点]事实细节题
【精析】C 根据第四段倒数第二句“Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of boxes.”可知，一个女人碰倒了箱子，所以应该是她应为此负责。故选C。
3. Which of the following statements is not true?
A.The woman who knocked off the stacks of boxes was seriously criticized by the manager.
B.The author was severely criticized by the manager.
C.A woman carelessly knocked off the stacks of boxes.
D.It was the author who put the display back together.
【参考答案】A
[考点]事实细节题
【精析】A 根据最后一段第三句“He severely scolded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs.”可知，作者被经理狠狠地骂了一顿，因此选项B正确，选项A错误;根据第四段最后两句“Just then a woman…knocked off the stacks of boxes…to put the display back together, so I went to work.”可知，选项C、D正确。故选A。
4. Which of the following can serve as the best title for the passage?
A.It's Harder to Admit One's Mistake
B.I Was Once the Culprit
C.I Remember an Incident
D.A Case of Mistaken Identity
【参考答案】D
[考点]主旨大意题
【精析】D 通读全文可知，作者讲述了他多年前被误解的一件事，之后又在15年后收到了经理的道歉。选项A概括不全面;B、C两项不符合原文;只有选项D最符合题意。故选D。
5. The tone of the article expresses the author's__________ .
A.admiration for the manager's willingness to admit mistakes
B.anger at the manager for his wrong accusation
C.indignation at the woman who knocked off the stacks of boxes
D.regret for the mistake he made in the store
【参考答案】A
[考点]推理判断题
【精析】A 作者在文章开头就指出承认自己所犯的错误很难，下文又以作者的亲身经历为例，所以作者想表达的是对经理能够坦然承认错误的敬佩之情。选项B、C、D均不符合文章大意。故选A。