Many years ago, when I was a young man in my twenties, I worked as a salesman fo

   Many years ago, when I was a young man in my twenties, I worked as a salesman for a St.Louis piano company. We sold our pianos all over the state by advertising in small town newspapers and then, when we had received sufficient replies, we would load our little trucks, and drive into the area and sell the pianos to those who had replied.

   Every time we would advertise in the cotton country of Southeast Missouri, we would receive a reply on a postcard which said, “Please bring me a new piano for my little granddaughter. It must be red mahogany(红木). I can pay $10 a month with my egg money.” The old lady had scrawled on and on until she filled up the postcard, then turned it over and even wrote on the front-around and around the edges until she filled up there was barely room for the address.

   No finance company would carry a contract with payments that small, so we ignored her postcards. One day, however, I happened to be in that area calling on other replies, and out of curiosity I decided to look the old lady up. I found pretty much what I expected: The old lady lived in a one-room sharecroppers cabin in the middle of a cotton field.

The cabin had a dirt floor and there were chickens in the house. Obviously, the old lady could not have qualified to purchase anything on credit-- no car, no phone, no real job, nothing but a roof over her head and not a very good one . I could see daylight through it in several places. Her little granddaughter was about 10, barefoot and wearing a feedsack dress.

56. According to the passage, the writer        

A. was told to visit the old lady    B. was asked to pay a visit by the old lady

C. got to that area by accident     D. had a close friend in that area

57. The underlined word “scrawled” in the second paragraph means      .

A. cried                      B. begged

C. written                    D. called

58. After the writer explained to her, the old lady       .

A. accepted the writer’s advice

B. didn’t listen to the writer

C. reported the writer to the boss 

D. told her granddaughter to write postcards

59. What do you expect to be continued?

A. The writer helped the old lady.

B. The old lady gave up writing postcards.

C. The local government tried to help.

D. The writer lost his business.

试题答案

CCBA