A nurse and her elderly uncle were waiting for a bus at a corner in downtown Chicago. Buses came by, but not the one they wanted. The woman finally half-entered one of the buses and asked the driver if the bus she wanted stopped at that corner.
The driver looked at her but made no answer, so she repeated the question. To her great surprise, he then closed the door—on her arm—and drove off.
The woman, her arm stuck in the door, ran alongside the bus, shouting. Passengers said the driver stopped after almost a block only because they, too, were shouting.
When the driver finally did stop and open the door, the woman jumped on the bus to get his bus number. Then he took off again and went another couple of blocks before other shouting passengers persuaded him to stop and let the woman off.
After the driver’s bosses at a tax—supported governmental company — heard of the incident, they looked into it and set his punishment: a five-day suspension without pay. That struck me as rather light.
But Bill Baxa, the company’s public-relations man, said,“That’s a pretty serious punishment.”
Five days off work is a serious punishment for dragging a woman alongside a bus by her arm? Baxa said,“Any time you take money away from someone, it is a terrible punishment. The driver makes $ 14 an hour. Multiply that by 40 and you can see what he lost.”
Yes, that comes to %560, a good sum. But we know that people in the private company are fired for far less every day. If the people who run the bus company think that the loss of a week’s pay is more than enough, I offer them a sporting suggestion: Give me a bus. Then have their wives stick their arms in the doorway of the bus, and I’ll slam the door shut, start the bus quickly and take them for a fast one-block run.
And I’ll pay % 560 to anyone who is bold enough to try it. Any takers? Mr. Baxa? Anybody?
I didn’t think so.
1．The nurse half-entered one of the buses because ______.
A．the bus they wanted didn’t’ stop there
B．she wanted the driver to stop the bus
C．she wanted to get some information from the driver
D．she and her uncle couldn’t wait any longer at the corner
2．How many blocks was the woman away from the corner where she waited when the bus driver finally let her off?
A．Almost one block.
B．Almost two blocks.
C．Probably three blocks.
D．Probably five or six blocks.
3．Why did the author offer a sporting proposition?
A．Because the CTA paid little attention to the incident.
B．Because the bus driver had not been fired.
C．Because he wanted to threaten the CTA people.
D．Because he thought the punishment was not a serious one.
4．From this passage we may infer that _______.
A．many people in the private sector are fired for minor mistakes every day
B．people in the private sector usually get more punishment than those in the public sector
C．people in the private sector get much higher pay than those in the public sector
D．people in the private sector are better trained than those in the public sector
5．Which of the following is NOT true?
A．The company is a bus company supported by the government
B．The writer and Mr. Baxa disagreed with each other on the bus company’s decision.
C．The driver finally stopped the bus under the pressure of the passengers.
D．The writer asked the bus company to give him a bus if his suggestion was refused.
答案与解析：
1．[答案]C
[解析]从第一段最后一句The woman finally half-entered one of the buses and asked the driver if the bus she wanted stopped at that corner.可以看出来，她只是想问问那个司机这趟车是否到达他们想去的地方。
2．[答案]C
[解析]细节题。第三段Passengers said the driver stopped after almost a block…可见刚开始在一个block过去后停了一下，然而真正让妇女下车是在第四段Then he took off again and went another couple of blocks before other shouting passengers persuaded him to stop and let the woman off.后，也就是总共过了三条街道。
3．[答案]D
[解析] sporting proposition 就是sporting suggestion，文章第八段出现了，之所以举这个例子，是因为作者认为That struck me as rather light.为了推翻Bill Baxa的观点错误而提出的建议。
4．[答案]B
[解析]从But we know that people in the private company are fired for far less every day.而文章所讲的是关于惩罚的问题，可以看出B是正确答案。
5．[答案]D
[解析]作者并不是想要一辆公共汽车，他只是举个例子来证明自己的观点。
