首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Picnic in the Dining-room "We shall be having a picnic tomorrow afternoon," said my hostess, Mrs. Brown. "It Will be quite s
Picnic in the Dining-room "We shall be having a picnic tomorrow afternoon," said my hostess, Mrs. Brown. "It Will be quite s
admin
2010-07-24
24
问题
Picnic in the Dining-room
"We shall be having a picnic tomorrow afternoon," said my hostess, Mrs. Brown. "It Will be quite simple and we shan’t make any fuss. I think an afternoon in the open air will do us good, don’t you? Would you like to come with us?"
I had already made an appointment with the hairdresser but I weakly agreed to cancel it. Mrs. Brown smiled graciously.
"I shall be making some cakes this afternoon," she explained, "so I shan’t have any free time. I wonder whether you would mind doing some shopping for me during your lunch hour, that is, if you can fit it in. "
She handed me a typewritten list made up of twenty-four separate items, from shrimps to sugared almonds, including an order for a chicken, four sliced loaves, a half-litre of fresh Cream and some Camembert, all to be delivered at the house before five o’clock. That still left me with plenty to carry myself, and it seemed that if only I could manage to stagger home with my load, there would be no danger of Starving the next afternoon.
That evening a violent thunderstorm broke. Rain poured down; the sky was split by terrifying flashes of forked lightning while peals of thunder drowned conversation. But Mrs. Brown was not upset.
"It will have cleared up before morning," she prophesied. "When this storm has passed we’ll have ideal weather, you’ll see. The B. B. C. weather forecast has promised sunshine, and they don’t often make mistakes." She was right. The following morning was glorious. Early in the morning I could hear her moving about in the kitchen. Breakfast was late and consisted of corn flakes and toast.
"I must apologize for neglecting you," said Mrs. Brown. "So much to do! You won’t mind making your bed this morning, will you? I’m so busy. I’m afraid we shall have to make do with cold meat and potatoes for lunch. "
The whole morning seemed to be spent in loading the car with a variety of bags, baskets and mysterious parcels. After a lunch of cold mutton, boiled potatoes, and limp damp lettuce, we took our rain jackets and umbrellas and fitted ourselves into the car. I was in the back seat, squeezed uncomfortably in the midst of a mountain of equipment.
We crawled for the next two hours along a main road where a line of traffic was wedged so tightly together that it was almost stationary. Mr. Brown was in charge of the steering wheel but Mrs. Brown controlled the driving. At last we turned down a narrow lane and started looking for a suitable place for tea. Each one that we saw had its drawbacks: too sunny, too shady, too exposed, too sheltered. "If we were to picnic there, we should be too hot, cold, conspicuous, shut in," declared Mrs. Brown as she inspected each in turn.
At last she decided that a certain meadow (in reality no different from any other meadow we had examined) would do. Mr. Brown opened the gate and drove the car inside. We started to unload.
I had never in my life realised that so much stuff could be required for a simple picnic. A folding table was produced together with a clean glossy tablecloth, folding chairs (with cushions ), enough crockery and cutlery for a banquet and more than enough food for six courses, paper napkins, a transistor radio, half a dozen illustrated magazines and even soap, a towel, water and a bowl for washing our hands after the meal. I half expected a crimson carpet, possibly footstools for our feet, with red candles as tasteful table decorations. I did discover a tin of fly killer, a bottle of ammonia for the treatment of stings and even some indigestion tablets.
For a whole hour we made our preparations and at last everything that we needed was ready. As we were enjoying our first mouthful of thermos flask soup, a stout man. opened the gate and came towards us.
"Sorry to make a nuisance of myself, but in five minutes we shall have finished milking the cows," he announced. "They’ll be coming back here directly after. "
Mrs. Brown gazed at him speechless for a moment. At last she found words. "But you can see we’ve only just started eating," she protested indignantly. "Surely you can delay sending them in for an hour or so?"
"Sorry ma’am, we’ve other jobs to do. We’ll give you time to clear up: that’s the most that we can allow. Say twenty minutes. You know you’re trespassing, of course?"
Mrs. Brown seemed to collapse in her chair. I wished I were fifty miles off. Mr. Brown was the only one that accepted the situation philosophically.
"It seems to be high time we departed," was his only comment.
Half an hour after we moved off as the cows were wandering down the lane and as the first drops of rain were falling. We joined the traffic jam in the main road. Three hours later we unpacked again and had our picnic in Mrs. Brown’s dining-room—with a carpet underfoot but still no candles. We were strangely silent but our deep sense of grievance did not in any way prevent us from eating a great deal.
The evening before the picnic broke a violent thunderstorm, but Mrs Brown was still ______ about the weather.
选项
答案
optimisttc
解析
由题干关键词weather定位到第六段,从第六段Mrs.Brown肯定地说“It will have cleared up before morning”及后面所说的BBC天 气预报说明天会放晴,而Mrs.Brown很相信这一点可看出,她十分乐观。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/8zA7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Rob8app,27,fromKent,lovedgameswhenhewasattendingschool.Infact,helovedgamessomuchthathedecidedtobecomeaP
Believeitornot,opticalillusion(错觉)cancuthighwaycrashes.Japanisacasein【S1】______Ithasreducedautomobilecrash
A、Becausetheyhavetherighttovoteandthey’realsoallowedtogotopubswhentheyare20.B、Becausetheycanattendspecial
A、States.B、Thefederalgovernment.C、Localcommunities.D、Studentsthemselves.C
A、Hedidn’tlikeanyicecream.B、Hewantedchocolateicecream.C、Hewantedvanillaicecream.D、Hedidn’twantanyicecreamn
A、Thedeclinewouldhavenoeffect.B、ThedeclinewouldaffectonlyEurope.C、ThedeclinewouldaffectonlyAmerica.D、Thedecli
Itisdifficultforhimto____________(习惯于睡觉)inatentafterhavingasoft,comfortbedtolieon.
Despitethebadnewsfromhome,themanstilltalkedtohishostandhostess______(好像什么也没有发生).
A、Helpingthehostessinthekitchen.B、Walkingaroundandadmiringthehost’snewlydecoratedhouse.C、Chattingwiththehost
随机试题
淋病孕妇治疗首选
在单缝夫琅禾费衍射实验中,单缝宽度为a,所用单色光波长为λ,透镜焦距为f,则中央明条纹的半宽度为()。[2016年真题]
下列属于法律关系构成要素的是( )。
如果一个公司中小道消息很多,而正式沟通的信息较少,这意味着该组织()
甲贸易公司以自己价值13万元的货物为抵押,向银行贷款12万元。因对货物销售情况估计不足,贷款到期不能还款,本息共计12.3万元。银行将全部抵押物变卖,得12.5万元。银行变卖抵押物的费用为0.2万元。银行()。
帝国所传播的文化理念很少只来自那一小群的统治精英。正由于帝国思想的理念在于普遍和包容,所以帝国的统治精英也比较容易________不同的概念、规范和传统,而不会死硬坚持着________的陈习。填入画横线部分最恰当的一项是:
一本小说要畅销,必须有可读性。一本小说,只有深刻触及社会的敏感点,才能有可读性。而一个作者如果不深入生活,他的作品就不可能深刻触及社会的敏感点。以下哪项结论可以从题干的断定中推出?Ⅰ.一个畅销小说作者,不可能不深人生活。Ⅱ.一
设A,B均为n阶矩阵,且A+B=AB.(1)证明A-E可逆;(2)证明AB=BA.
Sinceitsfoundingin1948,McDonald’shasgrownfromafamilyburger(汉堡包)standtoaglobalfast-foodchain,withmorethan30
Untillastspring,NiaParkerandtheotherkidsinherneighborhoodcommutedtoschoolonBus59.Butasfuelrose,theschool
最新回复
(
0
)