Among characters of Leadville’ s golden age were H. A. W. Tabor and his second wife, Elizabeth McCourt. Their history is fast be

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问题     Among characters of Leadville’ s golden age were H. A. W. Tabor and his second wife, Elizabeth McCourt. Their history is fast becoming one of the legends of the Old West. He went to Kansas in 1855. Perhaps he was lured by rumors of fortunes to be made in Colorado mines. So a few years later he moved west to the small Colorado mining camp known as California Gulch, which he later renamed Leadville when he became its leading citizen. "Great deposits of lead are sure to be found here. " he said.
    As it turned out, it was silver that was to make Leadville’ s fortune and wealth. Tabor knew little about mining himself, so he opened a general store. It was his custom to "grubstake" prospective miners to supply them with food and supplies, or "grub" , while they looked for ore, in return for which he would get a share in the mine if one was discovered. He did this for a number of years, but no one that he aided ever found anything of value.
    Finally one day in the year 1878, two miners came in and asked for "grub". Tabor had decided to quit supplying it for having lost too much money that way. They were persistent, however, and Tabor was too busy to argue with them. "Oh help yourself. One more time won’t make any difference, " he said and went on selling shoes and hats. The two miners took $ 17 worth of supplies , in return for which they gave Tabor a one-third interest in their findings. They picked a barren place and began to dig. After nine days they struck a rich vein of silver. Tabor bought the shares of the other two men, and so the mine belonged to him alone. This mine, known as the "Pittsburgh Mine, " made $ 1, 300, 000 for Tabor in return for his $ 17 investment.
    Later Tabor bought the Matchless Mine on another barren hillside just outside the town for $ 117, 000. This turned out to be even more fabulous than the Pittsburgh, yielding $ 35, 000 worth of silver per day at one time. Leadville grew. Tabor became its first mayor, and later became lieutenant governor of the state.
The word "grubstake" in paragraph 2 means______.

选项 A、to supply miners with food and supplies
B、to open a general store
C、to do one’ s contribution to the development of the mine
D、to supply miners with food and supplies and in return get a share in the mine, if one was discovered

答案D

解析 词汇题。第二段中grubstake的词义与D所述内容是相同的,即“供给探矿者资金、衣物、食品以及其他物品”。(可参阅英华大辞典修订第二版第64页)但此处还补充地讲,作为回报,供给者可以获得矿中资源的一定份额(见文章第二段第四行)。故本题选择D。
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