When Scrooge awoke it was so dark, that, looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaqu

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问题     When Scrooge awoke it was so dark, that, looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber. He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened for the hour.
    To his great astonishment, the heavy bell went on from six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve; then stopped. Twelve! It was past two when he went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have got into the works. Twelve!
    He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve, and stopped. "Why, it isn’t possible," said Scrooge, "that I can have slept through a whole day and far into another night. It isn’t possible that anything has happened to the sun, and this is twelve at noon! "
    The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed, and groped his way to the window. He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown before he could see anything; and could see very little then. All he could make out was, that it was still very foggy and extremely cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro, and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the world. This was a great relief, because "Three days after sight of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order," and so forth, would have become a mere United States security if there were no days to count by.
    Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought it over and over, and could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more perplexed he was; and, the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he thought.
    Marley’s Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within himself, after mature enquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through, "Was it a dream or not?"
    Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three-quarters more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed; and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to heaven, this was, perhaps, the wisest resolution in his power.
    The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock. At length it broke upon his listening ear.
    "Ding, dong! "
    "A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting.
    "Ding, dong! "
    "Half past," said Scrooge.
    "Ding, dong! "
    "A quarter to it," said Scrooge.
    "Ding, dong! "
    "The hour itself," said Scrooge triumphantly, "and nothing else! "
    He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.
When Scrooge woke up, he found that it was

选项 A、six o’clock in the morning.
B、six o’clock in the evening.
C、twelve o’clock at midnight.
D、twelve o’clock at noon.

答案D

解析 第1段最后一句表明Scrooge醒来后,听着教堂的钟声,想听听看是几点了,第2段表明他听到钟声一直到第十二下才停了下来,这表明当时是12点了,据此可先将A和B排除;第3段最后一句(真实语气句)表明那是中午12点,而且第4段第3句中的if night had beaten off bright day这一虚拟语气句表明事实应与句中的假设相反,因此,当时不是半夜,而是白天,综合来看,可确定当时应为中午12点。
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