2. 外语
  3. I am writing this at home because last week my ergonomic(符合人体工程学的)chair at the office fell apart, unable any longer to bear my w

I am writing this at home because last week my ergonomic(符合人体工程学的)chair at the office fell apart, unable any longer to bear my w

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问题     I am writing this at home because last week my ergonomic(符合人体工程学的)chair at the office fell apart, unable any longer to bear my weight. I am writing it on a computer that is propped on top of two thick books, because otherwise my neck would be cricked as I peered down at the screen. At 1. 93m and weighing... well, I’m not going to say what I weigh, but think second-row rugby union forward...I am not built for this world.
    We therefore welcome a new report from Professor Tim Hatton at the University of Essex, demonstrating that the average height of men in Europe has increased by 4 inches in the past century and in the UK by a whopping 5 inches. A similar increase is likely to have occurred among women, but, because the study is based in part on military records, evidence is thinner on the ground.
    The problem, as Hatton observes, is that the world hasn’t kept pace with our increased height. I long ago abandoned buses—levering myself into a narrow seat was impossible. Air travel is also challenging. I was in the back row of an easyJet plane recently, which has even less space than an ordinary seat, and would have ended up with severe backache had it not been for some thoughtful passenger not turning up, allowing me to relocate to an aisle seat where the only danger is being hit by the trolley.
    Small cars are impossible—I have to drive with my head through the sunroof. West End theatres are hopelessly cramped. As before in cricket grounds: I would under no circumstances pay ￡80 for a plastic bucket seat at a Test match, where I would be wedged uneasily between two loud, red-trousered merchant bankers sipping warm champagne. As for those appalling pine beds with footboards, usually found in absurdly small hotel rooms where I invariably get stuck in the toilet because the door won’t open with me inside, they should be banned immediately.
    Our extra height generally means extra weight. US data shows baseball players are on average 3 inches taller and 2 stones heavier than they were a century ago—and these are the super-fit guys. Other data suggests ordinary Americans have added 2. 54 cm and 12. 6 kg in the past 50 years alone. We are all giants now—or will be soon. As a representative of this new breed, I would say just one thing: beware garden furniture. It appears to be made for gnomes. I routinely remove pleasant-looking but wholly impractical cane chairs, and once, while interviewing the actress Jenny Seagrove, snapped the strings of a hammock-type chair in her garden. It is not easy to get your interviewee to take you seriously after your vast bulk has been plunged suddenly onto their manicured lawn.
According to the context, the word "gnomes"(Para. 5)might be______.
选项 A、people of vast bulk
B、people of small size
C、representatives of Americans
D、representatives of baseball players
答案B
解析 本题考查词义理解。定位到文中第五段，前面提到“我们现在已经或即将成为巨人”，后面接着说这些家具像是为gonmes设计的，可见“gonmes”与“giants”对应，应该指的是个子小的人，故本题选B。
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