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Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a book-lover or merely there to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find shelter from a sudden shower. Whatever the reason, you can soon become to-tally unaware of your surroundings. The desire to pick up a book with an attractive dust-jacket is irresistible, although this method of selection ought not to be followed, as you might end up with a rather dull book. You soon become engrossed in some book or other, and usually it is only much later that you realize you have spent far too much time there and must dash off to keep some forgotten appointment-without buying a book, of course.
This opportunity to escape the realities of everyday life is, I think, the main attraction of a bookshop. There are not many places where it is possible to do this. A music shop is very much like a bookshop. You can wander round such places to your heart’s content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will approach you with inevitable greeting: “Can I help you, sir?“ You needn’t buy anything you don’t want. In a bookshop an assistant should remain in the background until you have finished browsing, then, and only then, are his services necessary. 0f course you may want to find out where a particular section is, but when he has led you there, the assistant should retire carefully and look as if he is not interested in selling a single book.
You have to be careful not to be attracted by the variety of books in a bookshop. It is very easy to enter the shop looking for a book on ancient coins and to come out carrying a copy of the latest best-selling novel and perhaps a book about brass-rubbing-something that had only vaguely interested you up until then. This volume on the subject, however, happened to be so well illustrated and the part of the text you read proved so interesting that you just had to buy it. This sort of thing can be very dangerous. Apart from running up a huge account, you can waste a great deal of time wandering from section to section.
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He was a qualified doctor who rarely practiced but instead devoted his life to writing. He once said: “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my lover. “ Russian writer Anton Pav-lovich Chekhov was a great playwright and one of the masters of the modern short story.
When Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School in 1879, he start-ed to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support his family. After he graduated, he wrote regularly for a local daily newspaper.
As a writer he was extremely fast, often producing a short story in an hour or less. Chekhov’s medical and science experience can be seen through the indifference (冷漠)many of his characters show to tragic events. In 1892, he became a full time writer and published some of his most memorable stories.
Chekhov often wrote about the sufferings of life in small town Russia. Tragic events control his characters who are filled with feelings of hopelessness and despair.
It is often said that nothing happens in Chekhov’s stories and plays. He made up for this with his exciting technique for developing drama within his characters. Chekhov’s work combined the calm attitude of a scientist and doctor with the sensitivity(敏感)of an artist.
Some of Chekhov’s works were translated into Chinese as early as the 1940s. One of his famous stories, The Man in a Shell (《装在套子里的人》), about a school teacher’s ex-traordinarily orderly life, was selected as a text for Chinese senior students.
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One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingness to admit one’s mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing like “I was wrong about that,“ and it is even harder to say, “I was wrong, and you were right about that. “
I had an experience recently with someone admitting to me that he had made a mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a grocery store in the neighbor-hood where I grew up, and he asked me if I remembered the egg cartons. Then he related an incident and I began to remember vaguely the incident he was describing.
I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gone into the store with my mother to do the weekly grocery shopping. On that particular clue, I must have found my way to the dairy food department where the incident took place.
There must have been a special sale on eggs that day because there was an im-pressive display of eggs in dozen and half-dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of cartons. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back together; so I went to work.
The manager heard the noise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting some of the cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as though I was the culprit (罪犯). He severely scolded me and wanted me to pay for any broken eggs. I protested my innocence and tried to ex-plain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, apparently the manager did not.
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Hardly ______ the TV ______ the electricity was cut off. had I turned on…when did I turn on…than have I turned on…before does I turn on…after
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Many a child ______ killed in that car accident. is are was were
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We ate in the ______ restaurant. new unusual Chinese unusual new Chinese Chinese unusual new new Chinese unusual
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It is ______ ! Would you like to go out for a walk? such beautiful day so beautiful day so a beautiful day such a beautiful day
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She was a good-looking woman in ______. forties the forties forty the forty
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______ most of the earth’s surface is covered by water, fresh water is very rare and precious. As Once If Although
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It was because of his carelessness ______ the car accident took place. that because why which
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So heavy ______ that we were prevented from going out. the rain was is the rain was the rain would the rain be
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What ______ if the weather had been fine yesterday? would you do would you have done did you do have you done
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The most important thing to do ______ the pollution as soon as possible. are got rid of is to get rid of is get rid of is for us getting rid of
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Such ______ the case, there are no grounds to justify your complaints. is was is being being
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Does the way you thought of ______ the water clean make any sense? making to make how to make having made
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During July and August there was no rain for weeks______. by the end in the end at the end on end
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She breathed a sigh of ______ when she found out she had passed the exams. relief belief delight relaxation
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Burglars ______ and stole some money while the family was away. broke up came to broke in built up
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There is still a ______ possibility that their team may win in the last match. slim thin lean weak
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The new buildings here are all reinforced with steel, ______ safety in case of an earthquake. for the sake of for good for instance for the better
