It was fifteen past nine as Made hurried into the office building where she was going to work. Her bus had inched along through heavy morning traffic, making her a few minutes late for her very first job. She decided to start out half an hour earlier the next day.
Once inside the lobby, she had to stand at the elevators and wait several minutes before she could get on one going to the sixth floor. When she finally reached the office marked "Smith Enterprises", she knocked at the door nervously and waited. There was no reply. She tapped on the door again, but still there was no answer. From inside the next office, she could hear the sound of voices, so she opened the door and went in.
Although she was sure it was the same office she had been in two weeks before when she had the interview with Mr. Smith, it looked quite different now. In fact, it hardly looked like an office at all. The employees were just standing around chatting and smoking. In the front of the room, somebody must have just told a good joke, she thought, because there was a loud burst of laughter as she came in. For a moment she had thought they were laughing at her.
Then one of the men looked at his watch, clapped his hands and said something to the others. Quickly they all went to their desks and, in a matter of seconds, everyone was hard at work. No one paid any attention to Made. Finally she went up to the man who was sitting at the desk nearest to the door and explained that this was her first day in the office. Hardly looking up from his work, he told her to have a seat and wait for Mr. Smith, who would arrive at any moment. Then Marie realized that the day' s work in the office began just before Mr. Smith arrived. Later she found out that he lived in Connecticut and came into Manhattan on the same train every morning, arriving in the office at 9:35,so that his staff knew exactly when to start working.
46. Made felt nervous when she knocked at the door because
A．it was her first day in a new job
B．she was a little bit late for work
C．she was afraid that she had gone to the wrong place
D．there was no answer from inside the office
47. Made could hardly recognize the office she went into as
A．she had been there only once
B．Mr. Smith was not in the office
C．nobody was doing any work
D．the office had a new appearance
48. The people in the office suddenly started working because
A．they saw a stranger in the office
B．their morning break was ended
C．no one wanted to talk to Made
D．the boss was about to arrive
49. We can infer from the text that the employees of the enterprise
A．would start their work by listening to a joke
B．were cold to newcomers
C．were always punctual for work
D．lacked devotion to the company
50. The best title for this text would be
A．Punctual Like a Clock
B．A Cold Welcome
C．An Unpunctual Manager
D．Better Late Than Never
參考譯文
9點15的時候，瑪麗急匆匆地走進她工作的辦公大樓。她乘坐的公車在早晨高峰期，慢得像蝸牛一樣。所以她第一天上班就遲到了幾分鐘。她決定明天提前半個小時出門。
她走進大廳后，不得不站在電梯那兒等上幾分鐘才能搭上電梯上6樓。當她最終到達標著“史密斯企業”的辦公室時，她緊張地敲了敲門，等待著，但沒人應。她又敲了兩下還是沒人應。她聽到隔壁的辦公室里傳出說話聲，于是她打開門，走了進去。
雖然她肯定這就是兩周以前她接受史密斯先生面試的那間辦公室，但現在變化真的很大。實際上，這里根本就不像辦公室。雇員們在四下里站著，邊抽煙邊聊天。她猜一定是有人在屋子的前面講了個很有趣的笑話，因為她走進來的時候那邊爆發出很大的笑聲。剛開始她還以為他們在笑她。
這時有個男人看了看表，拍了拍手并對其他人講了幾句話。在幾秒鐘的時間內，每個人都迅速地回到他們的辦公桌旁，開始努力工作起來。沒有人注意到瑪麗。最后，她走向靠門口辦公的一位男士，向他說明她是第一天上班。那人幾乎連頭都沒抬，只讓她坐下等史密斯先生，他隨時都可能走進來。稍后她意識到原來員工們每天的工作都是在史密斯先生走進來的前一刻才開始的。一段時間以后，瑪麗得知史密斯先生住在康涅狄格，每天早晨都乘同一趟火車來曼哈頓，9：35到達辦公室，所以他的員工很清楚該什么時候開始工作。 |
