大学英语四试题.doc

Online HomeWork_U1B4 Reading Comprehension Section One: Fast Reading 1. One summer day my father sent me to buy some wire and fencing to put around our barn to pen up the bull. At 16, I liked nothing better than getting behind the wheel of our truck and driving into town on the old mill road. This trip was different, though. My father had told me I’d have to ask for credit at the store. 2. It was 1976, and the ugly shadow of racism was still a fact of life. I’d seen my friends ask for credit and then stand, head down, while a storeowner enquired into whether they were “good for it”. Many store clerks watched black youths with the assumption that they were thieves every time they even went into a grocery. 3. My family was honest. We paid our debts. But just before harvest, all the money flowed out. There were no new deposits at the bank. Cash was short. At Davis Brothers’ General Store, Buck Davis stood behind the register, talking to a middle-aged farmer. Buck was a tall, weathered man in a red hunting shirt and I nodded as I passed him on my way to the hardware section to get a container of nails, a coil of binding wire and fencing. I pulled my purchases up to the counter and placed the nails in the tray of the scale, saying carefully, “I need to put this on credit.” My brow was moist with nervous sweat and I wiped it away with the back of my arm. 4. The farmer gave me an amused, cynical look, but Buck’s face didn’t change. “Sure,” he said easily, reaching for his booklet where he kept records for credit. I gave a sigh of relief. “Your daddy is always good for it.” He turned to the farmer. “This here is one of James Williams’ sons. They broke the mold when they made that man.” 5. The farmer nodded in a neighborly way. I was filled with pride. “James Williams’ son.” Those three words had opened a door to an adult’s respect and trust. 6. As I heaved the heavy freight into the bed of the truck, I did so with ease, feeling like a stronger man than the one that