高考英語任務型閱讀真題分析

　　(上海高考題)

　　Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A-F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.

　　A.　Goods for auction sales

　　B.　Definition of bidding

　　C.　Way to sell more goods by auction

　　D.　Auction sales in history

　　E.　Brief introduction to auctions

　　F.　Making a larger profit as an auctioneer

　　1. ______

　　Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd assembled in the auction-room to make offers, or “bids”, for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called “knocking down” the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer strikes a small hammer on a table at which he stands.

　　2. ______

　　The ancient Roman probably invented sales by auction, and the English word comes from the Latin auction, meaning “increasing”. The Romans usually sold in this way the goods taken in war. In England in the eighteenth centuries, goods were often sold “by the candle”: a short candle was lit by the auctioneer, and bids could be made while it stayed alight.

　　3. ______

　　Practically all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, furs, silk and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property. Furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and similar works of art.

　　4. ______

　　An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by potential buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a “lot”, is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with Lot 1 and continue in the order of numbers: he may wait until he notices the fact that certain buyers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in.

　　5. ______

　　The auctioneer’s services are paid for in the form of a percentage of the price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also play on the opponents among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other.

　　【答案及解析】本文介紹的是拍賣，全部都是主旨大意題。

　　1. E從第一句話可以看出是對拍賣的簡單介紹。

　　2. D第一句話就講了the ancient Roman 買賣是通過auction創造的，且講述了auction這個詞的由來，所以這一段是講拍賣的歷史。

　　3. A由第一句中all goods和下文舉的例子coffee等可知這是介紹拍賣的貨物。

　　4. C先是打廣告advertise，然后不夠就采用lot的方法，說明這講的是拍賣的方式　　

        5. F 由第一句The auctioneer’s services are paid for in the form of …提示了這一段講的是拍賣人所得的利潤。