四川外国语学院考研

基础英语(2004年)

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Sichuan International Studies University

2004 Postgraduate Admission Examination Paper for 基础英语

答题要求：所有答案均写在答题纸上，否则不给分。全卷工150分，3小时完成。

I. Fill in the blank in each of the following sentences with the correct form of the word

given in parentheses following the sentences: (20ps)

1. The museum has been heavily criticized over the four-million-dollar sculpture. (acquire)

(prevalence)

(allow)

capacity. (advice)

5. It‘. (commerce)

. (bore)

7. I‘(ache)

(appoint)

(attend)

for breaking your glasses.(apology)

tax on foreign goods. (prohibit)

. (accuse)

13.I‘m sure my boss thinks I‘(neglect)

(prefer)

(necessity)

at being excluded from the team. (puzzle)

stations. (pollute)

18.A loving family environment gives children that sense of stability which they need.

(permanent)

manner, as though he‘s slightly unsure of himself. (hesitate)

of each other. (imitate)

II. Read the following two passages and work on the questions as required: (50ps) READING PASSAGE 1

Asian Economies Not as Vulnerable as Before

A Central bank governors from the Asia-Pacific region, at a recent meeting warned that the global trade environment is much tougher for their countries now than during the Asian crisis of four years ago. Singapore is in recession, and South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines have sharply slowing growth. The only bright spot is China, which has maintained brisk output growth because stronger investment and household spending have more than offset the regional export slowdown.

B However, a new financial crisis does not seem to be looming for the region, as some remarkable changes have taken place over the past four years. These changes mean that the region‘s economies are likely to experience slower but still positive growth this year, and stronger

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growth next year. The first change is that the economies of Korea, Thailand and Indonesia can no longer be broken by a stampede of foreign bank lenders. The hot money has already gone. According to the most recent International Monetary Fund statistics, net international bank claims in East Asia have fallen by US $ 354 billion over the last years. Loans have been repaid by stronger flows of foreign direct investment, by lending from international institutions and by the re-emergence of a bond market in the first half of last year, as well as through large trade surpluses resulting from imports growing more slowly than exports. In the four years from 1997 to 2000, these economies accumulated current account surpluses of US $ 239 billion, compared to a cumulative deficit of US $ 88 billion during the five years from 1992.

C Large current account surpluses have seen not only foreign debt reduced, but also big reserves accumulated. These reserves are seen as a cushion against future financial shocks. The reserves in Southeast Asia have increased by US $ 214 billion during the past year as the country has defended an exchange rate appreciating in recent years. The central banks of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan hold most of this sum. Moreover, the central banks of the region have agreed on swap arrangements, which could allow the reserves for one currency to be used in the defense of another in case of the threat of another Asian financial crisis. As noted by a report prepared by the regional central banks, intervention is most effective when coordinated.

D These changes defend against a stampede and contagion, but do not, in themselves, encourage growth. That depends on the regional shift toward more flexible exchange rates. Although far from floating freely, most regional exchange rates are no longer hostage to unhedged US dollar bank debt or to entrenched convictions that exchange rate stability is essential. Managed floats have been adopted in most regional economies. Responding to the stronger US dollar, falling exports and slowing imports, these exchange rates have been depreciating. For example, the Singapore dollar recently reached a ten-year low, while the Taiwan dollar reached a 15-year low.

E Foreign direct investment is slowing, and exports are tumbling, but with room to expand domestic demand there are good reasons to think that the region will get through the most serious global downturn in a decade. Foreign investment flows and domestic reconstruction will maintain China‘s growth. Even South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan—all highly dependent on technology exports to the US—are now buttressed by trade surpluses, huge reserves and flexible exchange rates. All these factors are favorable for expanding domestic demand.

F The perennial problems of the Philippines apart, the economies at the greatest risk are those of Thailand and Malaysia, because they are attempting to sustain pegged exchange rates, and this weakens their ability to respond to sudden strains on their currencies. Although Thailand has sharply reduced its foreign debt, it has pegged its US dollar exchange rate at about 45 baht. Without strong capital controls, the informal peg limits Thailand‘s freedom to ease interest rates. As for Malaysia, its peg depends on its reserves, which have fallen by US $ 6 billion against those of its neighbors.

Questions 1- 5

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs A-F. Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs B-F from the list of headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i-ix) on your answer sheet. NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of headings

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1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Questions 6- 9

Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage, answer the following questions. Write your answers for 6-9 on your answer sheet.

6. Who is cooperating to stave off another Asian financial crisis?

7. According to the author, what do the changes in the region‘s economies NOT do?

8. Which country is an exception to the region‘s slow economic growth?

9. When was the last most serious worldwide economic slowdown?

Questions 10- 14

Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage 1? Write your answers for 10-14 on your answer sheet.

YES if the statement agrees with the information

NO if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this in the passage

10. The changes in the region‘s economies will accelerate their growth.

11. Pegged exchange rates are a danger to Thailand and Malaysia.

12. Most of the regional economies allow their exchange rates to float freely.

13. To survive the global economic slump, the region must export more than imports.

14. Central bank governors are optimistic about the region‘s economic future.

READING PASSAGE 2

POPULATION VIABILITY ANALYSIS

Part A

To make political decisions about the extent and type of forestry in a region it is important to understand the consequences of those decisions. One tool for assessing the impact of forestry on the ecosystem is population viability analysis (PVA). This is a tool for predicting the probability that a species will become extinct in a particular region over a specific period. It has been successfully used in the United States to provide input into resource exploitation decisions and assist wildlife managers and there is now enormous potential for using population viability to i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. Paragraph B Paragraph C Paragraph D Paragraph E Paragraph F Disappearance of hot money Changes in the region‘s economies The role of the US dollar The region‘s weak spots The importance of currency reserves Swap arrangements The need for flexible exchange rates Expanding domestic demand The Philippines‘ economic problems

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assist wildlife management in Australia‘s forests.

A species becomes extinct when the last individual dies. This observation is a useful starting point for any discussion of extinction as it highlights the role of luck and chance in the extinction process. To make a prediction about extinction we need to understand the processes that can contribute to it and these fall into four broad categories which are discussed below.

Part B

A. Early attempts to predict population viability were based on demographic uncertainty. Whether an individual survives from one year to the next will largely be a matter of chance. Some pairs may produce several young in a single year while others may produce none in that same year. Small populations will fluctuate enormously because of the random nature of birth and death and these chance fluctuations can cause species extinction even if, on average, the population size should increase. Taking only this uncertainty of ability to reproduce into account. Extinction is unlikely if the number of individuals in a population is above about 50 and the population is growing.

B. Small populations cannot avoid a certain amount of inbreeding. This is particularly true if there is a very small number of one sex. For example, if there are only 20 individuals of a species and only one is a male, all future individuals in the species must be descended from that one male. For most animal species such individuals are less likely to survive and reproduce. Inbreeding increases the chance of extinction.

C. Variation within a species is the raw material upon which natural selection acts. Without genetic variability a species lacks the capacity to evolve and cannot adapt to changes in its environment or to new predators and new diseases. The loss of genetic diversity associated with reductions in population size will contribute to the likelihood of extinction.

D. Recent research has shown that other factors need to be considered. Australia‘s environment fluctuates enormously from year to year. These fluctuations add yet another degree of uncertainty to the survival of many species. Catastrophes such as fire, flood, drought or epidemic may reduce population sizes to a small fraction of their average level. When allowance is made for these two additional elements of uncertainty the population size necessary to be confident of persistence for a few hundred years may increase to several thousand.

Part C

Beside these processes we need to bear in mind the distribution of a population. A species that occurs in five isolated places each containing 20 individuals will not have the same probability of extinction as species with a single population of 100 individuals in a single locality. Where logging occurs (that is, the cutting down of forests for timber) forest-dependent creatures in that area will be forced to leave. Ground-dwelling herbivores may return within a decade. However, arboreal marsupials (that is animals which live in trees) may not recover to pre-logging densities for over a century. As more forests are logged, animal population sizes will be reduced further. Regardless of the theory or model that we choose, a reduction in population size decreases the genetic diversity of a population and increases the probability of extinction because of any or all of the processes listed above. It is therefore a scientific fact that increasing the area that is logged in any region will increase the probability that forest-dependent animals will become extinct.

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Questions 15- 18

Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Part A of Reading Passage 2? Write your answers for 15-18 on your answer sheet.

YES if the statement agrees with the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

Example:

A link exists between the consequences of decisions and the decision making process itself. Answer: YES

15. Scientists are interested in the effect of forestry on native animals

16. PVA has been used in Australia for many years.

17. A species is said to be extinct when only one individual exists.

18. Extinction is a naturally occurring phenomenon.

Questions 19- 22

These questions are based on Part B of Reading Passages 2.

In paragraphs A to D the author describes four processes which may contribute to the extinction of a species. Match the list of processes (i-vi) to the paragraphs. Write the appropriate number (i-vi) on your answer sheet.

NB There are more processes than paragraphs so you will not use all of them.

19. Paragraph A i. Loss of ability to adapt

20. Paragraph B ii. Natural disasters

21. Paragraph C iii. An imbalance of the sexes

22. Paragraph D iv. Human disasters

v. Evolution

vi. The haphazard nature of reproduction

Questions 23- 25

Based on your reading of Part C, complete the sentences below with words taken from the passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Write your answers for 23-25 on answer sheet.

23. While the population of a species may be on the increase, there is always a chance that small

isolated groups … (23)…

24. Survival of a species depends on a balance between the size of a population and its… (24)…

25. The likelihood that animals which live in forests will become extinct is increased when…

(25)…

III. Read the following 2 passages and then answer the questions below them: (40ps) PASSAGE 1

Universities and Their Function

Alfred North Whitehead

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The universities are schools of education, and schools of research. But the primary reason for their existence is not to be found either in the mere knowledge conveyed to the students or in the mere opportunities for research afforded to the members of the faculty.

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is invested with all its possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory: it is energizing as the poet of our dreams, and as the architect of our purposes.

Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts: it is a way of illuminating the facts. It works by eliciting the general principles which apply to the facts, as they exist, and then by an intellectual survey of alternative possibilities which are consistent with those principles. It enables men to construct an intellectual vision of a new world, and it preserves the zest of life by the suggestion of satisfying purpose.

Youth is imaginative, and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations. Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants act on knowledge without imagination. The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience.

These reflections upon the general functions of a university can be at once translated in terms of the particular functions of a business school. We need not flinch from the assertion that the main function of such a school is to produce men with a greater zest for business.

In a simpler world, business relations were simpler, being based on the immediate contact of man with man and on immediate confrontation with all relevant material circumstances. To-day business organization requires an imaginative grasp of the psychologies of populations engaged in differing modes of occupation; of populations scattered through cities, through mountains, through plains; of populations on the ocean, and of populations in mines, and of populations in forests. It requires an imaginative grasp of conditions in the tropics, and of conditions in temperate zones. It requires an imaginative grasp of the interlocking interests of great organizations, and of the reactions of the whole complex to any change in one of its elements. It requires an imaginative understanding of laws of political economy, not merely in the abstract, but also with the power to construe them in terms of the particular circumstances of a concrete business. It requires some knowledge of the habits of government, and of the variations of those habits under diverse conditions. It requires an imaginative vision of the binding forces of any human organization, a sympathetic vision of the limits of human nature and of the conditions which evoke loyalty of service. It requires some knowledge of the laws of health, and of the laws of fatigue, and of the conditions for sustained reliability. It requires an imaginative understanding of the social effects of the conditions of factories. It requires a sufficient conception of the role of applied science in modern society. It requires that discipline of character which can say ―yes‖ and ―no‖ to other men, not by reason of blind obstinacy, but with firmness derived from a conscious evaluation of relevant alternatives.

The universities have trained the intellectual pioneers of our civilization – the priests, the lawyers, the statesmen, the doctors, the men of science, and the men of letters. The conduct of

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business now requires intellectual imagination of the same type as that which in former times has mainly passed into those other occupations.

There is one great difficulty which hampers all the higher types of human endeavor. In modern times this difficulty has even increased in its possibilities for evil. In any large organization the younger men, who are novices, must be set to jobs which consist in carrying out fixed duties in obedience to orders. No president of a large corporation meets his youngest employee at his office door with the offer of the most responsible job which the work of that corporation includes. The young men are set to work at a fixed routine, and only occasionally even see the president as he passes in and out of the building. Such work is a great discipline. It imparts knowledge, and it produces reliability of character; also it is the only work for which the young men, in that novice stage, are fit, and it is the work for which they are hired. There can be no criticism of the custom, but there may be an unfortunate effect – prolonged routine work dulls the imagination.

The way in which a university should function in the preparation for an intellectual career, such as modern business or one of the older professions, is by promoting the imaginative consideration of the various general principles underlying that career. Its students thus pass into their period of technical apprenticeship with their imaginations already practiced in connecting details with general principles. The routine then receives its meaning, and also illuminates the principles which give it that meaning. Hence, instead of a drudgery issuing in a blind rule of thumb, the properly trained man has some hope of obtaining an imagination disciplined by detailed facts and by necessary habits.

Thus the proper function of a university is the imaginative acquisition of knowledge. Apart from this importance of the imagination, there is no reason why business men, and other professional men, should not pick up their facts bit by bit as they want them for particular occasions. A university is imaginative or it is nothing – at least nothing useful.

Questions (Give brief answers)

1. What does Whitehead see as the chief function of a university?

2. Why is a university an ideal place to develop this talent?

3. Why do you think Whitehead chose business administration as his primary example rather

than some more ―speculative‖ study such as philosophy?

4. In paragraph 8, does Whitehead mean that novices in business should be given the

imaginative jobs and the older employees assigned to ―drudgery‖? Explain your answer.

5. Do you agree that ―Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants act on knowledge

without imagination‖? Why?

PASSAGE 2

Why Religion, and Why Inter-religious Dialogue?

For better or worse, religion is the only human endeavor that successfully provides us with an all-encompassing model of the pattern which connects our individual lives to the complex regularities of this world, and by extension the cosmos. Our religious traditions allow ordinary people the ability to live and think at levels of integrated complexity that would be otherwise impossible. If we are going to successfully formulate a viable global ethos, i.e., if we are going to succeed in transforming the misguided and destructive values that are leading us to the brink of disaster, we must tap the vast resources of knowledge and potential wisdom manifest in the world‘s diverse religious traditions, as well as the enormous potential for positive change

基础英语(2004年)

represented by business.

As we approach the 21st century and incrementally experience the inbreaking of the Age of Global Consciousness, inter-religious dialogue will be an increasingly indispensable tool for charting our course. Consider some of the basic presuppositions that have emerged from decades of successful inter-religious dialogue. From the outset it affirms the positive value of diversity, and acknowledges the wisdom of the world‘s religious systems as a valuable resource for discovering and working together toward common goals (and it tends to enhance the personal faith of each participant-in-dialogue). Through decades of constructive dialogical experience, we have discovered that these presuppositions – coupled with the inclusive methodology of open listening, so that we may learn – initiate a process that opens the possibility of engaging one another in a manner that is as profound and integrative as that which is evident in the integration of a living ecosystem.

When we examine that the sublime and enduring wisdom of long established ecosystem, such as the Barrier Reef off the west coast of Australia, or an old growth forests, we find that these living ecosystems are excellent examples of maintaining unity in-and-through diversity. Thus, living ecosystems provide an apt analogy of what may be accomplished within the ecology of mind that emerges when humankind‘s religious and cultural traditions meet in dialogue. As with any ecosystem in the natural world, pluralism and diversity increase the system‘s flexibility, and therefore its viability. In the natural world, a sustained pattern of balance or steady-state is characteristic of all healthy and enduring ecosystems. This ―balance of nature‖ (an incessantly evolving steady-state) is bonded via a dialogical exchange of ―information‖, a process that is indicative of the ecosphere‘s(1) holistic knowledge and its innate wisdom.

Nature‘s ―steady-state‖ balance is maintained within an elegant dance of multiple variables, and sustained through a sublimely eloquent dialogue among each ecosystem‘s diverse, yet profoundly interconnected participants. This procession of an enduring, dialogically calibrated(2) steady-state is evident even in the most elemental ecosystems. Moreover, ecosystems of whatever size—from the most elemental, up through and including the global ecosystem—exhibit a capacity to evolve new patterns of interrelationship. This ability to re-evaluate and alter habituated patterns of interaction optimizes an ecosystem‘s flexibility, its viability, and also, the flexibility/viability of each form of life within the overall system.

In short, a dialogical co-evolution among (and within) an ecosystem‘s ―participants‖ serves to maintain the system‘s balance, while enhancing the ability of differentiated individuals within the system—along with the unified system as a whole---to learn, adapt and evolve. Learning and adaptation are both qualities of mental process, or mind. Therefore, it should not be too much of a ―stretch of the imagination‖ to envision the global ecosystem as the embodiment of a holistically

(3) emergent global ecomind. Consequently, if we are going to successfully meet ―the greatest challenge that has confronted the human race in its entire history,‖ and ―solve the common problems that threaten our future on the earth,‖ our modes of envisioning a global ethic---which will serve as the template (4) for humankind‘s newly emergent global ethos—will have to reflect and cooperate creatively with the knowledge and wisdom evident in the patterns that sustain the global ecomind.

We must develop an ethos that is informed by the fact that all living creatures are part of a profoundly interconnected holistic system, the global ecomind of this living planet. From this perspective, humankind must begin to evoke a sense of humility—envisioning and responding to a

基础英语(2004年)

mental system that is superior to its own. If our newly emerging global consciousness and our revitalized global ethos are going to reflect the knowledge and wisdom of the global ecomind, we will have to develop a consciousness and an ethos that are as dialogical, inclusive, and nurturing as the global ecomind. For this, to expand dialogue is the means. What is desired is a dialogical dialogue rather than a dialectical dialogue, in which one attempts to refute the claims of one‘s opponent.

Of course, the intended purpose of expanding this dialogue cannot be to foist(5) religion upon business, or any other social institution. Such an attitude runs counter to the fundamentals of inter-religious dialogue. In fact, it is important to recognize that the traditional ―osmotic‖(6) wall of separation between ―the religions‖ and the enterprises of business, science, and technology preserves a civic value that is as crucial as the separation of church and state. However, we should also recognize that the religions-in-dialogue are a potential source of knowledge and wisdom—a valuable resource that can aid in defining and implementing a global ethic.

Here again, the parallel efforts of business leaders and the religions-in-dialogue to develop a global ethic, as well as the dialogical confluence (7) of their efforts, represents an important opportunity. Expanding the dialogue among the world‘s diverse religious traditions, so the conversation concerning a global ethic includes businesses that are entering a new stage in the development of social responsibility, should help prepare the way for the emergence of something like a recalibrated social matrix(8), which will necessarily reflect a global consciousness and a newly complexified global ethos.

Notes:

(1) ecosphere—生物圈，生态圈

(2)calibrate—调整，调节

(3)holistically— 全面的，全盘的

(4) template—模板，样板

(5)foist—（暗中）把……强加

(6)osmotic—渗透（作用）的

(7)confluence—汇合，聚集

(8)matrix—母体，策源地

Questions (Give brief answers):

1. What are the two functions of inter-religious dialogue the author discusses in paragraph 2?

2. The author makes an analogy between the living ecosystem and healthy social structure in

paragraph 3. What is the major similarity between them?

3. What could be a good subtitle for paragraph 4?

4. What are the three functions of a dialogical co-evolution in an ecosystem in paragraph 5?

5. In paragraph 6, the author says that a dialectical dialogue is different from a dialogical

dialogue. What is the major difference between them?

IV. Reading the following story, then answer the questions: (40ps)

Growing up fast

This girl, this Susan Reed, was an orphan. She lived with a family named Burchett that had some more children, two or three more. Some said that Susan was a niece or a cousin or something; others cast the usual aspersions on the character of Burchett and even of Mrs. Burchett:

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you know. Women mostly, these were.

She was about five when Hawkshaw first came to town. It was his first summer behind that chair in Maxey‘s barber shop that Mrs. Burchett brought Susan in for the first time. Maxey told me about how him and the other barbers watched Mrs. Burchett trying for three days to get Susan (she was a thin little girl then, with big scared eyes and this straight, soft hair not blonde and not brunette) into the shop. And Maxey told how at last it was Hawkshaw that went out into the street and worked with the girl for about fifteen minutes until he got her into the shop and into his chair – him that hadn‘t never said more than Yes or No to any man or woman in the town that anybody ever saw. Be durn if it didn‘t look like Hawkshaw had been waiting for her to come along,‘ Maxey told me. But six months after that she was coming to the shop by herself and letting Hawkshaw cut her hair, still looking like a little old rabbit, with her scared face and those big eyes and that hair without any special name showing above the cloth. If Hawkshaw was busy, Maxey said she would come in and sit on the waiting bench close to his chair with her legs sticking straight out in front of her until Hawkshaw got done. Maxey says they considered her Hawkshaw‘s client the same as if she had been a Saturday night shaving customer. He says that one time the other barber, Matt Fox, offered to wait on her, Hawkshaw being busy, and that Hawkshaw looked up like a flash. I‘ll be done in a minute,‘ he says. I‘ll tend to her.‘ Maxey told me that Hawkshaw had been working for him for almost a year then, but that was the first time he ever heard him speak positive about anything.

That fall the girl started to school. She would pass the barber shop each morning and afternoon. She was still shy, walking fast like little girls do, with that yellow-brown head of hers passing the window level and fast like she was on skates. She was always by herself at first, but pretty soon her head would be one of a clump of other heads, all talking, not looking towards the window at all, and Hawkshaw standing there in the window, looking out. Maxey said him and Matt would not have to look at the clock at all to tell when five minutes to eight and to three o‘or three of those peppermints where he would give the other children just one, Maxey told me.

No; it was Matt Fox, the other barber, told me that. He was the one who told me about the doll Hawkshaw gave her on Christmas. I don‘t know how he found it out. Hawkshaw never told him. But he knew some way; he knew more about Hawkshaw than Maxey did. He was a married man himself, Matt was. A kind of fat, flabby fellow, with a pasty face and eyes that looked tired or sad – something. A funny fellow, and almost as good a barber as Hawkshaw. He never talked much either, and I don‘t know how he could have known so much about Hawkshaw when a talking man couldn‘t get much out of him. I guess maybe a talking man hasn‘t got the time to ever learn much about anything except words.

Anyway, Matt told me about how Hawkshaw gave her a present every Christmas, even after she got to be a big girl. She still came to him, to his chair, and him watching her every morning and afternoon when she passed to and from school. A big girl, and she wasn‘t shy any more.

You wouldn‘t have thought she was the same girl. She got grown fast. Too fast. That was

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the trouble. Some said it was being an orphan and all. But it wasn‘t that. Girls are different from boys. Girls are born weaned and boys don‘t ever get weaned. You see one sixty years old, and be damned if he won‘t go back to the perambulator at the bat of an eye.

It‘s not that she was bad. There‘s not any such thing as a woman born bad, because they are all born bad, born with the badness in them. The thing is, to get them married before the badness point where the badness came to a head before the system said it was time for her to. I think they can‘t help it. I have a daughter of my own, and I say that.

So there she was. Matt told me they figured up and she couldn‘t have been more than thirteen when Mrs. Burchett whipped her one day for using rouge and paint, and during that year, he said, they would see her with two or three other girls giggling and laughing on the street at all hours when they should have been in school; still thin, with that hair still not blonde and not brunette, with her face caked with paint until you would have thought it would crack like dried mud when she laughed, with the regular simple gingham and such dresses that a thirteen-year-old child ought to wear pulled and dragged to show off what she never had yet to show off, like the older girls did with their silk and crepe and such.

Matt said he watched her pass one day, when all of a sudden he realized she never had any stockings on. He said he thought about it and he said he could not remember that she ever did wear stockings in the summer, until he realized that what he had noticed was not the lack of stockings, but that her legs were like a woman‘s legs: female. And her only thirteen.

I say she couldn‘t help herself. It wasn‘t her fault. And it wasn‘t Burchett‘s fault, either. Why, nobody can be as gentle with them, the bad ones, the ones that are unlucky enough to come to a head too soon, as men. Look at the way they – all the men in town – treated Hawkshaw. Even after folks knew, after all the talk began, there wasn‘t a man of them talked before Hawkshaw. I reckon they thought he knew too, had heard some of the talk, but whenever they talked about her in the shop, it was while Hawkshaw was not there. And I reckon the other men were the same, because there was not a one of them that hadn‘t seen Hawkshaw at the window, looking at her when she passed, or looking at her on the street; happening to kind of be passing the picture-show when it let out and she would come out with some fellow, having begun to go with them before she was fourteen. Folks said how she would have to slip out and meet them and slip back into the house again with Mrs. Burchett thinking she was at the home of a girl friend.

They never talked about her before Hawkshaw. They would wait until he was gone, to dinner, or on one of those two-weeks‘ vacations of his in April that never anybody could find out about; where he went or anything. But he would be gone, and they would watch the girl slipping around, skirting trouble, bound to get into it sooner or later, even if Burchett didn‘t hear something first. She had quit school a year ago. For a year Burchett and Mrs. Burchett thought that she was going to school every day, when she hadn‘t been inside the building even. Somebody – one of the high-school boys maybe, but she never drew any lines: schoolboys, married men, anybody – would get her a report card every month and she would fill it out herself and take it home for Mrs. Burchett to sign. It beats the devil how the folks that love a woman will let her fool them.

So she quit school and went to work in the ten-cent store. She would come to the shop for a haircut, all painted up, in some kind of little flimsy off-colour clothes that showed her off, with her

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face watchful and bold and discreet all at once, and her hair gummed and twisted about her face. But even the stuff she put on it couldn‘t change that brown-yellow colour. Her hair hadn‘t changed at all. She wouldn‘t always go to Hawkshaw‘s chair. Even when his chair was empty, she would sometimes take one of the others, talking to the barbers, filling the whole shop with noise and perfume and her legs sticking out from under the cloth. Hawkshaw wouldn‘t look at her then. After reading the story, please do the following:

A. Answer the following questions:

a. How many characters are involved in the story? Please name them.

b. Who is the narrator of the story? Who told him all this about Susan?

c. Describe the change of Susan step by step and your comment on her change.

d. Do you think of what happens to Hawkshaw and Susan?

B. Paraphrase the following sentences:

a. That was her first haircut. Hawkshaw gave it to her, and her sitting there under the

cloth like a little scared rabbit.

b. It was like he would kind of drift up to the window without watching himself do it,

and be looking out about the time for the school children to begin to pass.

c. But we try to make them conform to a system that says a woman can‘t be married

until she reaches a certain age. And nature don‘t pay any attention to systems, let

alone women paying any attention to them, or to anything. She just grew up too fast.

d. Even when he wasn‘t busy, he had a way of looking the same: intent and

down-looking like he was making out to be busy, hiding behind the making-out.

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