全国2007年4月高等教育自学考试

英语阅读（一）试题

课程代码：00595

请将答案填在答题纸相应位置上

1. CAREFUL READING

Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and write your answer in the corresponding space on the ANSWER SHEET.

(40 points, 2 points each)

Passage 1

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

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 certain grocery store in the neighborhood 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 day, 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 impressive 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 were the culprit. He severely reprimanded me and wanted me to pay for the broken eggs. I protested my innocence and tried to explain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the incident, apparently the manager did not.

1．How old was the author when he wrote this article?