I got up and dressed, stuck my violin under my jacket, and went out into the street. I wandered about for an hour, looking for a likely place, feeling as if I were about to commit a crime. Then I stopped at last under a bridge near the station and decided to have a go.
I felt tense and shaking. I drew my violin from under my coat like a gun. It was here, in Southampton, with trains passing overhead, that I was about to prove myself.
The first notes I played were loud and raw, and then they settled down and began to run more smoothly and to stay more or less in tune. To my surprise I was neither arrested nor told to shut up. Indeed, nobody took any notice at all.
I walked the streets of Southampton for several days, gradually knowing how to try and get money by being a street artist. It was not a good thing, for instance, to let the hat fill up with money — the sight could discourage the people; nor was it wise to empty it completely, which could also confuse them, giving them no hint as to where to drop his money. Placing a couple of pennies in the hat to start the thing going soon became a good idea. Before I played another tune, I took off the big money, but always left two pennies behind.
Old ladies were most generous, and so were women with children, shop girls, and typists. As for the men: Heavy drinkers were always generous too and so were big young with muscles. But never a man with a hat, briefcase or dog; respectable types were the meanest of all, except retired army officers, who would bark “Why aren’t you working, young man?” and then threw much money into the hat to hide their confusion.
小题1:The underlined phrase “have a go” in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.
A．have a try
B．run away
C．change a place
D．commit a crime小题2:When the writer began to play the violin, he thought that ________.
A．he could make a lot of money
B．he had chosen the wrong place
C．he would get into trouble
D．people would stop and listen to him小题3:According to the passage, the writer thought the best way of encouraging people to give a street-violinist money was to ________.
A．let the hat fill up with money first
B．leave a small amount of money in the hat
C．make sure that the hat was always empty
D．choose the best place to play more smooth tunes小题4:Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A．Most of the ladies were willing to give him money.
B．Retired army officers seldom gave him money.
C．Drinkers were generous with their money.
D．Not all the people would feel pity for street-violinists.
