Once a man named Grand found a box of old papers in a room at the top of his house. He burned most of them, because he didn’t like old things very much, But one of these papers was an old letter. At the bottom(底部) of the letter was the name of a well-known writer. “When this letter was written,” said Grant, “no one knew about the writer. But now everyone knows him. Some people like to buy letters like this. I may be able to get much money for the letter if I sell it to the right man.”
But there were a lot of dirty marks all over the letter.
“It doesn’t look nice,” he thought. “No one wants to buy a letter if it’s dirty. I’ll have to clean it.”
So he took a piece of cloth and some water and cleaned the letter. He worked hard and gave a lot of care. At last the letter looked better. And he was very pleased with his work.
“Now it looks nice,” he said to himself. “I’ll be able to sell it for a lot of money.”
He took the letter to a shop in London where old papers of this kind were bought and sold.
“I want to sell this letter,” Grant said to the man in the shop. “It was written by a well-known writer. You know about these things. How much will you give me for it?”
The man looked at him for a long time.
“I will give you two pounds for it,” he said at last.
“Only two pounds!” said Grant. “But people pay ten pounds for a letter like this. And just look! I’ve even cleaned it to make it look nice.”
“I can see that,” said the man. “That’s the trouble. People who buy old papers like them to be dirty.”
小题1:Which of the following is not right?
A．Grant found a box of old letters.
B．Grant didn’t like old things very much.
C．Grant didn’t burn the old letter.
D．The letter was written by a famous writer.小题2:Grant didn’t burn the letter because______.
A．it was written by his father
B．he thought he could get much money by selling it
C．he wanted to keep it forever
D．he wanted to give it to the government小题3:In order to sell it, Grant decided to _____ first.
A．make advertisement(广告)in the newspapers
B．show it to others around him
C．clean it to make it look nice
D．take it to an archeologist(考古学家)小题4:Grant didn’t sell the letter at a good price because_______.
A．it was not an old letter
B．few people knew about the writer
C．it had been cleaned
D．the man didn’t like it
