A Family Secret

◎供稿：游 鹏

Arnold Wu was aproud［自豪的］man. “I am sure my family is one of the oldest in the country,” he often told people. “It has a longhistory［历史］.”

One day he went to see anexpert［专家］in family history, Mrs. Li.

“I want you to find out everything about my family,” he said. “Where do we come from? Who was the first Wu? Were there any famous people in the family? Do I have any rich relatives?”

“OK,” Mrs. Li said, “but it will cost you $2,000.”

Arnold thought about this. Two thousand dollars was a lot of money.

At last he said, “All right. But for $2,000 I want acomplete［历史］history. I want fulldetails［细节］.”

The expert agreed. “Come back in three months,” she said.

Three months later Arnold visited Mrs. Li again.

“Well,” he said, “have you found out everything about my family?”

“Yes,” she said. “It is a very interesting family. However, my price is now $5,000.”

“Five thousand dollars!” Arnold shouted. “But you told me the cost was only $2,000.”

“I know. It was $2,000 to find out about your family,” she said. “It is another $3,000 to keep the secret what I found out!”

EXERCISE

Choose the best answer A, B, C or D to these questions about the story.

1. Why was Arnold Wu proud?

A. He was a very old man.

B. His family was famous.

C. His family had a long history.

D. He was very rich.

2. What did Mr. Wu want to know?

A. The complete history of his family.

B. How much he had to pay for his family history.

C. The names of everyone in his family.

D. A secret.

3. Who did Mr. Wu ask about his family history?

A. His rich relatives.

B. Some famous people.

C. A person who knew a lot about family histories.

D. His family.

4. Why did the expert ask for more money?

A. She needed more time.

B. To say nothing about what she had found out about Mr. Wu’s family.

C. She found some rich people in Mr. Wu’s family.

D. To tell everyone the details of Mr. Wu’s family.

答案

1. C由第一段最后一句可得，他为家族有深远历史而感到自豪。

2. A由第三段可得他是为了知道他的家庭的完整历史。

3. C由第二段可得他是去找一个专家来问有关他家族历史的事情。

4. B由最后一段可得专家是因为她保守了秘密才索要更多的钱。

语法

relative是指“亲戚”“亲属”，而related是形容词，通常与to连用，接在系动词be后面，表示“与……有亲戚关系”。如:

Are you related to that woman over there?

I’m not related to anyone in this room.

relationship是名词，由动词related转变而来，意指“人之间互相的关系，”可用来表示家庭成员、朋友、恋人、夫妇或人和人之间的关系。如：

My relationship with my parents is very good.

Are you having a relationship with that boy you were just talking to?

Dan has a bad relationship with his boss.