A Family Secret

◎供稿：游 鵬

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［歷史］.”

One day he went to see anexpert［專家］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［歷史］history. I want fulldetails［細節］.”

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，他為家族有深遠歷史而感到自豪。

2. A由第三段可得他是為了知道他的家庭的完整歷史。

3. C由第二段可得他是去找一個專家來問有關他家族歷史的事情。

4. B由最后一段可得專家是因為她保守了秘密才索要更多的錢。

語法

relative是指“親戚”“親屬”，而related是形容詞，通常與to連用，接在系動詞be后面，表示“與……有親戚關系”。如:

Are you related to that woman over there?

I’m not related to anyone in this room.

relationship是名詞，由動詞related轉變而來，意指“人之間互相的關系，”可用來表示家庭成員、朋友、戀人、夫婦或人和人之間的關系。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.