2.
阅读理解
In
every British town, large and small, you will find shops that sell second-hand goods.
Sometimes such shops deal mostly in furniture, sometimes in books, sometimes in
ornaments(装饰品) and household goods, sometimes even in clothes.
The
furniture may often be "antique", and it may well have changed hands many
times. It may also be very valuable, although the most valuable piece will usually
go to the London salerooms, where one piece might well be sold for hundreds of thousands
of pounds. As you look around these shops and see the polished wood of chests and
tables, you cannot help thinking of those long-dead hands which polished that wood,
of those now-closed eyes which once looked at these pieces with love.
The
books, too, may be antique and very precious; some may be rare first printings.
Often when someone dies or has to move house, his books may all be sold, so that
sometimes you may find whole libraries in one shop. On the border between England
and Wales, there is a town which has become a huge bookshop as well. Even the cinema
and castle have been taken over, and now books have replaced sheep as the town's
main trade.
There are also much more humble shops, sometimes simply called "junk
shops", where you can buy small household pieces very cheaply. Sometimes the
profits(利润)from these shops go
to charity. Even these pieces, though, can make you feel sad; you think of those
people who once treasured them, but who have
moved on to another country or to death.
Although
the British do not worship(崇拜)their ancestors, they do treasure the past and the things of the past.
This is true of houses as well. These days no one knocks them down; they are rebuilt
until they are often better than new. In Britain, people do not buy something just
because it is new. Old things are treasured for their proven worth; new things have
to prove themselves before they are accepted.