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Time spent in a bookshop can be most enjoyable, whether you are a booklover or merely go there
to buy a book as a present. You may even have entered the shop just to find shelter from a sudden
shower. Whatever the reason, you can soon become totally unaware of your surroundings.
The desire to pick up a book with an attractive dust_jacket is irresistible, although this method of
selection ought not to be followed, as you might end up with a rather dull book.
You soon become interested in some book or other, and usually it is only much later that you realize
you have spent far too much time there and must dash off to keep some forgotten appointment-without
buying a book, of course.
This opportunity to escape the realities of everyday life is, I think, the main attraction of a bookshop.
There are not many places where it is possible to do this. A music shop is very much like a bookshop.
You can wander round such places to your heart's content. If it is a good shop, no assistant will approach
you with the inevitable greeting: "Can I help you, sir?" You needn't buy anything you don't want.In a
bookshop an assistant should remain in the background until you have finished browsing. Then, and only
then, are his services necessary. Of course, you may want to find out where a particular section is, but
when he has led you there, the assistant should retire discreetly (谨慎地) and look as if he is not
interested in selling a single book.
You have to be careful not to be attracted by the variety of books in a bookshop. It is very easy to
enter the shop looking for a book on, say ancient coins and to come out carrying a copy of the latest
bestselling novel and perhaps a book about brassrubbing-something which had only slightly interested
you up till then. This volume on the subject, however, happened to be so well illustrated and the part of
the text you read proved so interesting that you just had to buy it.This sort of thing can be very
dangerous. Apart from running up a huge account, you can waste a great deal of time wandering from
section to section.
1. The underlined phrase "dust jacket" means ________.
A. a kind of clothes
B. a paper cover of a book
C. a dusty book
D. a title of a book
2. You may spend too much time in a bookshop because________.
A. the dust jackets are very attractive
B. you start reading one of the books
C. it is raining outside
D. you have to make sure you won't buy a dull book as a present
3. In a good bookshop________.
A. all the books there are interesting
B. the assistant greets you in a warm way
C. your heart is satisfied
D. you feel that you are in a music shop
4. The best title for this passage may be________.
A. The Attraction of Bookshops
B. How to Spend Your Time
C. Bookshops and Their Assistants
D. How to Select Books