There’s a man in the habit of hitting me on the head with an umbrella. At first I couldn’t stand it, now I’m used to it.
I don’t know his name. I know he’s average in appearance, wears a gray suit, and has a common face. I met him five years ago one hot morning when I was sitting on a tree-shaded bench in Palermo Park, reading the paper. Suddenly I felt something touch my head. It was the very same man who now, as I’m writing, keeps hitting me, mechanically (机械地) and impassively, with an umbrella.
On that occasion I turned around filled with anger. He just kept on hitting me. I asked him if he was crazy, he didn’t even seem to hear me. Then I threatened to call a policeman. Calmly, cool as a cucumber, he stuck with his task. After a few moments of hesitation, and seeing that he was not about to change his attitude, I stood up and hit him on the nose. The man fell down, but he immediately got back on his feet, obviously with great effort, and without a word again began hitting me on the head with the umbrella. His nose was bleeding and, at that moment, I felt sorry for him. I felt regret for having hit him so hard. After all, the man wasn’t exactly hitting me; he was merely tapping me lightly with his umbrella, not causing any pain at all. Of course, those taps were extremely bothersome. As we all know, when a fly lands on your forehead, you don’t feel any pain; what you feel is annoyance. Well then, that umbrella was one huge fly that kept landing on my head time after time.
Convinced that I was dealing with a madman, I tried to escape. But the man followed me, wordlessly continuing to hit me. So I began to run (I should point out that not many people run as fast as I do). He took off after me, trying to land a blow. The man was out of breath so that I thought, if I continued to force him to run at that speed, he would drop dead right then and there.
When the man began to strike the author with an umbrella, the author ________.
A.became angry |
B.called the police |
C.turned around and escaped |
D.turned around and fought back |
The author would most probably agree that the man was ________.
A.deaf |
B.blind |
C.dead |
D.mad |
The author felt sorry for the man because ________.
A.the man formed a bad habit of beating others |
B.he hit the man so hard that his nose bled |
C.the man couldn’t catch up with him |
D.there was a fly on the man’s head |
It can be learned from the passage that the man ________.
A.shouted loudly while hitting the author |
B.wanted to tell the author something |
C.ran after the author breathlessly |
D.acted as if he were a fly |