He's an old cobbler (修鞋匠) with a shop in the Marais, a historic area in Paris. When I
took him my shoes, he at first told me: “I haven't time. Take them to the other fellow on the main
street ; he'll fix them for you right away.”
But I'd had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his bench loaded with tools and
pieces of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman (手藝人). “No,” I replied, “the other fel-
low can't do it well.”
“The other fellow” was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys “while-U-
wait” -- without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and
when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap (鞋帶) you might as well just throw away the
pair.
My man saw I wouldn't give in, and he smiled. He wiped his hands on his blue apron ( 圍
裙), looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said,
“Come back in a week.”
I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boots off a shelf.
“See what I can do?” he said with pride. “Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of
work.. ”
When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something
out of an ancient legend, this old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his very strange,
dusty felt hat, his funny accent from who-knows-where and, above all, his pride in his craft.
These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any
old,way as long as it “pays”, when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing
consumption (消費(fèi)) rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period it is a rare
comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.
1. Which of the following is true about the old cobbler.'?
A. He was equipped with the best repairing tools.
B. He was the only cobbler in the Marais.
C. He was proud of his skills.
D. He was a native Parisian.
2. The sentence “He was something out of an ancient legend.” ( paragraph 7 ) implies that
A. nowadays you can hardly find anyone like him
B. it was difficult to communicate with this man
C. the man was very strange
D. the man was too old
3. According to the author, many people work just to .
A. realize their abilities
B. gain happiness
C. make money
D. gain respect
4. This story wants to tell us that .
A. craftsmen make a lot of money
B. whatever you do, do it well
C. craftsmen need self-respect
D. people are born equal
eceived by any star up to that time.
