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 assist
ant should retire discreetly (謹(jǐn)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 ________.
2.You may spend too much time in a bookshop because________.
3.In a good bookshop________.
4.The best title for this passage may be________.