A mime was visiting the zoo and attempted to earn some money as a street performer. As soon as he started to draw a crowd, a zookeeper dragged him into his office. The zookeeper explained that the zoo's most popular attraction, a chimp, had died suddenly and the keeper feared that attendance at the zoo would fall off. He offered the mime a job to dress up as the chimp. The mime accepted.
The next morning the mime put on the chimp suit and entered the cage before the crowd came. He soon discovered he could sleep all he wanted, play and make fun of people and he drew bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime—the job he liked but lost.
However, with days going by, he began to notice that the people were paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbed to the top of his cage, crawled across a partition(隔墙), and dangles(悬挂)from the top to the lion’s cage. The lion got angry at this. The scene was a fuel to the crowd．
At the end of the day he was given a raise for being such a good attraction—Well, this continued for some time. The crowds grew larger, and the mime’s pay kept going up.
But afterwards, when he was dangling over the lion he slipped and fell. The mime was terrified. He started screaming, “Help me!”, but the lion was quick. The mime soon found himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion said, “Shut up you fool! Do you want to get us both fired?”
21. Why did the mime accept the zoo-keeper’s offer?
A. He had been out of work. B. He didn’t like being a mime.
C. He liked performing at the zoo. D. He was offered a higher pay there.
22. How did the mime find the job dressing up as the chimp?
A. Hard and tiring. B. Boring but well-paid.
C. Easy and funny. D. Dangerous but exciting.
23. The mime’s first contact with the lion was to__________.
A. get his pay raised B. get the lion’s attention
C. find pleasure for himself D. win back his audience
