A piece of drum
Feng Jicai
① Yangliuqing in Tianjin Wei has a spiritual spirit, and everyone in every household is good at painting. The elders start the draft, the men engrave the blocks, the women dye their faces, and the children color them. It is passed down from generation to generation, and there are many masters. Every twelfth lunar month, every family takes their paintings to the streets to sell them. New paintings and new designs appear one after another, dazzling the eyes. But no matter how many new drawings come out, there will always be a "drum" that comes out after selling them. The "drum" Yang Liuqing mentioned is "living" - whoever sees it says he likes it, whoever sees it wants to buy it, and they are all vying to buy it. This portrait is enchanted and can sell like crazy at once.
② There is a New Year picture maker in town named Bai Xiaobao. His ancestors have been doing this business for several generations, and it has been passed down to him. , I can only use a few old ancestral blocks to print and paint. For example, "Lian Nian You Yu", "Two Guns Lu Wenlong", "Whistleblower", and another kind of "Golden Faced God of Wealth". These old paintings have been selling well, and they are enough for food, clothing and use. But Lao Hua couldn't drum it up again. If he couldn't drum it up, he wouldn't be able to make a lot of money. He felt aggrieved and couldn't do anything about it.
③After the beginning of winter in the eighth year of Tongzhi, he put up the painting case, installed the old version, rolled up his sleeves and started printing. "The Year of the Lotus" shows a fat, white boy holding a big red carp, with green leaves and pink lotuses in the background. This painting is available in many art shops, and it is very similar. Two thousand pieces are sold every year.
④ It was noon this day, Bai Xiaobao was tired from printing and painting, so he went to a tavern on the street to drink. An old man at the same table was also drinking. The territory of Yangliuqing is not too big, and everyone in the town knows everyone. The uncle's surname was Gao, and the two chatted while drinking. When it comes to painting, and who's painting will be "dazzling" this year, Mr. Gao said casually: "Old Bai, you can't succeed just by eating ancestral food." This sentence was like a stick poking into Bai Xiaobao's ribs. He couldn't lose face and got up to go home.
⑤The more I thought about it, the more angry I became, angry at myself for not being able to do it. When I entered the house and saw the old copy handed down from my ancestors on the painting table, I became angry and grabbed a carving knife from the table to destroy the old copy. His wife quickly grabbed him, and he immediately fell to the ground in a drunken state, unconscious.
⑥ When he woke up the next day, he saw that it was terrible. The old version passed down from his ancestors - "Lian Nian Yu Yu" was really ruined. He cut out a piece along with the printing line. After a closer look, he was still lucky. , the baby's face was not injured, but the peony flower in the braid on one side of the head was gouged out - there used to be one braid on each side of the head, with a peony flower in each, but now they are no longer paired. There is nothing you can do in a hurry. The gouged out plate is like the flesh that has been cut off and cannot be replaced. The New Year pictures will be on the market in the next two days. Fortunately, a thousand copies were printed the day before yesterday, so I had to make do with another thousand copies and sell them.
⑦As soon as the New Year pictures came on the market, something strange happened. Not only did the people who bought the painting not dissatisfied that there was one less flower on the doll's head and it was mismatched, but they all laughed and said that the fat baby was so naughty that he lost all the flowers on his head. He was so cute! , the doll in the painting moved and came to life! So you asked for one, and I asked for one, and a thousand of them were blown away like a gust of wind. Bai Xiaobao had no more drawings to draw, so he had to sell the doll with double braids and double flowers that he had printed earlier. But the person who bought the painting asked: "Are the ones like yesterday sold out?" He was dumbfounded: "Why does everyone like the one with a missing flower on his head?"
⑧Come back in the evening Hurry up and print "The Year of the Lotus" which is missing a braided flower. As soon as the paintings were put out, they were sold out in an instant. ——If something becomes popular in the market, even water can’t put it out. Suddenly a neighbor said: "Old Bai, the whole town is making noise, your painting won't be printed this year!" Then he asked in a low voice: "How many lifetimes has this painting been printed in your family? Why is it not printed this year?" ”
⑨Bai Xiaobao just smiled and didn’t say anything, he understood in his heart. But when I thought about it more deeply, I didn't understand. Why did one flower become bulging instead of missing one?
On the eve of the 10th year of the lunar new year, Bai Xiaobao counted the money and found out that he had made a fortune.
○11 He was looking forward to seeing the painting still swollen in the next year, but unexpectedly the feng shui changed in the next year. Although the painting sold well, it was not his painting that really bulged. The painting was replaced by a new painting from a small and inconspicuous art shop called "Yihecheng". The painting was called "The Taiping Family". Six women were playing the peace drum. I couldn't tell what was particularly good about the painting, but it was selling like crazy. Every day before dawn, people waiting in line to buy paintings lined up at the door of Yihecheng.
(Selected from the 4th issue of "Harvest" in 2015, with some deletions)
12. What is the role of the appearance of "Mr. Gao" in the fourth paragraph? Please make a brief analysis based on the context. (4 points)
13. Appreciate the linguistic features of the seventh paragraph. (4 points)
14. What is the reason for the "drum" in Bai Xiaobao's painting? (6 points)
15. At the end of the novel, Yi Hecheng’s paintings “sold like crazy” the following year. What are the benefits of this arrangement? (6 points)
Reference answer
12. Mr. Gao’s words prompted Bai Xiaobao destroyed the copy in anger, which promoted the development of the plot; Mr. Gao cleverly clarified the main theme of the novel. (***4 points. 2 points for each level)
13. Use mostly spoken language, simple and natural, lively and vivid, and use exaggerated and metaphorical rhetorical techniques. (***4 points. 1 point for each point)
14. A flower fell off the doll's head, which gave the painting a new meaning; the fat baby "played off" the flower on his head, giving it a rich flavor of life ; It conforms to the aesthetic psychology of the common people and is popular with them. (***6 points. 2 points for each point)
15. Plot: Make the story ups and downs. Structure: point to the topic and echo the beginning. Connotation: It enriches the meaning of the novel and deepens the theme of the work. Effect: lingering aftertaste, making people think and think. (***6 points. 2 points for each point, three correct answers are enough)