A young man once went into town and bought himself a pair of trousers. When he got home, he went upstairs to his bedroom and put them on. He found that they were about two inches (英尺) longer. He went downstairs to the kitchen. His mother and two sisters were washing up the tea-things there. “The new trousers are too long,” he said. “They need shortening（缩短）by about two inches. Could one of you do it for me, please?” His mother and sisters were busy and none of them said anything. But when his mother finished washing up, she went quietly upstairs to her son’s bedroom and shortened the trousers by two inches. She came downstairs without saying anything to her daughters. Later on, after supper, the elder sister remembered her brother’ s trousers. She was a kind girl,so she went quietly upstairs withoutsaying anything to anyone, and shortened the trousers by two inches. The younger sister went to the cinema, but when she came home she,too, remembered her brothers trousers. So she ran upstairs and did as her mother and sister had done. You can imagine（想象）the look on the young man’s face when he put the trousers on the next morning. . 小题1:What were the young man’s new trousers like at first?
He found that the trousers were ______ inches too short for him.
|