Question 2 is based on the conversation you have just heard.

Conversation One

W: Mr. Ishiguro, have you ever found one of your books at a secondhand bookstore?

M: Yes. That kind of thing is difficult. If they’ve got my book there, I think, “Well, this is an insult! Somebody didn’t want to keep my book!” But if it’s not there, I feel it’s an insult too. I think, “Why aren’t people exchanging my book? Why isn’t it in this store?”

W: Does being a writer require a thick skin?

M: Yes, for example, my wife can be very harsh. I began working on my latest book, The Buried Giant, in 2004, but I stopped after I showed my wife a little section. She thought it was rubbish.

W: Even after you won a Booker Prize?

M: She’s not intimidated at all and she criticizes me in exactly the same way she did when I was first unpublished and I was starting.

W: But you would never compromise on your vision.

M: No, I wouldn’t ever compromise on the essential, the ideas or the themes. This isn’t really what my wife is trying to criticize me about. It’s always about execution.

W: So why did you put your book, The Buried Giant, aside for so long? Apparently you started working on it over 10 years ago.

M: I’ve often stopped writing a book and left it for a few years. And by the time I come back to it, it may have changed. Usually my imagination has moved on and I can think of different contexts or a different way to do it.

W: What does it feel like when you finally finish a book?

M: It’s funny you ask that because I never have this moment when I feel, “Ah, I’ve finished!” I watch footballers at the end of the match, you know, the whistle goes and they’ve won or lost. Until then they’ve been giving everything they have and at that moment they know it’s over. It’s funny for an author. There’s never a finishing whistle.

2. What does the man’s wife think of his books?

解析：B。本题目为推理题。问题为：男士的妻子认为他的书怎么样？原文所在句：I began working on my latest book, The Buried Giant, in 2004, but I stopped after I showed my wife a little section. She thought it was rubbish. 在2004年，男士开始写他最新的一本书《被掩埋的巨人》，但是在他给妻子看过小说的一小部分后，他停笔了，因为妻子觉得他写得很垃圾。故正确答案为B）They are of little value。此题目需要理解rubbish的含义，正确选项中的of little value（没有价值）与之对应。