New ApplicationsMiriam Storley left the bank at 4:15 exactly. People along Division Street said you could set your watch by Miriam; she always left her job at eh First State Bank of Cannon Falls at this hour, Monday through Friday, except on holidays. On Fridays she returned to work the six-to-eight P.M. shift. One this particular day, a Monday, she stopped after closing the front door to the bank in order to look at the window display.Miriam had spent the better part of the afternoon arranging gift items in the bank’s window. First State, which is how everyone in town referred to the bank, was having a promotion in order to attract new business. They were offering gifts which ranged in value all the way from a pocket calulator to a color TV. The value of a new depositor’s gift depended on how much was initially deposited.The display in the window was attractive, but Miriam wondered where the new business was going to come from. Cannon Falls wasn’t a one-stoplight town, but it wasn’t a great metropolis either. There just weren’t that many people to warrant an extravagant new business promotion such as this. The bank manager, Al Gropin, had even invested in some full-page advertisements in the local paper and had hired some clowns to perform on the street in from of the bank---all to try to attract new customers.But Miriam didn’t linger long in front of the window, and she didn’t waste much time on her thoughts of Al’s grand schemes. Her mission today was the same as it had been every weekday for the past several weeks.She nodded at passers-by, shopkeepers, and neighbors as she walked purposefully along the wide sidewalk toward The Computer Shack. There was a pleasant expression on her face as she smiled and said her “hellos” and “good afternoons” and “how are yous” to the people she saw almost every day of her life. Her daily meeting with Officer Quanbeck never failed to amuse her. She smiled to herself as they exchanged greetings and wondered whether he would feel as stupid as he looked after she pulled off the crime of the century.“Right on time, as usual, eh, Mrs. Storley?” The thin, kindly-looking man behind the counter in The Computer Shack seemed to have a perpetual smile on his face. Every day for the past several weeks, Tobe Barksdale had a short, simple conversation with this woman from the bank down the street. She said she wanted to but the home computer which he had hooked up to a printer and which was fully operational, but so far all she did was sit and play with it.Tobe didn’t mind the intrusion, though. Even thought he opened his shop. Gleamingly filled with electronic toys and machines, at noon, the majority of his customers came after six P. M. At first he had closed the store at eight, but the numbers of people interested in the latest gadgetry forced him to stay open later and later, and now he wasn’t closing until ten o’clock.He could have insisted that his daily visitor make up her mind about the computer, or at least stop using the same program all the time, but she wasn’t really any bother, and lately she had acquired such a solid knowledge of the field that he actually enjoyed her increasingly complex questions. She challenged his imagination, probing to see just how far a computer could go, just how much a simple machine could do.Tobe probably knew as much about computer hardware and software as anybody in the entire town of Cannon Falls. Hardware and software. These were terms the general public rarely heard when Tobe began working a number of years back. Now, everyone used the terms to refer to the computers themselves and the programs which told the machines and operators what to do.Miriam Storley had a long way to go to catch up with Tobe in her knowledge of this complex field, but she seemed determined, and Tobe was a patient instructor. Each day she would come to him with a new type of problem, an unusual twist, a tricky flow of information or instructions which she wanted to master. Every day he would guide her through the intricacies of the model which was advertised as the “ latest, most technologically advanced home computer ever designed.” Every day she would listen and absorb, and then experiment for herself. She brought her own tapes and never seemed to tire of learning, even after a day’s work. Tobe believed in leaving people to themselves, so when the lesson was over and Miriam sat at the console, enwrapped in her task at hand, he busied himself in another part of the store.Miriam’s teen-age son, who liked to be called by the nickname Zee, had introduced her to the world of computers through his interest in video games. True, she dealt with computers at the bank every day in her job, but somehow they were just a part of the bank; they didn’t touch her.She learned from her son and, almost by accident--- as most great discoveries in the world seem to be---she discovered that the latest version of the home-type computers was actually compatible with the one she worked with in her office at First State.The idea came to her at the end of a particularly tiring day as she tallied the day’s receipts and entered them into her desk-top computer. It was foolproof! She could transfer funds from various accounts which were relatively inactive by tampering with the program. If she did it skillfully enough, she would never be caught. She would set up some fictitious accounts in other banks in the state, transfer funds, disguise herself and go to the other banks in order to withdraw the money, and then return the program to its original condition. No one would ever be able to figure out what she had done or where the money had gone. And even if they did trace it, they would never suspect her. How could they?She decided not to risk working on the program she needed at home, since Zee might see what she was doing. Tobe Barksdale’s shop was the perfect cover, and that pleasant man certainly wouldn’t suspect her. He didn’t even seem to mind letting her use his floor-model computer.After months of preparation, Miriam carried out her plan. She called Mr. Gropin to say that she was ill and couldn’t come to work. Then she drove to Mankato and Red Wing, disguised, and picked up her money. All went well until she arrived home to find Officer Quanbeck and several others waiting in her living room to arrest her for fraud and bank robbery.As a kindness, to assuage her curiosity, Tobe Barksdale was there, too. He explained, “Your plan was brilliant, Miriam, and you were an excellent student. Indeed, I taught you almost everything you know. But I didn’t teach you everything you did on a master tape which I observed every afternoon after you left. After all, I had to see what kind of progress my pupil was making, didn’t I?”1. People said that they could set their watch by Miriam's punctuality because she always left her job at her bank at the same hour.
A.True B.False正确答案A
