2013高考英语短文阅读：A Brave Maid

　　A Brave Maid

　　勇敢的女仆

　　A wooden vase from the Ming Dynasty at the entrance of the reception hall amazed everyone. The artists designed it in a rare style and selected valuable jewels to decorate it. People thought highly of its fancy colour of honey and the beautiful paintings on it.

　　The vase used to belong to a former castle. But when the country was at war, the enemy troops exploded the castle. Debates on how the vase survived went on and on. In order to remove people’s doubt, a team of no less than 20 people carried out an informal investigation. The evidences they found showed that a maid took the vase apart and asked a sailor to sink it in a local well. She never gave away the secret even under the cruel trial of the enemies who were in search of treasures.

　　It is worth giving this brave maid a fortune in return.

　　接待大厅入口处的明朝木制花瓶 使每个人都惊奇不已。艺术家以一种罕有的风格设计它，并挑选了贵重的珠宝装饰它。人们高度赞赏它那蜂蜜般的奇特颜色，还有上面绘制的绘画。

　　这个花瓶曾经属于一座从前的城堡，但在战争期间，敌人的军队炸毁了城堡，于是关于这个花瓶是如何幸存下来的争论就一直在持续着。为了解开人们的疑问，一个由不少于20人的调查队开展了一次非正式的调查。他们找到的证据表明，有个女仆 把花瓶拆开，然后让一名水手把它沉到当地的一个水井里。她从来没有泄露这个秘密，即使是在搜寻财宝的敌人残酷的审讯下。

　　这位女仆真是值得给予一大笔钱作为对她的回报。