When Levi Strauss arrived in the United States from Bavaria, he was only seventeen, poor, and knew very 21 English.
答案：(D) little
very little 修飾不可數名詞 English，表示「懂得很少的英語」；easy／some／small 都不能這樣修飾 English 表達「很少」的意思。
本題大考中心未公布逐題答對率，以下不談數據，只談觀念。
四個選項中文差很遠，但如果沒注意到空格前面那個 very，會覺得 some 也說得通。這一格要看的是 very 後面能接什麼，以及 English 是可數還是不可數。
先看空格前後：he knew very ___ English。空格夾在 very 與 English 之間，所以要填的是一個能被 very 修飾、又能修飾 English 的字。English 在這裡指「英語能力」，是不可數名詞，而修飾不可數名詞、表示「很少」的字是 little。very little English 就是「幾乎不會英文」，正好接得住前面的 he was only seventeen, poor（他才十七歲、很窮）——一個剛從巴伐利亞來的移民，語言不通是很自然的設定。順便把這一組分清楚，考試很愛拿它們互相干擾：little 修飾不可數（little money 幾乎沒錢）、few 修飾可數複數（few friends 幾乎沒朋友）；比較級則是 less 對 fewer（88 年第 24 題考的就是比較級那一層）。掛鉤是國中的 I have little money.（我幾乎沒錢。）
some（一些）：very some 不成立，而且語意變成「他懂一些英文」，與後面「像多數移民一樣」的處境不合。small（小的）：講體積或數量規模，不能拿來修飾 English 這種抽象的能力。easy（容易的）：語意完全不對，英文本身難不難與他會不會是兩回事。
very little ＋ 不可數名詞（幾乎沒有……）、few ＋ 可數複數（幾乎沒有……）、a little（一點點，表示還有一些）、a few（幾個，表示還有幾個）、arrive in ＋ 大地方（抵達）、like most immigrants（像多數移民一樣）。
When Levi Strauss arrived in the United States from Bavaria, he was only seventeen, poor, and knew very 21 English. Like most immigrants, he was 22 a better life. So, when gold was discovered in the West in 1849, he 23 thousands of others and rushed to California.
24 he planned to open a shop in San Francisco, he took many goods with him, 25 a large quantity of canvas. He hoped to sell 26 as material for tents or wagon covers. Business, however, was not 27 he had expected.
28 , as he sat in a cafe in a small town, he had an idea. He saw a man with a hole in the leg of his trousers and 29 realized what Californians 30 for the rough work they were doing—good, strong trousers!