Growing up in Philadelphia, Lieberman started cooking with his stay-at-home dad when he was seven. His food-loving family had two kitchens, and he quickly learned what was the best way to bake his cakes. Lieberman improved his kitchen skills greatly during a year abroad before college, learning from a cook in Italy and studying local specialties(地方特色菜)in Germany, Spain and France. At Yale, he was known for throwing dinner parties, single-handedly frying and baking while mixing drinks for dozens of friends. Just for fun, he and some friends decided to tape a show named Campus Cuisine about his cooking. Lieberman was a real college student showing his classmates how to do things like making drinks out of dining-hall fruit. That helped the show become very popular among the students. They would stop Lieberman after classes to ask for his advice on cooking. Tapes of the show were passed around, with which his name went beyond the school and finally to the Food Network.
Food Network producer Flay hopes the young cook will find a place on the network television. He says Lieberman’s charisma is key. “Food TV isn’t about food anymore,” says Flay. “It’s about your personality and finding a way to keep people’s eyeballs on your show.”
But Lieberman isn’t putting all his eggs in one basket. After taping the first season of the new show, Lieberman was back in his own small kitchen preparing sandwiches. An airline company was looking for some one to come up with a tasteful, inexpensive and easy-to-make menu to serve on its flights, Lieberman got the job.
1. We can learn from the text that Lieberman’s family ____.
A. have relatives in Europe B own a restaurant.
C. love cooking at home D. often hold parties
2. The Food Network got to know Lieberman ____.
A. through his taped show B. from his teachers
C. at one of his parties D. on a television program
3. What does the word “charisma” underlined in the text refer to?
A. Lieberman’s fine cooking skill. B. A way to show one’s achievement.
C. Lieberman’s after-class interest. D. A natural ability to attract others.
4. Why did the airline company give Lieberman the job?
A. He could prepare meals in a small kitchen.
B. He could cook cheap, delicious and simple meals.
C. He was good at using eggs to make sandwiches.
D. He was famous for his shows on Food TV.
5. What can we learn about Lieberman from the text?
A. he is friendly and active. B. He is clever but lonely.
C. He enjoys traveling around. D. He often changes his menus.
Some people collect stamps. Other people collect works of art or musical instruments. But a man in the American state of Maryland collects secrets.
For the past 10 years, people have been sending Frank Warren postcards and other objects with secrets written on them. He now has a million secrets. “It’s a drawing of a lift. And the secret says: ‘I feel guilty when I take lifts for one floor, so I limp when I get out.’” Frank said.
Ten years ago, Mr. Warren created an art project called PostSecret. People then began to send him postcards, other objects and emails telling their secrets. Every Sunday, he chooses 10 secrets and puts them on the website.
Mr. Warren says he created PostSecret so people could share their secrets in a safe place. “I was struggling with secrets in my own life. And it was by creating this safe place where others could share their secrets with me, I think that space was something I needed just as much as they did.”
He has published six books full of the secrets people have shared with him. One secret in each book is his. Eric Perry delivers mail for the U.S. Postal Service. He has brought thousands of secrets to Frank’s home over the past three years. “I have a couple of the books that Frank’s given me and I’ve read them all and my family has read them all and it’s wild!”
The project itself was once one of Frank’s secrets. His wife Jan didn’t know exactly what he was doing until the first book was published. The publisher told him that the address was going to be on the book, and he refused. However, the address was there just because of the contract between them. Actually Warren wasn’t very happy about that.
Some people tell Frank of their secret desire to kill themselves. So he and the PostSecret community have raised more than $1 million to help prevent suicides(自杀).It is implied in Mr. Warren’s words in Paragraph 2 that ________.
A.the person was ashamed of using an elevator for one floor |
B.Americans are not allowed to use an elevator for one floor |
C.the person felt guilty when pretending to be a disabled one |
D.he has received different secrets about using an elevator |
Mr. Warren created PostSecret in order to ________.
A.satisfy his curiosity about others’ secrets |
B.collect more materials for his series of books |
C.offer a safe place for people to share their secrets |
D.earn a lot of money by sharing others’ secrets online |
What do we know about Eric Perry from the passage?
A.His family are eager to collect the books written by Frank. |
B.His main job is to deliver mails and postcards for Frank. |
C.He has been a postman who has a great many secrets. |
D.He has developed a good relationship with Frank. |
What was Mr. Warren’s secret according to the passage?
A.He once took the lift only for one floor. |
B.He is interested in collecting others’ secrets. |
C.He created an art project without telling his wife. |
D.He helped prevent others from committing suicides. |
Thanks to a young waiter, I recently found a friend of 20 years was once a yo-yo virtuoso(大师).
“Oh, stop it!” Jackie said when I started laughing during our dinner. “I was, too. And I knew how to ‘Walk the Dog.’”
“Wow, really?” said our waiter, Jumario Simmons, flashing a big smile at us.
“Don’t encourage her,” I said.
“What else could you do?” he asked.
“I did ‘Round the World,’” Jackie said, now ignoring me completely. “That was cradle(婴儿时期的)thing, too.”
I’d asked Jumario what he did when he wasn’t waiting on tables. The 24-year-old waiter was so smart that I knew there had to be more to his story. It turns out that he won a regional yo-yo competition last year. He also gives free lessons to kids. “It gives them something to do,” Jumario said. “Keeps them off the streets.”
One of the great things about eating out is the table talk with strangers, which reminds us that everyone has a life and a name. But the other day I heard that some restaurants are ending this talk between diners and servers. I listened to the reporter describe how their improvements are allowing customers to text orders from their tables to speed up service.
The reporter got my attention with this sentence “Five minutes after typing ‘I’m at table 3’, a meal arrives at the table.” But there wasn’t a “please” with this order, which should have been a request. If you’ve ever waited on tables, you know that the last thing you need is yet another way for a customer to be unpleasant.
Most servers are often mediating(调解)between customers’ requests for substitutions and overworked cooks’ accusations of treason(背叛). Except at high-end restaurants, servers also have to walk back and forth like mothers of preschoolers so that we might consider them worthy of a large enough tip to lift their pay to minimum wage.
Texting a server from a table a few feet away is equal to moving our fingers and shouting, “Hey, you!” It was rude in 1957, and it’s rude now. You won’t ever find me texting a waiter or waitress.What do we know from the text?
A.The waiter knows Jackie well. |
B.The waiter is good at playing yo-yo. |
C.Jackie plays yo-yo in her spare time. |
D.The author has a great interest in playing yo-yo. |
Some restaurants allow diners to text a server from a table to ________.
A.improve their service |
B.reduce the cost of service |
C.show respect for diners |
D.stop talks between diners and servers |
What’s the last but one paragraph mainly about?
A.The pay of servers. |
B.The work of servers. |
C.The customers’ request. |
D.The work of mothers of preschoolers. |
From the passage, the author’s attitude towards texting a server from a table is ________.
A.indifferent | B.positive |
C.curious | D.negative |
With online courses, anyone can gain knowledge in any field of interest for free. All you need is a computer, laptop or Smartphone, internet connection and a self-made schedule. You can even get a certificate on completing the course.
Udemy
Its goal is to promote the world of education by enabling anyone to learn online. It seeks to dramatically change education by inviting millions of experts worldwide to teach and share what they know. Whether you want to learn excel, business, academics, the arts, health, music or technology, there is a comprehensive course for you. See more at https://udemy.com
iTunes U
If you’re a student who uses Apple devices, you will be happy to know that you have access to iTunes U, which gives you access to different educational courses from all leading universities for free! Did you dream of studying at MIT, Oxford, Yale, or Cambridge? This is your chance to learn various subjects from the best colleges and universities in the world. Learn more at https://iTunesU.com
Skillfeed
If you are looking to learning a new skill, or improving on your skills in Photoshop, or HTML, it offers unlimited access to high-quality video courses from a worldwide community of instructors. You have a month’s free trial, after which you will pay a monthly fee to gain unlimited access to all courses. See more at https://skillfeed.com
Academic Earth
It has linked to over 750 online courses and 8,500 individual online lectures, giving students of all ages access to college courses they may otherwise never experience. Whether learning existing coursework, or learning for the sake of learning, anyone has the freedom to learn at their own pace from world-famous experts, without being charged more. Learn more at http://academicearth.com
UC Berkeley
It offers courses in bioengineering, Japanese, legal studies and public health. Since they are recordings of actual lectures, they lack lecture notes and extra materials. However, each course has audio recordings of lectures via iTunes or video recordings of lectures via YouTube. Learn more at https://ucberkeley.comLearners who choose Skillfeed need to ________.
A.equip themselves with the ability to use the computer |
B.pay some fee if they want to continue after a month |
C.have some knowledge of the design of website |
D.learn to upload their own high-quality video |
We can learn from the passage that Academic Earth ________.
A.charges learners nothing for any course |
B.has many lectures given by 8,500 lecturers |
C.provides college courses mainly to young men |
D.offers college courses at the learners’ convenience |
If you want to improve your skill of Japanese language, you can visit ________.
A.https://skillfeed.com |
B.https://ucberkeley.com |
C.https://udemy.com |
D.https://iTunesU.com |
Money has always complicated our social lives. A question in October from a woman wondering whether she should attend her neighbors’ holiday parties broke my heart: “I am not able to do the same in return, and I just feel like a freeloader to do so,” she wrote. “I’m not even in a position this year to take an appropriate thankyou gift with me.” I told her to go, of course.
Meanwhile, hosts worried about the costs of entertaining — the hosts who write to me, anyway. On the other hand, the hosts that guests write to me about have taken some extreme measures to reduce the cost of their hospitality. These range from a dinner party where a relative of the host explained how expensive the steaks were and “rather pointedly suggested” that the letter writer “make a financial contribution” to the cost of dinner, to some Cape Cod homeowners who invited a couple to spend a weekend with them — as long as they brought their own food, bottled water, and toilet paper.
Weddings and other special events always create extra sources of stress, worsened by the fact that people rarely want to talk honestly about their money situations. One couple chose to have only a civil wedding ceremony for financial reasons and wondered how to tell people this without going into too much detail. A sixtysomething couple needed to cut back on Christmas gifts to their children but weren’t sure how to tell them about it. People who had been laid off wondered how to notify friends, respond to inquiries about their job search, and compete with former colleagues for positions.
If you are searching for the answers to them, write to me—an advice columnist.The underlined word “freeloader” in the 1st paragraph showed the woman’s ________.
A.disapproval | B.happiness |
C.confusion | D.agreement |
What bothered the hosts mentioned in Paragraph 2 most in their social lives?
A.Steaks. | B.Entertainment. |
C.Cost. | D.Thankyou gifts. |
What would you be expected to do if you were invited to spend a weekend with some Cape Cod homeowners?
A.Ask someone for advice. |
B.Get your food and water ready. |
C.Bring a bottle of wine with you. |
D.Make a financial contribution to the cost. |
What makes the social life even worse?
A.Weddings and other social events. |
B.Being laid off and notifying friends. |
C.Cutting back the costs for lack of money. |
D.Telling others about their financial troubles. |
Would you eat a ready meal from the fridge rather than cook from scratch? Have you been doing Internet shopping rather than going to the stores? What can’t you be bothered to do?
A study into how lazy British people are has found more than half of adults are so idle that they’d catch the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs.
Just over 2,000 people were quizzed by independent researchers at Nuffield Health, Britain’s largest health charity. The results were startling.
About one in six people surveyed said if their remote control was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up.
More than one third of those questioned said they would not run to catch a bus. Worryingly, of the 654 respondents with children, 64% said they were often too tired to play with them.
This led the report to conclude that it’s no wonder that one in six children in the UK are classified as obese before they start school. Dr Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health, said, “People need to get fitter, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their families, friends and evidently their pets too. If we don’t start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the simple tasks.”
And Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, was shamed as the most indolent city in the UK, with 75% surveyed admitting they do not get enough exercise, followed closely by Birmingham and Southampton, both with 67%.
The results pose serious challenges for the National Health Service, where obesityrelated illnesses such as heart disease and cancer have been on a steady increase for the past 40 years and are costing billions of pounds every year.What do lazy British people probably choose to do?
A.Go to stores. | B.Catch the lift. |
C.Cook from scratch. | D.Climb flights of stairs. |
How many people surveyed don’t play with children because of tiredness?
A.About 419. | B.About 333. |
C.About 654. | D.About 1280. |
What is the potential result of more and more people, including children, getting obese?
A.People will not get enough exercise. |
B.People will not have enough money. |
C.People will not be able to do the easy job. |
D.People will not cure themselves of heart disease. |
What is the author’s attitude towards the finding of the study?
A.Indifferent. | B.Doubtful. |
C.Negative. | D.Supportive. |