A
Thanks to a young waiter, I only recently discovered that a friend of 20 years was once a yo-yo virtuoso(溜溜球大师).
“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 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, by the way. 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 constantly mediating(调解) between customers’ requests for substitutions and overworked cooks’ accusations of treason. Except at high-end restaurants, servers also have to hover 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．negative |
| C．curious | D．positive |
The passage mainly focuses on .
| A．how to wait on tables |
| B．the friendship between old friends |
| C．where to eat out |
| D．the relationship between customers and waiters |
At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer(拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.
We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house – something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.
On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, "What do you want for your new room?" Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were surprised when Josh responded, "I just want a bed."
The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.
When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.
That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.
As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, "What is that?"
"A pillow," she replied.
"What do you do with it?" Eric continued to ask.
"When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to our eyes as she handed Eric the pillow.
"Oh . . . that's soft," he said, hugging it tightly.
Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my Dad gently asks, "Do you have a pillow?"
We know exactly what he means.The writer’s first volunteer project was .
| A．working on a poor trailer |
| B．helping a poor family |
| C．donating beds and bedding |
| D．dealing with a housing problem |
On hearing Josh’s answer, the writer was shocked because .
| A．the family lived in a trailer |
| B．he expected to get some toys |
| C．he didn’t know what a bed was |
| D．the boys had no bed to sleep in |
From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen before.
| A．a trailer | B．a truck | C．a pillow | D．a house |
By saying “Do you have a pillow?”, the writer’s father means that .
| A．what they want to get may be unnecessary |
| B．they should not waste money on small things |
| C．they should do more volunteer work for the poor |
| D．what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow |
There are many ways to find a job. It can be as easy as walking into a neighborhood store to look at the announcement board. Local stores often have areas where people can put small signs telling what kind of service they need or can provide. Such services include caring for children or cleaning houses.
Or, job searchers can look in the newspaper. Local newspapers have employment announcements placed by companies seeking workers.
Another popular tool for finding jobs is the Internet. For example, people in four hundred and fifty cities around the world can use the Craigslist Web site to buy objects, meet people or find a job. Craigslist says that it receives two million new job listings each month.
Another useful way to find a job is through a college or a university. For example, students at the University of Texas in Austin can go to the Career Exploration Centre to get help in finding a job. Of course, looking for a job requires knowing what kind of work you want to do. For example, there is a book called “What Color is Your Parachute(降落伞)？”by Richard Bolles. This book has been helping people choose a career since it was published in nineteen seventy.
Some experts also help people find jobs. Susan W. Miller owns a company called California Career Services in Los Angeles. She says her company helps people find jobs by first helping them understand their strengths, goals and interests. Then she provides them with methods and resources to help them find the right job.What is the passage mainly about? __________
| A．Finding a job | B．College students’ part-time jobs |
| C．Craigslist Web site | D．The relation between study and work |
By logging on the Craigslist Web site, you can _________ .
| A．sell your old things | B．do some shopping online |
| C．create your own announcement board | D．get useful information about 450 cities |
“What Color is Your Parachute(降落伞)？”is a book giving tips to those who want to ________ .
| A．work on the plane | B．buy a parachute | C．publish a book | D．find a suitable job |
It can be learned from the passage that _______ .
A. companies often put job information in local shops.
B. the Internet is the most popular tool for job hunters in the USA.
C. Susan W. Miller’s company is helping people choose careers
D. California Career Services mainly serves university students.How many ways of finding jobs are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Three | B．Four | C．Five | D．Six |
The other day I heard a few local musicians talking:
“ I hate all the terrible pianos in this town. I hate that rubbish they play on the radio. They can’t even understand a bit of music.”
“ I’m never playing in that club again. Too many drunks and nobody listens to us.”
But a younger musician said, “There are a few clubs that book my band a few nights a month, and I’m trying to find other places to play. I’m also looking to book a few summer festivals this year.”
I’ve heard that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, or to put it another way, you are who your friends are.
Attitudes are important. Whether they are positive(积极的) or negative (消极的)，they are rubbing off on you. If you are around people who complain about lack of work and about other musicians, or blame others, and you play the role of victim(受害者) , chances are you will start as well. So it’s time to take a look at the people you call “friends”.
This is an easy exercise: make a list of the people who you hand out with, and simply stop spending time with the negative people on your list. Set a new standard for yourself and don’t become friends with people who fall below that standard.
Keep successful people around you and your own chances for success will be much better. Ask them how they do it. Ask if they will help you get the work you’re looking for, or maybe give you some advice to help you on your career(职业) path.”Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed |
| B．How to make friendship last for ever |
| C．You are who your friends are |
| D．Friends are the most important in one’s success |
The underlined sentence “ rubbing off on you” means ________ .
| A．They’ll push you ahead | B．They will influence(影响) you |
| C．They’ll cover your shortcomings | D．They will help you achieve your goal |
The musicians’ words at the beginning are written mainly to show _______ .
| A．the musician’s living conditions are quite poor |
| B．People have poor taste in music |
| C．People have different attitudes towards the same thing. |
| D．Young people have greater chances of succeeding |
By taking the exercise mentioned in Paragraph 7 , you can _______ .
| A．improve a lot in making more friends |
| B．come to the right way of making friends |
| C．develop a better friendship with your friends |
| D．arrange the time with your friends properly |
The passage is mainly written for ________ .
| A．musicians | B．managers | C．negative people | D．people wanting to succeed |
How do you get a man to do his share of the housework? If you are like most women, you’ve faced this question the hard way.
A man will enjoy a clean, orderly house, but he usually won’t make the effort to clean or organize it. This doesn’t mean that a woman has to do all the housework; she may have to manage many of the household duties, and request her partner’s joining. A woman can often say that men and women should take equal responsibility for housework.
Very few men are raised to be fully responsible for housework, and many men look on housework as women’s work. On the other hand, most men will readily work around the yard, make repairs and complete projects on weekends or evenings, and it’s important that you give your man appreciation(欣赏) for those things, too. Most men will take on a little housework around the house if asked politely. They are even more likely to do housework if they can choose what they want to do , and do it without being monitored(监视).
Here is the key: men want to feel that they are doing housework either because they want to do a task, or they simply want to please their women. Men are less likely to take on household tasks they consider uninteresting and unimportant. In other words, men are likely to do a housework task just for the good of the house.The passage is mainly about how to ________.
| A．get men to do some housework | B．get men to serve their families |
| C．praise men’s housework | D．get men to do all the housework |
According to a passage, a man _______ .
| A．is willing to do housework |
| B．likes to be told to do housework |
| C．is taught to be responsible for housework from childhood |
| D．likes a clean house but doesn’t make effort to clean it. |
In order to get men to do housework, women should often ________ .
| A．order them to do their share | B．ask them to do some housework politely |
| C．blame men’s laziness | D．monitor men’s work |
According to the passage, the underlined sentence in the last paragraph means that men won’t __________ .
| A． work without any payment | B．do unimportant housework tasks |
| C．do housework with women’s praises | D．please their wives |
According to the passage, which of the following would a husband most probably like to ?
| A．Cleaning the table | B．Doing some washing |
| C．Painting the fence | D．Asking his wife to work on the yard. |
More and more people think it necessary to study in an English-speaking country and it didn’t take long at all for me to decide to come and study in UK.
Having been in the school for 2 months, I’m getting used to school life, and I am starting to make the most of my time in here. School starts at 9 o’clock every morning, and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we have long days, in which we have 9 lessons and school finishes at 4 o’clock. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays we have short days, in which we have only 6 lessons and finish at 1 o’clock. After lessons, we have two hours of activity time, when you can choose from a wide range of activities, including all the major sports, such as rugby and football, and also the minor sports such as basketball and tennis.
As a boarder( 寄宿者)，the quality of food is something I consider very important, and Merchiston has not let me down. The school kitchens are run by a professional food company, and the quality of food is very excellent and also they take the healthy diet very seriously: I remember once I was once asked to take more salad for my meal by a member of the kitchen staff(员工) for I didn’t have enough vegetables. This brings another point of being a boarder: you need to learn how to look after yourself and be responsible(负责) for yourself. One of the huge advantages of being a boarder is that we can have breakfast in the school, which means we don’t have to pull ourselves out of bed as early as the day pupils!The passage mainly tells us about _______.
| A．the author’s school life in the UK as a boarder. |
| B．the author’s opinion of the school life in the UK. |
| C．the differences in school life between China and UK. |
| D．the boarder life in a Britain middle school. |
According to the second paragraph, we can learn that the author _________ .
| A．has not enough time to study | B．likes to play tennis and basketball |
| C．went to the school two months ago | D．finishes school at 4 o’clock |
How many lessons do the students have every week in this school?
| A．15 | B．45 | C．27 | D．18 |
The underlined words “let me down” in the last paragraph means _______.
| A．made me disappointed | B．made me pleased | C．encouraged me | D．amazed me |
As a boarder in the school, the author ___________ .
| A．is not used to the food there | B．has learned to have healthy diets |
| C．is specially taken good care of | D．sleep as much as the day pupils |