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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 |
When the shooting of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was complete, it was much more than a movie wrap-up (结束).
Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, told The Sunday Times that he’s happy to have the time for romance now filming is over. Emma Watson, who is Hermione Granger in the movies, said she looked forward to “finally being free, being my own person” – a change signaled by her new haircut.
Daniel Radcliffe, who has been the face of the boy wizard since 2001, said that he “did cry like a little girl” when the last movie finished.
“It’s like the ending of a relationship,” he told The Vancouver Sun. “There’s a sense of, ‘God, what am I going to do now?’” He said he was eager to see “what life holds for him beyond Hogwarts”.
Along with the three actors, Harry Potter fans, now in their late teens, came of age with J.K. Rowling’s characters. For them, the last film isn’t just a goodbye to a decade of magic, but the close of their childhoods.
“We are the Harry Potter generation,” Canadian Andrea Hill, 19, told The Vancouver Sun. “We started in elementary school, reading about a boy our age who was going through the same things we were going through. We grew up, so did he.”
For Emily Chahal, an 18-year-old student, the series has been an inspiring journey. “That first book was what started my love of literature. It was the inspiration for everything – really teaching me to appreciate my friends, and to face difficulties with a sense of courage,” she said. “I have a sense of sadness. The end of the movies is kind of the end of my childhood, too.”
Fortunately, to the delight of die-hard fans, there are many things that keep the boy wizard alive. For example, in June this year, a Harry Potter theme park opened in Florida, US.
Some schools in the US and UK also have Quidditch teams – players ride broomsticks. “We’re not waiting anymore to see what happens to Harry next,”
Hill told The Vancouver Sun. She founded a Quidditch club at Carleton University in Canada. “We’re still engaged in that magical world.”.
How did Emma Watson feel when she finished the shooting of the Harry Potter series?
| A．She cried like a little girl. |
| B．She was ready to move onto something new. |
| C．She was happy to have the time for romance. |
| D．She felt it was like the end of a relationship. |
.
. What did Daniel Radcliffe mean by saying he was eager to see “what life holds for him beyond Hogwarts”?
| A．He was bored with life in Hogwarts. |
| B．He couldn’t wait to graduate from Hogwarts. |
| C．He missed life in Hogwarts now he had left. |
| D．He was looking forward to new life out of Hogwarts. |
.
. The series has brought Emily Chahal all the following EXCEPT _______.
| A．the chance to live in a magical world |
| B．the courage to face difficulties |
| C．the appreciation of her friends |
| D．encouragement to love literature |
.
What is the main focus of the article?
| A．Celebration of the close of childhood. |
| B．Fans’ love for the Harry Potter series. |
| C．Mixed feelings about the end of the series. |
| D．Excited anticipation of the opening of the Harry Potter theme park. |
When I looked at the grade on my math paper my jaw almost dropped to the ground: a big “65” in bright red ink. I had never received such a terrible grade before.
I was so ashamed that when I got home that afternoon I lied to my dad. I told him I got 85 and that the report wouldn’t come until the end of the month. Dad smiled. His daughter would never lie about her grade, so he didn’t doubt the unusual delay of my report.
A month later, Dad casually asked me again about the report at the dinner table. He looked right into my eyes and asked for an answer. Having no choice, I told him that I had in fact got just 65 in my math final. I had lied because I didn’t want to let him down.
For a moment, he just looked at me. I would have preferred a telling off than that silence. Finally, Dad said, in a hurt voice, “You have already let me down, with your lie. I am not disappointed at your math score. That is no big deal – no one can be perfect all the time. But I am very disappointed in you. If you can’t be honest with your dad, who can you be honest with? It’s much easier to achieve a better grade than rebuild someone else’s trust in you.”
Dad’s words touched my heart. I couldn’t forgive myself for having hurt his feelings. I took out the report that I had been hiding for weeks, handed to him and apologized, sincerely. I realized that my honesty is not only important to me personally, but to those around me that truly care about my well-being.
In one of Shakespeare’s plays a character says: “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” After the crisis between Dad and me, I began to understand those words..The first paragraph may suggest that the author ______.
| A．was punished by her father for a bad grade |
| B．never expected teachers to give her bad grades |
| C．usually got a higher grade |
| D．was bad at math |
. The author lied to her father because ______.
| A．she thought her father would believe her story |
| B．she didn’t want to let her father down |
| C．her father wouldn’t get her grade report |
| D．her father got angry whenever she got a poor grade |
. Why did her father stay silent after his daughter told him that she had lied?
| A．He didn’t understand what his daughter had said. |
| B．He was angry that his daughter lied to him again. |
| C．He was unhappy with his daughter’s bad score. |
| D．He was hurt that his daughter had lied to him. |
. The purpose of the article is to tell us that ______.
| A．dishonesty may work sometimes, but there is a price to pay |
| B．sometimes a lie can make things easier |
| C．we should study hard to make our parents happy |
| D．we should accept the fact that we are not perfect |
In 1981, there were more than 1.3 million elephants in Africa. But in 1991, that number was cut down to 600,000. African elephants are hunted for their valuable ivory tusks(象牙). More have been killed by poachers(偷猎者). Poachers are hunters who kill animals illegally
. An adult(成年) elephant eats as much as 300 pounds a day. In their search for food, elephants oft
en move great distances. When they cannot find the grasses they prefer, they may strip(剥光) the land of trees.
Today, the area in which elephants herds live is smaller than it used to be. Many areas in their path have been turned into farms. And some eleph
ants have been killed by f
armers for trampling(践踏)their crops.
What can we do here in our country about a threatened animal that lives so far away? Our government has passe
d a law to protect it. People cannot import or bring in items made from ivory or any part of the elephant’s body.
Most countries throughout the world have also stopped ivory imports. It is hoped that the ban(禁令) on the sale of ivory will help save the African elephant. But the world’s largest land animal needs other help. The countries where these animals live are often poor and unable to manage the herds. If the elephant is to survive, this animal is going to need our support for many years to come.The number of the elephant in Africa in 1991 was .
| A．the same as that ten years ago | B．more than that ten years ago |
| C．a little less than half of that in 1981 | D．a little more than half of that in 1981 |
African elephants have been killed mainly because _____.
| A．they eat a lot | B．they have beautiful tusks |
| C．poachers kill for fun | D．there are too many of them |
The areas where African elephants live are much smaller today because ___.
| A．they tend to live in herds |
| B．there are not so many of them today |
C．many of these areas have been t urned into farms |
| D．farmers have been killing them to save their crops |
It is mentioned in the passage that our country has ____.
| A．officially stopped ivory imports |
| B．banned the killing of elephants in Africa |
| C．threatened the elephants that live far away |
| D．helped the African countries where elephants live |
Which of the f
ollowing statements is TRUE?
| A．Poachers have a license(执照) to hunt for animals. |
B．Elephants do a lot of good for the farmers in Africa. |
| C．We live too far away to help to save the African elephants. |
D．The African elephant needs the world’s support for its s urvival |
It was on a warm day last summer. I was walking by the sea. The waves came and went. But I didn’t see them. I was lost in my thoughts.
A row of small holes soon caught my eyes. They lay in the sandy earth by the side of a road. In a minute I would have stepped on them.
What are these holes? I wondered. It had an answer soon. A fat, hairy insect crawled up from the earth. It had a wide tail. It was using the tail to dig in the ground.
The insect moved round and round in one spot(地点). Soon it had made another hole. When it was finished, the insect hid at the bottom. It covered its head with sand.
By now my thoughts of the early morning had gone. This new hole and the insect were all my world. So I sat quite still by the side of the road. And I waited.
As I watched, a small ant crossed the road. It passed my foot, a
nd then it crossed the sandy earth. In a little while it reached the edge of the hole. I saw it start to fall in. The ant tried to turn back. But it couldn’t.
And then I knew. I knew why the holes were there. For just then the fat insect came up out of the hole. It ate the ant who was trapped there.
Later I learned the insect’s name. It’s called ant lion. It digs holes to catch ants.
I’ll never forget that day. The holes looked so small to me. But to the ant and the ant lion they were the whole world.
I took my walks by the sea that summer. But I never aga
in learned as much as I did on the one. What did the ant lion use to dig holes?
| A．Its tail | B．Its feet. | C．Its head | D．Its whole body |
Why did the ant lion hide in the hole?
| A．To keep the sun away | B．So no one would catch it. |
| C．So the ant wouldn’t see it | D．To ke ep warm. |
Why did “I” sit down by the side of the road?
| A．To think | B．To eat her lunch |
| C．To watch the little holes | D．To catch ants. |
Why did the ant lion dig the holes?
| A．To play a game | B．To catch its food |
| C．To hide its eggs | D．To hide from its enemy |
Why did “I” never forget that day?
| A．Learned something | B．Had a nice time |
| C．Saw the ant lion whenever she took a walk | |
| D．Felt sorry for the ant. |
Dick was a twenty-year-old man. His father was a teacher and taught chemistry in a middle school and his mother worked in a shop. They lived a happy life until his parents died one night when suddenly an earthquake broke out. Luckily his sister took him to see their aunt in the city and they did not stay at home. Everything was destroyed in the earthquake and the two children got into trouble. Thanks to their aunt who was not rich enough, they grew up but they lived a ha
rd life. His sister was so sad that she became a nun(修女). After he finished middle school, he was introduced to an owner of a hotel and began to work there.
One day the young man fell to the ground while he was cleaning a window on the second floor. He was sent to the hospital and the doctor loo
ked him over. One of his legs was broken and he had to be in hospital. He said to the nur
se, “I’m a poor man, madam. Arrange a third-class ward(病房) for me, please.”
“Can’t anybody help you?”
“No, madam,” answered Dick. “I have only a sister. She’s a nun and she’s poor, too.”
“I don’t think so,” the nurse said angrily. “Nuns usually marry God. And God is the richest in the world, you know!”
“Well, then,” Dick said with a smile. “Please arrange a first-class ward for me and post the bill(账单) to my brother-in-law(姐夫).Dick’s parents died _____.
| A．in an accident | B．in the war | C．in the earthquake | D．from the disease |
Dick and his sister escaped from the earthquake because ____.
| A．they played outside | B．they were in a safe place |
| C．their parents saved them | D．the aunt saved them |
The sister and brother lived a hard life because ____.
| A．they lost all | B．they were too young |
| C．they were hurt in the earthquake | D．they had to look after themselves |
After Dick finished middle school, ____.
| A．he stayed at home | B．he began to look for a job |
| C．he broke his leg | D．he began to work in the hotel |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The nurse would arrange a third-class ward for Dick. |
B． The nurse would arrange a first-class ward for Dick. |
| C．The nurse would post Dick’s bill to God. |
| D．Dick had a rich brother-in-law. |
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