题目内容

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.

1.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.

2.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

3.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.

4.From the passage, the author’s attitude towards texting a server from a table is _________.

A. indifferent B. negative

C. curious D. positive

5.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

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Unique New Year's Traditions from Around the World

How do you celebrate New Year’s? If I had to take a guess,you probably celebrate New Year’s surrounded by family and friends,enjoying drinks of your choice and watching the ball drop with Dick Clark.1.Listed below are five of the top ten“Unique New Year Traditions from Around the World.”

1.Breaking Dishes on Neighbor’s Door

A strange Danish New Year tradition,depending on how you look at it, is throwing dishes at neighbor’s door.2.The family with the tallest tower of broken plates,glasses,cups and other crockery is considered to be the luckiest person because it symbolizes their large amount of loyal friends.

2.Talking to Spirits

Talking to spirits is a part of Mexican belief.Mexicans strongly believe that they can communicate with the souls of their dead loved ones.3.And this is not done at home on an individual basis but is a legal Mexican practice.Taos Inn,in New Mexico for example,offers 15 minutes session of spiritualism and meditation for $15.6.Not a bad price for some helpful guidance!

3.Wearing Polka Dots

Imagine streets full of people wearing polka dots and dining room tables full of round shaped food and fruits on one single day of the year.4.Philippines believe that this will bring them prosperity by associating the round dots to coins and wealth.

4.Burning Scarecrow Dummy

Ecuador has a unique custom of crafting Scarecrows and then burning them at midnight.They adorn them and fill the scarecrows with newspapers and pieces of wood.As midnight approaches,everyone gathers outside their home and each family burns their own scarecrow.5.The scarecrow also scares away bad luck,which in rurn,fills their new year with luck and happiness.

A.New Year’s Eve is considered the best time to communicate with dead spirits to convey a message or ask for guidance.

B.It is also believed in the Irish culture that this act will help them get rid of bad luck.

C.Have you ever imagined how New Year’s would look in another country?

D.This all actually happens in the Philippines on New Year’s Eve every year.

E.Strangely,this makes them happy instead of annoying them.

F.We all want to start a new,fresh year with renewed enthusiasm and hope.

G.The tradition says that this destroys all the bad things that took place in the past months.

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Find an English conversation partner

You can speak English online with another person or practice any other language on our Live English Conversation Linkup service through Skype,Google Talk,MSN,etc.You can use the service to get information about travel,language,food,customs,climate,travel,business,work,study etc.Or,you can speak any foreign language on our Live Language Linkup page.

World English course

Learn English with our free World English Course.Listen,speak,read,write and understand English through our free weekly online activities and linkups.Join the English Classroom!

English courses

Take a look at some of the courses we offer.

●Be Aware:Use this free English course to brush up your grammar,vocabulary,and writing skills.

●Interactive Stories:Learn a new technique for learning languages by using stories with this free English training course.

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●The Water Car:A full-length interactive story English course for intermediate(中等的)level leamers.

●The Children of Kenji Takeuchi:A full-length interactive story English course for upper- intermediate level learners.

●World English:A free English course designed for topic-based discussions.

English dialogues

Follow a story in English through free English dialogues.There are three levels:

●Lower Intermediate:Hiromi’s Trip to Thailand

●Intermediate:Miyako’s Education

●Upper Intermediate:A New Life in Mosquito City

Real conversations

We provide recordings of real conversations and interviews,with transcripts(文字记录)of the conversations so you can read and listen at the same time.It is a good way to learn real English.

1.This website mainly provides users with _____________.

A.free courses on traveling abroad

B.plenty of language resources

C.interesting conversations

D.1ots of amazing stories

2.If one wants to enrich his grammar and words,he should click _____________.

A.Be Aware B.The Water Car

C.The Business Trip D.Interactive Stories

3.Which of the following is designed for intermediate level learners?

A.The Children of Kenji Takeuehi.

B.A New Life in Mosquito City

C.Hiromi’s Trip to Thailand.

D. Miyako’s Education.

4.Real conversations is a good may to learn real English because ____________.

A.you can read while listening

B.you can see a native speaker

C.you can record your own voice and listen to it

D.you can transcript every word of real speakers

B

When I began planning to move to Auckland to study,my mother was a little worried about the uncertainty of living in a place that was so different from India,where we lived. She worried particularly about the lack of jobs,the cultural differences and the chance that I would face racism.

Despite these worries,I came to New Zealand in July 2009. I have found the place and people very nice and supportive. Soon after I arrived,I realized the importance of getting a job to supply my living expenses.

Determined to do this on my own ,I spent a whole day going from door to door asking for a job. However,I received little or no response. This became my routine every day after college for a few weeks.

One afternoon,I walked into a building to ask if there were any job opportunities. The people there were very surprised,and advised me not to continue my job search in that manner.

As I was about to leave,a clerk in the building,who had been listening to what the others had said, approached me and asked if I would wait outside. Fifteen minutes later,he returned. He asked me what my plans were and encouraged me to stay confident. He then offered to take me to the Royal Oak area to search for a job.

I was a little surprised,but had a good feeling about him,so I went along. Along the way, I realized that I had run out of copies of my resume(简历).The man stopped at his business partner's office to make me 15 extra copies. He also gave me tips on dressing and speaking,and added that I should give him, a call if I ever needed anything. I handed out my resumes and went home feeling very satisfied. The following day,I received:call from。store in Royal Oak offering me a job.

It seems that the world always gives back to you when you need it. And this time,it was a complete stranger who turned out to be a real blessing.

1.What wasn't the author's mother worried about?

A. People might look down on the author.

B. The author couldn't speak the local language.

C. The author wasn't familiar with local customs.

D. It might be difficult for the author to find a job.

2.After staying in New Zealand for a short time, the author

A. decided to go back to his own country

B. felt the local people were not very friendly

C. had to find a job to cover his living expenses

D. wanted to get a job that needed practical skills

3.When the author went into a building to look for a job, ·

A. a clerk gave him encouragement and advice

B. he was confident that he would find a good one

C. he found many college students like him already there

D. a clerk recommended him to the company he worked for

4.What is the story mainly about?

A. How a stranger offered the author a job.

B. How a stranger turned out to be a real blessing.

C. How the author adapted himself to a new situation.

D. How the author was helped to get a job by a stranger.

The world is changing so fast that English, perhaps the most worldly of languages, is struggling to keep up.

Learners in the future are likely to be much younger. Young children are often said to be better at language learning than older learners but they also have special challenges. Young children don’t usually have the kind of instrumental motivation and determination for learning English that older learners often have. English lessons must therefore be fun and rewarding.

The reasons why people learn English are also changing. Globalization is bringing together more people than ever who speak different languages and who are turning to English as the means of communication. The English learners of the future may be less worried about sounding exactly like a native speaker and more concerned about how to use English effectively in cross-cultural communication. We may be hearing more non-native speakers in dialogues and a wider range of the “New Englishes” now used around the world.

Technology will allow English to come to you, rather than you having to go to a special place to learn English.

Learning English has always involved both pain and pleasure, private effort and social activity. Traditional learning provided take-it or leave-it mixes of these as well as of content but in future learners will be able to choose a plan which suits their cultural and psychological dispositions(性情), or their particular needs at that moment. They, rather than their teachers, will decide how, what and when they will learn.

Above all, learning English is about communication and an important benefit of learning English is being able to exchange views and make friends with people all over the world. Despite the growing independence of learners, trusted institutions and brand names will remain important.

1.Compared to older learners, young English learners .

A. are more active in learning

B. are more hard-working in learning

C. have more difficulties in learning

D. have less lasting determination in learning

2.What can we learn about the future English language?

A. British English will be more popular.

B. American English will be more popular.

C. Most people will speak standard English.

D. Many different kinds of Englishes will appear.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A. Future English lessons will be more interesting.

B. Old people won’t have to learn English in the future.

C. People will pay more attention to English pronunciation.

D. Teachers will play a more important role in one’s English learning.

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A. Learning English means no pain in the future.

B. English training schools will not be popular with young people in the future.

C. English learners will become less independent in the future.

D. More attention will be paid to personal needs in English learning in the future.

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