A few days ago, I was sitting in a Thai restaurant enjoying a meal when I got on a phone call from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. In my enthusiasm and excitement, I talked quite louder than usual voice and in Spanish, my mother tongue.

A few minutes into the call, an old lady sitting at the table beside mine got up, seemingly offended, and asked the restaurant staff to relocate (重新安排) a table as far away as possible from this man who seemed to be impolite.

I sank in my seat out of embarrassment. I ended the call soon afterwards and felt the urge to apologize. Before getting up, I looked around to see where she was and she was at the table farthest away from me. I noticed that the lady was alone and staring out the window. I found a tinge (气息) of sadness or anxiety and perhaps a desire for aloneness and peace. But I had obviously destroyed it minutes earlier.

Right then I abandoned my plan for a conventional apologetic gesture. Seeing those funny smile cards in my wallet, I took one out and wrote some words to express my apology. On signing my restaurant bill, I asked a waiter to secretly charge the lady’s meal to me and hand her the smile card instead of her bill.

Did she take it the wrong way, I wondered? Did she get confused? Did she refuse the anonymous (匿名的) offer? And so on. I just waited and felt nervous to learn the outcome. To my pleasant surprise, things turned out the best possible way.

The waiter approached me in a joy, telling me, “In the many times she had dined here before, I had never seen the old lady smile as she did when receiving the smile card and the $0 bill. She thanked me even though I explained that someone else did the job.”

1.The old lady changed her seat mainly because of __________.

A. her private phone call

B. the author’s loud voice

C. the views out of the window

D. the restaurant staff’s mistake

2.What can we infer from Paragraph 3?

A. The author didn’t stop talking though he felt embarrassed.

B. The author went up to the old lady and apologized to her.

C. The old lady just moved to the farthest table to see outside.

D. The lady didn’t have a nice mood and liked to stay alone.

3.Feeling sorry, the author offered the old lady the following EXCEPT __________.

A. an apologetic gesture

B. a smile card

C. a free meal

D. some written words to apologize

4.Which of the following is the best title of this passage?

A. A Misunderstanding Caused by Different Cultures

B. An Unpleasant Experience in Thailand

C. A Smile Card for a Sincere Apology

D. An Old Lady Who Never Smiles

October 15th is the Global Handwashing Day. Activities are planned in more than 20 countries to get millions of people in the developing world to wash their hands with soap. For example, donators will give 150,000 bars of soap to schools in Ethiopia.

Experts say people around the world wash their hands every day, but very few use soap at so-called important moments. These include after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby and before touching food.

Global Handwashing Day is the idea of the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap. Partners include the United Nations Children’s Fund, American government agencies, the World Bank and soap makers Unlever and Procter and Gamble. The organizers say all soaps are equally effective at removing disease-causing germ. They say the correct way to wash is to wet your hands with a small amount of water and cover them with soap. Rub it into all areas, including under the fingernails. Rub for at least twenty seconds. Then rinse well under running water. Finally, dry your hands with a clean cloth or wave them in the air.

The Partnership for Handwashing says soap is important because it increases the time that people spend in washing hands. Soap also helps to break up the dirt that holds most of the germs. And it usually leaves a pleasant smell. The Partnership for Handwashing also says washing with soap before eating or after using the toilet could save more lives than any vaccine(疫苗)or medicine. Hand washing could also prevent the spread of other diseases. When people get germs on their hands, they can infect themselves by touching their eyes, noses or mouths. Then they can infect others.

1.What’s the best title for this passage?

A.Hand washing: so important--it gets a day of its own.

B. Find out why washing hands carefully is so important.

C.Say no to washing hands in the wrong way.

D. Want to live a longer life?--wash your hands.

2.The word “rinse” in Paragraph 3 probably means ______.

A. to dry your hands

B. to rub your hands carefully

C.to wash away the soap

D. to clean your fingers

3.The last paragraph mainly tells us ______.

A. how to wash your hands correctly

B.the dangers of washing hands without soap

C.why washing hand with soap is so important

D. when we should especially wash our hands with soap

4.In which part of newspaper would you most probably read this passage?

A. Health report

B. Public service

C. Medical care

D.advertisement

阅读理解。

We are all interested in equality, but while some people try to protect the school and examination system in the name of equality, others, still in the name of equality, want only to destroy it.

Any society which is interested in equality of opportunity and standards of achievement must regularly test its pupils. The standards may be changed—no examination is perfect—but to have tests or examinations would mean the end of equality and of standards. There are groups of people who oppose this view and who do not believe either in examinations or in any controls in school or on teachers. This would mean that everything would depend on luck since every pupil would depend on the efficiency, the values and the purpose of each teacher.

Without examinations, employers will look for employees from the highly respected schools and from families known to them -a form of favoritism will replace equality. At the moment, the bright child from an ill-respected school can show certificates to prove he or she is suitable for a job, while the lack of certificate indicates the unsuitability of a dull child attending a well-respected school. This defending of excellence and opportunity would disappear if examinations were taken away, and the bright child from a poor family would be a prisoner of his or her school’s reputation(声誉), unable to compete for employment with the child from the favored school.

The opponents of the examination system suggest that examinations are an evil force because they show differences between pupils. According to these people, there must be no special, different, academic class. They have even suggested that there should be no form of difference in sport or any other area all jobs or posts should be filled by unsystematic selection. The selection would be made by people who themselves are probably selected by some computers.

1.The word “favoritism” is used to describe the phenomenon that _____.

A. children from well-respected schools tend to have good jobs

B. bright children also need certificates go get satisfying jobs.

C. poor children with certificates are favored in job markets

D. children attending ordinary schools achieve great success

2.What would happen if exams were taken away according to the author?

A. Schools for bright children would lose their reputation.

B. There would be more opportunities and excellence.

C. Children’s job opportunity would be affected by their school reputation.

D. Children from poor families would be able to change their schools.

3.The opponents of the examination system will agree that _____.

A. computers should be selected to take over many jobs

B. jobs should not be assigned(分配)by systematic selection

C. special classes are necessary to keep the school standards

D. schools with academic subjects should be done away with

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