题目内容
---So why didn’t you meet us on Saturday then?
---I’m sorry about that
---I _________
---I thought you were meeting next Saturday.
- A.get the fact straight
- B.have a good nose for it
- C.play a trick of the trade
- D.get the wrong end of the stick
本题考查谚语的意思。D项的意思是:搞错了!符合句意。
Everybody hates it, but everybody does it. A recent report said that 40%of Americans hate tipping. In America alone, tipping is a $16 billion-a-year industry. Consumers acting politely ought not to pay more than they have to for a given service. Tips should not exist. So why do they? The common opinion in the past was that tips both rewarded the efforts of good service and reduced uncomfortable feelings of inequality. And also, tipping makes for closer relations. It went without saying that the better the service, the bigger the tip.
But according to a new research from Cornell University, tips no longer serve any useful function. The paper analyzes numbers they got from 2,547 groups dining at 20 different restaurants. The connection between larger tips and better service was very weak. Only a tiny part of the size of the tip had anything to do with the quality of service.
Tipping is better explained, by culture than by the money people spend. In America, the custom came into being a long time ago. It is regarded as part of the accepted cost of a service. In New York restaurants, failing to tip at least l5% could well mean dissatisfaction from the customers. Hairdressers can expect to get l5%-20%, and the man who delivers your fast food $2. In Europe, tipping is less common. In many restaurants the amount of tip is decided by a standard service charge. In many Asian countries, tipping has never really caught on at all. Only a few have really taken to tipping.
According to Michael Lynn, the Cornell papers’ author, countries in which people are more social or outgoing tend to tip more. Tipping may reduce anxiety about being served by strangers. And Mr. Lynn says, “In America, where people are expressive and eager to mix up with others, tipping is about social approval. If you tip badly, people think less of you. Tipping well is a chance to show off.”
【小题1】 This passage is mainly about ________.
A.different kinds of tipping in different countries |
B.the relationship between tipping and custom |
C.the origin and present meaning of tipping |
D.most American people hate tipping |
A.become popular. | B.been hated. |
C.been stopped. | D.been permitted |
A.A Frenchman just quarreled with the barber who did his hair badly in New York. |
B.An American just had a wonderful dinner in a well known restaurant in New York. |
C.A Japanese businessman asked for a pizza delivery from a Pizza Hut in New York. |
D.A Chinese student enjoyed his meal in a famous fast food restaurant in New York. |
A.tipping is no longer a good way to satisfy some customers themselves |
B.tipping is especially popular in New York |
C.tipping in America can make service better now |
D.tipping has something to do with people’s character |
When I was seven my father gave me a Timex, my first watch. I loved it, wore it for years, and haven’t had another one since it stopped ticking a decade ago. Why? Because I don’t need one. I have a mobile phone and I’m always near someone with an iPod or something like that. All these devices(装置)tell the time — which is why, if you look around, you’ll see lots of empty wrists; sales of watches to young adults have been going down since 2007.
But while the wise have realized that they don’t need them, others—apparently including some distinguished men of our time—are spending total fortunes on them. Brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Breitling command shocking prices, up to £250,000 for a piece.
This is ridiculous. Expensive cars go faster than cheap cars. Expensive clothes hang better than cheap clothes. But these days all watches tell the time as well as all other watches. Expensive watches come with extra functions — but who needs them? How often do you dive to 300 metres into the sea or need to find your direction in the area around the South Pole? So why pay that much of five years’ school fees for watches that allow you to do these things?
If justice were done, the Swiss watch industry should have closed down when the Japanese discovered how to make accurate watches for a five-pound note. Instead the Swiss reinvented the watch, with the aid of millions of pounds’ worth of advertising, as a message about the man wearing it. Rolexes are for those who spend their weekends climbing icy mountains; a Patek Philippe is for one from a rich or noble family; a Breitling suggests you like to pilot planes across the world.
Watches are now classified as “investments”(投资). A 1994 Patek Philippe recently sold for nearly £350,000, while 1960s Rolexes have gone from £15,000 to £30,000 plus in a year. But a watch is not an investment. It’s a toy for self-satisfaction, a matter of fashion. Prices may keep going up—they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when fashion moves on, the owner of that £350,000 beauty will suddenly find his pride and joy is no more a good investment than my childhood Timex.
【小题1】The sales of watches to young people have fallen because they______.
A.have other devices to tell the time | B.think watches too expensive |
C.prefer to wear an iPod | D.have no sense of time |
A.people dive 300 metres into the sea |
B.expensive clothes sell better than cheap ones |
C.cheap cars don’t run as fast as expensive ones |
D.expensive watches with unnecessary functions still sell |
A.It targets rich people as its potential customers. |
B.It’s hard for the industry to beat its competitors. |
C.It wastes a huge amount of money in advertising. |
D.It’s easy for the industry to reinvent cheap watches. |
A.Timex or Rolex? | B.My Childhood Timex |
C.Watches? Not for Me! | D.Watches — a Valuable Collection |