It was shortly before midnight, and Dr Patricia was getting ready for bed. The phone rang on the end of the line was a woman about to break a promise.

The woman was her mother’s neighbor. Flora Harris had made the neighbor swear she wouldn’t tell her daughter she’d had a heart attack and was in the hospital, for fear her daughter would worry. The neighbor wisely decided to disobey orders.

Harris desperately wanted to get to the hospital immediately, but she couldn’t. She lives in Washington, D. C, and her mother lives in California.

For the past year a half, Harris has gone to Los Angeles every other month to take care of her mother. Flora Harris takes care of her husband, James, who’s 91 and has Alzheimer’s disease. They live in their own home, and a caregiver comes to help them a few hours a day.

Harris is one of many Americans facing the heartache of how to take care of aging parents from afar. She’s often worried, not to mention exrtemely busy with a demanding job, two teenage daughters and the frequent trips to California.

In some ways, Harris is lucky. She has the resources to make the trips to Los Angeles. Plus, Harris is a doctor who treats the elderly.

“But it’s still tough,” she says. “I can foresee what the next few years are going to look like, and it’s not a pretty picture. My father’s going to need diapers (尿布). There will come a time when he won’t recognize me and he’s easily excited. I worry he’s going to be violent and hurt my mother.”

So what do you do when you live a continent away from your aging, sick parents? There are no magic answers. You can hire someone to help, but you can’t oursource it completely.

1.Why was the woman thought to have broken a promise?

2.What can we learn about Patricia Harris from the passage?

3.What does the underlined word “outsource” in the last paragragh mean?

4.What’s the main idea of this passage?

E
I went on line to check my pay was in my bank account（账户）. To my amazement I discovered that not only had I been paid, a company I’d never worked for had also paid me! I know I would have been beside myself if my own salary was not in my account, so I tried to get the money back to the right person. Easier said than done.
The bank couldn’t help as it “wasn’t a bank problem.” The human-resource department at the company that paid me was unable to help as I didn’t have enough details. I rang the bank again. Thankfully I had a sympathetic call operator who gave me a name, so I again rang the company “Daniel” worked for.
I expected the bank would contact me to arrange to take the money from my account and repay Daniel. I heard nothing for a month and the money remained in my account when Daniel called, explaining he’d tried to get back his money but had been unsuccessful as neither the bank nor his company felt it was their error. He had rung to ask if I could speak to the bank, but after chatting for a few minutes we realized we could probably fix this problem ourselves.
We decided I would take the money from my account and he would pick it up from me. Due to my busy job I was unable to meet Daniel personally but he left me a lovely bottle of wine in exchange for what was rightfully his. I never had any intention of keeping Daniel’s pay but red tape（繁琐手续）made it difficult to do the right thing. It all came down to two people being able to do what a huge bank and a large company couldn’t do — admit a mistake has occurred and fix it.
52. What was the attitude of the author towards the extra money in his bank account?
A. He didn’t know what to do with it.                B. He felt lucky to get it.
C. He thought of keeping it for himself.                    D. He wanted to return it to the right person.
53. The underlined phrase “beside myself” probably means _______.
A. very fortunate           B. very angry                C. really thankful                 D. at ease
54. How was the problem solved in the end?
A. The author and Daniel solved the problem themselves.
B. It cost Daniel a lovely bottle of wine to get back his money.
C. The author gave the money back to the company.
D. The call operator offered to solve their problem.
55. From the passage we can infer that _________.
A. the bank could solve the problem soon and easily with the red tape
B. some large organizations usually have troublesome official rules
C. Daniel didn’t know the error until he contacted the author
D. it was easy for a company to have a mistake which had occurred fixed

E

I went on line to check my pay was in my bank account（账户）. To my amazement I discovered that not only had I been paid, a company I’d never worked for had also paid me! I know I would have been beside myself if my own salary was not in my account, so I tried to get the money back to the right person. Easier said than done.

The bank couldn’t help as it “wasn’t a bank problem.” The human-resource department at the company that paid me was unable to help as I didn’t have enough details. I rang the bank again. Thankfully I had a sympathetic call operator who gave me a name, so I again rang the company “Daniel” worked for.

I expected the bank would contact me to arrange to take the money from my account and repay Daniel. I heard nothing for a month and the money remained in my account when Daniel called, explaining he’d tried to get back his money but had been unsuccessful as neither the bank nor his company felt it was their error. He had rung to ask if I could speak to the bank, but after chatting for a few minutes we realized we could probably fix this problem ourselves.

We decided I would take the money from my account and he would pick it up from me. Due to my busy job I was unable to meet Daniel personally but he left me a lovely bottle of wine in exchange for what was rightfully his. I never had any intention of keeping Daniel’s pay but red tape（繁琐手续）made it difficult to do the right thing. It all came down to two people being able to do what a huge bank and a large company couldn’t do — admit a mistake has occurred and fix it.

52. What was the attitude of the author towards the extra money in his bank account?

A. He didn’t know what to do with it.                B. He felt lucky to get it.

C. He thought of keeping it for himself.                    D. He wanted to return it to the right person.

53. The underlined phrase “beside myself” probably means _______.

A. very fortunate           B. very angry                C. really thankful                 D. at ease

54. How was the problem solved in the end?

A. The author and Daniel solved the problem themselves.

B. It cost Daniel a lovely bottle of wine to get back his money.

C. The author gave the money back to the company.

D. The call operator offered to solve their problem.

55. From the passage we can infer that _________.

A. the bank could solve the problem soon and easily with the red tape

B. some large organizations usually have troublesome official rules

C. Daniel didn’t know the error until he contacted the author

D. it was easy for a company to have a mistake which had occurred fixed