The Worst Part
Mom is usually home on Sunday but this week she was going to a big golf game and I was all alone in the house. I was mad at Mom for divorcing Dad.
I kept looking at the telephone until I couldn’t stand it any longer. I picked up the receiver and dialed Dad’s number over in Bakersfield. I even remembered to dial 1 first because it was long distance. “You promised to phone me this week but you didn’t,” I said, feeling I had to talk to him.
“Take it easy, kid,” he said. “I just didn’t get around to it. I was going to call this evening. The week isn’t over yet.”
I thought about that.
“Something on your mind?” he asked.
“I hoped you would call, so I waited and waited.” Then I was sorry I said it.
“There was heavy snow in the morning,” he said, “I had to chain up on highway 80 and lost time.”
I know putting chains on eight big wheels in the snow is no fun. I felt a little better, as long as we were talking. “How is Bandit?” I asked.
There was a funny silence. For a minute I thought the line was dead. Then I knew something must have happened to my dog.
“Well, kid—”, he began. “My name is Leigh!” I almost yelled. “I’m not just some kid you met on the street!”
“Keep your shirt on, Leigh,” he said. “When I had to stop along with some other truck drivers to put on chains, I left Bandit out of the cab, I thought he would get back … I have sent out a call to CB radio, but I didn’t get an answer yet.” I was about to say I understood when there came the bad part, the really bad part. I heard a boy’s voice say, “Hey, Bill, Mom wants to know when we’re going out to get the pizza?”
【小题1】We can conclude from the passage that              .

Millions of people are now using what are called“peer-to-peer”networks. Basically, you link your computer to other computers all across the country, mostly so you can give something in exchange for music for free.“But here's the problem,”“Early Show”Consumer Correspondent Susan Koeppen says as part of the broadcast's series, “Somebody's Watching You”: thieves are using the same networks, and they're not interested in music－they're seeking access to your financial information.

  Beth Pope learned the hard way. When she put peer-to-peer software on her computer, she had one goal in mind: increasing her music library.“I thought I could get access to other people's music folders and they could have access to my music folders,”she says,“and that was about it. I didn't think it went any further than that.”

   Are Your Medical Records Watched? That is, until she was contacted by the Secret Service－with shocking news－someone had stolen personal information from her computer－using the very software she used to trade music. With the help of David Dunn, a member of the Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force, Koeppen decided to see what personal information she could find using a peer-to-peer network.

  Thieves typically seek documents such as credit reports, tax returns, or the federal financial student aid application, Dunn says.“Obviously,”says Dunn,“we aren't going to download it, because it's someone's personal information. I'm sure that, whoever (this file sharer) is didn't want her (student aid application) confirmation number available online for somebody to download.”Pope says she's done using peer-to-peer.“I've gotten all of that off my computer, ”she says.“I pay for music now. It's the best way to do it. There's no way that I would ever do that again.”

   The trade group for file sharing software companies says they are working on better systems to prevent the misuse of the peer-to-peer networks. Still, Koeppen urges that people, for instance, delete Lime Wire from their computers, or make sure they have the latest version, which should have updated security features.

1.Thieves are trying to get access to your computer in order to      .

  A. find your personal information

  B. see how your computer is working

  C. talk with you

  D. help you with your system

2.Why did Beth Pope use peer-to-peer software?

  A. Because she wanted others to use her information.

  B. Because she wanted to try it.

  C. Because she wanted to increase her music library.

  D. Because she wanted to get others' financial information.

3.Susan Koeppen tried to       .

  A. warn the readers of dangers of sharing music files with others.

  B. warn the readers not to share music files with others.

  C. tell us a true and funny story

  D. advertise the peer-to-peer networks.

4. From the passage we get to know       .

  A. we shouldn't believe others.

  B. computers make our life easy and comfortable.

  C. softwares help us to share music with others

  D. everything has two sides, the good side and the bad one

I have had just about enough of being treated like a second-class citizen, simply because I happen to be that unfairly treated member of society --- a customer. The more I go into shops and hotels, banks and post offices, railway stations, airports and the like, the more I am convinced the things are being run solely to suit the firm, the system, or the union. There seems to be a deceptive (欺骗的) new motto for so-called “service” organizations --- Staff Before Service.
　　 How often, for example, have you queued for what seems like hours at the Post Office or the supermarket because there were not enough staff on duty to man all the service grilles or checkout counters? Surely in these days of high unemployment it must be possible to hire cashiers and counter staff. Yet supermarkets, hinting darkly at higher prices, claim that uncovering all their cash registers at any one time would increase operating costs. And the Post Office says we cannot expect all their service grilles to be occupied “at times when demand is low”.
　　  It is the same with hotels. Because waiters and kitchen staff must finish when it suits them, dining rooms close earlier or menu choice is cut short. As for us guests, we just have to put up with it. There is also the nonsense of so many friendly hotel night porters having been thrown out of their jobs in the interests of “efficiency” and replaced by coin-eating machines which offer everything from lager to laxatives (从贮藏啤酒到通便剂). Not to mention the tea-making kit in your room: a kettle with a mixed collection of tea bags, plastic milk boxes and lump sugar. Who wants to wake up to a raw teabag? I do not, especially when I am paying for “service”.
　　Can it be stopped, this worsening of service, this growing attitude that the customer is always a bore? I angrily hope so because it is happening, sadly, in all walks of life.
　　Our only hope is to hammer home our anger whenever and wherever we can and, if all else fails, bring back into practice that other, older slogan --- Take Our Deal Elsewhere.
【小题1】The writer feels that nowadays customers __________.

A．not having enough male staff on duty

B．difficulties in hiring more efficient staff

C．lack of cooperation between staff members

D．not providing enough staff on purpose to reduce budget

A．be patient when queuing before checkout counters

B．put up with the rude manners of the staff

C．try to control his temper when ill-treated

D．go to other places where good service is available

I’ll never forget my first daughter, who died too early from a bad accident. During those years, life was   36  . One Christmas I found my 3-year-old daughter   37  with a roll of golden wrapping paper. I had bought the paper to finish a rather important project. So I became   38  and scolded her loudly, “You are not good. And you are   39  your father’s money. You don’t know how hard your parents are working.” She was   40  and cried bitterly, running away.
    41 , she brought a gift, a golden   42  made of golden wrapping paper to me the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.” I was   43  of my earlier hurting words, but my anger rose again when I found out the box was   44 . I shouted at her, “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?” She   45  at me with tears in her eyes and cried, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew   46  into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”
I was completely   47 . I put my arms around her and begged for her   48 . A year later, a serious   49  took the life of my daughter. I was so sad that I   50  in bed for three days and three nights, saying nothing with tears rolling down my cheek. From then on, I hated cars and kept the golden box by my bed for many years. Whenever I was   51  , I would take out an imaginary kiss and   52  the love of my daughter who had put it there.
In a very real   53  , each one of us, as humans beings, has been given a golden container   54  with unconditional love and kisses ... from our children, family members, friends, and God. There are   55  no other possessions that anyone could hold more precious than this.

The ability to memorize things seems to be a vanishing （消失的） technique．So what can we do to bring out brain cells back into action? A newly published book on memory, Moomvalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by American journalist Joshua Foer, makes a telling point, one that is an analysis of the importance of memorising events and stories in human history; the decline of its role in modem life; and the techniques that we need to adopt to restore the art of remembering．
As For points out, we no longer need to remember telephone numbers．Our mobile phones do that for us．We don't recall addresses either．We send emails from computers that store electronic addresses．Nor do we bother to remember multiplication tables （乘法表） ．Pocket calculators do the job of multiplying quite nicely．Museums, photographs, the digital media and books also act as storehouses for memories that once we had to keep in mind．
As a result, we no longer remember long poems or folk stories by heart, feats （技艺） of memory that were once the cornerstones of most people's lives．Indeed, society has changed so much that we no longer know what techniques we should employ to remember such lengthy works．We are, quite simply, forgetting how to remember．
And let's face it, there is nothing sadder than someone who has lost their mobile phone and who finds they cannot even phone home or call their parents or partners because they cannot remember a single telephone number．That is a sad example of loss of personal independence．So, yes, there is a need for us to he able to remember certain things in life．
Therefore, Foer's book outlines the methods that need to be mastered in order to promote our memories and regain the ability to recall long strings of names, numbers or faces．In the process, he adds, we will become more aware of the world about us．
The trick, Foer says, is to adopt a process known as " elaborative encoding", which involves transforming information, such as a shopping list, into a series of "absorbing visual images"．If you want to remember a list of household objects—potatoes, cottage cheese, sugar and other items, then visualise them in an unforgettable manner, he says．Start by creating an image of a large jar of potatoes standing in the garden．Next to it, imagine a giant tub of cottage cheese—the size of an outdoor pool—and then picture Lady Gaga swimming in it．And so on．Each image should be as fantastic and memorable as possible．
Using methods like this, it becomes possible to achieve great feats of memory quite easily, Foer says．It certainly seems to have worked for him: he won the annual US Memory Championships after learning how to memorize 120 random digits in five minutes; the first and last names of 156 strangers in 15 minutes; and a deck of cards in under two minutes．"What I had really trained my brain to do, as much as to memorise, was to be more mindful and to pay attention to the world around," he says．
These techniques employed by Foer to master his memory were developed by Ed Cooke—a British writer and a world memory championship grandmaster．He acted as Foer's trainer during preparations for the book and helped him achieve his championship performances．" Memory techniques do just one thing: they make information more meaningful to the mind, making the things we try to learn unforgettably bright and amusing," said Cooke．
【小题1】Which of the following is conveyed in this article?