What is time?Is it a thing to be saved or spent or wasted, like money?Or is it something we have no control over, like the weather?Is it the same all over the world?That's an easy question, you say．Wherever you go, a minute is 60 seconds, an hour is 60 minutes, a day is 24 hours, and so forth．Well, maybe．But in America, time is more than that．Americans see time as a valuable resource．Maybe that's why they are fond of the expression,“Time is money．”
Because Americans believe time is a limited resource, they try to keep and manage it．People in the US often attend conferences or read books on time management．It seems they all want to organize their time better．Professionals carry around pocket planners(计划书)－some in electronic form－to keep track of appointments and deadlines．People do all they can to press more life out of their time．
To Americans, punctuality is a way of showing respect for other people's time．Being more than 10 minutes late to an appointment usually calls for an apology, and maybe an explanation．People who are running late often call ahead to let others know of the delay．Of course, the less formal the situation, the less important it is to be exactly on time．At informal get-togethers, for example, people often arrive as much as 30 minutes past the appointed time．But they usually don't try that at work．
American lifestyles show how much people respect the time of others．When people plan an event, they often set time days or weeks in advance．Once the time is fixed, it takes almost an emergency to change it．If people want to come to your house for a friendly visit, they will usually call first to make sure it is convenient．Only very close friends will just“drop by”unannounced．Also, people hesitate to call others late at night for fear they might be in bed．The time may vary, but most folks think twice about calling after 10∶00 pm．
Even Americans would admit that no one can master time．Time, like money, slips all too easily through our finger．And time, like the weather, is very hard to predict．However, time is one of life's most precious gifts．
(1)
The main idea of the passage is ________．
[ ]
A．
time is money
B．
different attitude toward time in the world
C．
how to save time
D．
how Americans treat time
(2)
In the fourth paragraph, the writer mainly tells us that ________．
[ ]
A．
Americans respect others' time in daily life
B．
Americans seldom call after 10∶00
C．
Americans inform before paying a visit to their friends
D．
when planning an event, Americans usually fix time ahead of time
(3)
The underlined phrase“think twice”(in Paragraph 4)probably means“________”．
[ ]
A．
think for a second time
B．
be careful
C．
be afraid
D．
pay attention
(4)
It can be inferred from the passage that ________．
[ ]
A．
Americans like time better than anything else
B．
generally speaking, Americans respect their time
C．
on the whole, Americans treasure their time
D．
Americans consider their time is difficult to master and predict
To take the apple as a forbidden fruit is the most unlikely strory the Christians(基督教徒)ever cooked up．For them, the forbidden fruit from Eden is evil(邪恶的)．So when Colu brought the tomato back from South America, a land mistakenly considered to be eden, ever jumped to be the obvious conclusion．Wrongly taken as the apple of Eden, the tomato was shut o the door of Europeans．
What made it particularly terrifying was its similarity to the mandrake, a plant that was the to have come from Hell(地狱)．What earned the plant its awful reputation was its roots w looked like a dried-up human body occupied by evil spirits．Tough the tomato and the man were quite different except that both had bright red or yellow fruit, the general population consio them one and the same, to terrible to touch．
Cautious Europeans long ignored the tomato, and until the early 1700s most of the We people continued to drag their feet．In the 1880s, the daughter of a well-known plant expert that the most interestinig part of an afternoon tea at her father's house had been the “introduction this wonderful new fruit-or is it a vegetable?”As late as the twentieth century some writers classed tomatoes with mandrakes as an”evil fruit”．
But in the end tomatoes carried the day．The hero of the tomato was an American named R Johnson, and when he was publicly going to eat the tomato in 1820, people journeyed for hun of miles to watch him drop dead．”Wha are you afraid of?”he shouted．”I'll show you fools these things are good to eat!” Then he bit into the tomato．Some people fainted．But he sur and, according to a local story, set up a tomato-canning factory．
(1)
The tomato was shut out of the door of early Europeans mainly because ________．
[ ]
A．
it made Christive evil
B．
it was the apple of Eden
C．
it came from a forbidden land
D．
it was religiously unacceptable
(2)
What can we infer the underlined part in Paragraph 3?
[ ]
A．
The process of ignoring the tomato slowed down
B．
There was little pregress in the study of the tomato
C．
The tomato was still refused in most western countries
D．
Most western people continued to get rid of the tomato
(3)
What is the main reason for Robert Johnson to eat the tomato Publicly?
[ ]
A．
To manke imself a hero
B．
To remove people's fear of the tomaoto
C．
To speed up the popularityt of the tomato
D．
To persuade people to buy products fo\rom his factory
(4)
What is the main purpose of the passage?
[ ]
A．
To challenge people's fixed concept of the tomato
B．
To give an explanation to people's dislike of the tomato
C．
To present the change of people's attitudes to the tomato
D．
To show the process of freeing the tomato from religious influence
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