I first came across the concept of pay-what-you-can cafes last summer in Boone, N.C., where I ate at F.A.R.M (Feed All Regardless of Means) Cafe. You can volunteer to earn your meal, pay the suggested price($10) or less, or you can overpay--paying it forward for a future customer's meal. My only regret after eating there was not having a chance to give my time. So as soon as Healthy World Cafe opened in York in April, I signed up for a volunteer shift . F.A.R.M and healthy World are part of a growing trend of community cafes. In 2003, Denise Cerreta opened the first in Salt Lake City. Cerreta now runs the One World Everybody Eats Foundation, helping others copy her pay-what-you can model. "I think the community cafe is truly a hand up, not a handout," Cerreta said. She acknowledged that soup kitchens have a place in society, but people typically don't feel good about going there. "One of the values of the community cafe is that we have another approach," she said. "Everyone eats here, no one needs to know whether you volunteered, overpaid or underpaid." The successful cafes not only address hunger and food insecurity but also become necessary parts of their neighborhood -- whether it's a place to learn skills or hear live music. Some teach cooking to seniors; some offer free used books. Eating or working there is a reminder that we are all in this world together. My 10 am-1pm shift at World-Healthy-Cafe began with the cafe manager -- one of the two paid staff members. Our volunteer crew wasn't the most orderly, but we managed to prepare and serve meals with a lot of laughs in between. At the end of my shift, I ordered my earned meal at the counter, together with other volunteers. After lunch, I walked out the door, with a handful of new friends, music in my head and a satisfied belly and heart. Why are community cafes becoming popular in the neighborhoods? A) They bring people true friendships. B) They help to bring people together. C) They create a lot of job opportunities. D) They support local economic development.
B
(Question)
If you know exactly what you want, the best route to a job is to get specialized training.A recent survey shows that companies like graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training. That's especially true of booming fields that are challenging for workers.At Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor's degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high teens to the low 20s and plenty of chances for rapid advancement.Large companies, especially, like a background of formal education coupled with work experience. But in the long run, too much specialization doesn't pay off.Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval.The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, _ . As further evidence of the erosion of corporate faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State's Scheetz cites a pattern in corporate hiring practices.Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management."They want someone who isn't constrained by nuts and bolts to look at the big picture, " says Scheetz. Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have:writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems.David Birch claims he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree, "I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things, " says Birch.Liberal-arts means an academically thorough and strict program that includes literature, history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior-plus a computer course or two.With that under your belt, you can feel free to specialize."A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in... By saying "...but the impact of a degree washes out after five years"(Line 5, Para.3), the author means _ . A) most MBA programs fail to provide students with a solid foundation B) an MBA degree does not help promotion to managerial positions C) MBA programs will not be as popular in five years' time as they are now D) in five people will forget about the degree the MBA graduates have got
(Answer)
B
A small dog should be _ after eating a handful M&M's, at least according to conventional wisdom. But watching "Moose", a friend's five-pound Chihuahua, race around a living room after his sweet snack makes one wonder: Is chocolate truly poisonous to dogs? Dogs and humans have similar tastes. But unlike humans, our companions experience dangerous effects from eating chocolate --it can poison them and in some cases is fatal. Chocolate's danger to dogs depends on its quality. Chocolate is processed from the bitter seeds of the cocoa tree, which contain a family of compounds known as methylxanthines . This class of substances includes caffeine and the related chemical theobromine . Chocolate contains a significant amount of theobromine and smaller amounts of caffeine. These chemicals can cause a dog's heart to race up to twice its normal rate, and some dogs may run around as if "they drank a gallon of espresso ," according to Hackett. Dogs are capable of handling some chocolate, but it depends on the animal's weight and the type of chocolate it eats. Unsweetened baking chocolate contains more than six times as much theobromine as milk chocolate, although amounts vary between cocoa beans as well as different brands of chocolate. Less than four ounces of milk chocolate is potentially fatal for Moose and other small dogs. Around every confection-centered holiday -- Valentine's Day, Easter and Christmas -- at least three or four dogs are hospitalized overnight in the animal medical center at Colorado State. But in 16 years, Hackett has seen just one dog die from chocolate poisoning, and he suspects it may have had an underlying disease that made it more exposed to chocolate's heart -racing effect. All of the following are true EXCEPT _ . A) chocolate's danger to dogs depends on its quantity and quality B) people buy lots of chocolate around Valentine's Day C) an ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate is safe for Moose D) there must be some theobromine or caffeine in espresso
C