This place was darker than I expected, and, in spite of the rain, dirtier. Used to the life of rural Puerto Rico , I had to adjust to the similarly arranged, aggressive two-dimensionality of New York. Everywhere I looked, my eyes met gray and brown straight-edged buildings with sharp corners and deep shadows. Every few blocks there was a cement playground surrounded by chain-link fence. A girl came out of the building next door, a jump rope in her hand, and she hopped over. "Are you Hispanic?" she asked. "No, I'm Puerto Rican." "Same thing. Puerto Rican, Hispanic. That's what we are here." She skipped a tight circle, stopped abruptly, and shoved the rope in my direction. "Want a turn?" "Sure." I hopped on one leg, then the other. "So, if you're Puerto Rican, they call you Hispanic?" "Yeah. Anybody who speaks Spanish." I jumped a circle, as she had done, but faster. "You mean, if you speak Spanish, you're Hispanic?" "Well, yeah. No . . . I mean your parents have to be Puerto Rican or Cuban or something." "Okay, your parents are Cuban, let's say, and you're born here, but you don't speak Spanish. Are you Hispanic?" "I guess so," she finally said. "It has to do with being from a Spanish country. I mean, you or your parents, like, even if you don't speak Spanish, you're Hispanic, you know?" She looked at me uncertainly. But I didn't know. I'd always been Puerto Rican, and it hadn't occurred to me that in New York I'd be someone else. Later, I asked. "Are we Hispanics, Mami?" "Yes, because we speak Spanish." "But a girl said you don't have to speak the language to be Hispanic." "What girl? Where did you meet a girl?" "Outside. She lives in the next building." "Who said you could go out to the sidewalk? This isn't Puerto Rico. Something could happen to you." I listened to Mami's lecture with depressed eyes and the necessary respect. But inside, I quaked. Two days in New York, and I'd already become someone else. It wasn't hard to imagine that greater dangers lay ahead. The mother refers to "Puerto Rico" in order to impress upon the author that _ . A) she should not miss her birthplace B) New Yorkers may not like newcomers C) different rules apply to life in New York D) life was more restricted in Puerto Rico
C
(Question)
The use of the word imitation reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime or violence. First there was always a risk of children acting out scenes which could be dangerous. For example, I remember a woman who was head of a middle school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were on the playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck and the rope over the branch of a tree; fortunately she was in time to get there before the child was hanged. I remember a film in particular in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by electrocuting his guard, the technique of doing this being shown in detail. This was the kind of scene which we could cut for these reasons. In films for young people and adults we always tried to keep off the screen the details of criminal techniques, such as how to open a locked door with a piece of hard plastic or how to open a safe; if we were consulted before production, I used to advise that the details should not be shown. When I gave talks in prisons about film checking I had full support for this, since fathers who were in prison for criminal offences did not want their children to get on crime. Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi. made by Jules Dassin in 1954. This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweler's shop, the robbery lasting about half an hour and being backed by only natural sound...one of the most brilliant film sequences of all time. I remember our discussion at the time. We thought that the robbery was finished only with the use of advanced and obviously expensive equipment and that only the most experienced and skilled criminals could possibly imitate it; we believed therefore that it was ly safe. When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied, so... It can be inferred from the passage that _ . A) it is hard for children to tell the differences between real life and the imaginary B) only people in prison support film checking C) only children imitate what they have seen on the screen D) the writer used to advise the details of crime should be shown
(Answer)
A
When Josephine Cooper was growing up,she learned the importance of _ from her parents.Although they made a modest living for their family of 10,they insisted on sharing with those less fortunate. Half a century later,Mrs Cooper became a beloved volunteer at the San Diego Food Bank,where she devoted herself to helping others.She organized and ran a distribution center from a church,helping it become the organization's largest emergency food distribution center in San Diego.She was one of 25 outstanding senior volunteers in the nation selected and invited to Washington D.C.to receive the award. "She was the main person who helped us make that program grow," said Mike Doody,former director of the Food Bank."She had a way of getting people to work together and to work hard.She was determined and stubborn,but in a good way.She had a good heart." People knew her as "Grandma" because of her selflessness and her devotion to helping hungry children and families."She reminded people of their Grandma." Doody said. As a widow with a young child in 1979,Mrs.Cooper was helped through a difficult financial time when the Food Bank provided her with groceries."She dedicated her life to giving back," said her daughter,Monica Cooper.It wasn't unusual for a local church to call Mrs Cooper to ask her to aid a needy family."She would give people food out of her cupboard.Sometimes we would cook a meal for a family living out of their car," Cooper said. Although Mrs Cooper was honored to receive the national award for her volunteer work,she said being able to help others was her reward.She died of liver disease and kidney failure,aged 93. Mrs Cooper's story suggests that _ . A) everyone needs a Grandma nearby B) children are what their parents are C) a sound mind is in a sound body D) a mother's love never changes
B