I met him first in 1936. I rushed into his ugly little shop to have the heels of my shoes repaired. I waited when he did it. He greeted me with a cheerful smile. "You're new in this neighborbood, aren't you?" I said I was. I had moved into a house at the end of the street only a week before. "This is a fine neighborhood," he said. "You'll be happy here." He looked at the leather covering the heel sadly. It was worn through because I had failed to have the repair done a month before. I grew impatient, for I was rushing to meet a friend. "Please hurry," I begged. He looked at me over his spectacles. "Now, lady, we won't be long. I want to do a good job. You see, I have a tradition to live up to." A tradition? In this ugly little shop that was no different from so many other shoe repair shops on the side streets of New York? He must have felt my surprise, for he smiled as he went on. "Yes, lady, I _ a tradition. My father and my grandfather were shoemakers in Italy, and they were the best. My father always told me, 'Son, do the best job on every shoe that comes into the shop, and be proud of your fine work. Do that always, and you'll have both happiness and money enough to live on.'" As he handed me the finished shoes, he said: "These will last a long time. I've used good leather." I left in a hurry. But I had a warm and grateful feeling. On my way home I passed the little shop again. There he was, still working. He saw me, and to my surprise he waved and smiled. This was the beginning of our friendship. It was a friendship that came to mean more and more to me as time passed. Every day I passed his shop, we waved to each other in friendly greeting. At first I went in only when I had repair work to be done. Then I found myself going in every few days just to talk with him. He was the happiest man I've ever known. Often, as he stood in his shopwindow, working at a pair of shoes, he sang in a high, clear Italian voice. The Italians in our neighborhood called him la luce alla finestra--"the light in the... Why was the shoemaker called "the light in the window" by his neighbors? A) Because he always worked late at night. B) Because he always put a light in the window. C) Because he was always guiding the others. D) Because he was always happy and cheerful.
D
You have probably been told by your high school instructor that writing is an important and practical skill. However, you may not be convinced that the ability to write will be important in your own future. If so, you will be surprised at the results of a recent survey by the National Institute of Education. More than four thousand working men and women who had graduated fifteen years earlier were asked to name the courses they would have taken in college if they had known better. The designer of the survey expected people to name courses in computer science, mathematics, or business. But the course most often mentioned was writing. If you already have a job, you are probably not surprised at their answers. Many jobs require the ability to write. Despite the increasing use of the telephone and the computer, much information must be communicated in writing.Some ten million people--managers, engineers, sales representatives, and many others-- write regularly as part of their jobs. Summaries, reports, reports, letters and speeches are required in today's work world. The ability to write, therefore, is an important skill. The successful individual is almost always the one who can communicate successfully in writing. Writing communicates your thoughts and feelings to others; it also tells you something about yourself. Maybe this is what Eldridge Cleaver had in mind in his autobiography, "I started to write... to save myself...I had to seek out the truth... I had to find out who I am and what I want to be ,what type of man I should be ,and what I could do to become the best of which I was capable." Why is Eldridge Cleaver's autobiography mentioned in the passage? A) To clarify what writing means to people. B) To show what good writing is. C) To encourage people to write. D) To provide evidence for the survey.
A
Is any economist so dull as to criticise Christmas? At first glance,the holiday season in western economies seems a treat for those concerned with such vagaries as GDP growth.After all,everyone is spending;in America,retailers make 25% of their yearly sales and 60% of their profits between Thanksgiving and Christmas.Even so,economiwsts find something to worry about in the nature of the purchases being made. Much of the holiday spending is on gifts for others.At the simplest level,giving gifts involves the giver thinking of something that the recipient would like-he tries to guess her preferences,as economists say-and then buying the gift and delivering it.Yet this guessing of preferences is not easy;indeed,it is often done badly.Every year,ties go unworn and books unread.And even if a gift is enjoyed,it may not be what the recipient would have bought if they had spent the money themselves. Interested in this mismatch between wants and gifts,in 1993 Joel Waldfogel,then an economist at Yale University,sought to estimate the difference in dollar terms.In a research,he asked students two questions at the end of a holiday season:first,estimate the total amount paid (by the givers) for all the holiday gifts you received;second,apart from the sentimental value of the items,if you did not have them,how much would you be willing to pay to get them? His results were gloomy:on average,a gift was valued by the recipient well below the price paid by the giver. In addition,recipients may not know their own preferences very well.Some of the best gifts,after all,are unexpected items that you would never have thought of buying,but which turn out to be especially well picked.And preference can change.So by giving a jazz CD,for example,the giver may be encouraging the recipient to enjoy something that was ignored before.This,a desire to build skills,is possibly the hope held by many parents who ignore their children's desires for video games and buy them books instead. Finally,there are items that a recipient would like to... The text is most likely taken from a _ . A) users' handbook B) medical journal C) travel magazine D) consumer-related report
D