The Wal-Mart in Cleburne, Texas, was crowded. People were waiting in long lines at checkout counters to pay for small things that would be next-morning treasures under someone's Christmas tree. The woman standing in cashier Jeffrey Kandt's line seemed to be living on the edge of subsistence . Her clothes were worn and her hands were those of a person who'd worked hard for what she had. She held a single item in her arms as she patiently waited to move to the front of the line -- a Sony CD player. She had saved all year for this. With tax, the total would be close to $ 220. As the woman got close to the cashier, she suddenly shouted, "Where's my money? All of my money fro my son's gift! Oh no!" "Why my line?" Kandt thought as he watched the poor woman searching through her clothes. He was going to have to call his manager to avoid the sale but it would mean a long wait for the customers behind her. "I am going to go home late tonight," Kandt thought. Then an amazing thing happened. At the back of the line, a man took out his wallet, pulled out $100 and passed it forward. As the cash moved up the line, a twen5ty-dollar bill was added here, and a ten-dollar bill was added there. When the collection finally reached the registewr, Kandt counted $ 220. Strangers had fulfilled a poor woman's Christmas wish. The poor in his line at the Wal-Mart in Cleburne, Texas, had come together on Christmas Eve, 2002. What can we learn from the passage? A) The woman collected money by herself. B) The woman seemed to be poor, but in fact had lots of money. C) Strangers in the line volunteered to help the woman. D) The woman had never ay money.
C
(Question)
Steven Spielberg was not a scholar, and his classmates teased him. Rather than read, the kid really preferred running around with an 8mm camera, shooting homemade movies, which he showed to friends for a small fee. In his first year of high school, he dropped out. But when his parents persuaded him to return, he was mistakenly placed in a learningdisabled class, which lasted one month. Only when the family moved to another town did he land up in a more suitable high school, where he eventually graduated. After being denied entrance into a traditional filmmaking school, Steven Spielherg enrolled in English at California State University at Long Beach. Then in 1965, he recalls, in one of those serendipitous moments, his life took a complete turn. Visiting Universal Studios, he met Chuck Silvers, an executive in the editorial department. Silvers liked the kid who made 8mm films and invited him back sometime to visit. He appeared the next day. Spielberg, dressed in a dark suit, carrying his father's briefcase with nothing inside but a sandwich and candy bars walked confidently up to the guard at the gate of Universal and gave him a casual wave. The guard waved back. He was in. "For the entire summer," Spielberg remembers, "I dressed in my suit and hung out with the directors and writers, including Silvers, who knew the kid wasn't a studio employee, but winked at him. I even found an office that wasn't being used, and became a squatter . I bought some plastic tiles and put my name in the building directory: Steven Spielberg, Room 23C." It paid off for everyone. Ten years later, the 28yearold Spielberg directed Jaws, which took in $470 million, then the biggest grossing movie of all time. Dozens of films and awards have followed because Steven Spielberg knew what his teachers didn't--talent is in the eyes of the filmmaker. Why was Steven Spielberg laughed at by his classmates? A) He was the youngest boy. B) He was too short for his age. C) He liked to fight with other boys. D) He didn't care much about his lessons.
(Answer)
D
Question: People who put a smiley face at the end of a message, in an attempt to show feeling, show no feeling. I wish there was a symbol for two fingers in the air. I had some bad news this week. My manager informed me of this news via email. It was like hearing about the death of a loved one via pigeon. Bad news should only ever be delivered face to face or voice to voice. We seem to celebrate our numerous methods of communication, but really there is no communication at all. I talk to my plants more than I talk to my neighbors, I get text messages that take me three hours to read because they're written like this: "Hi, I ope you av a gr8 day. Call me La8tr." I had an email from someone this week that read, "Da ut ov 2day are really annoying me!" Ut? I had to say this 20 times before I understood it. Youth has now become ut. Haven't we taken enough from them--now we have to take their letters? I had an email recently from a girl who used to live over the road from me as a child. She wrote, "Hi Shazia, howz u? Im sure u used 2 live across the road from me. We sumtimes played tennis 2 gever at the park and you was in your eliment. I am married now wif 3 daughters." Then, to my horror, she ended the email with: "Im now teachin in Leeds. Luv Clare." Teaching? With English like this. It's like saying you're a train driver when you've never seen a train. It was like reading modern Morse code. Getting bad news via email makes it seem so much worse than it actually is. Just a few lines, no emotion, no comfort, not really an explanation. Just a few cold hard words. It's an excuse. Just write a few words and the problem of delivering it is no longer yours. A close friend recently told me she was very happy to announce she was getting married--and made the announcement by email. I don't know how she didn't fall off her chair with excitement while writing it. If you are really happy or really sad to announce something important, wouldn't you like a human reaction? Some euphoria, elation, tears, a punch in the face? I receive... What message is conveyed in the passage? A) The writer wastes much time in reading many rubbish text messages every day. B) Few people can write letters well in modern society owing to texting messages. C) Now people are too busy to communicate with each other face to face often. D) The writer prefers personal communication rather than electronic equipment.
Answer:
D