As I was leaving to meet Lynne,my roommate told me that I'd better take some money,but I didn't listen to him. I thought that Lynne would pay because she had invited me. I arrived at the restaurant exactly on time. I'd been told that Americans expect you to be on time. Lynne and I sat at a table in the corner of the restaurant and a waitress came and took our order. The dinner was a great success. I talked a lot about Saudi Arabia and Lynne told me all about herself. After two hours the waitress finally came and asked if we wanted one check or two. Lynne said two. We went to the cashier and Lynne paid her check. I was embarrassed when the cashier gave me my bill. I had no money to pay for my meal. Then I had an idea. I pretended to look for something in my pockets and said,"Oh!I forgot my money! Can I call my roommate,please?" The cashier showed me where the phone was and I quickly called my roommate. In a few minutes he arrived with some money,but he couldn't hide how he felt. He laughed all the way home. Now,I think it's funny too. But at the time I was terribly embarrassed. I thought that an invitation to have dinner meant the same thing in the United States as in my country. I guess you have to understand that your customs are only your customs. When you visit a foreign country,you have to learn about their customs,too. The writer's roommate advised the writer to take some money with him to _ . A) invite Lynne to dinner B) pay for the table C) share the cost of the meal D) pay for the restaurant
C
Determined to make school more related to the workplace, Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, developed a school-to-work program. In their first year, students are offered some job pathways in natural resources, human services, health care, business, arts and communication. The following year, each student chooses one of the pathways and examines it in depth, spending three hours a week watching someone on the job. Such a program is also in practice in some other states. The school-to-work program is built around a partnership. For example, Eastman Kodak, a major employer in Colorado, introduces students to business by helping them construct a model city using small pieces of wood. "The children use the models to decide on the best place to set up schools," says Lucille Mantelli, director for Eastman Kodak in Colorado. Kodak introduces math by teaching fifth graders to use their pocket money properly. They also provide one-on-one job watching experiences and offer chances of practice for high school juniors and seniors. "Students come to the workplace two or three hours a week," explains Mantelli. "They do the job for us. We pay them and they get school credits . We also give them our views on their performance and developmental opportunities." In these partnerships, everybody wins. The students tend to take more difficult courses than students in schools that don't offer such programs. Business benefits by having a better prepared workforce needed in future years. "It's a way for us to work with the school systems to develop the type of workforce we'll need in future years," Mantelli continued. "We need employees who understand the basics of reading and writing. We need them to be good at math and to be comfortable working on a team." "Our theory is that they can learn as much outside the classroom as in. All students have the ability to change the world, not just to live in it. To do that, they have to know how to solve problems and use critical thinking skills. We need to encourage them to dream... The main purpose of the school-to-work program is to _ . A) make what students learn in school related to the workplace B) introduce new job opportunities to schools C) improve relations between students and teachers D) offer students more difficult courses
A
Alaska polar bears are losing their fur and U.S. Geological Survey scientists don't know why. In the past two weeks, nine of 33 bears checked by scientists in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were found to have alopecia -- loss of fur, said Tony DeGange, chief of the biology office at the USGS Science Center in Anchorage. Three of four bears inspected Thursday near Kaktovik showed the symptoms as well. Scientists have been collecting blood and tissue samples from the suffering bears, but they do not know the cause or the significance of the outbreak, the Anchorage Daily News reported. "Our data set suggests that this is unusual but not unprecedented," DeGange said. Ten of 48 bears checked by the team in 1998-1999 had a similar condition, he said. In a long-standing project, the USGS has sent polar bear research teams to the area since 1984. The teams track and examine the bears to help determine their general health and habits. This year they saw their first bear with hair loss on March 21. The team will end up this year's operations in May when the sea ice becomes too dangerous for safe travel. "We took biopsies in 1999 and couldn't establish a causative agent for the hair loss then," DeGange said. "But now we have this unexplained death event going on with seals . And they haven't been successful in figuring out what caused the seal deaths. Is it just a matter of coincidence or is it related? We don't know." In December 2012, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an "unusual death event" based on a number of ringed seals found on beaches on the Arctic coast of Alaska during the summer. Dead and dying seals were found to have hair loss and skin sores. Affected seals were later observed in Canada and Russia. What would be the best title of the passage? A) Loss of Fur Broke out Without a Reason B) Loss of Fur Threatens World Wild Animals C) Some of Alaska's Polar Bears Are Losing Fur D) Long-standing Project Researching Loss of Fur
C