2001春季高考英语—第一卷III(C)

C

    I’m seventeen. I had worked as a box boy at a supermarket in Los Angeles. People came to the counter¹ and you put things in their bags for them. And carried things to their cars. It was hard work.

    While working, you wear a plate with your name on it. I once met someone I knew years ago. I remembered his name and said, “Mr Castle, how are you?” we talked about this and that. As he left, he said," It was nice talking to you, Brett. ” I felt great, he remembered me. Then I looked down at my name plate. Oh no. he didn’t remember me at all, he just read the name plate. I wish I had put “Irving” down on my name plate. If he’d have said, “Oh yes, Irving, how could I forget you?” I’d have been ready for him. There’s nothing personal here.

    The manager and everyone else who were a step above the box boys often shouted orders. One of these was: you couldn’t accept tips(小费)。 Okay, I’m outside and I put the bags in the car. For a lot of people, the natural reaction(反应)is to take a quarter and give it to me. I’d say, “I ’m sorry, I can’t,” they ’d get angry. When you give someone a tip, you’re sort of being polite. You take a quarter and you put it in their hand and you expect them to say, “Oh, thanks a lot.” When you say “I’m sorry, I can’t.”  They'd get angry. When you give someone a tip, you're sort of being polite. You take a quarter and you put it in their hand and you expect them to say, "oh , thanks a lot." When you say, “I'm sorry, I can't,” they feel a little put down. They say "No one will know.” And they put it in your pocket. You say, "I really can’t.” It gets to a point where you almost have to hurt a person physically(身体上)to prevent him from tipping you. It was not in agreement with the store’s belief in being friendly. Accepting tips was a friendly thing and made the customer feel good. I just couldn’t understand the strangeness of some people’s ideas. One lady actually put it in my pocket, got in the car, and drove² away. I would have had to throw the quarter at her or eaten it or something.

    I had decided³ that one year was enough. Some people needed the job to stay alive and fed. I guess I had the means⁴ and could afford to hate it and give it up.　

60. What can be the best title for this text?

A. how hard life is for Box Boys  B. getting along with Customers

C. why I Gave up My Job  D. the Art of Taking Tips

61. From the second paragraph⁵, we can infer⁶ that___.

A. the writer didn’t like the impersonal⁷ part of his job 

B. with a name plate, people can easily start talking

C. Mr Castle mistook Irving for Brett  D. Irving was the writer’s real name

62. The box boy refused to accept tips because__

A. customers only gave small tips  B. some customers had strange ideas about tipping

C. the store forbade the box boys to take tips  D. he didn’t want to fight with the customers

63. The underlined⁸ phrase“put down” in the third paragraph probably means_____

A. misunderstood  B. defeated   C. hateful   D. hurt

1 counter   

n.柜台；计数器；adj.相反的；adv.与…相反地；vt.反对，反击；vi.反对，反击

参考例句：

• This counter is closed now.这个柜台现在已停止营业。
• Set the counter to zero and you'll know where the recording starts.把计数器拨到零，你就会知道录音从哪儿开始。

2 drove   

vbl.驾驶，drive的过去式；n.畜群

参考例句：

• He drove at a speed of sixty miles per hour.他以每小时60英里的速度开车。
• They drove foreign goods out of the market.他们把外国货驱逐出市场。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

5 paragraph   

n.段落，短评；vt.将…分段，分段落；vi.写短评

参考例句：

• Each paragraph begins on a new line.每段都另起一行。
• There's a paragraph on the matter in the paper.报纸对这件事有一短篇报道。

6 infer   

vt.推论，推断；猜想

参考例句：

• People usually infer an unknown fact from a known fact.人们通常从已知的事实中推断未知的事实。
• From your smile I infer that you're pleased.从你的笑容，我断定你很高兴。

7 impersonal   

adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的

参考例句：

• Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远，没有人情味。
• His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。

8 underlined   

v.在…下面画线( underline的过去式和过去分词 )；加强，强调

参考例句：

• She underlined her disapproval of the proceedings by walking out. 她退席以表示不赞成这些做法。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In his speech he underlined several points. 他在讲话中强调了几点。 来自《简明英汉词典》