Question

I’m seventeen. I had worked as a box boy at a supermarket in Los Angeles. People came to the counter 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. Okay, I’m outside and I put the bags in the car. For a lot of people, the natural reaction 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 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 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 drove away. I would have had to throw the quarter at her or eaten it or something.

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

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

A. The Art of Taking Tips

B. Why I Gave up My Job

C. How Hard Life Is for Box Boys

D. Getting along with Customers

2.From the second paragraph, we can infer that ________.

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

B. Mr. Castle mistook Irving for Brett

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

D. Irving was the writer’s real name

3.The box boy refused to accept tips because ________.

A. customers only gave small tips

B. he didn’t want to fight with the customers

C. the store didn’t allow the box boys to take tips

D. some customers had strange ideas about tipping

4.The underlined phrase "put down" in the third paragraph probably means ________.

A. misunderstood    B. defeated

C. hateful    D. hurt

Answer

1.B

2.A

3.C

4.D

【解析】本文讲述了作者在洛杉矶的一家超市打工，做搬货员。对于是否应该接受顾客小费，阐述了自己的想法。

1.标题判断题. 通读全文可知，作者主要讲述了他打工时所遇到的一些事情。从遇到朋友时的想法到拒绝收小费时的尴尬，使他感到打工的艰辛，所以他决定辞职。答案为B。

2.推理判断题。第二段中先是说作者上班时，见到了以前见过的一个人，并和他攀谈，那个人和他再见并说出自己的名字时，作者非常高兴，他原以为是那个人记住了自己的名字，后来才发现别人是看了挂在自己胸前的卡才知道的，因此感到非常的失落和沮丧。他认为胸前挂着姓名牌子使一个人失去了人格，尤其是本段最后一句“There’s nothing personal here.”可知答案为A。

3.细节理解题。根据第三段“One of these was: you couldn’t accept tips”可知店里有规定，不许收小费，故选C。

4.词义猜测题。在一些西方国家里，顾客买东西或接受完服务后，一般要付小费，这已成了惯例。所以当作者拒收小费时，对方认为作者看不起他们，因而受到了伤害。答案为D