If you had asked me then if I would accept a job as a restaurant critic for The New York Times. or any establishment publication, I would have replied, without a second thought, “Of course not!” And not just because I did not want to think of myself as an ambitious sort Working in restaurants was honest labor, anyone could see that. Writing about them for the mainstream press was not; it felt like joining the enemy.
But renewing was fun. so much fun that when mainstream publishers started paying me for my opinions, I didn't do the decent thing. Before I knew it, I had stopped cooking Professionally.
Then I stopped cooking altogether. “She's joined the leisure class.” my friend said.
I disarmed (消解怒气)) my critics by inviting them along; nobody I knew could afford to eat out and nobody refused. We went with equal amounts of guilt and pleasure, with a feeling that we were trespassing (侵入))on the playgrounds of the rich.
We didn't belong in starchy restaurants. We knew it, and when we climbed out of my rent - a - wreck, splendid in years from the Salvation Army, everybody else knew it, too. We always got the worst table. And then, because I didn't own a credit card, I had to pay in cash. The year turned into two and three, and more. I got a credit card. I got good clothes. I was writing for increasingly prestigious (声誉高的)publications. Meanwhile, a voice inside me kept whispering, “How could you?”
The voice is still there, yakking (喋喋不休)away. When I receive weekly letters from people who think it is indecent to write about $100 meals while half the world is hungry, the voice yaks right along, “They're absolutely right, you elitist pig is hisses”. And when it asks. “When are you going to grow up and get a real job?” it sounds a lot like my mother.
And just about then is when I tell the voice to shut up. Because when my mother starts idling me that all I'm doing with my life is telling rich people where to eat, I realize how much the world has changed.
Yes, there are still restaurants where rich people go to remind themselves that they are different from you and me. But there are fewer and fewer of them. As American food has come of age. American restaurants have changed. Going out to eat used to be like going to the opera; today, it is more like going to the movies.
And so everyone has become a critic. I couldn't be happier. The more people pay attention to what and how they eat, the more accustomed they become to their own senses and the world around them.
When I remember that conversation with M. F. K. Fisher, I wish I had not been quite so gentle. When I rerun the loop in my mind, I turn to her and say this: “No, you are wrong. A. J. Liebling had it right. All it really takes to be a restaurant critic is a good appetite.”
1.How did the author feel about the job as a restaurant critic at the very beginning?
A.She didn't think much of it
B.She was the ambitious one for it.
C.It was not suitable for a cook like her.
D.It was not easy to work for the mainstream press.
2.What does the third paragraph talk about?
A.A strong desire to be invited to eat out like the rich.
B.A mixed feeling of guilt and pleasure about eating out.
C.A mixed feeling of guilt and pleasure going into private property.
D.A special treat to be able to go into private property for fun.
3.What does the underlined sentence “The year turned into two, and three, and more.” In paragraph 4 mean?
A.She stayed in the career as a cook for years.
B.She kept on writing as a restaurant critic for years.
C.It was years before she quit the career as a cook.
D.It was years before her application for a credit card got approved.
4.The underlined word ''indecent'' in paragraph 5 most probably means .
A.worthwhile B.critical C.unacceptable D.imperfect
5.What changes have taken place to American restaurants?
A.They have places for both the rich and the poor.
B.They have varieties of means for entertainment.
C.They have become too expensive to be available.
D.They have become affordable to common people,
6.Which of the following statements will the author most probably agree with?
A.The writer is getting tired of the job.
B.good appetite makes a good critic.
C.There is no need for restaurant critics at all.
D.Eating out is no longer a privilege the rich have.
Every year, thousands of teenagers participate in programs at their local art museums. But do any of them remember their time at museum events later in life? A new report suggests that the answer is yes - and finds that alumni (毕业生)of arts-based museum programs credit them with changing the course of their lives, even years after the fact.
The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles recently asked researchers to conduct a study to find out how effective their long-standing teen art programs really are. They involved over 300 former participants of four programs for teens that have been in existence since the 1990s. Alumni, whose current ages range from 18 to 36, were invited to find out how they viewed their participation years after the fact.
Among the alumni surveyed, 75 percent of alumni rated die teen program experience as the most favorable impact on their own lives, beating family, school and their neighborhoods. Nearly 55 percent thought that it was one of the most important experiences they'd ever had, regardless of age and two-thirds said that they were often in situations where then experience in museums affected their actions or thoughts.
It turns out that participating in art programs also helps keep teens enthusiastic about arts even after they reach adulthood: 96 percent of participants had visited an art museum within the last two years, and 68 percent had visited an art museum five or more times within the last two years. Thirty-two percent of program alumni work in the arts as adults.
Though the study is the first of its kind to explore the impact of teen-specific art programs in museums, it reflects other research on the important benefits of engaging with the arts. A decade of surveys the National Endowment for the Arts found that childhood experience with the arts have linked arts education to everything from lower drop-out rates to improvement in critical thinking skills.
1.What does the underlined phrase “the fact” in Paragraph 1 refer to?
A.Changing the course of children's life.
B.Participating in childhood art programs
C.Organizing arts-based museum programs.
D.Remembering the time at museum events.
2.What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us?
A.The result of the study.
B.The process of the study.
C.The approach to the study.
D.The object and content of the study.
3.What can be inferred of the study mentioned in the text?
A.Passion for arts may remain long in kids' whole life.
B.No other studies exist concerning the benefits of arts.
C.Age matters in how people view their art experiences.
D.Most children taking part in art programs will work in arts.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.How is Art Connected to Our Life?
B.Can Art Education Affect Our Income?
C.What Should Art Museums do for Kids?
D.Should Children Walk into Art Museums?
Today companies have branches around the world. More than 11% of the US employers and employees work online either full-time or part-time, and that number is continuing growing. It is believed that it is a waste of time and money to fly around the world for face-to-face meetings. An effective solution to this problem is to use Web meetings.
A large group of presentations, training classes and meetings are done online without losing the face-to-face experience. Web meetings are online meetings where an organizer invites attendees to listen to or watch an online presentation by presenters. Besides, Web meetings can be recorded for later use in presentations or training projects or downloaded for on-demand playback. Presenters can take real-time surveys to study how to hold a successful meeting. Some Web meeting software programs can monitor the users' desktop behavior to see if they become distracted from the presentation and begin working on other documents. If so, the program can tell presenters when the listeners lose their attention, and how long the distraction lasts. In this way the presenters will know which parts of their meetings need improving.
Web meetings can work well because they're hosted on a server. Images from the presenter's desktop are taken, uploaded to a server and then downloaded by people who have access to the server Web meetings require a powerful server to deal with several images a second and “serve” them back to thousands of users at the same time.
Companies have two choices when it comes to these servers. They can either buy a special Web meeting server to host their meetings on-site, or they can pay for a Web meeting service every time and let the off-site provider worry about hosting the meetings. The choice depends on frequently the company holds
Web meetings, the average number of people attending the meetings, and the quality of engineering and information technology.
Web meetings are an excellent example of how technology is changing the way we do business. With all the technologies today, the traditional office might soon be a thing of the past.
1.What is the disadvantage of the traditional meeting?
A.It needs more people to organize it.
B.It is expensive and time-consuming.
C.It results in traffic accidents frequently.
D.It fails to meet the demands of big companies.
2.How do some Web meeting software programs help improve the meetings?
A.By presenting successful documents.
B.By recording the frequency of distraction.
C.By tracking the listeners' state of attention.
D.By taking surveys about a successful meeting.
3.What do you know about Web meetings according to the text?
A.Web meetings are likely to be widely used.
B.Web meetings help presenters stay focused.
C.Web meetings determine the quality of engineering.
D.Web meetings work well without the help of a server.
Hipster Greenport: 4 places to eat, shop and visit
Greenport may date back to the 1630s, but it's feeling pretty of-the-moment right now. Here are four places that embody the old-meets-new energy of the village:
Claudio's
If you’ve been to Greenport, you can't miss Claudio's - it's where generations of Long Islanders have made a tradition of eating, whether inside the main restaurant or at the floating dock-bar. The new owners have added fresh elements: Baccano Pizza by Nino, which offers a variety of slices and pies until as late as 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays - is right by the dock entrance.
Little Creek Oyster Farm & Market
It's little spots like this that tell the current Greenport story. There’s no sign or advertising for this tiny bouse changed from the cabin of an old ship that's practically hidden down Bootlegger's
Alley near Mitchell Park. But there they are - streams of people who come to enjoy the fresh oysters while drinking local craft beer, with a waterside view.
Nostalgia (怀旧) for bygone times runs high in this 1909 building, which once served as the base for the Suffolk Times newspaper. These days, this well-designed Shop sells vinyl records and loads of old-fashioned clothing and home decoration items including mid-century highball sets.
Greenport Fire
Heat comes in many form and several are sold here ― hot sauces, cigars and candles, Consult the chalkboard for the current sauce offerings or browse cigars such a hand-rolled Honduran Leaf by Oscar or the Gurkha Cellar Reserve made with 18-year-aged tobacco,
1.What's special about Greenport?
A.It is a place full of energy. B.It is a famous port in the world.
C.It is a combination of new and old. D.It is a popular place of interest.
2.What can you do in The Times Vintage?
A.can enjoy delicious oysters. B.You can buy some old things.
C.You can find hand-rolled cigars. D.You can have Baccano Pizza.
A research shows two-thirds of human conversation is taken up not with discussion of a cultural or political issue, not heated debates about a film or a book, but plain and simple ___ . Language is our greatest treasure and what do we ___ do with it? We gossip(闲聊). About others' behavior and private lives; how to deal with difficult ___ situations involving children, lovers, and colleagues.
So why are we keen on gossiping? Are we just natural ____, of both time and words? Or do we talk a lot about ___ in particular simply to avoid facing up to the really important issues of life? It’s not the case according to Professor Robin Dunbar, who says gossip is one of these really ___ issues.
Dunbar ___ the traditional view that language was developed by the men at the early stage of social development in order to organize their manly bunting activities more effectively. ____. he suggests that language evolved among women. We don't spend two-thirds of our time griping just ___ we can talk, argues Dunbar--- ___ he goes on to say, language evolved specifically to allow us to gossip.
Dunbar arrived at his cheery theory by studying the___ of the higher primates(灵长类动物)like monkeys. By means of grooming leaning the fur by brushing it monkeys form groups with other individuals on whom they can rely for support ___some kind of conflict within the group or ___from outside it.
As we human beings evolve from in a particular branch of the primate family. Dunbar __ that at one time in our history we did much the same. ___together made sense because the bigger the group the greater the ___it provided, on the other hand, the bigger the group, the greater the ___of living close to others. Grooming helped to ease the pressure and calm everybody down.
But as the groups got bigger and bigger, the amount of time spent in grooming activities also had to be ____ to maintain its effectiveness. Clearly, a more ____ kind of grooming was needed, and thus language evolved as a kind of vocal grooming which allowed humans to develop relationship with ever-larger groups by exchanging information over a wider network of individuals than would be possible by one-to-one _____contact.
1.A.claim B.description C.gossip D.language
2.A.occasionally B.habitually C.independently D.originally
3.A.social B.political C.historical D.cultural
4.A.admirers B.masters C.consumers D.wasters
5.A.every tiling B.something C.anything D.nothing
6.A.vital B.sensitive C.ideal D.difficult
7.A.confirms B.rejects C.outlines D.broadens
8.A.Still B.Besides C.Therefore D.Instead
9.A.because B.until C.unless D.as
10.A.for instance B.in addition C.on the contrary D.as a result,
11.A.motivation B.appearance C.emotion D.behavior
12.A.in terms of B.in favor of C.in the wake of D.in the event of
13.A.attack B.contact C.inspection D.assistance
14.A.recalls B.denies C.concludes D.acknowledges
15.A.Communicating B.Grouping C.Migrating D.Swinging
16.A.prospect B.responsibility C.leadership D.protection
17.A.stresses B.benefits C.barriers D.conveniences
18.A.reduced B.extended C.consumed D.wasted
19.A.common B.efficient C.scientific D.thoughtful
20.A.indirect B.daily C.physical D.confidential
-- Do you come off duty so late every day?
-- Almost no one leaves on schedule.
A.You have my word. B.It's anyone's guess.
C.Never you mind. D.You can say that again.
