2013.12
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
Like most people, I’ve long understood that I will be judged by my occupation, that my profession is a gauge people use to see how smart or talented I am. Recently, however, I was disappointed to see that it also decides how I’m treated as a person.
Last year I left a professional position as a small-town reporter and took a job waiting tables. As someone paid to serve food to people, I had customers say and do things to me I suspect they’d never say or do to their most casual acquaintances. One night a man talking on his cell phone waved me away, then beckoned ( 示意) me back with his finger a minute later, complaining he was ready to order and asking where I’d been.
I had waited tables during summers in college and was treated like a peon (勤杂工) by plenty of people. But at 19 years old, I believed I deserved inferior treatment from professional adults. Besides, people responded to me differently after I told them I was in college. Customers would joke that one day I’d be sitting at their table, waiting to be served.
Once I graduated I took a job at a community newspaper. From my first day, I heard a respectful tone from everyone who called me. I assumed this was the way the professional world worked—cordially.
I soon found out differently. I sat several feet away from an advertising sales representative with a similar name. Our calls would often get mixed up and someone asking for Kristen would be transferred to Christie. The mistake was immediately evident. Perhaps it was because money was involved, but people used a tone with Kristen that they never used with me.
My job title made people treat me with courtesy. So it was a shock to return to the restaurant industry.
It’s no secret that there’s a lot to put up with when waiting tables, and fortunately, much of it can be easily forgotten when you pocket the tips. The service industry, by definition, exists to cater to others’ needs. Still, it seemed that many of my customers didn’t get the difference between server and servant.
I’m now applying to graduate school, which means someday I’ll return to a profession where people need to be nice to me in order to get what they want. I think I’ll take them to dinner first, and see how they treat someone whose only job is to serve them.
56. The author was disappointed to find that ________.
A) one’s position is used as a gauge to measure one’s intelligence B) talented people like her should fail to get a respectable job C) one’s occupation affects the way one is treated as a person D) professionals tend to look down upon manual workers
57. What does the author intend to say by the example in the second paragraph? A) Some customers simply show no respect to those who serve them. B) People absorbed in a phone conversation tend to be absent-minded. C) Waitresses are often treated by customers as casual acquaintances. D) Some customers like to make loud complaints for no reason at all.
58. How did the author feel when waiting tables at the age of 19?
A) She felt it unfair to be treated as a mere servant by professionals. B) She felt badly hurt when her customers regarded her as a peon. C) She was embarrassed each time her customers joked with her. D) She found it natural for professionals to treat her as inferior.
59. What does the author imply by saying ". . . many of my customers didn’t get the difference between server and servant" (Line 3, Para. 7)?
A) Those who cater to others’ needs are destined to be looked down upon. B) Those working in the service industry shouldn’t be treated as servants. C) Those serving others have to put up with rough treatment to earn a living.
D) The majority of customers tend to look on a servant as a server nowadays.
60. The author says she’ll one day take her clients to dinner in order to ________.
A) see what kind of person they are B) experience the feeling of being served C) show her generosity towards people inferior to her D) arouse their sympathy for people living a humble life
Passage Two
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
What’s hot for 2007 among the very rich? A $7.3 million diamond ring. A trip to Tanzania to hunt wild animals. Oh, and income inequality.
Sure, some leftish billionaires like George Soros have been railing against income inequality for years. But increasingly, centrist and right-wing billionaires are starting to worry about income inequality and the fate of the middle class.
In December, Mortimer Zuckerman wrote a column in U. S. News & World Report, which lie owns. "Our nation’s core bargain with the middle class is disintegrating, " lamented (哀叹) the
117th-riehest man in America. "Most of our economic gains have gone to people at the very top of the income ladder. Average income for a household of people of working age, by contrast, has fallen five years in a row. " He noted that "Tens of millions of Americans live in fear that a major health problem can reduce them to bankruptcy. "
Wilbur Ross Jr. has echoed Zuckerman’s anger over the bitter struggles faced by middle-class Americans. "It’s an outrage that any American’s life expectancy should be shortened simply because the company they worked for went bankrupt and ended health-care coverage, " said the former chairman of the International Steel Group.
What’s happening? The very rich are just as trendy as you and I, and can be so when it comes to politics and policy. Given the recent change of control in Congress, the p