I’m seventeen. I had worked as a box boy at a supermarket in Los Angeles. People came to the counter (柜台) 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 (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 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 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. 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

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

A. the writer didn’t like the impersonal 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

3．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 didn’t allow the box boys to take tips

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

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

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

Two teaching staff stood in court last week, in different parts of Britain, each charged with assault （人身侵犯）after attempting to remove a troublemaking student from the classroom．In both cases the men had been suspended（使暂时停职） from their schools and each had spent almost a year waiting for their cases to come to court．One man, Mark Ellwood, was cleared．The other was found guilty．Both cases show the almost impossible position teachers are now in as they try to keep order in schools．They have the responsibility for what goes on in classrooms, but it’s naughty pupils who have the power．

       Ellwood was the comparatively lucky one．He was brought in to work with children with behavioral difficulties．When he asked a boy to take off his jacket and put away his phone, the pupil threatened to stab（刺）him．Ellwood removed the boy from the class, and when the boy started kicking him, Ellwood swept his feet from under him and lowered him to the ground．Weeks later he was charged with assault．Social services decided that the charge made him a potential risk to any child, so he was ordered to leave his wife and teenage daughters and move out of his home．The judges told him that they hoped he would now forget his nightmare and restart his life．

       Sixty-two-year-old Michael Becker is the man who lost his case and will now lose his job．He taught in a special school．On the day of the incident, they were making pinhole cameras when the 15-year-old pupil arrived late．He refused to sit down, and instead walked around the classroom, telling jokes．He ignored several requests to start work and refused to leave the classroom when asked．Eventually Becker seized the boy by his belt and sweatshirt and removed him to a nearby storeroom, with the boy falling down as he struggled to break away．A teaching assistant, sent to check on him a few minutes later, found him sitting in the corridor, clearly unharmed．Becker considered the incident over, but the next day he was suspended as the subject of a police investigation．

1．Why did two British teachers stand in court?

       A．Because they were charged with assault on their students．

       B．Because they removed a troublemaking student from a classroom．

       C．Because they were suspended from their schools．

       D．Because they tried to keep order in schools．

2．According to the passage Ellwood __________．

       A．was found guilty and lost his job           B．was too strict with his students

       C．often punished his students                   D．was lucky not to lose the case

3．When the incident happened, Michael Becker __________．

       A．lost his case and will lose his job

       B．was teaching his students to make pinhole cameras

       C．ignored several requests to start work

       D．was suspended as the subject of a police investigation

4．From the two cases we can learn in Britain __________．

       A．removing students from the classroom is not allowed

       B．teachers have no power to keep order in schools

       C．students can do whatever they like in the classroom

       D．it’s very difficult to be a teacher