A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute,” someone might say, “are talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”
The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two week to prepare, a period I spent searching for a briefcase and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class, I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.
I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.
“All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit on the edge of the desk, overlooking a forest of raised hands. Every student would shout to be heard, and I would knock on something in order to silence them. I would yell, “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”
A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I instructed the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.
【小题1】The author took the job to teach writing because______________.

A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute,” someone might say, “are you talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”
The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two weeks to prepare, a period I spent searching for briefcase (公文包) and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class. I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.
I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.
“All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit at the edge of the desk, overlooking a forests of hands. Every student would yell. “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”
A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I inspected the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.
【小题1】The author took the job to teach writing because ______.

A woman from Japan was telling a friend about her trip to the United States.The woman had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City and Chicago.

“I studied English before I left home，”she said.“But I still was not sure that people were speaking English.”

Her problem is easy to understand.Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere.They have a language of their own.Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work.Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry.

One such saying is “get your act together”．

When things go wrong in a business，an employer may get angry.He may shout，“Stop making mistakes.Get your act together.”

Or，if the employer is calmer，he may say，“Let us get our act together.”

Either way，the meaning is the same.Getting your act together is getting organized.In business，it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action.

It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began.But，it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry.Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes.The director may have said，“Calm down，now.Get your act together.”

Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late 1970s.Mister Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in 1978.The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together.

Now，this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet.One company even called its yearly report，“Getting Our Act Together.”

The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people.It is cut to the chase.

She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one company.One official was giving a very long report.It was not very interesting.In fact，some people at the meeting were falling asleep.

Finally，the president of the company said，“Cut to the chase.”

Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant material.Hurry and get to the good part.

Naturally，this saying was started by people who make movies.Hollywood movie producers believe that most Americans want to see action movies.Many of their movies show scenes in which the actors chase each other in cars，or in airplanes or on foot.

Cut is the director’s word for stop.The director means to stop filming，leave out some material，and get to the chase scene now.

So，if your employer tells you to cut to the chase，be sure to get to the main point of your story quickly.

1.After the woman visited the United States she might feel that ________.

A．her English was poor

B．it’s easy to master English

C．it’s difficult to make money

D．people there weren’t very friendly

2.In which situation could the words “get your act together” be used?

A．A task is completed successfully.

B．Players perform badly in a match.

C．Audience is satisfied with the actor’s performance in a movie.

D．Visitors make a tiresome and unpleasant trip to someplace.

3.According to the text，the expression “get one’s act together” ________.

A．was first used by a Japanese businesswoman

B．was forbidden to be used in the government policy

C．originally came from a yearly report of a company

D．was commonly read by readers in a newspaper in 1978

4.What do the sayings “get your act together” and “cut to the chase” have in common?

A．Their use.? B．Their meaning.

C．Their origin.? D．Their popularity.

A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute,” someone might say, “are you talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”

   The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two weeks to prepare, a period I spent searching for briefcase (公文包) and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class. I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.

   I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.

   “All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit at the edge of the desk, overlooking a forests of hands. Every student would yell. “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”

   A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I inspected the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.

1.The author took the job to teach writing because ______.

   A. he wanted to be expected

   B. he had written some storied

   C. he wanted to please his father

   D. he had dreamed of being a teacher

2.What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 2 ?

   A. He would be aggressive in his first class.

   B. He was well-prepared for his first class.

   C. He got nervous upon the arrival of his first class.

   D. He waited long for the arrival of his first class.

3.Before he started his class, the author asked the students to ______.

   A. write down their suggestions on the paper cards

   B. cut maple leaves out of the construction paper

   C. cut some cards out of the construction paper

   D. write down their names on the paper cards

4.What did the students do when the author started his class?

   A. They began to talk.        B. They stayed silent.

   C. They raised their hands.     D. They shouted to be heard.

5.The author chose the composition topic probably because ______.

   A. he got disappointed with his first class

   B. he had prepared the topic before class

   C. he wanted to calm down the students

   D. he thought it was an easy topic

A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute,” someone might say, “are talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”

The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two week to prepare, a period I spent searching for a briefcase and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class, I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.

I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.

“All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit on the edge of the desk, overlooking a forest of raised hands. Every student would shout to be heard, and I would knock on something in order to silence them. I would yell, “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”

A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I instructed the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.

1.The author took the job to teach writing because______________.

2.What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 2?

3.Before he started his class, the author asked the students to_______.

4. What did the students do when the author started his class?

5.The author chose the composition topic probably because________.