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

   Something in chocolate could be used to stop coughs and lead to more effective medicines, say UK researchers.

   Their study found that theobromine, found in cocoa, was nearly a third more effective in stopping coughs than codeine, which was considered the best cough medicine at present.

   The Imperial College London researchers who published their results online said the discovery could lead to more effective cough treatment. “While coughing is not necessarily harmful（有害的） it can have a major effect on the quality of life, and this discovery could be a huge step forward in treating this problem,” said Professor Peter Barnes.

Ten healthy volunteers（志愿者） were given theobromine, codeine or placebo, a pill that contains no medicine, during the experiment. Neither the volunteers nor the researchers knew who received which pill. The researchers then measured levels of capsaicin, which is used in research to cause coughing and as a sign of how well the medicine are stopping coughs.

The team found that, when the volunteers were given theobromine, the capsaicin need to produce a cough was around a third higher than in the placebo group. When they were given codeine they needed only slightly higher levers of capsaicin to cause a cough compared with the placebo.

The researchers said that theobromine worked by keeping down a verve activity（神经活动）, which cause coughing. They also found that unlike some standard cough treatments, theobromine caused no side effects such as sleepiness.

1. According to Professor Barnes, theobromine ______.

A. cannot be as effective as codeine

B. can be harmful to people’s health

C. cannot be separated from chocolate

D. can be a more effective cure for coughs

2. What was used in the experiment to cause coughing?

   A. Theobromine.  B. Codeine.  C. Capsaicin.  D. Placebo.

3. We learn from the text that volunteers in the experiment _____.

   A. were patients with bad coughs

   B. were divided into the three groups

   C. received standard treatments

   D. suffered little side effects

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

   A. Codeine: A New Medicine        B. Chocolate May Cure Coughs

   C. Cough Treatment: A Hard Case    D. Theobromine Can Cause Coughs

Something in chocolate could be used to stop coughs and lead to more effective (有效的) medicines, say UK researchers.

    Their study found that theobromine, found in cocoa, was nearly a third more effective in stopping coughs than codeine, which was considered the best cough medicine at present.

    The Imperial College London researchers who published their results online said the discovery could lead to more effective cough treatments. “While coughing is not necessarily（不一定） harmful it can have a major effect on the quality of life, and this discovery could be a great step forward in treating this problem,” said Professor Peter Barnes.

Ten healthy volunteers were given theobromine, codeine or placebo, a pill that contains no medicine, during the experiment. Neither the volunteers nor the researchers knew who received which pill. The researchers then measured levels of capsaicin, which is used in research to cause coughing and as a sign of how well the medicines are stopping coughs.

The team found that, when the volunteers were given theobromine, the capsaicin needed to produce a cough was about a third higher than in the placebo group. When they were given codeine they needed only a little higher levels of capsaicin to cause a cough compared with the placebo.

The researchers said that theobromine worked by keeping down a verve activity(神经活动), which causes coughing. They also found that unlike some standard（正规的） cough treatments, theobromine caused no side effects such as sleepiness.

67. According to Professor Barnes, theobromine ______.

A. cannot be as effective as codeine

B. can be harmful to people’s health

C. cannot be taken out of chocolate

D. can be a more effective treatment for coughs

68. What was used in the experiment to cause coughing?

   A. Theobromine.           B. Codeine.                 C. Capsaicin.               D. Placebo.

69. We learn from the text that volunteers in the experiment _____.

   A. were patients with bad coughs                       B. were divided into three groups

   C. received standard treatments                         D. suffered a few side effects

70. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

   A. Codeine: A New Medicine                        B. Chocolate May Stop Coughs

   C. Cough Treatment: A Hard Problem                 D. Theobromine Can Cause Coughs