Text 1
Everybody loathes it, but everybody does it. A recent poll showed that 40% of Americans hate the practice. It seems so arbitrary, after all. Why does a barman get a tip, but not a doctor who saves lives?
In America alone, tipping is now a $16 billion-a-year industry. Consumers acting rationally ought not to pay more than they have to for a given service. Tips should not exist. So why do they? The conventional wisdom is that tips both reward the efforts of good service and reduce uncomfortable feelings of inequality. The better the service, the bigger the tip.
Such explanations no doubt explain the purported origin of tipping — in the 16th century, boxes in English taverns carried the phrase “To Insure Promptitude” (later just “TIP”). But according to new research from Cornell University, tipping no longer serves any useful function.
The paper analyses data from 2,547 groups dining at 20 different restaurants. The correlation between larger tips and better service was very weak: only a tiny part of the variability in the size of the tip had anything to do with the quality of service. Customers who rated a meal as “excellent” still tipped anywhere between 8% and 37% of the meal price.
Tipping is better explained by culture than by economics. In America, the custom has become institutionalized: it is regarded as part of the accepted cost of a service. In a New York restaurant, failing to tip at least 15% could well mean abuse from the waiter. Hairdressers can expect to get 15-20%, the man who delivers your groceries $2. In Europe, tipping is less common; in many restaurants, discretionary tipping is being replaced by a standard service charge. In many Asian countries, tipping has never really caught on at all.
How to account for these national differences? Look no further than psychology. According to Michael Lynn, the Cornell paper’s co-author, countries in which people are more extrovert, sociable or neurotic tend to tip more. Tipping relieves anxiety about being served by strangers. And, says Mr. Lynn, “in America, where people are outgoing and expressive, tipping is about social approval. If you tip badly, people think less of you. Tipping well is a chance to show off. ” Icelanders, by contrast, do not usually tip— a measure of their introversion, no doubt.
While such explanations may be crude, the hard truth seems to be that tipping does not work. It does not benefit the customer. Nor, in the case of restaurants, does it actually stimulate the waiter, or help the restaurant manager to monitor and assess his staff. Service people should “just be paid a decent wage” which may actually make economic sense. (448 words)
1. Which is true according to the passage?
A. It is regulated that the customers must pay a tip if they want to get good service.
B. There exists the tipping custom in each country.
C. In some countries, tipping has become an industry.
D. More and more people are in favor of tipping.
2. What can we know about the origin of “tip”?
A. It originated from the English inn service.
B. The original purpose of tip was to ensure that waiter could get more money.
C. The waiter threatened the customers with bad service if no tips were given.
D. It originated in a small English village.
3. We can get the information from the article that ____.
A. tipping is very popular in European countries.
B. in Asian countries tipping never existed.
C. tipping is more popular in America than in Europe.
D. tipping is popular in America because the Americans are much richer.
4. People who dine in a New York restaurant _____.
A. are not expected to give any tip to the waiter or waitress.
B. had better tip more than 15% so as not to be shamed.
C. may be looked down upon when offering a considerable tip.
D. are thought of as generous if they tip 15%.
5. The author thinks that ____.
A. tipping can benefit greatly a country’s economic growth.
B. tipping can ensure the quality of service a customer receives.
C. tipping can improve a country’s cultural environment.
D. tipping is not conductive tertiary industry.
Text 2
When he died in April of 1993, Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand was 101 years old, had been married for seventy years, and had taught freshmen chemistry to over 40,000 students. In addition, he had published a popular textbook and dozens of articles, had managed the U. S. Olympic ski team, and had discovered a way to allow deep-sea divers to stay underwater longer. In his own way, Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand was certainly a genius.
Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s interest in chemistry began at an early age. In an interview, he once said that his interest formed because he was fortunate enough to be born before there was a television, so he had to make his own decisions about what to pay attention to. Even as a student in high school, Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand had the reputation as the one who learned more chemistry than his teacher knew. As a result he was given the keys to the high school chemistry lab, and there he discovered that the correct formula for a certain chemical compound was not the one given in his chemistry book but a totally different one. Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand went on to teach at the University of California at Berkeley and remained there for almost forty years.
During that time, Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand discovered that the gas helium could be combined with oxygen for use as diving gas to allow divers to dive deeper and take the great pressure of the water without the physical discomforts that had been experienced when they used another gas, nitrogen. The use of helium for deep-sea diving is now standard practice.
Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand was also valuable to his country during both World Wars. In World War I he analyzed the poisonous gases used on the battlefield and helped develop a truck that could clean and treat soldiers’ clothes which had been contaminated by poisonous gases during fighting. In World War II, he helped develop a type of the snowmobile, a vehicle used to carry soldiers through the snow in northern countries.
Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s retirement from teaching at the age of seventy was required by state law in California. He objected to this, joking that he thought a teacher’s time of retirement ought to be determined not by age but by how many of that teacher’s students were still awake after the first fifteen minutes of class! Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s career continued, however, and was still going strong at the age of 100, when he published an article on the theory of chemical solutions. Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s love of life and his interest in it were an inspiration to all who knew him. When asked once how he could have such ageless energy and vigor, he said, “I chose my ancestors carefully. ” (466 words)
6. Which of the followings is the main idea of the passage?
A. Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s discoveries and inventions.
B. Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s contributions to education.
C. Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s contributions to the world.
D. Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand, a versatile with ageless energy and vigor.
7．What’s the reason for Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand’s interest in chemistry?
A. His chemistry teacher was a great teacher.
B. His parents taught him chemistry when he was very young.
C. He was born in a time young people had greater freedom to decide what they wanted to do.
D. His talents were greater than his chemistry teacher.
8. What distinguished Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand from others as early as in high school?
A. He was given the key to the chemistry lab
B. His discovery of the correct formula for some chemical compound.
C. He learned more chemistry from his teacher
D. His excellent score in chemistry learning.
9. The use of helium for deep-sea diving_________________.
A. helped to overcome the physical discomforts the divers experienced when nitrogen was used
B. was found by Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand
C. is still universally acknowledged as standard practice up to now
D. All that is included in A, B, and C
10. According to Dr. Jeol Hiderbrand what accounts for his ageless energy?
A. His ancestors.
B. His parents.
C. Heredity.
D. Hard working.
