1 . When my family moved to America in 2010 from a small village in Guangdong, China, we brought not only our luggage, but also our village rules, customs and culture. One of the rules is that young people should always respect elders. Unluckily, this rule led to my very first embarrassment in the United States.

I had a part-time job as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. One time, when I was serving food to a middle-aged couple, the wife asked me how the food could be served so quickly. I told her that I had made sure they got their food quickly because I always respect the elderly. As soon as I said that, her face showed great displeasure. My manager, who happened to hear what I said, took me aside and gave me a long lecture about how sensitive Americans are and how they dislike the description “old”. I then walked back to the table and apologized to the wife. After the couple heard my reason, they understood that the problem was caused by cultural differences, so they laughed and were no longer angry.

In my village in China, people are proud of being old. Not so many people live to be seventy or eighty, and people who reach such an age have the most knowledge and experience. Young people always respect older people because they know they can learn from their rich experience.

However, in the United States, people think “growing old” is a problem since “old” shows that a person is going to retire or that the body is not working well. Here many people try to keep themselves away from growing old by doing exercises or jogging, and women put on makeup, hoping to look young. When I told the couple in the restaurant that I respect the elderly, they got angry because this caused them to feel they had failed to stay young. I had told them something they didn’t want to hear.

After that, I changed the way I had been with older people. It is not that I don’t respect them any more; I still respect them, but now I don’t show my feelings through words.

1. The author brought the couple their food very fast because _______.

A．the manager asked him to do so	B．the couple wanted him to do so
C．he respected the elderly	D．he wanted more pay

2. When the author called the couple “elderly”, they became _______.

A．nervous	B．unhappy
C．satisfied	D．excited

3. After this experience, the author _______.

A．changed his way with older people	B．made friends with the couple
C．no longer respected the elderly	D．lost his job in the restaurant

4. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．The more the author explained, the angrier the couple got.

B． The author wanted to show his feelings through words after his experience.

C．From this experience, the author learned more about American culture.

D．The manager went back to the table and apologized to the couple.

2 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture(雕塑品) Festival is Harbin’s main tourist highlight every year. It     1    (become) the world’s biggest winter festival so far.     2     makes the Harbin festival special are the scale and size of the sculptures and the beautiful lighting. It is bigger than the ones in Japan, Norway, and Canada.

At first, mainly the Chinese took part, but now it is an international festival and     3    (compete). As the festival grows, the size of the snow sculptures and ice architecture exhibits keeps     4    (increase). The work of making these exhibits is     5    (astonish), and their size and beauty are amazing.

The festival is     6    (official) held from the end of December through February. Opening dates keep changing, and closing dates partly depend     7     the weather. More than 1,000 ice sculptures are on show such as ice lanterns, magical figures and animals that     8    (love) by children. It is mostly an ice world     9    (aim) at kids. There are interesting activities kids may enjoy, like ice skating. If you are planning a Harbin tour, please attend     10     wonderful festival.