PASSAGE 3 QUESTIONS 21 - 30
MARY'S FIRST JOB
When I was just fifteen, my father purchased an old hotel in the country where we lived and decided to turn it into a luxury hotel. At the early stages of the hotel, he experimented with everything. None of us had ever worked in a hotel before, but my dad had a vision of what guests wanted. His standards were extremely high and he believed that to reach those standards the most important thing was to work.
For a month that summer I worked as a waitress at breakfast and dinner. As part of the job I had to lay the tables in the dining room beforehand and clean up afterwards. This gave me the middle of the day free for studying because my school report predictably had not lived up to my father's high expectations.
Like all the other waitresses, I was equipped with a neat uniform and told to treat the guests as though they were special visitors in my own home. Although I felt more like a stranger in theirs, I did not express my feelings. Instead, I concentrated on doing the job as well as, if not better than, the older girls.
In the kitchen I learned how to deal with Gordon, the chef, who I found rather daunting. He had an impressive chef's hat and a terrifying ability to lose his temper and get violent for no clear reason. I avoided close contact with him and always grabbed the dishes he gave me with a cold look on my face. Then, as I walked from the kitchen to the dining room, my cold expression used to change into a charming smile.
I found waiting at breakfast was more enjoyable than at dinner. The guests came wandering into the dining room from seven-thirty onwards, staring with pleasure at the view of the sea and the islands through the dining room window. I always made sure that everyone got their order quickly and enjoyed getting on well with the people at each table.
In the evenings it was funny how differently people behaved; they talked with louder, less friendly voices, and did not always return my smile. However, that all changed when Dad created a special role for me which improved my status considerably.
I started by making simple cakes for guests' picnics and soon progressed to more elaborate cakes for afternoon teas. I found that recipes were easy to follow and it was amusing to improvise. This led to a nightly event known as Mary's Sweet Trolley. I used to enter the dining room every evening pushing a trolley carrying an extraordinary collection of puddings, cakes and other desserts. Most of them were of my own invention, I had cooked them all myself, and some were undeniably strange.
Câu 1: The word "it" in line 2 refers to _______.
- A. an old hotel
- B. the country
- C. a luxury hotel
- D. Mary's first job
- A. They knew what the guests expected.
- B. They shared all the jobs.
- C. They lacked experience.
- D. They enjoyed the work.
- A. time for her schoolwork
- B. working experience
- C. time at midday to relax
- D. time to have lunch with her father
- A. The school made a report about my expectations to my father.
- B. My father is not satisfied with my results at school.
- C. The report from school is highly predictable to my father.
- D. My father expects to receive the school report soon.
- A. Disgusting
- B. Frightening
- C. Interesting
- D. Strange
- A. She smiled at Gordon in a friendly way.
- B. She avoided touching Gordon.
- C. She checked the food Gordon gave her.
- D. She started to look more friendly.
- A. She enjoyed the view from the dining room while working.
- B. She had a better relationship with the guests.
- C. The guests were more punctual than at dinner.
- D. She worked more efficiently at breakfast.
- A. He put her in charge of the restaurant.
- B. He asked her to provide entertainment for the guests.
- C. He made her responsible for part of dinner.
- D. He gave her a special uniform.
- A. Mary made it following traditional recipes.
- B. Mary made the same food for picnics.
- C. Mary and Gordon made it together.
- D. Mary made most of it without following recipes.
- A. It brought her closer to her father.
- B. It was sometimes uncomfortable.
- C. It was always enjoyable.
- D. It was quite easy to do.
PASSAGE 4 QUESTIONS 31 - 40
Potash (the old name for potassium carbonate) is one of the two alkalis (the other being soda, sodium carbonate) that were used from remote antiquity in the making of glass, and from the early Middle Ages in the making of soap: the former being the product of heating a mixture of alkali and sand, the latter a product of alkali and vegetable oil. Their importance in the communities of colonial North America need hardly be stressed.
Potash and soda are not interchangeable for all purposes, but for glass- or soap-making either would do. Soda was obtained largely from the ashes of certain Mediterranean sea plants, potash from those of inland vegetation. Hence potash was more familiar to the early European settlers of the North American continent.
The settlement at Jamestown in Virginia was in many ways a microcosm of the economy of colonial North America, and potash was one of its first concerns. It was required for the glassworks, the first factory in the British colonies, and was produced in sufficient quantity to permit the inclusion of potash in the first cargo shipped out of Jamestown. The second ship to arrive in the settlement from England included among its passengers experts in potash making.
The method of making potash was simple enough. Logs were piled up and burned in the open, and the ashes were collected. The ashes were placed in a barrel with holes in the bottom, and water was poured over them. The solution draining from the barrel was boiled down in iron kettles. The resulting mass was further heated to fuse the mass into what was called potash.
In North America, potash making quickly became an adjunct to the clearing of land for agriculture, for it was estimated that as much as half the cost of clearing land could be recovered by the sale of potash. Some potash was exported from Maine and New Hampshire in the seventeenth century, but the market turned out to be mainly domestic, consisting mostly of shipments from the northern to the southern colonies. For despite the beginning of the trade at Jamestown and such encouragements as a series of acts to encourage the making of potash, beginning in 1707 in South Carolina, the softwoods in the South proved to be poor sources of the substance.
Câu 11: What aspect of potash does the passage mainly discuss?
- A. How it was made
- B. Its value as a product for export
- C. How it differs from other alkalis
- D. Its importance in colonial North America
- A. They are alkalis.
- B. They are made from sea plants.
- C. They are used in making soap.
- D. They are used in making glass.
- A. alkali
- B. glass
- C. sand
- D. soap
- A. defined
- B. emphasized
- C. adjusted
- D. mentioned
- A. convenient
- B. identifiable
- C. equivalent
- D. advantageous
- A. the materials needed for making soda were not readily available
- B. making potash required less time than making soda
- C. potash was better than soda for making glass and soap
- D. the colonial glassworks found soda more difficult to use
- A. wood
- B. fire
- C. sand
- D. water
- A. addition
- B. answer
- C. problem
- D. possibility
- A. it could be exported to Europe in exchange for other goods
- B. it helped finance the creation of farms
- C. it could be made with a variety of materials
- D. stimulated the development of new ways of glassmaking
- A. The softwoods were not very plentiful.
- B. The softwoods could not be used to build houses.
- C. The softwoods were not very marketable.
- D. The softwoods were not very useful for making potash.
