【正文】 t night. In the shop, he learnt to cut meat quite nicely, so the butcher often left him to do all the serving while he went to the back room to do the accounts(賬目 ). In the hospital, on the other hand, he was, of course, allowed to do the simplest jobs, like helping to lift people and to carry them from one part of the hospital to another. Both at the butcher’s shop and at the hospital, Tom had to wear white clothes. One evening at the hospital, Tom had to carry a woman from her bed to the place where she was to have an operation. The woman was already feeling frightened at the thought of the operation before he came to get her, but when she saw Tom, that finished her. “No! No!” she cried ． “Not my butcher! I won’t be operated on by my butcher!” and fainted away(昏厥 ). 24. Tom made enough money by ________. A. doing two jobs B. working in a butcher’s shop C. cutting meat well D. studying in the university 25. Tom was a student, but at the same time he was__________. A. a butcher and a doctor B. a manager and a doctor C. an assistant D. a manager 26. The woman patient recognized Tom because ____________. A. he was wearing white clothes B. he was going to operate on her C. he was now working in the hospital D. he had sold meat to her 27. The underlined sentence “ when she saw Tom, that finished her” means that the sight of Tom _________. A. plunged her into deep sorrow B. took all her strength and courage away C. broke her heart D. made her decide to have an operation C We were traveling to the Caribbean with our three kids aged 12, 7 and 4. Being from Chicago, we were all in need of a little sun and sand after an especially cold and long winter. Before the trip, my eldest child asked if we could consider getting him a waterproof case for his iPhone. He thought it would be fun to take pictures and videos of his brother and sister underwater in the pool. That made sense to us, and we agreed that it could make great memory of good time. We bought the case for him. Down to vacation we went with waterproof case. We performed the suggested water test, and into the pool he went. Pow! That was the end of the phone. Water immediately leaked (滲入 ) into it and the phone was never turned on again. Now, this could be a post about what a poorlydesigned product the case is, but in fact, that is not what I’m writing about. Actually, what truly surprised us was what happened to our 12yearold over the course of the next seven days of our vacation. Aside from the initial (最初的 ) five minutes after the phone died, our son never mentioned his phone again. Instead of his usual pluggedin state, he spent much of the vacation reading books, playing silly games with his sister and brother and talking to us at dinner. Normally when we’re on vacation and he and his sister and brother are done with eating, he’ll leave the table to text friends or check sports scores. But with no phone, there was no pull to keep in touch with his friends or to look at the latest posts. Instead, our almost13yearold played tag with his 4yearold sister, ran after chickens with his 7yearold brother and entertained them with games while we finished our meals. At the end of the trip, when we asked him about the lack of phone, he admitted it was nice to have a break from the constant chatting and keeping in touch with friends. I’m not saying I intentionally hope his phone dies again, but it does give us time to consider about whether or not we should make the kids leave their cell phones at home as part of the spring break contract. Or at least we should severely curtail phone usage on vacation. 28. Why did the author’ s eldest son want a waterproof case for his iPhone? A. To put his phone away. B. To make his phone beautiful. C. To limit his phone use. D. To protect his phone underwater. 29. What probably surprised the author most during the vacation? A. The change in his eldest son. B. The function of the iPhone. C. The power of children’s games. D. The relationship between his children. 30. How does the author’s eldest son feel about the lack of phone? A. Fine. B. Upset. C. Excited. D. Unfortable. 31. The underlined word “curtail” in the last paragraph probably means_________. A. practice B. forbid C. continue D. increase D How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time? Far too many． This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal(排演 )and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments. We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families, always making ourselves believe that th