Passage Three
Imagine that someone in your neighborhood broke the law, and the judge put the whole neighborhood under suspicion. How fair will that be? Well, it happens everyday to high schoolers. Just because some students have stolen things in shops, all of us are treated like thieves. Even though I’d never steal。
Store employees looked at me like I’m some kind of hardened criminal. For example, during one lunch period, my friend Denny and I went to the Graben Gore Restaurant to have a hot dog. We arrived to find a line of students waiting outside. A new sign in the window told the story. “No more than two students at a time”. After 15 minutes, we finally got in. But the store manger laid the evil eye on us. I asked him about the new sign, and he said, “You kids are stealing too much stuff。” You kids? Too much stuff? We were not only assumed to be thieves, but brilliant, greedy thieves. The most annoying thing though, is the way employees watched my friends and me. It’s horrible。
Once, at a drug store, I was looking around and found a guy standing on a large box, stocking the shelves. He was watching my hands, more than he was watching his own. I showed him that my hands were empty. He got down off his box and rushed off, as if he was going to get the store manger. How crazy is that!
33. What does the speaker find to be unfair?
34. What measure did the Graben Gore Restaurant take to stop stealing?
35. What happened in a drug store that greatly annoyed the speaker?
Section C
Writing keeps us in touch with other people. We write to communicate with relatives and friends. We write to preserve our family histories so our children and grandchildren can learn and appreciate their heritage. With computers and Internet connections in so many households, colleges, and businesses, people are e-mailing friends and relatives all the time -- or talking to them in writing in online chat rooms. It is cheaper than calling long distance, and a lot more convenient than waiting until Sunday for the telephone rates to drop. Students are e-mailing their professors to receive and discuss their classroom assignments and to submit them. They are e-mailing classmates to discuss and collaborate on homework. They are also sharing information about concerts and sports events, as well as jokes and their philosophies of life。
Despite the growing importance of computers, however, there will always be a place and need for the personal letter. A hand-written note to a friend or a family member is the best way to communicate important thoughts. No matter what the content of the message, its real point is, "I want you to know that I care about you." This writing practice brings rewards that can’t be seen in bank accounts, but only in the success of human relationships。