My grandmother cut a recipe sometime in the 1940s or 1950s for "Mrs. Orr’s Chocolate Cake" from the Monitor. When my dad tasted this cake, he was so enchanted with it that he requested this cake every year, both for Father’s Day and for his birthday in September. Dad was a creature of habit. He didn’t always greet new experiments in cooking with glee. When I graduated from college and got my first apartment, I began to learn to cook, with guidance and suggestions from my morn and the help of a few good cookbooks. I also began to experiment. Often when I invited Morn and Dad over for dinner, I tried a new recipe. Dad would look at his plate suspiciously and ask, "Am I the ’guinea pig’ for this meal" Dad especially didn’t encourage experimentation where his birthday cake was concerned. It had to be Mrs. Orr’s cake, made in a metal 9-by-13-inch pan, rather than in layers, and it had to have white butter cream icing, not the traditional chocolate icing that many people enjoy on chocolate cake. Once we asked if he would like chocolate icing for a change. Silly question. So we enjoyed Mrs. Orr’s cake with white icing twice a year. Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious—just like Dad. No nuts, coconut, sprinkles, or other decorations. No pretty cake plate or beautiful presentation. Just plain cake with icing in a plain metal pan. Somehow, it seemed to fit Dad, a plain, no-nonsense kind of man with Midwestern down-home friendliness. Dad was very generous in sharing his special cake with family and friends. When my sister and I were no longer living at home, we’d still get together for Father’s Day and Dad’s birthday. He always cut generous pieces for us to take home. When a neighbor came over for morning coffee, Dad always offered him a piece of cake, commenting with awe that either his wife or daughters had made him this cake, and how much they must love him for going to "all that work"—a comment not so meaningful as it would have been if we’d made him a layer cake and decorated it. Of course, we asked repeatedly if he’d rather have a different cake, maybe decorated. Again, silly question. For some reason that no one understands, this cake always rises higher in the middle than a normal cake, sometimes looking rather lopsided. It doesn’t seem to matter which kind of pan we use, or which type of chocolate. That means the comers and sides of the cake get more icing than the center. Personally, I always like a corner piece. So did Dad. Years ago, my cousin told me she makes Mrs. Orr’s cake as a layer cake and uses chocolate icing. I tried it when I was having company (not Dad), using raspberry jam between two layers and a chocolate butter cream icing on the top and sides. The sides looked too messy for company, so I pressed chopped nuts into them, piped the chocolate icing around the bottom and top, and everyone thought I bought it at a bakery. It was amazingly rich and wonderful, hence the name I gave it, Majestic Chocolate Cake. The funny thing, though, is that I missed the white icing! Dad isn’t with us anymore, but whenever I see this recipe in my file, I’m filled with sweet memories of the man who loved his special cake, appreciated those who’d baked it, and shared it so freely. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage
A. Mrs. Orr’s, A Professional Cook
B. A "Stubborn" Cake with Generations
C. My Stubborn Father
D. My Improved Cooking Skill
Text 3 Disposing (处理) of waste has been a problem since humans started producing it. As more and more people choose to live close together in cities, the waste-disposal problem becomes increasingly difficult. During the eighteenth century, it was usual for several neighboring towns to get together to select a faraway spot as a dumpsite. Residents or trash haulers (垃圾托运者) would transport household rubbish, rotted wood, and old possessions to the site. Periodically (定期的) some of the trash was burned and the rest was buried. The unpleasant sights and smells caused no problem because nobody lived close by. Factories, mills, and other industrial sites also had waste to be disposed of. Those located on rivers often just dumped the unwanted remains into the water. Others built huge burners with chimneys to deal with the problem. Several facts make these choices unacceptable to modem society. The first problem is space. Dumps, which are now called landfills, are most needed in heavily populated areas. Such areas rarely have empty land suitable for this purpose. Property is either too expensive or too close to residential (住宅区的)neighborhoods Long-distance trash hauling has been a common practice, but once farm areas are refusing to accept rubbish from elsewhere, cheap land within trucking distance of major city areas is almost nonexistent. Awareness of pollution dangers has resulted in more strict rules of waste disposal. Pollution of rivers, ground water, land and air is a price people can no longer pay to get rid of waste. The amount of waste, however, continues to grow. Recycling efforts have become commonplace in recent years, and many towns require their people to take part. Even the most efficient recycling programs, however, can hope to deal with only about 50 percent of a city’s reusable waste. The main purpose of writing this article is to______.
A. ware people of the pollution dangers we are facing
B. draw people’s attention to waste management
C. tell people a better way to get rid of the waste
D. call on people to take part in recycling programs