Manners nowadays in metropolitan cities like London are practically non-existent. It is nothing for a big, strong schoolboy to elbow an elderly woman aside in the dash for the last remaining seat on the tube or bus, much less stand up and offer his seat to her, as he ought to. In fact, it is saddening to note that if a man does offer his seat to an older woman, it is nearly a Continental man or one from the older generation. This question of giving up seats in public transport is much argued about by young men, who say that, since women have claimed equality, they no longer deserve to be treated with courtesy and that those who go out m work should take their turn in the rat race like anyone else. Women have never claimed to be physically as strong as men. Even if it is not agreed, however, that young men should stand up for younger women, the fact remains that courtesy should be shown to the old, the sick and the burdened. Are we really so lost to all ideals of unselfishness that we can sit them indifferently reading the paper or a book, saying to ourselves "First come, first served," while a gray-haired woman, a mother with a young child or a cripple stands Yet this is all too often seen. Conditions in travel are realty very hard on everyone, we know, but hardship is surely no excuse. Sometimes one wonders what would have been the behavior of these stout young men in a packed refugee train on its way to a prisoncamp during the War. Would they have considered it only right and their proper due to keep the best places for themselves then Older people, tired and irritable from a day’ s work, are not angle, either — far from it. Many a brisk argument or an insulting quarrel breaks out as the weary queues push and shove each other to get on buses and tubes. One cannot commend this, of course, but one does feel there is just a little more excuse. If cities are to remain pleasant places to live in, however, it seems imperative, not only that communications in transport should be improved, but also that communication between human beings should be kept smooth and polite. All over cities, it seems that people are too fired and too rushed to be polite. Shop assistant won’ t bother to assist, taxi-drivers growl at each other as they dash dangerously round comers, bus conductors pull the bell before their desperate passengers have had time to get on or off the bus, and so on and so on. It seems to us that it is up to the young and strong to do their small part to stop such deterioration. What is the possible meaning of the word "deterioration" in the last paragraph
A. worsening of general situation
B. lowering of moral standards
C. declining of physical constitution
D. spreading of evil conduct
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. Being in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I have never found a companion that was as friendly as solitude. We are for the most part lonelier when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our homes. A man thinking or working is always alone. Solitude is net measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellow men. The really diligent student in one of the crowded rooms of a college is as a hermit in the desert The farmer can work alone iii the field or the woods all day, weeding or chopping, and no[feel lonesome, because he is employed~ But when he comes home at night, he cannot be alone. He must be where he can see "the folks", and he thinks, repay himself for his day’ s solitude. So he wonders bow the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without boredom and the "blues". But he does not realize that the student, although in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods.
Language Families There are over (1) languages that are used throughout the world today. Almost all of these languages belong to a much smaller number of language families. All of the languages within a language family are related and all of them have a similar history. Therefore, the grammar, vocabulary, sounds of related languages, the way of thinking and the style of talking among related languages are (2) . Even though there are so many languages used today, there are only about 20 or 30 major language families. Ⅰ. The (3) family. It includes most of the languages that are spoken throughout Europe, for example (4) . Ⅱ. The (5) family. It includes most languages in the area of North Africa and the Middle East. Ⅲ. The Bantu family. It includes most of the languages spoken in central and southern (6) . Ⅳ. The (7) family. It includes all dialects of Chinese, the languages of southeast Asia. Of course, not all the languages of east Asia belong to this family, for example, (8) . Ⅴ. The Polynesian family. The Polynesian languages are (9) . They are spoken on the islands around Indonesia, islands eastward all the way to Hawaii, islands west all the way to Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. Example of Polynesian languages: (10) . These five language groups or language families are only a few of the major language families from around the world. There are many more.
It was eleven o’ clock that night when Mr. Pontellier returned from Klein’ s hotel. He was in an excellent humor, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and fast asleep when he came in, He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. From his trousers pockets he took a fistful of crumpled bank notes and a good deal of silver coin, which he piled on the bureau indiscriminately with keys, knife, handkerchief, and whatever else happened to be in his pockets, she was overcome with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances. He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation. Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the bonbons and peanuts for the boys. Notwithstanding he loved them very much, and went into the adjoining room where they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket full of crabs. Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it. Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had ailed him all day. Mr. Pontellier was too will acquainted with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was consuming at that moment in the next room. He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’ s place to look after children, whose on earth was it He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying at home to see that no harm befell them. He talked in a monotonous, insistent way. Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out he went to bed, and in half a minute he was fast asleep. Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her peignoir; Blowing out the candle, which her husband had left burning, she slipped her bare feet into a pair of satin mules at the foot, of the bed and went out on the porch, where she sat clown in the wicker chair and began to rock gently to and fro. It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. A single faint light gleamed out from the hallway of the house. There was no sound abroad except the hoofing of an old owl in the top of a water-oak, and the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that soft hour It broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night. The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier’s eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir no longer served to dry them. She was holding the back of her chair with one hand; her loose sleeve had slipped almost to tile shoulder of her uplifted arm. Turning, she thrust her face, steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on erying there, not earing any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have to have weighed much against the abundance of her husband’ s kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit and self-understood. An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate ill some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled, her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul’ s summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood, She did not sit there inwardly upbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself. The mosquitoes made merry over her, biting her firm, round arms and nipping at her bare insteps. The little stinging, buzzing imps succeeded in dispelling a mood which might have held her there in the darkness half a night longer. Mr. Pontellier scolded his wife for______.
A. she neglected their children
B. she abused their children
C. she seldom played with them
D. she failed to clean the room their children slept in