Unit 1 On a flight, a middle-aged white South African woman found herself sitting next to a black man.She called the flight attendant over to complain about her seating.“What seems to be the problem, Madam?” asked the attendant.“Can’t you see?” she said.“You’ve sat me next to a black.I can’t poibly sit next to this unpleasant person.Find me another seat!” “Please calm down, Madam.” the attendant replied.“The flight is very full today, but I’ll check to see if we have any seats available in club or first cla.” The woman gave an unfriendly glance at the angry black man beside her.
A few minutes later the attendant returned with the good news, which she gave to the woman, who looked at the people around her with a very pleased and self-satisfied smile, “Madam, we do have one seat in first cla.” Before the woman had a chance to answer, the attendant continued, “I had to get special permiion from the captain.But, in this case, the captain felt it unfair that someone should be forced to sit next to such an unpleasant person.” With these words, she turned to the black man and said, “So if you’d like to get your things, sir, your seat is ready for you in first cla.” At this point, the surrounding paengers stood up and clapped their hands loudly as the black man walked up.
Unit 2 It is said that the worst enemy can be in one’s family.Having been born into a family does not mean everyone in your family will treat you as family.Sometimes, some people in your family may treat you as an enemy.There are some reasons for this.
One reason would be jealousy, like a brother or sister being jealous of the other’s achievements or attention one sibling is getting more than the other from their parents.
Another reason would be spite, due to some family members feeling the need to hurt someone they want to see in a humble or inferior position in life.
Some family members may be controlling and resent the person they are trying to control for resisting their influence over him/her.
Sometimes, people just hate for no reason.
Whatever the cause, no one should suffer abuse for any reason, just because it comes from someone in one’s family.
A family member is someone who has your best interest at heart, someone who will put your needs before his/her own, someone who loves you unconditionally, someone who accepts you with your strengths and your faults and someone who will support you, even if he/she don’t support your decisions.
Unit 3 Our Bathroom Problems In order to enjoy our privacy, the four of us, senior students in a university, have rented an apartment off campus.In this way, each one of us can have our own room but have to share one bathroom.All of us are very satisfied with that.
Soon, however, a problem has emerged.That is, how to share our bathroom in the morning.
1 Tom gets up earlier than the rest of us.Of course, he is always the first one to use it.But he has a bad habit of making the bathroom very dirty and untidy.After him, the other three of us have to do the cleaning work before we can use it.
John is the slowest in doing everything.Once he enters the bathroom, the rest of us have to wait for a long time.To make things worse, he has a habit of playing computer games over his laptop while he is on the toilet.No matter how hard we rush him or even threaten him outside the bathroom, it does not work.He still holds it as if it is the most comfortable place in the world for him.And none of us can stand it any longer.
Thus, it seems to all of us that it is time for us to work out a bathroom policy so that all of us can live comfortably together in the apartment.Otherwise, more problems will arise sooner or later.
Unit 4 “Tommy,” asked the teacher, “what is the shape of the earth?”
“It’s round,” answered Tommy.
“How do you know it’s round?” continued the teacher.
“All right, it’s square then,” he replied.“I really don’t want to get into an argument about it!”
Unit 5 May I See the Manager? Having worked in food service when I was in high school, I know that people are quick to complain when things go wrong, but are always slow to offer praise when things go right.I have tried to make it a habit to report exceptionally good service as well as exceptionally bad service.For example, the other day, our family went to eat at a local Mexican restaurant.The food was great.The service was great.Our waiter never let us run out of sweet tea, and that’s not easy, not even for attentive waiters.It was an enjoyable evening.At the end of our meal, we left the waiter a nice tip, but I didn’t think that was enough.So on this occasion, I asked the waiter if I could speak with the manager so I could let her know how pleased we were.His eyes lit up, and off he went.I told the manager how pleased we were with the food, and that our waiter was excellent and took good care of us.She was all smiles.All the employees standing by wore similar smiles.The customers around us agreed.The good feeling was contagious.As we left, we were bid farewell as if we were old friends to the employees.It felt nice.Next time you get great service, feel free to ask for a manager.
