On one of her trips to New York several years ago, Eudora Welty decided to take a couple of New York friends out to dinner. They settled in at a comfortable East Side cafe and within minutes, another customer was approaching their table.
“Hey, aren't you from Mississippi?” the elegant, white-haired writer remembered being asked by the stranger. “I'm from Mississippi too.”
Without a second thought, the woman joined the Welty party. When her dinner partner showed up, she also pulled up a chair
“They began telling me all the news of Mississippi,” Welty said. “I didn't know what my New York friends were thinking.”
Taxis on a rainy New York night are rarer than sunshine. By the time the group got up to leave, it was pouring outside. Welty's new friends immediately sent a waiter to find a cab. Heading back downtown toward her hotel, her big-city friends were amazed at the turn of events that had changed their Big Apple dinner into a Mississippi.
“My friends said: 'Now we believe your stories,'” Welty added. “And I said: 'Now you know. These are the people that make me write them.'”
Sitting on a sofa in her room, Welty, a slim figure in a simple gray dress, looked pleased with this explanation.
“I don't make them up,” she said of the characters in her fiction these last 50 or so years. “I don't have to.”
Beauticians, bartenders, piano players and people with purple hats, Welty's people come from afternoons spent visiting with old friends, from walks through the streets of her native Jackson, Miss., from conversations overheard on a bus. It annoys Welty that, at 78, her left ear has now given out. Sometimes, sitting on a bus or a train, she hears only a fragment(片段) of a particularly interesting story.
If you are a fruit grower—or would like to become one—take advantage of Apple Day to see what's around. It's called Apple Day but in practice it's more like Apple Month. The day itself is on October 21, but since it has caught on, events now spread out over most of October around Britain.
Visiting an apple event is a good chance to see, and often taste, a wide variety of apples. To people who are used to the limited choice of apples such as Golden Delicious and Royal Gala in supermarkets, it can be quite an eye opener to see the range of classical apples still in existence, such as Decio which was grown by the Romans. Although it doesn't taste of anything special, it's still worth a try, as is the knobbly(多疙瘩的) Cat's Head which is more of a curiosity than anything else.
There are also varieties developed to suit specific local conditions. One of the very best varieties for eating quality is Orleans Reinette, but you'll need a warm, sheltered place with perfect soil to grow it, so it's a pipe dream for most apple lovers who fall for it.
At the events, you can meet expert growers and discuss which ones will best suit your conditions, and because these are family affairs, children are well catered for with apple-themed fun and games.
Apple Days are being held at all sorts of places with an interest in fruit, including stately gardens and commercial orchards(果园). If you want to have a real orchard experience, try visiting the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent.
Everyone knows that fish is good for health. But it seems that many people don't cook fish at home. Americans eat only about fifteen pounds of fish per person per year, but we eat twice as much fish in restaurants as at home. Buying, storing, and cooking fish isn't difficult. This text is about how to buy and cook fish inan easy way.
Fresh fish should smell sweet: you should feel that you're standing at the ocean's edge. Any fishy or strong smell means the fish isn't fresh. When you have bought a fish and arrive home, you'd better store the fish in the refrigerator if you don't cook it immediately, but fresh fish should be stored in your fridge for only a day or two. Frozen fish isn't as tasty as the fresh one.
There are many common methods used to cook fish. First, lean it and season it with your choiceof spices(调料). Put the whole fish on a plate and steam it in a steam pot for 8 to 10 minutes if it weighs about one pound. (A larger one will take more time.) Then,it's ready to serve.
A. Do not buy it?
B. The easiest is tosteam it.
C. This is how youcan do it.
D. It just requiresa little knowledge.
E. The fish will gobad within hours.
F. When buying fish,you should first smell it.
G. The fats in fishare thought to help prevent heart disease.
阅读下面的短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
When I was 13 my only purpose was to become the star on our football team. That meant 1 Miller King, who was the best 2 at our school.
Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for 3.
Just before September, Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm. I went to see him after he came back from 4. He looked very5, but he didn't cry.
That season, Iall of Miller's records while he 7 the home games from the bench. We went 10-1 and I was named most valuable player, 8 I often had crazy dreams in which I was to blame for Miller's 9.
One afternoon, I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller 10 going over a fence—which wasn't 11 to climb if you had both arms. I'm sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to accept 12 from. But even that challenge he accepted. I 13 him move slowly over the fence. When we were finally 14 on the other side, he said to me,＂You know, I didn't tell you this during the season, but you did 15.Thank you for filling in for 16.＂
His words freed me from my bad 17. I thought to myself, how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not defeated, he was 18 ahead of me. I was right to have 19 him. From that day on, I grew 20 and a little more real.
In much of Asia, especially the so-called＂rice bowl＂ cultures of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam,food is usually eaten with chopsticks.
Chopsticks are usually two long, thin pieces of wood or bamboo.They can also be made of plastic, animal bone or metal. Sometimes chopsticks are quite artistic. Truly elegant chopsticks might (make) of gold and silver with Chinese characters. Skilled workers also combine various hard woods and metal (create)special designs.
The Chinese have used chopsticks for five thousand years. People probably cooked their food in large pots, (use) twigs(树枝)to removeit. Over time, the population grew, people began cutting food into small pieces so it would cook more quickly.
Food in small pieces could be eaten easily with twigs which (gradual) turned into chopsticks.
Some people think that the great Chinese scholar Confucius, livedfrom roughly 551 to 479 B.C., influenced the (develop) of chopsticks. Confucius believed knives would remind people of killings and (be) too violent for use at the table.
Chopsticks are notused everywhere in Asia. In India, for example, most people traditionally eat their hands.
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：①每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
②只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
The teenage year from 13 to 19 were the most difficult time for me. They were also the best and worse years in my life. At the first, I thought I knew everything and could make decisions by yourself. However, my parents didn't seem to think such. They always tell me what to do and how to do it. At one time, I even felt my parents couldn't understand me so I hoped I could be freely from them. I showed them I was independent by wear strange clothes. Now I am leaving home to college. At last, I will be onmy own, but I still want to have my parents to turn to whenever need help.
假定你是李华，与留学生朋友Bob约好一起去书店，因故不能赴约。请给他写封邮件，内容包括：
①表示歉意；
②说明原因；
③另约时间。
注意：
①词数100左右；
②可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
