Just Call Me Mister

　　1 On cold days people in Manhattan like to take their children to PlaySpace, an indoor playground full of wonderful climbing and sliding contraptions. Theres just one irritating detail: when you pay your money, the cashier pulls out a felt-trip marker and an adhesive lapel tag and asks you your name.

　　Frum, I say.

　　No, your first name.

　　What do you need my first name for?

　　To write on the tag, so all the children and the staff will know what to call you.

　　In that case, write Mr. Frum.

　　2 At which I am shot a look as if I had asked to be called to Duke of Plaza Toro.

　　3 In encouraging five-year-olds to address grownups by their first names, PlaySpace is only slightly ahead of the times. As a journalist, I faithfully report that the custom of addressing strangers formally is as dead as the practice of leaving a visiting card.

　　4 Theres hardly a secretary left who does not reply, when I give a message fro her boss, Ill tell him you called, David. Or a public relations agent, whether in Bangor or Bangkok, who does not begin his telephonic spiel with a cheerful Hello, David!

　　5 You dont have to be a journalist to collect amazing first-name stories. Place a collect call, and the operator first-names you. The teenager behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant asks a 70-year-old customer for his first name before taking his order.

　　6 Habitual first-names claim they are motivated by nothing worse than uncontrollably high-spirited friendliness. I dont believe it. I f I asked the fast-food order-takers to lend me $50, their friendliness would vanish in a whoosh. The PR man drops all his cheerfulness the moment he hears I wont go along with his story idea. No, its not friendliness that drives first-namers; its aggression. The PR agents who call me David uninvited would never, if they could somehow get him on the phone, address press baron Rupert Murdoch that way. The woman at the bank who called me David would never first-name the banks chairman. Like the mock-cheery staff at PlaySpace, they are engaged in a smiley-faced act of belittlement, an assertion of power disguised as good cheer.

　　Notes

　　1 contraptions:mechanical devices;gadgets

　　2 felt-tip marker:軟筆尖的顏色筆

　　3 adhesive lapel tag:不干膠標牌

　　4 Duke of Plaza Toro: Duke is a nobleman with the highest hereditary rank, especially in Britain. Plaza Tora is Spanish, something like Bull Fighting Ring in English

　　5 Bangor:City of South central Maine

　　6 Bangkok:Captical of Thailand,曼谷

　　7 spiel a lengthy, usually extravagant, speech or argument intended to be persuasive

　　8 collect call:a telephone call with payment to be made by the receiver

　　9 press baron:Baron is the lowest male rank of nobility, but here it stands for a man with great power in press

　　10 mock: simulated

　　11 cheery:cheerful

　　Reading comprehension

　　1 The author apparently regrets____

　　a. having to take his children to PlaySpace

　　b. being first-named

　　c. being approached so frequently by PR agents

　　d. having to put on an adhesive lapel tag

　　2 PR in paragraph6 stands for____

　　a. personal request b. personal respect

　　c. public relations d. public review

　　3 When the author, as a journalist, speaks on the phone___

　　a. he is usually very formal and faithful

　　b. he does not know whether a grownup or a child is speaking at the other end

　　c. he finds people address each other formally

　　d. he finds the secretary is often willing to pass a message

　　4 He often finds secretaries _____

　　a. irresponsible in answering phone calls

　　b. trustworthy in passing messages

　　c. not only friendly but also careful

　　d. calling him David

　　5 The author thinks that addressing a stranger by his first name is being____

　　a. cheerful b. friendly c. disrespectful d. light-hearted

　　6 As dead as in paragraph 3 may be paraphrased as_____

　　a. as firmly fixed as b. as useless as

　　c. as out of fashion as d.as unmistakenly as

　　7 Habitual first-namers claim amounts to saying____

　　a. theres nothing that can be worse than high-spirited friendliness

　　b. their attitude should be acceptable

　　c. they are sometimes too high-spirited to control chemselves

　　d. one should control oneself while speaking to a stranger

　　8 The so-called high-spirited friendliness is actually____

　　a. cheerfulness in appearance but mockery in reality

　　b. out and out insult

　　c. a well-accepted skill in public relations

　　d. an act of outward warmth

　　9 In a whoosh in paragraph 6 means______

　　a. by all means b. in the end c. in a second d. in reality

　　10 I wont go along with in paragraph 6 may be paraphrased as

　　a. I wont believe b. I wont go on listening..

　　c. I wont agree with. D. I wont stick to..

　　參考答案

　　1 b 2 c 3 c 4 d 5 c 6 a 7 b 8 a 9 c 10 b

　　Just Call Me Mister

　　1 On cold days people in Manhattan like to take their children to PlaySpace, an indoor playground full of wonderful climbing and sliding contraptions. Theres just one irritating detail: when you pay your money, the cashier pulls out a felt-trip marker and an adhesive lapel tag and asks you your name.

　　Frum, I say.

　　No, your first name.

　　What do you need my first name for?

　　To write on the tag, so all the children and the staff will know what to call you.

　　In that case, write Mr. Frum.

　　2 At which I am shot a look as if I had asked to be called to Duke of Plaza Toro.

　　3 In encouraging five-year-olds to address grownups by their first names, PlaySpace is only slightly ahead of the times. As a journalist, I faithfully report that the custom of addressing strangers formally is as dead as the practice of leaving a visiting card.

　　4 Theres hardly a secretary left who does not reply, when I give a message fro her boss, Ill tell him you called, David. Or a public relations agent, whether in Bangor or Bangkok, who does not begin his telephonic spiel with a cheerful Hello, David!

　　5 You dont have to be a journalist to collect amazing first-name stories. Place a collect call, and the operator first-names you. The teenager behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant asks a 70-year-old customer for his first name before taking his order.

　　6 Habitual first-names claim they are motivated by nothing worse than uncontrollably high-spirited friendliness. I dont believe it. I f I asked the fast-food order-takers to lend me $50, their friendliness would vanish in a whoosh. The PR man drops all his cheerfulness the moment he hears I wont go along with his story idea. No, its not friendliness that drives first-namers; its aggression. The PR agents who call me David uninvited would never, if they could somehow get him on the phone, address press baron Rupert Murdoch that way. The woman at the bank who called me David would never first-name the banks chairman. Like the mock-cheery staff at PlaySpace, they are engaged in a smiley-faced act of belittlement, an assertion of power disguised as good cheer.

　　Notes

　　1 contraptions:mechanical devices;gadgets

　　2 felt-tip marker:軟筆尖的顏色筆

　　3 adhesive lapel tag:不干膠標牌

　　4 Duke of Plaza Toro: Duke is a nobleman with the highest hereditary rank, especially in Britain. Plaza Tora is Spanish, something like Bull Fighting Ring in English

　　5 Bangor:City of South central Maine

　　6 Bangkok:Captical of Thailand,曼谷

　　7 spiel a lengthy, usually extravagant, speech or argument intended to be persuasive

　　8 collect call:a telephone call with payment to be made by the receiver

　　9 press baron:Baron is the lowest male rank of nobility, but here it stands for a man with great power in press

　　10 mock: simulated

　　11 cheery:cheerful

　　Reading comprehension

　　1 The author apparently regrets____

　　a. having to take his children to PlaySpace

　　b. being first-named

　　c. being approached so frequently by PR agents

　　d. having to put on an adhesive lapel tag

　　2 PR in paragraph6 stands for____

　　a. personal request b. personal respect

　　c. public relations d. public review

　　3 When the author, as a journalist, speaks on the phone___

　　a. he is usually very formal and faithful

　　b. he does not know whether a grownup or a child is speaking at the other end

　　c. he finds people address each other formally

　　d. he finds the secretary is often willing to pass a message

　　4 He often finds secretaries _____

　　a. irresponsible in answering phone calls

　　b. trustworthy in passing messages

　　c. not only friendly but also careful

　　d. calling him David

　　5 The author thinks that addressing a stranger by his first name is being____

　　a. cheerful b. friendly c. disrespectful d. light-hearted

　　6 As dead as in paragraph 3 may be paraphrased as_____

　　a. as firmly fixed as b. as useless as

　　c. as out of fashion as d.as unmistakenly as

　　7 Habitual first-namers claim amounts to saying____

　　a. theres nothing that can be worse than high-spirited friendliness

　　b. their attitude should be acceptable

　　c. they are sometimes too high-spirited to control chemselves

　　d. one should control oneself while speaking to a stranger

　　8 The so-called high-spirited friendliness is actually____

　　a. cheerfulness in appearance but mockery in reality

　　b. out and out insult

　　c. a well-accepted skill in public relations

　　d. an act of outward warmth

　　9 In a whoosh in paragraph 6 means______

　　a. by all means b. in the end c. in a second d. in reality

　　10 I wont go along with in paragraph 6 may be paraphrased as

　　a. I wont believe b. I wont go on listening..

　　c. I wont agree with. D. I wont stick to..

　　參考答案

　　1 b 2 c 3 c 4 d 5 c 6 a 7 b 8 a 9 c 10 b