A.Gaggan.

B.Bo.Lan.

C.Issaya Siamese Club.

D.Nahm.

23.What is special about Gaggan?

A.It hires staff from India.

B.It puts on a play every day.

C.It serves hard-to-find local dishes.

D.It shows the cooking process to guests.

B

Terri Boltonis a dab hand when it comes to DIY(do-it-yourself). Skillde at putting up shelves and piecing together furniture,she never pays someone else to do a job she can do herself.

She credits these skills to her late grandfather and builder Derek Lloyd. From the age of six,Terri,now 26,accompanied Derek to work during her school holidays. A day's work was rewarded with & 5 in pocket money. She says:"I'm sure I wasn't much of a help to start with. painting the rooms and putting down the flooring throughout the house. It took weeks and is was backbreaking work,but I know he was proud of my skills."

Terri, who now rents abhouse with friends in Wandsworth, South West London, says DIY also saves her from losing any deposit when a tenancy(租期)comes to an end. She adds:"I've moved house many times and I alwsys like to personalise my room and put up pictures, So, it's been useful to know how to cover up holes and repaint a room to avoid any charges when I've moved out"

With millions of people likely to take on DIY projects over tha coming weeks, new research shows that more than half of people are planning to make the most of the long, warm summer days to get jobs done. The average spend per project will be around s 823. Two thirds of people aim to improve their comfort while at home. T fifth wish to increase the value of their house. Thouth DIY hsa traditionally been seen as male hobby, the research shows it is women now leading the charge.

24.Which is closest in meaning to"a dab hand" in paragraph 1?

A.An artist.

B.A winner.

C.A specialist.

D.A pioneer.

25.Why did Terri's grandfather give her f 5 a day?

A.For a birthday gift.

B.As a treat for her work.

C.To support her DIY projects.

D.Toencourage her to take up a hobby.

26.How did Terri avoid losing the deposit on the house she rented?

A.By making it look like before.

B.By furmishing it herself.

C.By splitting the rent with a roommate.

D.By cancelling the rental agreement.

27.What trend in DIY does the research show?

A.It is becoming more costly.

B.It is getting more time-consuming.

C.It is turning into a seasonal industry.

D.It is gaining popularity among females.

C

I was about 13 when an uncle gave me a copy of Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World. It was full of ideas that were new to me, so I spent the summer with my head in and out of that book. It spoke to me and brought me into a world of philosophy(哲学).

That love for philosophy lasted until I got to college. Nothing kills the love for philsosphy faster than people who think they understand Foucault, Baudrillard, or Confucius better than yo- and then try to explain them.

Eric weiner's The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers reawakened my love for philssophy. It is not an explanation, but an invitation to think and experience philosophy.

Weiner stara each chapter with a scene on a train ride between cities and then frames each philosopher's work in the centext(背景)of one thing they can help us do better. The end result is a read in which we learn to wonder like Socrates, see like Thoreau, listen like Schopenhauer, and have no re-grets like Nietzsche. This, more than a book about undestanding philosophy ,is a book abour learning to use philosophy to improve a life.

He makes philosopical thought an appealing exercise that improves the quality of our experiences,and he does so with plenty of humor. Weiner enters into conversation with some of the most important philosophers in history,and he becomes part of that crowd in the process by decoding(解读)their mssages and adding his own interpretation.