Home · Level B

The New Domino's Arrives

Bruce Horowitz writes in USA Today that Domino's Pizza is changing its pizza recipe. It will be a completely new pizza with a different crust, cheese, and sauce.

Some observers say that the company is taking a big risk with such a total overhaul of its main product. However, in a 2009 consumer survey, Domino's tied for last place for taste. Domino's was voted the best for convenience and price.

This change is not something that Domino's took lightly. They spent two years testing many different recipes before settling on the new Domino's Pizza.

The company will have an advertising campaign to launch the change that should have spread to all its restaurants by December 27, 2009. After that, look for the company to put out new ads proudly telling the public about the change. The author says that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day for pizza sales and that Domino's “may buy an ad in the big game.”

Everyone has his or her own preferences when it comes to food. It will be interesting to see how well the new Domino's Pizza is received by those who consider pizza to be an important part of their diets.

Answer the following Questions?

1. What is the main idea of this article?

a. Changing a recipe is fun.
b. Domino's Pizza did poorly in taste comparisons.
c. Many people eat pizza on Super Bowl Sunday.
d. Domino's is making a major change to its pizza.

2. Which statement is true?

a. Domino's prices have been rated best.
b. No one likes the taste of the original Domino's pizza.
c. This reading selection tells us which pizza had the highest taste ranking.
d. The new recipe will feature chopped beef liver.

3. The new recipe will __________.

a. certainly make Domino's the most popular pizza in the world
b. be available before the year 2010
c. cost twice as much as the old one
d. only be found in a few Domino's Pizza resaurants

4. What do you think?

Who makes your favorite pizza?

What pizza toppings do you prefer?

Half-Truths

Beware of those who use the truth to deceive. When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can create a false impression.

For example, someone might say, “I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery. It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!”

This guy’s a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought two hundred tickets, and only one was a winner. He’s really a big loser! He didn’t say anything that was false, but he deliberately omitted important information. That’s called a half-truth. Half-truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest.

Untrustworthy candidates in political campaigns often use this tactic. Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents runs an ad saying, “During Governor Smith’s term, the sate lost one million jobs!” That’s true. However an honest statement would have been, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.”

Advertisers will sometimes use half-truths. It’s against the law to make false claims so they try to mislead you with the truth. An ad might boast, “Nine out of ten doctors recommend Yucky Pills to cure nose pimples.” It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Corporation.

This kind of deception happens too often. It’s a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.

Answer the Questions:

1. Which statement is true according to the article?

a. Whenever people tell the truth, they are really lying.
b. You can’t trust gamblers.
c. All governors help their states.
d. The truth can be used in dishonest ways.

2. What does “deceive” mean?

a. removing one’s teeth in public
b. ignore warnings
c. fool
d. repair

3. What does “omitted” mean?

a. spent money
b. left out
c. told about
d. exposed

4. The author clearly wants people to _________.

a. think carefully about what they read and hear
b. wear mismatched socks during political campaigns
c. never trust anyone
d. vote for female candidates

5. Another appropriate title for this selection would be:

a. Natural Cat Food
b. Everyone Lies
c. Lying With the Truth
d. Nose Pimples

Two Sisters and the Cat

Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Smith are sisters. Mrs. Wilson lives in a house in Duncan and Mrs. Smith lives in a condominium in Victoria. One day Mrs. Wilson visited her sister. When her sister answered the door, Mrs. Wilson saw tears in her eyes. "What's the matter?" she asked. Mrs. Smith said "My cat Sammy died last night and I have no place to bury him".

She began to cry again. Mrs. Wilson was very sad because she knew her sister loved the cat very much. Suddenly Mrs. Wilson said "I can bury your cat in my garden in Duncan and you can come and visit him sometimes." Mrs.. Smith stopped crying and the two sisters had tea together and a nice visit.

It was now five o'clock and Mrs. Wilson said it was time for her to go home. She put on her hat, coat and gloves and Mrs. Smith put the dead Sammy into a shopping bag. Mrs. Wilson took the shopping bag and walked to the bus stop. She waited a long time for the bus so she bought a newspaper. When the bus arrived, she got on the bus, sat down and put the shopping bag on the floor beside her feet. She then began to read the newspaper. When the bus arrived at her bus stop, she got off the bus and walked for about two minutes. Suddenly she remembered she had left the shopping bag on the bus.

Answer the Questions:

Where does Mrs. Smith live?

a. in a condominium in Duncan
b. in a condominium in Victoria
c. in a house in Duncan

Why is Mrs. Smith upset?

a. because her sister came to see her cat
b. because her cat died
c. because Mrs. Wilson was sad

What did Mrs. Wilson do?

a. take the cat with her on the bus
b. put her gloves in the shopping bag
c. prepare dinner for her sister

Who did Sammy the cat live with?

a. Mrs. Wilson
b. Mrs. Smith
c. Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Smith

What time did Mrs. Wilson go home?

a. when the bus arrived
b. at 5 p.m.
c. after she walked for two minutes

How did Mrs. Wilson go home?

a. walked for two minutes before she caught the bus
b. read a newspaper on the bus
c. took a bus

What did Mrs. Wilson forget?

a. the newspaper
b. her handbag
c. the shopping bag

Where did Sammy die?

a. in Mrs. Smith's house in Duncan
b. in Mrs. Wilson's garden
c. in Victoria

Emma’s Secret

Emma had kept her secret for so long, letting it grow in her heart. But the secret was so big, she knew she couldn’t keep it inside much longer. She wanted to show people how beautiful it was, like Heaven on Earth, but she wasn’t sure how.

At first she noticed the secret trying to get out when she began smiling at everyone, and they smiled back. Oh, that felt good. So she did it some more. Then she saw her secret working its way out when she talked to people in the grocery store, or on the school playground, or in the neighborhood. She’d say simple things to them like, “Nice weather,” or “I like your baby,” or “Where’d you get those cool shoes?” And they would answer with simple “Yes it is,” or “Thank you,” or “At Penney’s. They’re real comfortable too.” She found that being friendly to others made them friendly to her.

Next she tried telling some of her best jokes to someone she thought might need a good laugh. Then she would get to laugh along with them. And she made and sent cards to people she thought might enjoy some mail. These were things she’d appreciate from others herself.

Then she’d use her imagination to pretend to be a bird, flitting on her tiptoes down the sidewalk, singing happy songs. She liked the way the breeze brushed against her body. Next she tried being a puppy and explored the walking trail in the city park, looking under bushes and growling at squirrels.

She would write silly stories in her notebook and paint watercolor pictures on a tablet to make herself smile. Then she would neatly tear them out and give them to her friends.

Her secret was getting out. She was sharing her happiness with others. At first she was a little afraid she might run out of good feelings for herself, but what she soon discovered was it was quickly being refilled as others shared their happiness with her.

The Fire Fairies AND THE NIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL LIGHT

Dusk.

A cornflower blue sky deepened around brother and sister as they sat by their small campfire. He was six, she was ten. Each was cozy and drowsy after a day of walking high in the mountains with their parents. "Tell me a story," the boy said to his sister for the second time, his eyes now closing. "Your turn," she whispered again, the long trail and thin air catching up to her now. And together, they fell silent, the only sound in the air now the crackle of the fire and the gentle clinking of parents washing pots from dinner, just out of sight.

Then suddenly, a spark caught the boy's eye. He nudged his sister awake. The sky was black and something was in the fire. Like the shimmer of crystal. Fiery, magical shimmers of color streaked through the yellow fire. Neither child spoke for a very long time. Then the girl said, "It's like dancing...."

"And dancing we are!" shot back a voice from the fire. From the fire? It was a voice in only the strangest sense of the word. High and thin, like the squeal of pitch escaping from a burning log. The children were amazed, but not afraid. This dancing light, this tiny voice filled them with something just short of giggles but twice as deep. "What is in our fire?" the girl asked, at last. "Are you alive?"

"As alive as every flame that licks the forest with its hot, tongue and awakens the valley with its burning howl!" screeched the voice, through the crackling. "That sounds scary." said the boy. "They're children. Remember children carry the Original Light," another fiery voice called out, deeper and stronger than the first. "They are young, like you." The voice added.

For a long time, there was no other sound but the snap and spit of the logs. No other light than the flame and embers they has seen on so many trips to the mountains. Then, just as the boy and girl began to nod off once more, it happened. Spectacular fountains of colored light rose and swirled above the fire, which had become larger now. On every log, the yellow flame was separating into many more brilliant lights. Swaying, leaping, swirling, their shapes becoming like dancers. The girl and boy looked at each other in delight. How was it that at this moment, on this mountain, in the deep of black night, that they were watching such wonder?

"I can tell by your eyes we're the first you have seen," the lower voice sighed warmly from the fire. "The first! The first! Let us show them, then, the glory of the Fire Fairies!" squealed the smaller voice. And the sky became a theater of exquisite light and color. The boy, who had sometimes feared the dark, exclaimed to his sister, how splendid and joyful to be surrounded in this way. The girl wondered aloud, where did these dancing lights come from and why were they here?

"The Original Light." Said the deeper voice, plainly. "You will lose it soon, my child, as all the people of flesh and bone do in time. Unless you learn how to tend it while you are still young enough to believe you need it. Though she was only 10, the girl understood. Although it was hard to put into words. "Hard to put into words, yes." Agreed the deep voice, knowing her thoughts as she thought them. "But you must try, you see. And often. That is at the heart of the tending."

Perhaps it was the night air or the excitement of this sublime discovery, but the girl suddenly spoke exactly what she thought. "The Original Light is the place in me where the joyful things live...like hope and wonder and surprise and believing...like believing in this night." She said. The boy, though six, was especially full of the Light, and so, young as he was, he spoke clearly of things that might confuse one much older. "The Original Light is my magic. And my power to see magic...like tooth fairies and Easter bunnies and Santa and other things."

"The Original Light," said the boy, with a smile that was missing two front teeth, "is the power to see the most wonderful things. Even when no one else can see them.

"Like...Martin Luther King."

"Interesting!" "Delightful" "A dance for the boy!" sang many voices at once from the fire. "Martin Luther King kept his light forever," said the deep voice after a long, glimmering dance in, around and above the fire. "The orginal light is about believing."

"I know." Said the boy, so young he still slept with a large, stuffed tiger, even on trips to the mountain.

"I know." Agreed the girl softly.

"You know." sang the fairies, now spreading so far across the sky that the boy wondered if others, if his parents, might be awoken by the light and color and strange song. "You KNOW."

Sparkling, bursting rivers of fiery color filled the eyes of the boy and girl. Brother and sister. Side by side by the fire, which was nothing but a charred piece of log when the distant fire of the sun began a new day on the mountain. And the boy and the girl sat up. And yawned. And wiggled out of their sleeping bags and joined their parents for a breakfast of trout and strawberry bars.

And they said absolutely nothing about the night before. About whether it was real. Or dreamt.

They knew.