Every year, it costs British students more and more to attend university. Students are graduating with larger and larger debts. So is a college degree really worth it?
In 2006, the UK government started to allow universities in England and Wales to charge British students tuition fees (学费). As a result, more than 80 percent of students in England and Wales now take out a student loan (贷款) in order to go to university.
They use the loan to pay for tuition fees and living expenses. Although the interest on student loans is quite low, it begins as soon as the student receives the loan.
The average student in England and Wales now graduates from university with a debt of around $12,000 (122,952yuan). It means graduates have to struggle to pay rent on a flat, because they have to start paying back the student loan when they reach the April after graduating. If you start to earn over $ 15,000 (153,639yuan) a year, the government takes repayments directly from your monthly salary.
You might think that a person with a degree would find it easy to get a well-paid job. However, most people in “white collar jobs” seem to have a degree, so there is a lot of competition. Also, British companies tend to value work experience over a piece of paper.
All of the above is beginning to make British people question whether a university degree is really worth the money. Even before the credit crisis started, the BBC stated: “The number of British students at UK universities has fallen for the first time in recent history, from 1.97 million in 2007 to 1.96 million last year (2008).”
“Student poverty” is now considered a real problem. Meanwhile, the British universities offer more and more of the available places to richer international students rather than poorer British students. What does the future hold for British higher education?
61. What makes British students question the worth of a university degree?
A. Higher university expenses. B. Lower education quality.
C. A higher interest rate on student loans D. Grater difficulty obtaining student loans.
62. According to the article, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. University tuition fees in all parts of Britain have been on the rise since 2006.
B. Interest on a student loan starts as soon as the student receives it.
C. People have always questioned the worth of a university degree.
D. University graduates need to pay off their loans right upon graduation.
63. Which of the following is NOT a factor that concerns a British university graduate?
A. Fierce competition in the job market. B. The burden of a large debt.
C. Lack of experience. D. Fewer job openings.
64. What is the title of this passage?
A. Student poverty B. Is college worth it?
C. The UK government started to charge students tuition fees.
D. British students use the loan to pay for tuition fees and living expenses.
When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet (图章) ring. They were the "in" thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials (姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.
What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn't being "replaced". We'd been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the “new" stuff (东西) we got was really just to replace what we'd lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.
Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took it off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.
Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents' when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn't my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. “You’ll recognize this one," she said, smiling.
Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it, they realized who owned the ring. They'd had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.The underlined word "in" in the first paragraph probably means "_____".
| A．practical | B．available | C．fashionable | D．renewable |
When she got the ring back, the writer was about _____.
| A．13 years old | B．15 years old |
| C．26 years old | D．28 years old |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The writer's family moved several times. |
| B．The writer never stopped looking for her ring. |
| C．The writer lost her ring in the morning when she took it off. |
| D．The writer's ring was cleaned up by the new house owner. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．My New Ring | B．Lost and Replaced |
| C．Lost and Found | D．An Expensive Ring |
Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know, however, that they existed over 5,500 years ago in ancient Asia.
The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5,100 years old. Evidence suggests that wheels for transport didn't become popular for a while, though. This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.
But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roads with smooth surfaces weren't going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them. Eventually, road surfaces did become smoother, but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modem road design.
In the mid-1700s, a Frenchman came up with a new design of road—a base layer (层) of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller stones. A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lasting road surface became a reality. At around the same lime, metal hubs (the central part of a wheel) came into being, followed by the pneumatic tyre(充气轮胎) in 1846. Alloy wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmac roads (柏油路). As wheel design took off, vehicles got faster and faster.What might explain why transport wheels didn't become popular for some time?
| A．The existence of transport wheels was not known. |
| B．Humans carried farming tools just as well. |
| C．Animals were a good means of transport. |
| D．Few knew how to use transport wheels. |
What do we know about road design from the passage?
| A．It provided conditions for wheel design to develop. |
| B．It was easier than wheel design. |
| C．It was promoted by fast-moving vehicles. |
| D．It improved after big changes in vehicle design. |
How is the last paragraph mainly developed?
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By following time order. |
| D．By making classifications. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The beginning of road design. |
| B．The history of public transport. |
| C．His invention of fast-moving vehicles. |
| D．The development of transport wheels. |
In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I’d hitch a ride (搭便车).
I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn’t give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured （使…放心）me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.
Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I’d been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.
After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven’t changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.” I couldn’t remember where I’d met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.The author had to hitch a ride one day in 1978 because ______.
| A．she was going home for her holidays |
| B．she missed the only train back home |
| C．the town was far away from Sydney |
| D．her work delayed her trip to Sydney |
Which of the following did Gordon do according to Paragraph 2?
| A．He watched the girl for three hours. |
| B．He gave the girl a ride back home. |
| C．He bought sandwiches for the girl. |
| D．He helped the girl find a ride. |
The reason why the author offered a lift to the elderly man was that ______.
| A．she had known him for decades |
| B．she realized he was Gordon |
| C．she wanted to repay the favour she once got |
| D．she was going to the nearby town |
What does the author want to tell the readers through the story?
| A．Giving sometimes produces nice results. |
| B．People should offer free rides to others. |
| C．Good manners bring about happiness. |
| D．Those who give rides will be rapid. |
I have had just about enough of being treated like a second-class citizen, simply because I happen to be that unfairly treated member of society --- a customer. The more I go into shops and hotels, banks and post offices, railway stations, airports and the like, the more I am convinced the things are being run merely to suit the firm, the system, or the union. There seems to be a deceptive (欺骗的) new motto for so-called “service” organizations --- Staff Before Service.
How often, for example, have you queued for what seems like hours at the Post Office or the supermarket because there was not enough staff on duty to manage all the service grilles or checkout counters? Surely in these days of high unemployment it must be possible to hire cashiers and counter staff. Yet supermarkets, hinting darkly at higher prices, claim that uncovering all their cash registers at any one time would increase operating costs. And the Post Office says we cannot expect all their service grilles to be occupied “at times when demand is low”.
It is the same with hotels. Because waiters and kitchen staff must finish when it suits them, dining rooms close earlier or menu choice is cut short. As for us guests, we just have to put up with it. There is also the nonsense of so many friendly hotel night porters having been thrown out of their jobs in the interests of “efficiency” and replaced by coin-eating machines which offer everything. Not to mention the tea-making kit in your room a kettle with a mixed collection of tea bags, plastic milk boxes and lump sugar. Who wants to wake up to a raw teabag? I do not, especially when I am paying for “service”.
Can it be stopped, this worsening of service, this growing attitude that the customer is always a trouble? I angrily hope so because it is happening, sadly, in all walks of life.
Our only hope is to hammer home our anger whenever and wherever we can and, if all else fails, bring back into practice that other, older slogan --- Take Our Deal Elsewhere.The writer feels that nowadays customers __________.
| A．have become victims of modern organizations |
| B．are unworthy of proper consideration |
| C．have received high quality service |
| D．deserve the lowest status in society |
The writer argues that the quality of service is changing because __________.
| A．customers’ demands have greatly changed |
| B．customers’ needs have become more complex |
| C．the staff receive more consideration than customers |
| D．staff members are less considerate than their employers |
According to the writer, long queues at counters are caused by __________.
| A．not having enough male staff on duty |
| B．difficulties in hiring more efficient staff |
| C．not providing enough staff on purpose to reduce budget |
| D．lack of cooperation between staff members |
The writer suggests that a customer __________.
| A．go to other places where good service is available |
| B．put up with the rude manners of the staff |
| C．try to control his temper when ill-treated |
| D．be patient when queuing before checkout counters |
They once seemed more at home on the busy streets of Asia like Delhi, Calcutta and Bangkok but cycle powered rickshaws (人力车) can now be seen taking people across town in many European cities. Many people believe that rickshaws are a good way of experiencing a city close-up, while also cutting down on traffic jams and pollution. In Berlin, one of the first cities to introduce this new model of transport, more than 200 bike-taxis go along at 15km per hour, past many tourist attractions and city parks.
“It is completely environmentally friendly; we have new models with an engine to help the driver up the hills but they use renewable energy.” said a spokesman for VELOTAXI, the leading rickshaw company which has carried a quarter of a million people this year.
While the city still has 7,000 motor-taxis, rickshaw company officials say their taxis’ green ideas, speed and safety make them more than just a tourist attraction. While now increasingly out of fashion in Delhi, Berlin people have eagerly accepted the new fleet since their launch in 1997.
“It’s better than a taxi, better than a bus, better than the train,” said ULF Lehman, 36, as he leapt out of a rickshaw near the world famous Brandenburg gate. “It feels so free.”
“This is something out of the ordinary, you feel you are on holiday in Bangkok instead of Berlin,” said another traveler.
In Amsterdam, driver Peter Jancso said people like to be driven around in his bright yellow rickshaw and pretend to be a queen in a golden carriage. “I like my passengers to feel important,” he said as he dropped off another passenger. Another visitor noted how cheap it was compared with a normal taxi.
Although increasingly popular in Europe, it is the opposite in India, where hand-pulled rickshaws are considered inhuman and a symbol of India’s backward past.
Nearly 500 bike-rickshaws are running in London and are not required to pay the city’s road tax but things may change as other taxi drivers complain of unfair treatment.Where are rickshaws becoming more popular?
| A．Delhi, Berlin, Paris. | B．Berlin, Amsterdam, London. |
| C．Athens, London, Berlin. | D．Amsterdam, Bangkok, Delhi. |
Why are rickshaws no longer as widely used in India as in the past?
| A．They have been banned because they are inefficient. |
| B．They are a reminder of a bad period in India’s history. |
| C．The streets of India are too crowded for them to move through easily. |
| D．Indians now prefer to travel by car because they are richer. |
What does the underlined sentence “This is something out of the ordinary, you feel you are on holiday in Bangkok instead of Berlin” suggest?
| A．The passenger didn’t like taking a rickshaw as it reminded him of Bangkok. |
| B．The passenger was impressed when taking a rickshaw and considered it unusual. |
| C．The passenger enjoyed being on holiday in Berlin more than in Bangkok. |
| D．The passenger disapproved of rickshaws because they were not original to |
Berlin.What is the author’s attitude towards rickshaws?
| A．He thinks they will reduce pollution |
| B．He believes they will be of no use. |
| C．He gives no personal opinion. |
| D．He thinks they are old-fashioned. |