Nothing says love like a dozen long – stemmed roses on Valentine’s Day. More than a million roses will be sold during this festival for lovers, the biggest day of the year for the nation’s rose industry. It’s going to remain the most popular flower because love never goes out of style.
Yes, a rose is a rose is a rose. But selling them is no longer a beautiful experience for traditional flower shops. Supermarkets now offer convenience to the busy and discount rose shops help those hopelessly in love save money. Roses only is a good example of a discount rose retailer that was transformed from a traditional shop to answer the challenge in the’ 90s.
Inside this store on Sixth Avenue near 40 th Street, contemporary white furniture and wall – to – wall mirrors give it an expensive look. Customers move about freely among the counters, looking eagerly at the roses in more than 50 colors from shelf to shelf. Some customers say it’s the high quality of the roses that attracts them there. “I spent $ 20 but the flowers looked like I paid 60 or 70 dollars,” says one customer.
Studies show more people are buying roses in ones, two and threes these days. In fact, more than half of all roses are sold in bunches of fewer than a dozen. But Roses Only's low prices encourage people to spend. Even on Valentine's Day, when the price of a dozen roses and delivery can soar as high as $150, 12 of Roses Only's most expensive flowers sell for just $35. The company's key to success is to hold prices down by controlling every link in the rose chain. It grows its own roses in the sunshine of the Andes Mountains. In addition, the company also sells other items such as ballons and stuffed animals.
While discount rose retailers are witnessing their business bloom, U.S. rose growers aren’t able to compete with the fierce foreign competition. More than 57% of roses sold in the USA are grown in other countries. The biggest foreign producers are Colombia and Ecuador, which accounted for almost 90% of the total imported last year. The trend has hurt domestic rose growers such as Johnson Flowers of California, considered to be this country's leading producer.
Now, instead of fighting overseas rivals, the Johnsons are trying to work with them. "We have a few big fighting overseas rivals, the Johnsons are trying to work with them. “We may also widen our business to include the service area and be a representative for overseas flower producers.”
As a result of severe competition, those in the rose business long for the good old days, whereas ordinary people benefit from the low price.
60．What is the central theme of this text?
A．The US rose business is going from bad to worse in spite of the efforts made.
B．The rose will remain the most popular flower as love never goes out of date.
C．The rose business is trying to meet the challenges in the market to succeed.
D．The rose industry plays an important role in American economy.
61．How does Roses Only obtain success in the discount rose retailing field?
A．By setting up more chain stores across the country.
B．By selling roses in supermarkets.
C．By selling high quality roses at a low price.
D．By selling roses by the dozen.
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62．Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
(①to ⑦ represent paragraphs 1 to 7)I opened my new patient's chart and headed for her room. My son, Eric, had just brought home a disappointing report card, and my daughter, Shannon, and I had argued again about her getting a driver's license. For the next eight hours I wanted to throw myself into helping people who I knew had much more to worry about than I did. Rebekah, mother of three lovely little girls, was only 32, admitted for chemotherapy after breast-cancer surgery, When I gave her an injection, Rebekah shut her eyes tightly and murmured a prayer until it was over. Then she smiled and squeezed my hand. “Before you go, could you get my Bible from the table?" I handed her the worn book. "Do you have a favorite Bible verse?" she asked. "Jesus wept. John 11: 35." "Such a sad one," she said. "Why?""It makes me feel closer to Jesus, knowing he also experienced human sorrow." Rebekah nodded thoughtfully and started flipping through her Bible as I shut the door quietly behind me.
During the following months, her hospital stays became frequent and she worried about her children. One day when I entered her room, I found her talking into a tape recorder. She picked up a notebook and held it out to me. "I'm making a tape for my daughters, " she said. I read the list on her pad: starting school, confirmation, turning 16, first date, graduation. While I worried how to help her deal with death, she was planning for her children's future. She usually waited until the early hours of the morning to record the tapes so she could be free from interruptions. She filled them with family stories and advice，trying to cram a lifetime of love into a few precious hours. Finally, every item in her notes had been checked off and she entrusted the tapes to her husband.
I often wondered what I would say in her place. My kids joked that I was like an FBI agent, with my constant questions about where they’d been and who they’d been with. Where, I thought, are my words of encouragement and love?
It was three o'clock one afternoon when I got an urgent call from the hospital. Rebekah wanted me to come immediately with a blank tape. She was breathing hard when I entered her room. I slipped the tape into the recorder and held the microphone to her lips. "Ruthie, Hannah, Molly, this is the most important tape." She held my hand and closed her eyes. "Someday your daddy will bring home a new mommy. Please make her feel special. Show her how to take care of you. Ruthie, honey, help her get your Brownie uniform ready each Tuesday. Hannah, tell her you don't want meat sauce on your spaghetti. Molly, don't get mad if there's no apple juice. Drink something else. It's okay to be sad, sweeties. Jesus cried too. He knows about sadness and will help you to be happy again. Remember, I'll always love you. I shut off the recorder and Rebekah sighed deeply. "Thank you, Nan, "You'll give this one to them, won't you?" she murmured as she slid into sleep.
A time would come when the tape would be played for Rebekah's children, but right then, after I smoothed Rebekah's blanket, I got in my car and hurried home. I thought of how my Shannon also liked her sauce on the side and suddenly that quirk, which had annoyed me so many times, seemed to make her so much more precious. That night the kids didn't go out; they sat with me long after the spaghetti sauce had dried onto the dishes. And we talked, without interrogations, without complaints，late into the night.From the first paragraph we can learn that ____________ .
| A．Nan was in a bad state and wept a lot in her daily life. |
| B．Nan was not on good terms with her children. |
| C．Nan was worried about how to help Rebeka deal with her death. |
| D．Nan laid more stress on attending on her patients than her children. |
Which of the following scenes was most likely to be seen at Nan’s home before she met Rebekah?
| A．The family sat down in a circle and shared an interesting story. |
| B．After dinner, the children either went out or shut themselves up in their rooms. |
| C．The son was the headache of the parents while the daughter their comfort. |
| D．When Eric did poorly at school, the parents comforted him and cheered him up. |
Which was the most vital message Rebekah left to her children?
| A．Bringing home satisfying school report cards |
| B．Landing a job after graduation |
| C．Growing up healthily and happily |
| D．Accepting their step-mother into their lives. |
The writer learnt from Rebekah that a parent’s real concern should be_______. .
| A．protecting the children from the dangers they may be trapped in. |
| B．having encouraging and loving talks with children. |
| C．making tape records to guide the children in their future lives. |
| D．tolerating the children’s annoying quirks. |
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there's a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will hurt you long-term regardless of your skills or the job's pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas;
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating（使孤立）jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don't happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers？
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you'll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy？
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won't know immediately to a smaller setting where you'll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I've seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Isolating jobs usually drive people mad. |
| B．Interactive jobs make people shy easily. |
| C．Extreme people tend to work with others. |
| D．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs. |
What does the underlined sentence in paragraph one mean?
| A．Before you select your job, you should assess your skills and match them with your position |
| B．There are more important things than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job. |
| C．Nothing is important than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job. |
| D．You should ignore your skills when you select job. |
What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?
| A．Design. | B．Changes. | C．Cooperation. | D．Hobbies. |
There is no doubt that Apple is well aware of the increased competition in the market and could be in a hurry to put another product out there, said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst at IDC Mobile Devices Technology and Trends. Given its history with product launches and business policy, though, Apple probably isn’t going to rush an iPhone release simply to put it on shelves, he said.
“If you’re Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), you’re thinking if you want to pay more attention to how to keep growing that bottom line and keep investors(投资人) happy, or continue with the same approach from Apple, which is do what we can do and manage products and releases in the best way they can work for us. Apple usually does things in their own time, and I’m having a hard time buying this May or June timeline.” Llamas told Mac News World.
While it’s probable that Apple is surely in a testing stage for its next smartphone, consumers likely have a standard wait for the finished product, said Colin Gibbs, analyst at GigaOm Pro.
“It typically takes a year or longer to create a state-of-the-art smartphone, so no one should be surprised Apple is in the testing stages with the next iPhone. And while it’s possible that Apple could launch the next iPhone this spring or summer, I’m not expecting to see it until a little later in the year,” he told Mac News World.
When it does launch, though, it could be in a variety of colors, said Gibbs. “Apple has already tested the waters with releasing colored products when it revamped (更新，翻新）its iPod line last fall, so it is understood that it would want the new change with its smartphone, as well”.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the new iPhone becomes available in some new colors,’’ he said. “That could be done pretty cheaply, and it would give Apple a new marketing angle.”According to Ramon Llamas, Apple always ______.
| A．tries to please its investors |
| B．rushes to put new products to market |
| C．ignores the fierce market competition |
| D．does things as planned |
As for the next iPhone, Colin Gibbs didn’t mention ______.
| A．the stage of its being tested |
| B．the rough time of its being released |
| C．the function to be improved |
| D．the wide variety of its color |
What’s Colin Gibbs’ attitude towards the next iPhone?
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent (漠不关心的). | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
This passage is presented in the form of ______.
| A．stories | B．comments | C．advertisements | D．debates |
Eddie’s father used to say he’d spent so many years by the ocean, breathing seawater. Now, away from that ocean, in the hospital bed, his body began to look like a beached fish. His condition went from fair to stable and from stable to serious. Friends went from saying, “He’ll be home in a day,” to “He’ll be home in a week.” In his father’s absence, Eddie helped out at the pier (码头), working evenings after his taxi job.
When Eddie was a teenager, if he ever complained or seemed bored with the pier, his father would shout, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?” And later, when he’d suggested Eddie take a job there after high school, Eddie almost laughed, and his father again said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?” And before Eddie went to war, when he’d talked of marrying Marguerite and becoming an engineer, his father said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?”
And now, regardless of all that, here he was, at the pier, doing his father’s labor.
Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. It is not until much later, as the heart weakens, that children understand: their stories, and all their achievements, sit on top of the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.
Finally, one night, at his mother’s urging, Eddie visited the hospital. He entered the room slowly. His father, who for years had refused to speak to Eddie, now lacked the strength to even try.
“Don’t sweat it, kid,” the other workers told him. “Your old man will pull through. He’s the toughest man we’ve ever seen.”
When the news came that his father had died, Eddie felt the emptiest kind of anger, the kind that circles in its cage.
In the weeks that followed, Eddie’s mother lived in a confused state. She spoke to her husband as if he were still there. She yelled at him to turn down the radio. She cooked enough food for two. One night, when Eddie offered to help with the dishes, she said, “Your father will put them away.” Eddie put a hand on her shoulder. “Ma,” he said, softly, “Dad’s gone.”“Gone where?”In Paragraph four, the writer wants to say that __________.
| A．Children wouldn’t have achieved so much without their parents’ support |
| B．Children often feel regretful because they leave their parents |
| C．Children like moving away from their parents |
| D．Children can never understand how much their parents have devoted to them |
The underlined sentence “Don’t sweat it” (Para. 6) probably means __________.
| A．Don’t touch it | B．Don’t worry about it |
| C．Don’t let him down | D．Don’t give it up |
Which of the following shows the right order of the story?
a. Eddie’s father died.
b. Eddie married Marguerite.
c. Eddie worked as a taxi driver.
d. Eddie was bored with his father’s job.
| A．dbca | B．dcab | C．bcda | D．bacd |
From the last paragraph, we learn that __________.
| A．Eddie’s mother liked to listen to the radio |
| B．Eddie and his wife lived in his mother’s apartment |
| C．Eddie’s mother missed her husband so much that she was at a loss |
| D．Eddie often helped his mother wash the dishes |
We all know what it is like to be unable to turn your head because of a cold in the muscles of your neck, or because an unexpected twist has made your neck ache and stiff. Your whole body feels tight. The slightest move makes you jump with pain. Nothing could be worse than a pain in the neck. That is why we use phrase to describe some people who give you the same feeling. We have all met such people.
One is the man who always seems to be clapping his hands—often at the wrong time—during a performance in the theater. He keeps you from hearing the actors.
Even worse are those who can never arrive before the curtain goes up and play begins. They come hurrying down to your row of seats. You are comfortably settled down, with your hat and heavy coat in your lap. You must stand up to let them pass. You are proud of your self-control after they have settled into their seats…Well, what now…Good God, one of them is up again. He forgot to go to the men’s room, and once more you have to stand up, hanging on to your hat and coat to let him pass. Now, that is “a pain in the neck.”
Another, well-known to us all, is the person sitting behind you in the movies. His mouth is full of popcorn; he is chewing loudly, or talking between bites to friends next to him. None of them remain still. Up and down, back and forth, they go for another bag of popcorn, or something to drink.
Then, there is the main sitting next to you at a lunch counter smoking a smelly cigar. He wants you to enjoy it too, and blows smoke across your food into your mouth.
We must not forget the man who comes into a bus or subway car and sits down next to you, just as close as you will let him. You are reading the newspaper and he leans over and stretches his neck so that he can read the paper with you. He may even turn the paper to the next page before you are ready for it.
We also call such a person a “rubberneck”, always putting out his neck to where it does not belong, like neighbors who watch all your visitors. They enjoy invading your privacy. People have a strong dislike for rubbernecks. They hate being spied upon.Where can you find this passage?
| A．Medicine dictionaries. | B．A travel guide. |
| C．Social science books. | D．Students text books. |
How do you feel when late comers walk back and forth in front of you in a cinema?
| A．Disturbed. | B．Ignored. | C．Bored. | D．Relaxed. |
A “rubberneck” often .
| A．says bad words behind people |
| B．quarrels face to face with neighbors |
| C．bargains the price with sales women |
| D．asks about other people’s business |
Which of the follow is “a pain in the neck”?
| A．Someone who helps you find your seat in a movie theatre. |
| B．Someone who smokes in a smoking section on a train. |
| C．Someone who throws trash out of his car window on the highway. |
| D．Someone who goes to the doctor for his severe pain on the neck. |
