If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.
Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz with a fare of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least sign of anxiety.
The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration card to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.
The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the rate. From then on they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.
With so many loopholes(漏洞) in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take “petty advantages”. But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”.
In a society of such high moral practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others? While taking a taxi in Finland, a passenger __________.
| A．can go anywhere without having to pay the driver |
| B．only pays two US dollars for a taxi ride |
| C．can never be turned down by the taxi driver wherever he wants to go |
| D．needs to provide good faith demonstration before leaving without paying |
We can know from the passage that in Finland __________.
| A．both hotel guests and outside diners are served food free of charge |
| B．big hotels provide meals for all kinds of diners |
| C．guests can enjoy free food once they stayed in the hotel |
| D．big hotels are mostly poorly managed |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Generally speaking, in Finland, workers can get more pay by working long hours. |
| B．The workers and their bosses will make an agreement in advance about the pay. |
| C．The workers are always honest with their working hours. |
| D．The bosses are too busy to check the working hours of their employees. |
It can be concluded that _________.
| A．Finnish people are really foolish in daily life |
| B．Finland has been a good place for cheats |
| C．the Finnish society is of very high moral level |
| D．all the Finns are rich and therefore honest |
Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth, but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
“Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values-not many children, different attitudes towards life, women working,” says Martine. “They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people aware of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.”According to the passage, Brazil has cut back its population growth _____.
| A．by educating its citizens |
| B．by careful family planning |
| C．by developing TV programmes |
| D．by chance |
What can you infer from the passage about many Third World countries ?
| A．They haven’t attached much importance to birth control. |
| B．They would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate. |
| C．They haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population. |
| D．They neglected the role of TV plays in family planning |
Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate because ______.
| A．they keep people sitting long hours watching TV |
| B．they have gradually changed people’s way of life |
| C．people are drawn to their attractive package |
| D．they popularize birth control measures |
Will it matter if you don't take your breakfast? Recently a test was given in the United States. Those tested included people of different ages, from 12 to 83. During the experiment, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts, and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Special tests were set up to see how well their bodies worked when they had eaten a certain kind of breakfast. The results show that if a person eats a proper breakfast, he or she will work with better effect than if he or she has no breakfast. This fact appears to be especially true if a person works with his brains. If a student eats fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he will learn more quickly and listen with more attention to class.
Opposite to what many people believe, if you don't eat breakfast, you will not lose weight. This is because people become so hungry at noon that they eat too much for lunch, and end up gaining weight instead of losing. You will probably lose more weight if you reduce your other meals.During the test, those who were tested were given ________.
| A．no breakfast at all | B．very rich breakfast |
| C．little food for breakfast | D．different breakfasts or none |
The results of the test show that ________.
| A．breakfast has great effect (影响) on work and studies |
| B．breakfast has little to do with a person’s work |
| C．a person will work better if he has a simple breakfast |
| D．those working with brains should have much for breakfast |
The passage mentions that many people believe that if you don't eat breakfast, you will ____.
| A．lose weight | B．not lose weight | C．be healthier | D．gain a lot of weight |
Which of the following is not true according to the passage?
| A．Poor breakfast affects those who work with brains. |
| B．Morning diet may cause one to get fatter. |
| C．Reducing lunch and supper is of less value in weight losing. |
| D．Eating less in lunch and supper may help to lose weight. |
John keeps a record of new words and expressions in English. He usually writes them in a note-book. Then, later in the day, he asks his teacher about them. “Mrs. Thomas, these expressions are new to me. ‘She’s blue today.’， ‘You’re yellow’, ‘A little white lie’, ‘She has green fingers’.” After looking at the note-book, Mrs. Thomas says, “In everyday English, John，‘blue’ sometimes means sad. ‘Yellow’ means afraid. A person with ‘green fingers’ grows plants successfully. And ‘a white lie’ is not a bad lie.” “I don’t understand. Please give me an example.” “ For example, I offer you some cake. The truth is that you don’t like my cake. You don’t say that. Instead, you say, ‘No, thanks, I'm not hungry.’ That’s a white lie.” John says, “I see , thanks for the explanation!”“Blue” sometimes means in spoken English “_____”.
| A．angry | B．lucky | C．glad | D．unhappy |
A person with “green fingers” is one who _____ planting.
| A．is a new hand in | B．is good at |
| C．works hard at | D．is interested in |
“You’re yellow to fight.” means “_____.”
| A．You dare not fight | B．You dare to fight |
| C．You're afraid to see a fight | D．You’re able to fight |
If you say “It’s a white lie.”, it means that someone _____.
| A．says something unreal and harmful | B．is unfriendly to talk to others |
| C．refuses to tell the truth in a polite way | D．is telling a big lie |
When I was young, my father used to grow carnations(康乃馨) ----- a kind of flower which was red, pink and white. He took care of them with much love and devotion. Every day he came back home from work, he would enjoy watching them. Everyone who saw them admired them for their beauty. And he used to tell us, “No one should touch my flowers.”
One day, my younger sister Clemence, who loved dad very much, wanted to help him. So she cut the carnations from their stems(枝干) one by one and arranged them on the ground. She believed that dad would be very pleased to see them that way.
When mom and I realized what my sister had done, we became completely speechless. However, my sister had no idea why no one showed her any appreciation. When my dad arrived, he went straight to see the flowers as usual. Seeing his flowers lying on the ground like dead animals, he was shocked at first. He looked towards the street to see if it was any of the neighbor’s children who could have done it. Then he looked at mom in silence. Finally mom, who always taught us to tell the truth no matter what, said, “No bad neighbors did this great job, only your lovely daughter Clemence.”
Dad’s face changed into a smile and then he said, “Do I have a better flower than my lovely daughter?” My younger sister smiled and hugged dad strongly.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．No one knew what my sister had done with the carnations. |
| B．My younger sister told my father the truth about the carnations. |
| C．Dad asked my sister to help arrange the carnations on the ground. |
| D．Dad had thought one outsider had cut the flowers from the stems. |
How did Clemence feel when she had the carnations cut?
| A．Lucky | B．Upset | C．Helpful | D．Worried |
What caused my younger sister to smile and hug dad strongly?
| A．dad’s silence | B．mom’s help | C．dad’s love | D．mom’s words |
Which of the following would be the best title?
| A．Telling the truth | B．Dad’s best flower |
| C．My neighbors | D．Growing Carnations |
It is pretty much a one-way street. While it may be common for university researchers to try their luck in the commercial world, there is very little traffic in the opposite direction. Pay has always been the biggest deterrent, as people with families often feel they cannot afford the drop in salary when moving to a university job. For some industrial scientists, however, the attractions of academia (学术界) are more important than any financial considerations.
Helen Lee took a 70% cut in salary when she moved from a senior post in Abbott Laboratories to a medical department at the University of Cambridge. Her main reason for returning to academia in the middle of her career was to take advantage of the greater freedom to choose research questions.
The effect of a salary cut is probably less serious for a scientist in the early stages of a career. Guy Grant, now a research associate at the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge, spent two years working for a pharmaceutical (制药的) company before returning to university as a post-doctoral(博士后的) researcher. He took a 30% salary cut but felt it worthwhile for the greater intellectual opportunities.
Higher up the ladder, where a pay cut is usually more significant, the demand for scientists with a wealth of experience in industry is forcing universities to make the transition (转换) to academia more attractive, according to Lee. Industrial scientists tend to receive training that academics do not, such as how to manage budgets and negotiate contracts. They are also well placed to bring something extra to their teaching that will help students get a job when they graduate, says Lee, perhaps experience in manufacturing practice or product development. “Only a small number of undergraduates will continue in an academic career. So someone leaving university who already has the skills needed to work in an industrial lab has far more potential in the job market than someone who has spent all their time on a narrow research project.”By “a one-way street” (Line 1, Para. 1), the author means ______.
| A．university researchers know little about the commercial world |
| B．there is little exchange between industry and academia |
| C．few industrial scientists would quit to work in a university |
| D．few university professors are willing to do industrial research |
The underlined word “deterrent” (Line 3, Para. 1) most probably refers to something that ______.
| A．keeps someone from taking action |
| B．encourages someone to succeed |
| C．attracts people’s attention |
| D．brings someone a financial burden |
What was Helen Lee’s major consideration when she changed her job in the middle of her career?
| A．Flexible working hours. | B．Her research interests. |
| C．Peaceful life on campus. | D．Her fame in academia. |
What contribution can industrial scientists make when they come to teach in a university?
| A．Increase its graduates’ competitiveness in the job market. |
| B．Develop its students’ potential in research. |
| C．Help to get financial support from industry. |
| D．Get more students interested in the field of industry. |