The market is a concept. If you are growing tomatoes in your backyard for sale you are producing for the market. You might sell some to your neighbour and some to the manager of the local supermarket. But in either case, you are producing for the market. Your efforts are being directed by the market. If people stop buying tomatoes, you will stop producing them.
If you take care of a sick person to earn money, you are producing for the market. If your father is a steelworker or a taxi driver or a doctor or a grocer(杂货商), he is producing goods or service for the market.
When you spend your income, you are buying things from the market. Yon may spend money in stores, supermarkets and gas stations. Still you are buying from the market. When the local grocer hires you to drive the delivery truck, he is buying your labor in the labour market.
The market may seem to be something abstract(抽象的). But for each person or businessman who is making and selling somethi
ng, it is real. If nobody buys your tomatoes, it won’t be long before you get the message. The market is telling you something. It’s telling you that you are using energies and resources in doing something the market doesn’t want you to do.
67. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. Selling and Buying
B. What Is the Market?
C. Everything Yon Do is Producing for the Market
D. What Can the Market Do for You?
68. All of the following acts are producing for the market EXCEPT_______.
A. working in a bank B. printing a book
C. attending a night school D. growing beans for sale
69. You are buying from the market when you_______.
A. borrow a book from a library B. look after your children
C. drive to the seaside for a holiday D. treat a friend to dinner at a restaurant
70. In what way is the market very real for each person or businessman who is making and selling something?
A. It tells you what to produce.
B. It directs you how to grow tomatoes.
C. It provides you with everything you need.
D. It helps you save money.
People in the United States love their dogs and treat them well. They take their dogs for walks, let them play outside and give them good food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for them lead a different kind of life. The expression, “to lead a dog’s life”, describes a person who lives an unhappy life.
Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.
Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.
Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described as meaner than a junkyard dog. Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. Mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark at or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad. We say his bark is worse than his bite.
Husbands and wives use this doghouse term when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for coming home late or forgetting their wedding anniversary. She might tell him that he is in the doghouse. She may not treat him nicely until he apologizes. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide to let sleeping dogs lie.
Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.To achieve success, you must____________.
| A．work like a dog | B．feel dog-tired |
| C．become sick as a dog | D．be meaner than a junkyard dog |
To everyone’s surprise, Jack has been employed by a big company, about which we can say, “______”.
| A．Jack works like a dog |
| B．Every dog has its day |
| C．His bark is worse than his bite |
| D．Jack really lives in a dog-eat-dog world |
If you are in the doghouse,_________.
| A．you must be forgetful |
| B．someone is annoyed with you |
| C．you are living a hard life |
| D．you can get along with your partner |
What kind of people live a difficult life?
| A．Those who is in the doghouse. |
| B．Those who have the dog’s. |
| C．Those who lead a dog’s life. |
| D．Those whose bark is worse than his bite. |
What does the article mainly talk about?
| A．Dogs’ life in America. | B．How to treat dogs well. |
| C．Why Americans love dogs. | D．Expressions with the word “dog”. |
Children form opinions about drugs and alcohol at a very early age. Even four and five year olds have definite opinions about alcohol. Preschoolers, because of the commercials they see on TV, often think that alcohol helps people have more fun and be better athletes! Images of alcohol are everywhere in out society—consumption of alcohol is represented twice per hour in daytime shows, and three times in an average evening program.
Despite the wide spread of alcohol in our society, and the problems that can be connected with it, many parents feel uncomfortable when talking about alcohol with their children, or are not sure when and how to start. Many parents believe that teenage drinking is something that their children would never be involved in.
Unfortunately, teenage drinking is very common in North Dakota. In a state wide survey of adolescents in junior and senior high school. Only 24% claimed to have never consumed alcohol. When asked about their drinking in the past 30 days:
·61% adolescents reported drinking
·42% drank five or more drinks in a row
·17% reported binge drinking
·4.2% reported driving and drinking
Other research on rural youth in North Dakota has found that about 10% of a sample of fifth and sixth graders were engaged in frequent drinking. Teenagers who reported alcohol use (especially those who began use in late elementary school and junior high school) were more likely to be depressed, feel less positive about both their family and friends, and have poorer grades.
Research has found that children and even teenagers look to their parents in making decisions about important things in their life. Decisions about using alcohol are undoubtedly something that parents will want to provide guidance about. Here are some suggestions about talking to children about alcohol.The author’s attitude towards images of alcohol is ___________.
| A．negative | B．responsible |
| C．shocking | D．positive |
We can infer from Paragraph 2 that _____________.
| A．many parents don’t realize the seriousness of teenage drinking |
| B．many parents feel uncomfortable with teenage drinking |
| C．many children would never be involved in teenage drinking |
| D．alcohol is a general topic between parents and children |
Which of the following is a misguided idea?
| A．Teenagers involved in drinking tend to have poorer grades. |
| B．Teenagers involved in drinking alcohol tend to be better athletes. |
| C．Teenagers reporting alcohol use are more likely to be depressed. |
| D．Teenagers reporting alcohol use feel less positive about their family. |
What will the article probably talk about next?
| A．How to be supportive of your children. |
| B．Means of teaching children to make important decisions. |
| C．Advice about talking to children about alcohol. |
| D．Why teenagers look to their parents in making decisions. |
Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
| A．Keeping Away from Alcohol |
| B．Teenage Drinking Becoming Very Common |
| C．Tips on How to Talk to Children about Alcohol |
| D．Talking with Young Children about Alcohol |
Laws that would have ensured pupils from 5 to 16 to receive a full financial education got lost in the ‘wash up’. An application is calling on the next government to bring it back.
At school the children are taught to add up and subtract(减法) but, extraordinarily, are not routinely shown how to open a bank account — let alone how to manage their finances in an increasingly complex and demanding world.
Today the parenting website Mumsnet and the consumer campaigner Martin Lewis have joined forces to launch an online application to make financial education a compulsory element of the school curriculum in England. Children from 5 to 16 should be taught about everything from pocket money to pensions, they say. And that was exactly the plan preserved in the Children, Schools and Families bill that was shelved by the government in the so-called “wash-up” earlier this month — the rush to legislation before parliament was dismissed. Consumer and parent groups believe financial education has always been one of the most frustrating omissions of the curriculum.
As the Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg) points out, the good habits of young children do not last long. Over 75% of seven- to-eleven-year-olds are savers but by the time they get to 17, over half of them are in debt to family and friends. By this age, 26% see a credit card or overdraft(透支) as a way of extending their spending power. Pfeg predicts that these young people will “find it much harder to avoid the serious unexpected dangers that have befallen many of their parents' generation unless they receive good quality financial education while at school.”
The UK has been in the worst financial recession(衰退)for generations. It does seem odd that — unless parents step in — young people are left in the dark until they are cruelly introduced to the world of debt when they turn up at university. In a recent poll of over 8,000 people, 97% supported financial education in schools, while 3% said it was a job for parents.
| A．how to manage school lessons |
| B．how to deal with the financial crisis |
| C．teaching young people about money |
| D．teaching students how to study effectively |
| A．the author complains about the school education |
| B．pupils should not be taught to add up and subtract |
| C．students have been taught to manage their finances |
| D．laws on financial education have been effectively carried out |
| A．instruct the pupils to donate their pocket money |
| B．promote the connection of schools and families |
| C．ask the government to dismiss the parliament |
| D．appeal for the curriculum of financial education |
| A．stress the necessity of the curriculum reform |
| B．show the seriousness of the financial recession |
| C．make the readers aware of burden of the parents |
| D．illustrate some people are strongly against the proposal |
The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a potential hunger crisis in poor countries and an energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years. And oil prices have increased more than three times since the start of 2004.These food-price increases, combined with increasing energy costs, will slow if not stop economic growth in many parts of the world and will even affect political stability. Practical solutions to these problems do exist, but we’ll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally.
Here are three steps to ease the current food crisis and avoid the potential for a global crisis. The first is to promote the dramatic success of Malawi, a country in southern Africa, which three years ago established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and seeds with high productivity. Malawi’s harvest doubled after just one year. An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $10 per person annually in the rich world, or $10 billion altogether.
Second, the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of paying partly for the change of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed payment of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol(乙醇) changed from corn. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods but tree crops, grass and wood products, but there’s no case for the government to pay to put the world’s dinner into the gas tank.
Third, we urgently need to weather-proof the world’s crops as soon and as effectively as possible. For a poor farmer, sometimes something as simple as a farm pond—which collects rainwater to be used in dry weather—can make the difference between a good harvest and a bad one. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation Fund to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise.
| A．cost each of the developed countries $10 billion per year |
| B．aim to double the harvest in southern African countries in a year |
| C．decrease the food prices as well as the energy prices |
| D．give poor farmers access to fertilizer and highly productive seeds |
| A．it is not wise to change food crops into gas |
| B．it is misleading to put tree crops into the gas tank |
| C．we should get alternative forms of fuel in any way |
| D．biofuels should be developed on a large scale |
| A．slow down but not to stop economic growth |
| B．develop tree crops, grass and wood products |
| C．achieve economic growth and political stability |
| D．act now so as to relieve the global food shortage |
It is common to have difficulties sleeping during the day. Humans are naturally wired to sleep best at night and be awake during the day. However, modern work schedules require some people to try to accommodate the unnatural schedule of shift(轮班)work — being awake at night and sleeping during the day.
In order to make this adjustment, you need to pay special attention to your sleep environment and your preparation for sleep. If shift work is a necessary part of your work life, here are some suggestions that may help.
Arrange to sleep uninterrupted in a quiet, dark room. This means you may have to turn off or unplug your phone, hang darkening curtains on the windows or wear a sleep eye mask, and train your family and friends to leave you alone while you sleep.
Fit in a nap(小睡). When your daytime sleep period is too short, taking a short nap of less than 30 minutes just before work or on a break has been shown to improve alertness and enhance performance.
Develop and follow a sleep routine. It's best if you go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Try not to vary this too much at weekends. Your body likes routine.
Take extra care to make healthy choices. You may be tempted to reach for unhealthy foods or nicotine to stay awake or alcohol to try to sleep. But ultimately these choices are more harmful than helpful.
If you have tried all these things and are still having problems getting enough quality sleep during the day, talk to your doctor or a sleep specialist. Sometimes medications(药物治疗)may be helpful and safe. In other cases, there may be an underlying sleep disorder that needs to be addressed.
| A．persuade workers to have a good sleep. |
| B．advise night workers to keep healthy |
| C．encourage workers to do day work |
| D．help night workers to sleep well |
| A．A suitable amount of alcohol to help sleep. |
| B．A regular life on weekdays and weekends. |
| C．A dark room without phones to sleep in. |
| D．A break for sleeping anytime during the day. |
| A．If he suffers from a sleep disorder for the first time. |
| B．If a good sleep environment is greatly needed for him. |
| C．If he fails to get quality sleep through his own efforts. |
| D．If he has the problem of falling asleep in the daytime. |
| A．night workers need a long time to fall asleep |
| B．constant breaks at work help to improve performance |
| C．it is difficult to create a good sleep environment |
| D．night work requires people to adjust their body clocks |