Are you a problem shopper? The answer is “Yes”, if you or someone else thinks that you sometimes get carried away with shopping. In other words, do you or does someone else think you are occupied in extreme shopping ? If people have regrets later about their shopping, or have an “out-of-control” feeling about the quantities of what they buy or the amount of credit they use, they may be considered to be problem shoppers.
Extreme shopping can lead to a more serious problem –addictive shopping. Addictive shoppers feel driven by the desire to shop and spend money. They experience great tension which drives them to shop and spend money and they feel a “rush” during the time they are occupied with the shopping activity.
Extreme or addictive shopping may result from long-time unpleasant feelings, of which anxiety, pain and shame are common ones,. When we feel bad inside, we often do somethin
g to make ourselves feel better. In this case, we often go shopping.
A few people shop to relieve their boredom or emptiness. For some people, the motivation is a desire for st
atus, power, beauty or success. Some love to shop as it makes them feel valued in the eyes of the
shop assistants. Others shop simply because it makes them forget, at least temporarily, tension, fear or unhappiness in their life.
Besides, shopping malls are designed to encourage continual shopping. For instance, there are some malls where you can’t see clocks displaying the time because they don’t want you to become too aware of the time you spend there. What’s more, food courts, coffee shops and restrooms are provided, so you don’t have to leave the mall because of your physical needs.
Therefore, once you become aware of how market forces work, you will certainly come to control your shopping behavior. For example, how much time you will spend and what areas you will visit can be decided before you enter the mall. Keep a written account of what items you will buy and how much money you will spend. Make a plan for what you are going to buy before you feel the urge to shop and then stick to it. That is vital for gaining self-control.
1．Which
of the following people may not be problem shoppers?
A．Those who cannot control the amount of credit they use.
B．Those who just walk around the shopping malls.
C．Those who are occupied in too much shopping.
D．Those who feel sorry for their shopping.
2．According to the passage, what may not result in addictive shopping?
A．The a
wareness of how market forces work.
B．The desire for status, power, beauty or success.
C．Boredom, emptiness, tension, fear or unhappiness in people’s life.
D．Long-time bad feelings of anxiety, pain and shame.
3．What does the author suggest to control our shopping behaviour?
A．Never going to the shopping malls because there are many tricks.
B．Applying for a credit card before we go shopping.
C．Making the shopping time as short as possible.
D．Making a shopping list before we go shopping.
4．The author writes this passage to .
A．inform the shopping malls how to attract more shoppers
B．provide solutions to the problem 
shopping.
C．scold the problem shoppers
D．tell a shopping story
For their nick-of-time acts, Toby, a 2-year-old dog, and Winnie, a cute cat, were named Dog and Cat of the Year by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
As Amy Paul choked(哽住) on a piece of apple at her home, her dog jumped up, landing hard on her chest and forcing the piece in her throat out. When the Keesling family of Indiana was about to be killed by carbon monoxide, their cat clawed at the wife Cathy’s hair until she woke up and called for help.
No one could explain their timely heroics.
Both pets were rescued by their owners in infancy---Toby as a 4-week-old thrown into a garbage bin to die, and Winnie as a week-old orphan hiding under a barn, so helpless that Cathy’s husband, Eric, had to feed her milk with an eyedropper.
As the Keeslings recalled it, a gas-driven pump being used broke down, spreading carbon monoxide through the house. By the time Winnie went to rescue, the couple’s 14-year-old son was already unconscious. “Winnie jumped on the bed and was clawing at me, with a kind of angry sound,” Cathy Keesling said. The state police responding to her 911 call said the family was only minutes from death, judging by the amount of poisonous gas in the house.
Amy Paul’s husband was at his job when she took a midday break from making jewelry and bit into an apple. “Normally I peel them, but I read in Good Housekeeping Magazine that the skin has all the nutrients, so I ate the skin, and that’s what caused me to choke,” she recalled. “I couldn’t breathe and I was in panic when Toby jumped on me. He never does that, but he did, and saved my life.”
Both Toby and Winnie accompanied their owners to the awards luncheon.Why did Amy Paul choke on a piece of apple?
| A．She was too young to care for herself. |
| B．She didn’t peel the skin as usual. |
| C．The apple was too hard. |
| D．She had a big bite. |
Winnie saved the lives of its owner’s whole family in an accident by __________.
| A．jumping onto its owner |
| B．calling for help |
| C．clawing at Cathy’s hair |
| D．making some strange noises |
Which of the following has the similar meaning to the underlined word “infancy” in Paragraph 4?
| A．middle age | B．youth | C．babyhood | D．agedness |
What caused the carbon monoxide spreading through the house?
| A．A pump breaking down. |
| B．A driver breaking into the house. |
| C．The burning gas. |
| D．The poisonous gas. |
What would be the suitable title for the passage?
| A．So Smart Animals Are |
| B．Great Honors for Cat and Dog |
| C．Unforgettable Experiences |
| D．Dog and Cat Honored for Saving Their Masters |
When Hurricane Phailin hit India in late 2013, it became the largest storm to strike the subcontinent in over a decade. The storm affected more than 12 million people in India and neighboring countries, and damaged or destroyed many houses. However, good news is that cleverly-designed beach house created by architect Ray Huff can survive such strong winds and storm waves.
Located on the shore of an Indian island, Huff’s award-winning cube-shaped beach house was built to replace one smashed to pieces by Hurricane Phailin.
Huff pointed out that many houses built along shoreline were poorly constructed, and enforcement(执行) of building codes wasn’t strict. After Phailin’s attack, all new shoreline houses are required to meet stricter, better-enforced codes. The new beach house should be able to stand a Category 3 hurricane with peak winds of 179 to 209 kilometers per hour.
At first sight, Huff's house looks anything but hurricane-proof. Its redwood shell makes it resemble “a large party lantern” at night, according to one observer. But looks can be misleading. The house’s wooden frame is reinforced(加固) with long steel rods to give it extra strength.
To further protect the house from hurricane damage, Huff raised it 2.7 meters off the ground on pilings---long columns of wood anchored(固定) deep in the sand. Pilings might appear insecure, but they are strong enough to support the weight of the house. They also balance the house above storm waves. The pilings allow the waves to run under the house instead of running into it. “These swells of water come ashore at great speeds and cause most of the damage done to beach-front buildings,” said Huff.
Huff designed the wooden pilings to be partially hidden by the house’s ground-to-roof shell. “The shell masks the pilings so that the house doesn’t look like it’s standing with its pant legs pulled up,” said Huff. In case of a storm wave, the shell should break apart and let the waves rush under the house, the architect explained. After Hurricane Phailin, new houses built along shore line are required_____.
| A．to be easily reinforced |
| B．to look smarter in design |
| C．to meet stricter building standards |
| D．to be designed in the shape of cubes |
The award-winning beach house is quite strong because____.
| A．it is made of redwood |
| B．it is in the shape of a shell |
| C．it is strengthened by steel rods |
| D．it is built with wood and stones |
Huff raised the house 2.7 meters off the ground on wooden pilings in order to _____.
| A．support the weight of the house |
| B．allow the waves to run through the house |
| C．anchor stronger pilings deep in the sand |
| D．prevent water from rushing into the house |
The main function of the shell is_____.
| A．to give the house a better appearance |
| B．to strengthen the pilings of the house |
| C．to protect the wooden frame of the house |
| D．to slow down the speed of the swelling water |
Our love of music and appreciation of musical harmony is learnt and not based on natural ability, a new study by University of Melbourne researchers has found. The researchers said previous theories about how we appreciate music were based on the physical functions of sound, the ear itself and a born ability to hear harmony.
The study shows that musical harmony can be learnt, and it is a matter of training the brain to hear the sounds. So if you thought that the music of some foreign culture (or Jazz) sounded like the crying of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learnt to listen by their rules.
The researchers used 66 volunteers with a range of musical training and tested their ability to hear combinations of notes(音符) to determine if they found the combinations familiar or pleasing. They found that people needed to be familiar with combinations of notes. If they found the notes unfamiliar they also found the sound unpleasant. This finding put an end to centuries of theories claiming that physical functions of the ear determine what we find attractive.
The study found that trained musicians were much more sensitive to unpleasant notes than non-musicians. When they couldn’t find the note, the musicians reported that the sounds were unpleasant, while non-musicians were much less sensitive. This shows the importance of training or nurturing(培养) the brain to like particular sound of combinations of notes, like those found in jazz or rock.
Depending on their training, a strange chord(和弦) sound was pleasant to some musicians, but very unpleasant to others. This showed us that even the ability to hear a musical note is learnt.
To confirm this finding, they trained 19 non-musicians to find the notes of a random selection of western chords. Not only did the participants’ ability to hear notes improve rapidly, afterward they reported that the chords they had learnt sounded more pleasant -- regardless of how the chords were played.
The question of why some combinations of musical notes are heard as pleasant or unpleasant has long been debated. “We have shown in this study that for music, beauty is in the brain of the beholder(观看者)”, a researcher said. According to the study, people find foreign music quite unpleasant because_____.
| A．they hear the music much too often |
| B．they don’t like the person playing it |
| C．they have no idea about how to listen |
| D．they have no born musical ability at all |
Although non-musicians were less sensitive to music, they can still_____.
| A．be trained to like particular music |
| B．make friends with real musicians |
| C．find the beauty of chords without training |
| D．enjoy the beauty of music when played by musicians |
The 19 non-musicians were trained in order to show_____.
| A．the brain likes particular combinations of notes |
| B．not a strange note was pleasant to all musicians |
| C．how the chords were played was very important |
| D．people’s ability to hear a musical note can be learnt |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Love of musical harmony can’t be taught. |
| B．Love of music is not natural but nurtured. |
| C．Listening to music can improve your brain. |
| D．You can be a musician without being trained. |
J.K. Rowling set children’s imaginations on fire. Can the creator of Harry Potter do the same for a grown-up audience? The British author will find out on September 27, when more than 2 million hardcover(精装书) copies of her first novel for adults hit bookstores in the UK and the US, along with the digital edition. Set in a little English town, The Casual Vacancy is about an election held after an unexpected death.
Michael Pietsch, Rowling’s US publisher, says the novel reminded him of Dickens “because of the humanity, the humor, the social concerns, the intensely real characters”. No magic though, apparently: “This book isn’t Harry Potter”, says Pietsch. “It is a completely different concern”. As with Harry Potter, there are no advance copies for the media, no early reviews. To date, the seven-book series has sold more than 450 million copies worldwide, and it became one of the most successful movie franchises in July 21, 2007.
Back then, fans could buy books at midnight parties hosted by bookstores. But recent years have seen a great challenge for brick-and-mortar(实体的) bookstores. People are still buying books, indeed more books than in 2007, according to figures released by the Association of American Publishers. But they are reading them in a new format(样式)—the e-book. The Harry Potter series just became available digitally for the first time in April. It will be different for The Casual Vacancy, with the publisher simultaneously releasing an e-book. For Rowling fans who once queued up for Harry Potter, this means that instant satisfaction is now only a click away.
Moving from children’s books to adult literature is a big transition. Will Rowling’s new book be successful? Arthur Levine, the US co-editor of the Harry Potter books, seems confident: “If you read or re-read the Harry Potter books, you can see that Rowling has all the strengths she needs for great success as a fiction writer –you have great characters, an involving plot, a sense of humor and great empathy”.In Paragraph 2, what Michael Pietsch says means that_____.
| A．Dickens’ works are too impressive to forget. |
| B．J.K. Rowling has all the strengths of Dickens. |
| C．The new book is similar to Dickens’ works in some way. |
| D．The new book is quite different from the works of Dickens. |
The underlined word “simultaneously” has the closest meaning with“______”.
| A．willingly | B．meanwhile | C．especially | D．eventually |
What’s the main purpose of Paragraph 3?
| A．To explain why the new book will have a digital edition. |
| B．To show the Harry Potter series are popular with readers. |
| C．To compare J.K. Rowling’s old books and her new book. |
| D．To clarify the great challenges for brick-and-mortar bookstores. |
What do the Harry Potter series and The Casual Vacancy have in common?
| A．They are both intended for children. |
| B．They both show the author’s great talent. |
| C．Their characters both have magical power. |
| D．Both of them won’t be read on the Internet. |
There are two things I can count on my dad asking every time he calls me: “Is there anything I can do for you?” and “How’s the car?” I guess he asks what he can do for me because his dad (an air force officer) was never really there for him, and he’s determined to provide me with the support he lacked. During my youth he never missed a school play or softball game. In fact, he was so supportive that I sometimes longed for one of those dads who dressed better and cared less. But my dad would forever be the guy wearing shorts with dress shoes and black socks, cheering me on, expecting greatness.
His other standard question—How’s the car? -- used to strike me as a waste of long-distance dollars from a man who once suggested making a list of what you want to talk about before calling someone out of state. What I now realize is that “How’s the car?” is not about the car. It’s a father’s way of asking his adult daughter how she is doing. The advantage is that if there’s something wrong with the car, he knows what to do about it and how much it will cost, whereas if you’re having problems about marriage or doubting a career choice, he might have to act Mom on the line.
At age thirty I finally took the plunge(跳进) into adulthood by renting a car without my dad’s help or advice. I’m sure my dad was hurt rather than proud. Though a daughter’s independence is evidence of a job well done, it still implies the job’s done, and many fathers are unwilling to retire. Even when my dad was overworked, he’d happily jump on a plane if I said I needed help. His frequent question “Is there anything I can do for you?” underlines the fact that he wishes there was still something he could provide. It’s interesting: Even though we’re tied by blood and I love him no matter what, he still seems to need a concrete function -- suggesting stocks, finding the cheapest plane fare -- to feel he has a role in my life. In the author’s opinion, her father always attended her school plays or softball games to_____.
| A．satisfy any demand she made to him |
| B．show his interest and watch them for fun |
| C．make up what he was previously short of |
| D．expect his daughter would be great in games |
The author has learned that by asking “How is the car?”, her father is actually_____.
| A．reminding her not to waste money |
| B．asking how his daughter is getting along |
| C．expressing his concern for her daughter’s safety |
| D．asking his daughter if the car breaks down or not |
According to the author, her father, like many other fathers, is unwilling to retire probably because_____.
| A．he wants to continue to earn money |
| B．he is doubtful of children’s independence |
| C．he won’t put an end to caring for his children |
| D．he is afraid of losing connection with children |
We can safely draw a conclusion from the story that in the author’s eye her father_____.
| A．has a strong passion for his work |
| B．has the deepest love for his children |
| C．has great interest in his daughter’s car |
| D．has too much control over his children |