Everyone’s at it, even my neighbors. I thought I might be the only person left in the world who hadn’t done an eBay deal. So, I decided to try my hand at online auction（网上拍卖）.
Buying for Beginners
Sign up on www. eBay. co. uk. Most items (e.g. tables, computers and books) ready for auction will come with a picture and a short description; others may be marked with “Buy It Now ” and have a fixed price. You can buy these right away.
If the item is being auctioned, you offer the highest price you are prepared to pay and eBay bids (出价) for you. The bid will be increased little by little until it goes beyond your highest bid, then you are emailed and asked if you would like to bid again. Auctions last up to 10 days and when they finish, you get an email telling you whether you have won the item.
How to Pay
Sellers decide how they would like to be paid and you need to check this before placing a bid as you might not want to post a check or postal orders. The easiest way is through PayPal, an online payment system that takes the money away from your credit card.
Selling Made Simple
If you plan to sell on eBay, it helps to include a picture of the item. I followed my friends’ advice and put up the items I wanted to sell for a 10-day auction, starting on a Thursday. This way buyers had two weekends to bid.
The big Things in Life
It’s easy to post a small item, but furniture is a big part of eBay and this has to be collectively sent by deliverymen. Check the ways of delivery before you bid.
64. What is the passage mainly about?
A. How to make payment online. B. Ways of making delivery online.
C. How to use an online-auction system. D. Advantages of an online auction system.
65. After bidding for an item, a buyer ________.
A. has chances to make higher bids B. will get what he wants in ten days
C. should make payment immediately D. may check its picture and description
66. The easiest way of making payment mentioned in the passage is ________.
A. through a local banking system B. by sending the money to the seller
C. through an online payment system D. by paying the deliveryman directly
Many Chinese students who have learnt English for more than ten years are still unable to speak English very well when they meet a foreigner. They seem to have mastered the basic language structure(结构), but a conversation in English will make them feel uneasy. They are afraid that other people might find out their mistakes.
It's uncommon that many students who are bad speakers of English can write English perfectly. This proves that they are unable to organize their idea in English. The center of the problem is that they lack practice and confidence (自信).
Why should you be afraid? Do you fear those foreigners with whom you are speaking? Don't be shy, they will not laugh at you just for a little mistake you make. The best way to get rid of trouble is to learn to speak by speaking more. I am sure that constant practice will help you succeed.What's the best topic for the passage?
| A．How to Speak to Foreigners | B．How to Study English Well |
| C．How to Organize the Idea in English | D．Practice Speaking English All the Time |
Many Chinese students can write English very well, but they cannot speak English fluently because
__________.
| A．they seldom meet foreigners |
| B．they seldom practice speaking English |
| C．they had no chance to speak English |
| D．they think it's enough to master the basic language structure only |
So many Chinese students are afraid to speak to foreigners because ______________.
| A．they are afraid they can't understand foreigners |
| B．they don't think their English is poor |
| C．they worry about making mistakes in their speaking |
| D．they didn't like speaking to foreigners |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
| A．We can speak English fluently by doing more speaking. |
| B．If you can write English perfectly, you are able to organize your idea in English. |
| C．If you can write good English composition, you can speak English very well. |
| D．Any Chinese students can't speak English fluently because they are afraid of making mistakes. |
In the last paragraph, the expression "get rid of" means_______.
| A．throw away | B．free oneself from | C．give up | D．do with |
What exactly is a lie ?Is it anything we say which we know is untrue ?Or is it something more than that ?For example, suppose a friend wants to borrow some money from you. You say “I wish I could help you, but I am short of money myself.” In fact , you are not short of money but your friend is in the habit of not paying his debts and you don’t want to hurt his feelings by reminding him of this. Is this really a lie ?
Professor Jerald Jellison of the University of southern California has made a scientific study of lying. According to him, women are better liars than men, particularly when telling a “white lie”, such as when a woman at a party tells another woman that she likes her dress when she really thinks it’s terrible. However, this is only one side of the story. Other researchers say that men are more likely to tell more serious lies, such as making a promise that they have no intention of carrying out. This is the kind of lie politicians and businessmen are supposed to be particularly skilled at :the lie from which the liar hopes to profit or gain in some way.
Research has been done into the way people’s behavior changes in a number of small, unimportant ways when they lie. It has been found that if they are sitting down at the time, they tend to move about in their chairs more than usual. To the trained observer they are saying “I wish I were somewhere else now”. They also tend to touch certain parts of the face, particularly the nose. One explanation of this may be that lying causes a slight increase in blood pressure. The tip of the nose is very sensitive to changes and the increased pressure makes it itch.
Another gesture that gives liars away is what the writer Decmond Morris in his book Man Watching calls the “mouth cover”. He says that there are several typical forms of this ,such as covering part of the mouth with the fingers, touching the upper lip or putting a finger of the hand at one side off the mouth. Such a gesture can be understood as an unconscious(未察觉的) attempt on the part of the liar to stop himself from lying.
Of course, such gestures as rubbing the nose or covering the mouth , moving about in a chair can not be taken as proof that the speaker is lying. They simply tend to happen more often in this situation. It is one gesture alone that gives the liar away but a whole number of things , and in particular the context(上下文) which the lie is told.According to the passage, a white lie seems to be a lie ______.
| A．that other people believe |
| B．that other people don’t believe |
| C．told in order not to hurt someone’s feelings |
| D．told in order to take advantage of someone |
Research suggests that women _____.
| A．are better at telling less serious lies than men |
| B．generally lie for more than men do |
| C．often make promises they intend to break |
| D．lie at parties more often than men do |
Researchers find that when a person tells lies _____.
| A．his blood pressure increases measurably |
| B．he looks very serious |
| C．he is likely to make some small changes in his behavior |
| D．he uses his unconscious mind |
The writer of the passage______.
| A．hates lying | B．enjoys lying | C．often tells a lie | D．tries to study about lying |
Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage as a sign of lying ?
| A．Touching one’s ears | B．Rubbing the nose |
| C．Moving in a chair | D．Covering the mouth |
A traveler hurried down to the hall of an American hotel and went to the cash-desk. He had just 15 minutes to pay his bill and get to the station. Suddenly he remembered that he had left something in his room.
"Look here, boy," he said to the bellboy, "run up to my room and see if I have left a parcel on the table there. Be quick about it."
The boy ran upstairs. Five minutes passed. The traveler was walking up and down the hall, looking very angry. At last the boy appeared.
"Yes, sir," he reported to the traveler," you have left the parcel there, it's right on the table in your room." The traveler _______.
| A．ran down the street |
| B．came downstairs hurriedly |
| C．ran so quickly that he fell down |
| D．came into the hotel hall very quickly |
Which statement is true?
| A．He had to pay his bill and arrived at the station in 15 minutes . |
| B．It took him 15 minutes to go to the station from the hotel. |
| C．He could pay his bill in 15 minutes and then go to the station . |
| D．He had nothing but 15 minutes. |
According to the passage, a bellboy is _____.
| A．a boy whose work is to ring the bell |
| B．a boy who plays with a bell |
| C．a boy whose work in a hotel is to help guests with their bags |
| D．the hotel owner's boy |
The traveler asked the boy _____ .
| A．to go upstairs |
| B．to look for his parcel |
| C．to fetch the parcel he had left in his room |
| D．only to see if the parcel was on the table in his room |
Five minutes later, the boy ______ .
| A．ran up to the room |
| B．came downstairs |
| C．reported to the traveler in the room |
| D．came down to the hall but brought nothing back |
One day a few years ago, a very funny thing happened to a neighbor of mine. He is a teacher at one of London's big medical schools. He had finished his teaching for the summer term and was at the airport on his way to Russia to give a lecture.
He had put a few clothes and his lecture notes in his shoulder bag , and he had put Rupert , the skeleton (人体骨架）to be used in his lecture , in a large brown suitcase. At the airport desk, he suddenly thought that he had forgotten to buy a newspaper. He left his suitcase near the desk and went over to the shop.
When he got back, he discovered that someone had taken his suitcase by mistake. He often wonders what they said when they got home and found Rupert. Who wrote the story?
| A．Rupert's teacher. | B．The neighbor's teacher. |
| C．A medical school teacher. | D．The teacher's neighbor. |
Why did the teacher put a skeleton in his suitcase?
| A．He needed it for the summer term in London. |
| B．He needed it for the lecture he was going to give. |
| C．He wanted to take it to Russia for medical research. |
| D．He wanted to take it home as he had finished his teaching. |
What happened at the airport?
| A．The skeleton went missing. | B．The skeleton was stolen. |
| C．The teacher forgot his suitcase. | D．The teacher took the wrong suitcase. |
Which of the following best tells the teacher's feeling about the incident?
| A．He was angry. | B．He thinks it very funny. |
| C．He feels helpless without Rupert. | D．He feels good without Rupert. |
Which of the following might have happened afterwards?
| A．The teacher got back the suitcase but not Rupert. |
| B．The teacher got back neither the suitcase nor Rupert. |
| C．The teacher got back Rupert but not the suitcase. |
| D．The teacher got back both the suitcase and Rupert. |
What is time? Is it a thing to be saved or spent or wasted, like money? Or is it something we have no control over, like the weather? Is time the same all over the world?
That's an easy question, you say. Wherever you go, a minute is 60 seconds, an hour is 60 minutes, a day is 24 hours, and so forth. But in America, time is more than that. Americans see time as a valuable resource. Maybe that's why they are fond of the expression, "Time is money."
Because Americans believe time is a limited resource, they try to conserve and manage it. People in the U.S. often attend seminars or read books on time management. It seems they all want to organize their time better. Professionals carry around pocket planners -- some in electronic form -- to keep track of appointments and deadlines. People do all they can to squeeze more time out of their time. The early American hero Benjamin Franklin expressed this view best: "Do you love life? Then do not waste time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
To Americans, punctuality is a way of showing respect for other people's time. Being more than 10 minutes late to an appointment usually calls for an apology and an explanation. People who are running late often call ahead to let others know of the delay. Of course, the less formal the situation is, the less important it is to be exactly on time. At informal get-togethers, for example, people often arrive as much as 30 minutes past the appointed time.
To outsiders, Americans seem tied to the clock. People in other cultures value relationships more than schedules. In these societies, people don't try to control time, but to experience it. Even Americans would admit that no one can master time. Time -- like money -- slips all too easily through our fingers. And time -- like the weather-- is very hard to predict. Nevertheless, time is one of life's most precious gifts. And unwrapping it is half the fun.What’s the main topic of this passage?
| A．What is time? |
| B．How to control time? |
| C．Make good use of time. |
| D．Time among Americans. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “conserve”?
| A．protect | B．develop | C．produce | D．assist |
The sentence “Americans seem tied to the clock” probably means __________.
| A．Americans often carry a clock with them. |
| B．Americans can not predict the time. |
| C．Americans can take control over time. |
| D．Americans often make full use of time. |
We can safely draw a conclusion from this passage that _________________.
| A．Americans have more time than others. |
| B．by using pocket planners, people can have more time. |
| C．for informal meeting, Americans often arrive 30 minutes earlier. |
| D．Americans often attend seminars, because they want to use time better. |