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 something 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 status, 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. 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. |
According to the passage, what may not result in addictive shopping?
| A．The awareness 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. |
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. |
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 |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the story of the detective(侦探) Sherlock Holmes, was having a trip in Europe. One day he got out of the railway station and climbed into a taxi. Before he could say a word, the driver turned to him and asked, “Where can I take you, Mr. Doyle?”
Doyle was rather surprised. He asked the driver if he had ever seen him before. “No, sir,” the driver replied, “I have never seen you before.” Then he explained, “This morning’s newspaper had a story about your being on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi stop where people who return from Marseilles always come. Your skin color tells me you have been on vacation. The ink spot on your right fingers suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothes are very English, not French. Adding up all those pieces of information, I conclude that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“This is truly surprising!” the writer cried out. “You are a real-life copy to my fictional(虚构的) story, Sherlock Holmes!”
“And there is one other thing,” the driver added, with a smile on his face.
“What’s that?”
“Your name is on the front of your suitcase.”The conversation between the two people took place________.
| A．at a bus stop | B．in a taxi |
| C．in Marseilles | D．in a railway station |
Doyle was rather surprised because ________.
| A．the driver had seen him before |
| B．the driver could call him by his name |
| C．the driver was waiting for him |
| D．the driver answered no questions from him |
After he heard the driver’s analysis, Doyle concluded that ______.
| A．the driver was Sherlock Holmes |
| B．the once wrote a story about the driver |
| C．he had met the driver long before |
| D．the driver was a real life-copy to his story |
From what the driver said, we could know ________.
| A．Doyle was from England |
| B．Doyle could not speak French |
| C．Doyle liked English very much |
| D．Doyle was writing a French story |
The driver knew the writer’s name because _______.
| A．Doyle told the driver himself |
| B．it was on the front of his suitcase |
| C．the morning’s newspaper had said that |
| D．the detective let out the information |
You could feel sorry for Alberto Torres, who is blind. The last thing he remembers seeing was his daughter being born 13 years ago. Then the world went blank; he can only imagine what his only child looks like now, as a teenaged honor student. Bad luck is no stranger to this warm and thoughtful 37-year-old man. His mother died of cancer when he was 4, and his father, who was often ill, had to give him up to the care of the state when he was 11. He later worked for 19 years in a workshop making household goods, deathly boring work. Earlier this month, Alberto Torres’s wife, who had just been laid off from her job, had to have a breast removed due to cancer and now faces a year of radiation treatments. Things seemed always to go from almost incredibly bad to worse. Even Mr. Torres’s good luck has a dark side: Five years ago, his lovely guide dog pulled him out of the path of a truck. Mr. Torres was not hurt. The dog was killed.
But Mr. Torres does not feel sorry for himself. “These are just little bumps you have to go over in your life,” he said. At 5 a.m. on a recent morning, we caught up with Mr. Torres at a subway stop in Brooklyn, New York, near where he lives in a third-floor apartment (with no elevator). He had been up since 3 a.m., feeding his new dog, making coffee, getting ready. “When you’re blind, it takes a little longer to do things,” he said.
Mr. Torres was beginning his two-hour trip to his job developing film in the X-ray department of the emergency room of the Bronx hospital. He would take the G train to Queens Plaza station to the R train, heading towards Manhattan. He would then ride the R train to 59th Street where he would walk upstairs to switch to the Number 6 train. At one point along the journey, he might chat with a stranger. At another, someone would pat his dog, calling him by name. People offered assistance, even seats. At 125th Street, Mr. Torres would transfer to the Number 4 train by crossing the platform. At 149th Street, he would go down to the Number 2. He would take that to East 180th Street where he nearly always has a long wait for his final train, to Pelham Parkway. Then he and his dog would walk 20 minutes to the hospital.
It was a hard job to come by. Before he got the job, Mr. Torres was determined to escape the workshop run by an organization dedicated to help people who can’t see. He wanted a job developing X-ray film, something that everyone must do in the dark. He had to handle the long trip, as well as the work. “Our philosophy here is that blind people can do just about anything except drive buses,” it was the thinking about disabled people at the Bronx hospital. “We find what a person can do rather than what he can’t do,” said the hospital’s director.
One day a while ago marked the first anniversary of Mr. Torres’s hiring. He developed 150 or so X-rays, his usual output, to celebrate. Mr. Torres works by himself in a small, dark room that smells of chemicals. He cannot wear gloves, because he needs to feel. It is hard work, related to emergency of lives. His immediate supervisor says he trusts him 100%. Mr. Torres makes $20,000 a year. But his motivation goes beyond money. “If I start feeling like a victim, that makes me bitter. And why be bitter? That makes you go into a hole and stay there.” he said. “I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary,” insisted Mr. Torres as he quickly completed the task.Mr. Torres became blind when________.
| A．his daughter was just born |
| B．he was thirteen years old |
| C．his mother died of cancer |
| D．his wife was out of work |
Mr. Torres does not feel sorry for himselfbecause he ________.
| A．was once saved by his lovely guide dog |
| B．is taken good care of by the government |
| C．thinks it’s natural to have setbacks in life |
| D．believes it takes a little longer to do things |
The description of Mr. Torres’s long trip to work shows ________.
| A．the effective traffic system |
| B．the kindness of New Yorkers |
| C．the loyalty of his guide dog |
| D．his will to overcome difficulty |
What is the principle of the hospital in employing a worker?
| A．Sympathy counts most. |
| B．Ability comes first. |
| C．Preference for the blind. |
| D．Easy job for the weak. |
Mr. Torres works very hard in order to ________.
| A．make plenty of money |
| B．win his supervisor’s trust |
| C．live like a normal person |
| D．complete his daily task |
In the eyes of the writer, Alberto Torres is a man of _______.
| A．deep thinking | B．weak motivation |
| C．special talents | D．great independence |
Studies show that you may be lied to every day anywhere from 10 to 200 times. We say, “Nice song.” “Honey, you don’t look fat in that, no.” But another study showed that strangers lied three times within the first 10 minutes of meeting each other. We lie more to strangers than we lie to coworkers. Men lie eight times more about themselves than they do other people. Women lie more to protect other people. If you’re married, you’re going to lie to your wife/ husband in one out of every 10 communications. If you’re unmarried, that number drops to three. But look, if at some point you got lied to, it’s because you agreed to get lied to. Truth about lying: lying’s a cooperative act. Not all lies are harmful. Sometimes we’re willing to lie for the sake of social dignity (尊严), maybe to keep a private secret.
Lying is complex. It’s woven into the fabric of our daily and business lives. We’re deeply disturbed by the truth. We explain it, sometimes for very good reasons, other times just because we don’t understand the gaps between ideals and realities in our lives. We’re against lying, but secretly we’re for it in ways that our society has practiced for centuries and centuries. It’s as old as breathing. It’s part of our culture and history. Think the stories from Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, News of the World.
Lying has great value to the evolution of human being. Researchers have long known that the more intelligent the species, the more likely it is to lie. We human like to become leaders. It starts really early. How early? Well, babies will pretend to cry, pause, wait to see who’s coming and then go right back to crying. One-year-olds learn hiding truth. Two-year-olds bluff (虚张声势). Five-year-olds lie outright and try to control via flattery (讨好). Nine-year-olds, masters of covering up. By the time you enter college, you’re going to lie to your mom in one out of every five interactions. By the time we enter this work world to be breadwinners, we’ve entered a world that is just full of fake digital friends, business media, identity thieves, world-class cheats, ——in short, a post-truth society.
What do you do? Well there are steps we can take to guide our way through the bushes. Trained lie spotters get to the truth 90% of the time. The rest of us, we’re only 54% accurate. Why is it so easy to learn? There are clever liars and stupid liars. There’re no real original liars. We all make the same mistakes. We all use the same techniques.From Para.1 we learn that lying is very ________.
| A．harmful | B．easy |
| C．interesting | D．common |
According to the passage, a lie works when _________.
| A．the liar’s words are sweet enough |
| B．it is given to a complete stranger |
| C．someone gives the liar cooperation |
| D．we are willing to lie for the dignity |
Lying is complex because ________.
| A．it is practiced by clever ones |
| B．people are for it as well as against it |
| C．ancient stories are full of lies |
| D．it is the whole part of great culture |
The examples of kids lying in the passage show ________.
| A．lying is a sign of intelligent development |
| B．lying is good for children’s growing up |
| C．at what age children begin to tell lies |
| D．9-year-old children are masters of lying |
What will the writer most likely talk about if he continues the passage?
| A．How to become clever liars. |
| B．How to avoid stupid lies. |
| C．How to get through the bushes. |
| D．How to tell truth from lies. |
Below is a page adapted from About Wikipedia (维基百科) on how to take full advantage of Wikipedia.
Wikipediais a web-based, free-content encyclopedia (百科全书) in many languages.
§Exploring Wikipedia
Many visitors come to Wikipedia to acquire knowledge, while others come to share knowledge. At this very instant, dozens of articles are being improved, and new articles are also being created. Over 3,500 articles have been listed by the Wikipedia community as featured articles. Another 15,000 articles are listed as good articles. Wikipedia is available in more than 280 languages including English. Its related projects include a dictionary, quotations, books, manuals, and scientific reference sources, and a news service. All of these are kept, updated, and managed by separate communities, and often include information and articles that can be hard to find through other common sources.
§Basic navigation in Wikipedia
Wikipedia articles are all linked, or cross-referenced. In every article, there are links to some related articles or Wikipedia pages with further in-depth information. Holding the mouse over a certain link will often show to where the link will lead. There are other links towards the ends of most articles, for other articles of interest, related websites and pages and so on. Some articles may also have links to dictionary definitions, audio-book readings, quotations, the same article in other languages etc.
§Using Wikipedia as a research tool
Wiki articles are never considered complete and may be continually edited and improved. Over time, this generally results in an upward trend of quality and a growing agreement over a representation of information. Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start. Indeed, many articles start their lives as displaying a single viewpoint; and, after a long process of discussion, debate, and argument, they gradually take on a neutral point of view reached through agreement. Others may, for a while, become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint which can take some time—months perhaps—to achieve better balanced coverage of their subject.
§Wikipedia vs. paper encyclopedias
Wikipedia has advantages over traditional paper encyclopedias. Wikipedia has a very low “publishing” cost for adding or expanding entries and a low environmental impact in some respects, since it never needs to be printed. In addition, Wikipedia has wikilinks instead of in-line (内嵌) explanations and its articles provide not only summaries but also plenty of details. Additionally, the editorial cycle is short. A paper encyclopedia stays the same until the next edition, while editors can update Wikipedia at any instant, around the clock, to help ensure that articles keep up with the most recent events.We know from the passage that Wikipedia________.
| A．provides very accurate information |
| B．offers links to most leading media |
| C．covers rich resources of knowledge |
| D．comes available in any language |
The underlined word “they” in the passage probably refers to “________”.
| A．users | B．articles | C．editors | D．subjects |
The links in Wikipedia to other resources are mainly to________.
| A．provide details of the same articles |
| B．help the users to be better informed |
| C．guarantee the quality of the service |
| D．offer basic guidance on web research |
The passage is presented in a way of ________.
| A．discussion | B．description |
| C．instruction | D．summary |
Surfing the net when you should be finishing a work report, changing clothes when you have a train to catch, or perhaps even lying in bed when you’ve promised yourself you’ll work out. Sound familiar? You aren’t alone. We all procrastinate (拖延) sometimes, especially when it comes to things we aren’t really fond of. And while the number of activities we delay doing in any given week varies from person to person, it’s fair to say that none of us is super-efficient 100 percent of the time.
A study revealed that we spend about 218 minutes procrastinating every day, which amounts to 55 days of lost time each year. We might not think these figures particularly worthy of worry, but when we look at the overall impact of procrastination on our lives, it’s a different story. Not only does this cost financial loss, it also affects peace of mind. And procrastination isn’t just a money thief —— it steals time too. In general, people who continually put things off are unhappier, as well as being less wealthy and healthy.
So why do we do it? “When we avoid taking action, we’re really avoiding pain,” explains psychiatrist (精神病学家) Phil Stutz. For most of us, pain avoidance isn’t limited to one situation. It applies to almost anything that’s painful. Most of us try our best never to leave a comfort zone. That’s why we sacrifice something much more valuable: time. “Our time on earth is limited,” Stutz adds. “Every moment is an opportunity we’ll never have again. Procrastinators act as if they have all the time in the world. But deep down, they know they’re wasting parts of their life. The trouble is, most of them don’t know how to free themselves.”
One way he says we can reach this level of freedom is by overcoming the pain of avoidance using daily visualization (想象). “Picture the pain you’re avoiding as a black cloud in front of you,” Stutz says. “Notice how you’re fed up with the ways this pain has held you back in life, and tell yourself that you’re determined to conquer it. Then it’s time to get through the cloud and to the other side — where you’re free.” It is obvious that this tool works when we want to procrastinate. We then get into the habit of moving “towards” pain instead of away from it.
In addition to the fact that procrastinators suffer more health problems, procrastination also destroysteamwork and personal relationships because it shifts the burden of responsibilities onto others. So next time you think about putting something off, remember the impact it will have. Experts insist: procrastinators can change their behavior, it takes a lot of self-work but in the end, it’s worth the effort. And start today, not tomorrow.The writer begins the passage by ________.
| A．presenting abnormal things |
| B．asking related questions |
| C．mentioning habitual activities |
| D．comparing different opinions |
By saying “it’s a different story”, the writer thinks procrastination _______.
| A．leads to different results for different persons |
| B．is likely to have bad effects on people’s life |
| C．may not be particularly worthy of concern |
| D．tends to cause unhappiness among people |
According to the passage, people procrastinate because they_______.
| A．get accustomed to taking action |
| B．prefer to stay in the comfort zone |
| C．don’t know how to free themselves |
| D．are not aware of the limited time |
One possible way to stop procrastination is to ________.
| A．overcome it mentally |
| B．avoid the pain |
| C．take some self-work |
| D．reach the freedom |
What’s the writing purpose of the passage?
| A．To analyze the trouble procrastination causes. |
| B．To show what contributes to procrastination. |
| C．To solve the problems caused by procrastination. |
| D．To encourage people to defeat procrastination. |