Most people who experience bad service while traveling, shopping, or dining out do no complain. They accept bad services or products without making a sound. Why? Many feel complaining won’t do any good. In fact, they’re wrong, because companies don’t want their customers unhappy. Not sure you can do it? Here are some ways to use when things go wrong.
1.If you have a complaint, do something about it right away. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get your complaint solved.
2.First, complain to the servers. If they are not going to solve your problem, then ask politely to speak to a manager. And if that doesn’t work, you can always request to speak to the manager’s manager!
3.Demand a discount(折扣). Let’s say you were promised a hotel room with an ocean view, but got a view of a brick wall instead; if you were promised a seat in the front of a plane, but got a seat in the back. You should do something about both of these situations. Ask a special discount.
4.Don’t be passive. Offer ways you think the company can satisfy you.
5.Insist on the price you were told. If you are refused, get a manager’s name and telephone number, and promise to follow up with a letter and a telephone call.
6.If all else fails, wait until you get home and take action. Call the company’s head office, and speak to the most powerful person possible. Then follow up your call with a letter of complaint. If necessary, call the customer protection office in your city and complain.
According to the text, people don’t complain because________.
| A.they think complaining doesn’t work |
| B.they consider it wrong to complain |
| C.they don’t want to waste their time |
| D.they don’t want to become unpopular |
To complain about something, you should________.
| A.wait until you come back home |
| B.prepare for a long time |
| C.talk to the manager directly |
| D.try to solve the problem actively |
What might be the best title for the text?
| A.Get what you should get |
| B.Complain as you please |
| C.Take action to deal with problems |
| D.Avoid trouble and don’t complain |
As if there weren’t enough of them in the world already, scientists have succeeded in cloning flies. The alike fruit flies are the first insects ever cloned, says the Canadian team that created them. The question everyone asks is why anyone would want to clone flies in the first place. She hopes that the insects , which are very easy to experiment with , will help to adjust the cloning process in other animals and even in humans, where the technique is being researched to aid production of therapeutic (治疗的) stem cells.
In cloning, the DNA-containing nucleus of an adult cell is injected into an egg whose own nucleus(细胞核) has been removed. At the moment, the majority of cloned mice, sheep and other animals die before birth. It is thought this is because the adult DNA is not properly ‘reprogrammed’.
Using flies, researchers might discover genes that are important for this reprogramming, and that have matches in other animals. That is because it is relatively easy in flies to knock out the function of a single gene and then attempt cloning with these cells, which will test whether that gene is important. If such genes are confirmed, then in theory cloned mammalian embryos(晶胚) might be grown in selected solutions that change the activity of those genes to improve the technique’s success rate. Although some groups have attempted to clone insects before, Lloyd says this is the first time it has been successful. The team used a slight difference on the standard cloning process: they transferred nuclei taken from embryos rather than fully-grown adult cells. They sucked several nuclei (pl)out of developing fly embryos, and injected them into a fertilized(已受精的) fly egg. From over 800 early attempts, they cloned five adult insects, the group reports in the journal Genetics.The best title of this passage probably is _______.
| A.The importance of clone |
| B.First insects are cloned |
| C.The disagreement in clone |
| D.The advantages of clone |
The scientists cloned flies because________.
| A.there are fewer and fewer flies in the world |
| B.flies are easy to find and cheap to use |
| C.they can gain some experience before cloning other animals |
| D.it is safe to clone flies |
The failure of most cloned animals is due to _______.
| A.the difference of other animals’ genes |
| B.the improper technique of clone |
| C.the complex of other animals |
| D.the improper rearrange of the adult gene |
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ______.
| A.the clone of insects before used grown-up cells |
| B.the clone of insects were never experimented before |
| C.this time scientists cloned flies successfully and easily |
| D.based on this success, other animals will be cloned in large quantities. |
Last August, Joe and Mary Mahoney began looking at colleges for their 17-year-old daughter, Maureen. With a checklist of criteria (衡量标准)in hand, the Dallas family looked around the country visiting half a dozen schools. They sought a university that offered the teenager’s intended major, one located near a large city, and a campus where their daughter would be safe.
“The safety issue is a big one,” says Joe Mahoney, who quickly discovered he wasn’t alone in his worries. On campus tours other parents voiced similar concerns, and the same question was always asked: what about crime? But when college officials always gave the same answer -----“That’s not a problem here,”-----Mahoney began to feel uneasy.
“No crime whatever?” comments Mahoney today. “I just don’t buy it.” Nor should he: in 1999 the U.S. Department of education had reports of nearly 400,000 serious crimes on or around our campuses. “Parents need to understand that times have changed since they went to college,” says David Nichols, author of Creating a Safe Campus. “Campus crime mirrors the rest of the nation.”
But getting accurate information isn’t easy. Colleges must report crime statistics(统计数字) by law, but some hold back for fear of bad publicity(关注), leaving the honest ones looking dangerous. “The truth may not always be serious,” warns S. Daniel Carter of Security on Campus, Inc., the nation’s leading campus safety watchdog group.
To help concerned parents, Carter promised to visit campuses and talk to experts around the country to find out major crime issues and effective solutions.It is often difficult to get correct information on campus crime because some colleges ____.
| A.receive too many visitors |
| B.mirror the rest of the nation |
| C.hide the truth of campus crime |
| D.have too many watchdog groups |
The underlined word “buy” in the third paragraph means _____.
| A.mind | B.admit | C.believe | D.expect |
We learn from the text that “the honest ones” in the fourth paragraph most probably refers to colleges _____.
| A.that are protected by campus security |
| B.that report campus crimes by law |
| C.that are free from campus crime |
| D.that enjoy very good publicity |
What is the text mainly about?
| A.Exact campus crime statistics. |
| B.Crimes on or around campuses. |
| C.Effective solutions to campus crime. |
| D.Concerns about kids’ campus safety. |
Years ago while lying in my hammock(吊床)and drinking JD from the bottle, I noticed my dog dragging something under the fence. Upon inspection, to my disappointment, I realized it was the next door neighbor’s 10 – year – old daughter’s rabbit. For years I had watched her come home from school and head straight out to its cage, free it and play with it in the yard. I knew that day would be no different and fearing for our dog, I had to think fast.
The rabbit was quite dirty, as if it had put up quite a struggle, so I washed it, combed it with the dog brush and blew it dry with the leaf blower. Upon finishing its grooming I jumped the fence and replaced it back in its cage hoping its death would be written off as “natural caused”.
Back to the hammock and JD. Within the hour the neighbor’s Volvo pulled in as usual and out popped the little girl, and as usual she headed straight for the cage. Only this time she stopped about six feet away and screamed: “D—A—D—D—Y!!!”.
Her father, panic stricken, stood looking at the cage. Being the good neighbor that I am, I rushed to fence and asked if there was anything I could do.
Her father less than calmly shouted, “What kind of sick individual would dig up a little girl’s rabbit and put it back in its cage?”The girl was shocked because .
| A.the rabbit was killed by someone |
| B.the rabbit was too clean |
| C.the dead rabbit was cleaned and put back into the cage |
| D.the rabbit was asleep in the cage |
That day the girl ran to the cage .
| A.because her rabbit was there |
| B.because she had a habit of going there to see her rabbit |
| C.because she wanted to see her rabbit again |
| D.because the rabbit was dead |
We can infer that the rabbit
| A.was alive before the writer saw his dog dragging it |
| B.was already dead before the writer saw his dog dragging it |
| C.was in the cage playing with the dog |
| D.was at the fence seeking out for food before it was killed by the dog |
According to the story, the writer .
| A.was helpful to his neighbor |
| B.did a smart thing |
| C.was honest |
| D.made a mistake |
Body and Food
Your body, which has close relations with the food you eat, is the most important thing you own, so it needs proper treatment and proper nourishment (营养).The old saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is not as silly as some people think. The body needs fruit and vegetables because they contain vitamin C. Many people take extra vitamins in pill form, believing that these will make them healthy.
But a good diet is made up of nourishing food and this gives all the vitamins you need. The body doesn’t need or use extra vitamins, so why waste money on them?
In the modern western world, many people are too busy to bother about eating properly. They throw anything into their stomachs, eating hurriedly and carelessly. The list of illnesses caused or made worse by bad eating habits is frightening,“Your body has close relations with the food you eat.” It really means that ______.
| A.all kinds of food you eat can be made into your body |
| B.your body is made up of the food you eat |
| C.what you eat has great effect on your health |
| D.the more you eat, the fitter you will feel |
The old saying referred to in the passage tells us that ______.
| A.eating apples regularly does lots of good to our health |
| B.the apple is the best among all kinds of fruits |
| C.apples can take the place of doctors |
| D.an apple is a sure cure for illness |
In the modern western countries ______.
| A.people don‘t want to pay more attention to their eating |
| B.lots of people’s illnesses are caused or made worse by bad eating habits |
| C.people throw everything into their stomachs without chewing |
| D.people are only too busy to cook meals for themselves |
From the passage we can draw a conclusion that if we want to keep healthy, we should ______.
| A.only eat an apple a day |
| B.eat properly |
| C.take as many vitamin pills as possible |
| D.throw something into our stomachs slowly and carefully |
Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s.The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach(菠菜) to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.
Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.
People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.
Today, we know that the little iron there is in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid(叶酸).
It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.A good title for this reading passage is______.
| A.Popeye the Sailor |
| B.The Truth About Spinach |
| C.A Mistake with Numbers |
| D.Folic Acid Makes You Strong |
Why did many people eat spinach after they saw Popeye the Sailor?
| A.They thought spinach made them strong. |
| B.They thought Popeye was funny. |
| C.Spinach had a lot of iron. |
| D.People liked folic acid. |
A research group told people that spinach______.
| A.made Popeye strong |
| B.was a green vegetable |
| C.had less iron than other green vegetables |
| D.had more iron than other green vegetables |
Folic acid is ______.
| A.something in food |
| B.a vegetable |
| C.dangerous |
| D.a certain kind of spinach |