A few months ago I was at a bus stop in town in the evening. The bus came on time and I took the window seat. The bus was travelling by the seashore and I was enjoying the soft wind while watching the sea waves (海浪). After a few minutes the bus made its next stop. A young boy and a girl got on. They were standing on my left when the bus pulled off. I looked at them in surprise and realized that all the window seats were taken up. They could sit but not together. Suddenly a different wave passed through my body and my inner mind gave me the advice to get up. I got up and offered them my seat. The young lady smiled kindly and said thanks. I took another seat and we parted our ways. I don’t remember whether I got off the bus before them or not.
Months passed by. Suddenly one day while I was standing at the same bus stop waiting some time for the bus to arrive I heard a voice.
“Excuse me, Uncle.” I looked in the direction of the voice. It was a beautiful young lady.
Puzzled, I said, “I do not recognize you.”
She said, “Do you remember you gave us your window seat?”
Puzzled, I said, “Maybe, but what is so great in that?”
She said, “If you had not given your seat that day, perhaps I would have not sat with my
friend. By sitting together it helped us bridge a misunderstanding that had been between us forever. Do you know we are getting married next month?”
“Good! God bless both of you,” I replied.
The young lady again said thank you and went on her journey. I realized the importance of giving that day.Why were the young boy and the girl standing on the bus?
| A．Because they couldn’t sit together. |
| B．Because they wanted to enjoy the sea weaves. |
| C．Because there were no empty seats. |
| D．Because they preferred to stand. |
The underlined sentence in the first paragraph probably means that the author had a feeling that ______.
| A．the sea wave made him upset |
| B．he wanted to do something special |
| C．a wave from the sea passed by him |
| D．he wanted to make a sea wave in his heart |
The author’s act of kindness helped the young boy and the girl ______.
| A．begin to talk to each other again after a time of silence |
| B．sit together and become friends very soon |
| C．know each other and get married |
| D．clear up a misunderstanding between them |
From the story, we can know that ______.
| A．small things can create great happenings in life |
| B．giving is more important than receiving |
| C．offering one’s seat to others will lead to a marriage |
| D．we sometimes forget what happened in the past |
I hated dinner parties. But I decided to give them another shot because I'm in London. And my friend Mallery invited me. And because dinner parties in London are very different from those back in New York. There, '“I’m having a dinner party' means: "I'm booking a table for 12 at a restaurant you can't afford and we'll be sharing the checque evenly, no matter what you eat." Worse, in Manhattan there is always someone who leaves before the bill arrives. They'll throw down cash, half of what they owe, and then people like me, who don’t drink, end up paying even more. But if I try to use the same trick, the hostess will shout: "Where are you going?" And it's not like I can say I have somewhere to go: everyone know I have nowhere to go.
But in London, dinner parties are in people's homes. Not only that, the guests are an interesting mix. The last time I went to one, the guests were from France, India. Denmark and Nigeria; it was like a gathering at the United Nations in New York. The mix is less striking. It's like a gathering at Bloomingdale's, a well-known department store.
For New Yorkers, talking about other parts of the world means Brooklyn and Queens in New York. But at Mallery's, when I said that I had been to Myanmar recently, people knew where it was. In New York people would think it was a usual new clubWhat does the word "shot" in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A．Choice. |
| B．Try |
| C．Style. |
| D．Goal |
What does the writer dislike most about dinner parties in New York?
A There is a strange mix of people.
B. The restaurants are expensive.
C. The bill is not fairly shared.
D. People have to pay cashWhat does the author think of the parties in London?
A. A bit unusual
B．Full of tricks.
C．Less costly.
D More interesting.What is the author's opinion of some New Yorkers from her experience？
| A．Easy-going. |
| B．Self-centred. |
| C．Generous. |
| D．Conservative. |
It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day. Some visitors from the city arrived. The told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other place.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a batter future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides(杀虫剂) and medicines. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job---eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.From paragraph I we learn that the villagers __________.
| A．worked very hard for centuries |
| B．dreamed of having a better life |
| C．were poor but somewhat content |
| D．lived a different life from their forefathers |
Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
| A．the frogs were easy money |
| B．They needs money to buy medicine |
| C．they wanted to please the visitors |
| D．the frogs made too much noise |
What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?
| A．the crops didn’t do well |
| B．there were too many insects |
| C．the visits brought in diseases |
| D．the pesticides were overused |
What can we infer from the last sentence of the text?
| A．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country |
| B．Health is more important than money |
| C．The harmony between man and nature is important |
| D．good old day will never be forgotten |
Forty years ago Sadie left her drunk and violent husband. Needing shelter (住所）for herself and her young son, she took a job as a doorkeeper in a housing project for people. It meant she could live "on site" in one of the
.
Eventually, she got to know the residents (居民）.One resident, Archie, didn't have a family of his own, his nephew's wife and her naughty kids would drop in from time to time. They were there to help the old guy.
Sadie helped care for Archie as he illness and it was she who called the
who diagnosed (诊断)his deadly cancer.
time passing, Sadie's son
up, got married and settled several hundred miles away. Sadie
and moved into a nice little house of her own. To
the loneliness, she took in a series of
over the years.
A heavy fall of snow came a year and a half ago. She was pleased when a neighbor to walk her current dog, Muffin, until the weather improved. Each day he would
a while talking to her，making sure she was OK, and
if she needed anything.
Although she had known him for a long time, Sadie thought to wonder what his last name was. This morning she asked. His surname was the same
old Archie's. It brought back a memory and she talked about the
. She told him about working at the old residents' flats and was
to discover the man who had been "caring" for her for the past year and a half had been one of the little kids who used to run
on his way to visit "Uncle Archie".
She had cared for his family, now he was caring for her. ② of them knew it until that moment but they were living proof of the old saying, "What goes around comes around, "and the
of kindness will not be broken.
A. poor B. senior C. disabled D. unfortunate
A. groceries B. stadiums C. flats D. cages
A. otherwise B. but C. though D. because
A. battled B. banned C. cured D. beat
A. servant B. master C. neighbor D. doctor
A. As B. Since C. With D. When
A. grew B. got C. went D. came
A. complained B. retired C. fired D. hesitated
A. refuse B. reduce C. stop D. escape
A. programs B. projects C. birds D. dogs
A. attempted B. declared C. offered D. wished
A. spend B. cost C. take D. spare
A. observing B. requiring C. indicating D. checking
A. often B. never C. sometimes D. once
A. to B. from C. as D. of
A. coincidence B. comprehension C. tradition D. statement
A. puzzled B. frightened C. concerned D. surprised
A. calling B. screaming C. barking D. whispering
A. All B. None C. Neither D. Both
A. custom B. glory C. pattern D. circle
We’ve considered several ways of paying to cut in line: hiring line standers, buying tickets from scalpers (票贩子), or purchasing line-cutting privileges directly from, say, an airline or an amusement park. Each of these deals replaces the morals of the queue (waiting your turn) with the morals of the market (paying a price for faster service).
Markets and queues—paying and waiting—are two different ways of allocating things, and each is appropriate to different activities. The morals of the queue, “First come, first served, have an egalitarian (平等主义的) appeal. They tell us to ignore privilege, power, and deep pockets.
The principle seems right on playgrounds and at bus stops. But the morals of the queue do not govern all occasions. If I put my house up for sale, I have no duty to accept the first offer that comes along, simply because it’s the first. Selling my house and waiting for a bus are different activities, properly governed by different standards.
Sometimes standards change, and it is unclear which principle should apply. Think of the recorded message you hear, played over and over, as you wait on hold when calling your bank: “Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.” This is essential for the morals of the queue. It’s as if the company is trying to ease our impatience with fairness.
But don’t take the recorded message too seriously. Today, some people’s calls are answered faster than others. Call center technology enables companies to “score” incoming calls and to give faster service to those that come from rich places. You might call this telephonic queue jumping.
Of course, markets and queues are not the only ways of allocating things. Some goods we distribute by merit, others by need, still others by chance. However, the tendency of markets to replace queues, and other non-market ways of allocating goods is so common in modern life that we scarcely notice it anymore. It is striking that most of the paid queue-jumping schemes we’ve considered—at airports and amusement parks, in call centers, doctors’ offices, and national parks—are recent developments, scarcely imaginable three decades ago. The disappearance of the queues in these places may seem an unusual concern, but these are not the only places that markets have entered. According to the author, which of the following seems governed by the principle “First come, first served”?
| A．Taking buses. |
| B．Buying houses. |
| C．Flying with an airline. |
| D．Visiting amusement parks. |
The example of the recorded message in Paragraphs 4 and 5 illustrates ______.
| A．the necessity of patience in queuing |
| B．the advantage of modern technology |
| C．the uncertainty of allocation principle |
| D．the fairness of telephonic services |
The passage is meant to ______.
| A．justify paying for faster services |
| B．discuss the morals of allocating things |
| C．analyze the reason for standing in line |
| D．criticize the behavior of queue jumping |
Attempt a guess at the following question: In the English-speaking world, which country has the least affordable homes? You are wrong if you guessed the US, even with the housing bubble （气泡） and main sadness. Nor is it the UK, where prices have risen because demand is far from supply. According to a recent survey of 227 cities around the globe, you must go south of the equator （赤道） to Australia to find the priciest homes．
The report measured a city’s housing market along the following guidelines. An “affordable” home required three times or less of the average family’s income to purchase. At four times earnings, a home fell into the “unaffordable” category. And a “seriously unaffordable” home needed five times a family’s income. In Australia, homes in the least affordable city cost just about 9.5 times the average income. Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne were only a little under this figure．
Australian officials offered little comment, apart from a general statement on the dismal findings. These prices make the possibility that many Australians will one day own a home largely unbelievable. Land rationing （配给制） and excessive development charges have raised prices, and the problem will only be solved through urgent action by the Rudd government．
Some American cities were also included on the least affordable list, four of which were in California. America is still involved in a mortgage（抵押）crisis, though, affecting the affordability of homes. Yet a number of US cities garnered “affordable” status, namely Dallas and Kansas. Australia had no cities listed in the top fifty places with affordable homes．
The survey suggests that you can find affordable homes in most places, just not if you’re Australian and choose to live down under．To buy an affordable house, you should pay _____．
| A．3 times or less of the average family’s income |
| B．4 times or less of the average family’s income |
| C．5 times or less of the average family’s income |
| D．9.5 times or less of the average family’s income |
What caused the prices of houses to increase in Australia?
| A．The rising family’s income． |
| B．The demand over supply. |
| C．The excessive development charges． |
| D．The decrease of land． |
The underlined word “dismal” in Paragraph 3 may mean _____．
| A．cheerful | B．satisfactory |
| C．difficult | D．sad |
What might be the most suitable title for the passage?
| A．Affordable Houses | B．A House is a Dream First |
| C．Housing Bubble | D．Homes Too Expensive |