They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend. And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy－games, CDs and clothing－are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a tricky business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parent’s card. They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (网络的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products can stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and ￡20bn annually in the UK. Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school－88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online－mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing on the high street. They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as InternetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK. Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as￡20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account. What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Sellers. | B．Buyers. | C．Teenagers. | D．Parents. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．More than half of the teenagers in the US and the UK have Internet access. |
| B．Teenagers pay for goods online with their own credit cards. |
| C．Most teenagers in the US and the UK have bought something online. |
| D．Teenagers found it easier to persuade parents to buy online than in a shop. |
New way to help teenagers shop online is to use ______.
| A．a new machine | B．special coins and notes |
| C．prepaid cards | D．pay-as-you-go mobile phones |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Online shopping traps. | B．Internet users in the US and the UK. |
| C．New credit cards for parents. | D．The arrival of cyber pocket money. |
This Teaching Assistant Level 3 course is designed for people who either are, or wish to become a teaching assistant. Teaching assistants carry out their tasks under the direction of the class teacher. This is a fully supported home study course, and the help is available whenever you need it --- either online or over the phone. There is a huge demand for teaching assistants around the country but also many thousands of applicants for these positions. Having this Teaching Assistant Level 3 qualification will help you stand out from other applicants. Our Level 3 Teaching Assistant course is similar to the NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) Level 3 because it is an equivalent (同等的) level of learning.
The teaching assistant is able to contribute in four main areas:
Supporting the teacher
Supporting the pupil
Supporting the school
Supporting the curriculum
The salary a teaching assistant is expected to earn a year:
London fringe (外围):￡16,856 - ￡26,052
Outer London: ￡18,789 - ￡27,992
Inner London: ￡19,893 - ￡29,088
Rest of England and Wales: ￡15,817 - ￡25,016
The fee and the time of enrolment (入学)
Enroll for only a ￡35 deposit. Teaching Assistant Level 3 is only ￡345. To help you on your way towards achieving your qualification, we are offering all of our potential students a ￡115 reduction in their enrolment fees for June. The normal fee for this course is ￡460 but for this month it has been reduced to only ￡345. There has never been a better time to start learning and take that first step towards a brighter future!
100% money back guarantee, if you are not satisfied. That’s why we’ll happily give you your money back on any course returned within 7 days. It’s easy for you to enroll now by telephone 01223 923 913. You can get free friendly help and advice from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, on Monday to Friday. Call 01223 923 915. How can people study this Teaching Assistant Level 3 course?
| A．Go to the night school. |
| B．Go to the full-time school. |
| C．Study at home at any time. |
| D．Study at weekends or vacations. |
What’s the teaching assistant’s task?
| A．Listening to the teacher’s lecture all the time. |
| B．Only helping teachers prepare their lessons. |
| C．Helping promote effective learning and teaching. |
| D．Often giving lessons in place of the formal teacher. |
If a teacher assistant earns ￡28,000 a year , he probably works in ______.
| A．downtown Wales | B．the fringe of London |
| C．outer London | D．downtown London |
How much should you pay in June if you have paid the deposit?
| A．￡35 | B．￡310 | C．￡345 | D．￡460 |
It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.
I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!
Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.
Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb comes from an adjective not a noun.
Now my children bought me a mobile phone, known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message for them on their phone. Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself!“I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means.
| A．it was a firm arrangement |
| B．he prefers a pencil to a pen |
| C．the arrangement should be written as a diary |
| D．it was an uncertain arrangement |
A website address can be easily found if it has been______.
| A．favorited | B．messaged | C．emailed | D．texted |
Which of the following has not been used as a verb yet?
| A．message | B．mobile | C．email | D．page |
The best title for this passage is____.
| A．Technology and Language. |
| B．Development of the English language |
| C．New Technology and New words |
| D．New Verbs from Nouns |
That “Monday morning feeling” could be a crushing pain in the chest which leaves you sweating and gasping for breath. Recent research from Germany and Italy shows that heart attacks are more common on Monday morning and doctors blame the stress of returning to work after the weekend break.
The risk of having a heart attack on any given day should be one in seven, but a six-year study helped by researchers at the Free University of Berlin of more than 2,600 Germans showed that the average person had a 20 percent higher chance of having a heart attack on a Monday than on any other day.
Working Germans are particularly not protected against attack, with a 33 percent higher risk at the beginning of the working week. Non-workers, by comparison, appear to be no more at risk on a Monday than any other day.
A study of 11,000 Italians proved 8a.m on a Monday morning as the most stressful time for the heart, and both studies showed that Sunday is the least stressful day, with fewest heart attacks in both countries.
The finding could lead to a better understanding of what is the immediate cause of heart attacks, according to Dr. Stefan Willich of the Free University. “We know a lot about long-term risk factors such as smoking and cholesterol（胆固醇）but we don’t know what actually causes heart attacks, so we can’t give clear advice on how to prevent them.” he said.
Monday mornings have a double helping of stress for the working body as it makes a rapid change from sleep to activity and from the relaxing weekend to the pressure of work.
“When people get up, their blood pressure and heart rate go up and there are hormonal（内分泌）changes in their bodies.” Willich explained. “All these things can have an unfavorable effect on the blood system and increase the risk of a clot（血凝块）which will cause a heart attack.”
“When people return to work after a weekend off, the pace of their life changes. They have a higher workload, more stress, more anger and more physical activities.” said Willich.“Monday morning feeling ”, as this passage shows,.
| A．is not as serious as people thought |
| B．is the first killer in Germany and Italy |
| C．is created by researchers in Germany and Italy |
| D．is harmful to working people in developed countries |
To protect people from a heart attack, doctors have paid much attention to .
| A．people’s working time | B．people’s living place |
| C．people’s lifestyle | D．people’s nationalities |
It can be learned from this passage that the heart attack has something to do with all the following EXCEPT .
| A．blood pressure | B．heart rate |
| C．hormonal changes | D．blood type |
If the researchers give us some advice to avoid Monday morning feeling, what might it be?
| A．Improving working conditions | B．Never go to work on Mondays |
| C．Stay with a doctor on Monday. | D．Get up late on Monday morning |
Every ten years there is a national census （人口普查）to count the number of people. The Census Office asks every household to answer questions on a census form.
The census counts...
● the number of people in each area
● the numbers of men and women and whether they are single, married, widowed or divorced
● how many children there are, how many teenagers, people in their twenties, thirties, forties... retired people and so on
The census counts people by...
● the kind of housing they live in
● the country in which they were born
● the kind of job they do and how they travel to work
Some uses of the census:
Housing: to work out present and future needs we must know how people are housed now, and the sizes and ages of their families.
Hospitals, schools and other local services: the size of annual grants made by the Government to these services depends largely on the numbers and needs of people in the area. Many of the figures come from the census.
Planning: the census shows how many people have moved from one area to another and how the local workforce is changing. This information is used when factories, offices, shops, public transport and places for leisure are being planned.
In strict confidence
The census is taken in order to provide figures about the nation as a whole; it does not give information about any named person, family or household.
Names and addresses are needed to take the census accurately, but they are not fed into the computer. After the census, the forms are locked away and will not be released to anyone outside the Census Office for 100 years.
The answers you give on your census form will be treated in strict confidence. NO one outside the Census Office will see your completed form. Everyone working on the census is sworn to secrecy and can be charged if he or she improperly reveals information.The writer is mainly ________ in this passage.
| A．persuading people to support census |
| B．giving information about the importance and practice of census |
| C．showing the government’s determination in conducting census |
| D．warning people not to provide inaccurate information |
The census is not interested in ________.
| A．how many houses you have | B．how old you are |
| C．what your job is | D．how much money you have |
The census shows the changes that have taken place regarding ________.
| A．the size of hospitals in the area |
| B．the types of public transport in the area |
| C．the number of people who work in the area |
| D．the use of power in the area |
The following statements are true except _________.
| A．the information is not fed into a computer |
| B．the census gives information about the whole country |
| C．the people who don’t work on the census will not see the completed forms |
| D．it is illegal for people to disclose the confidential information on census |
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is also the most neglect (忽视). Common reasons for not eating breakfast include having no time, not feeling hungry, traditional dislike and dieting.
Breakfast simply means “break the fast’’. Your body spends at least 6 to 12 hours each night in a fasting state. In the morning your body needs energy for the day’s work ahead.
A good breakfast should provide 1/3 of your total calorie(卡路里)needs for the day. On average, we eat 400 less calories for breakfast than for dinner. If breakfast doesn’t appeal (吸引) to you in the morning, try eating a lighter dinner earlier in the evening or save half of your dinner for breakfast in the morning.
If you still aren’t hungry in the morning, start with something small like juice or toast or have a nutritious (有营养的) mid-morning snack (小吃) later when you are hungry.
So, you say you are on a diet. Some people fear that eating breakfast will make them hungrier during the day and they will eat more. It is true that eating breakfast is likely to make you feel hungry throughout the day. That is because your body is working correctly. Although you may feel as if you are eating more all day long, in reality you are probably not.
Not eating breakfast can also cause you overeat, since a fall in blood sugar often makes you feel very hungry later. To make matters worse, since your body is in a slow state, it will not be able to burn those extra calories very efficiently (有效). If you feed your body healthy snacks and meals throughout the day, you are less likely to become hungry and stuff (填饱) yourself as soon as you begin to eat.
Since breakfast is the first and most important meal of the day, choosing the right food is important. The best breakfast foods are fruits, juice, lean meat and grain products such as bread, rice, noodles and cereals.What is the meaning of the word “fast” in the phrase “break the fast”?
| A．movement | B．going without food |
| C．quickness | D．certain kind of food |
If you don’t want to have breakfast in the morning, according to the writer’s suggestion, you should________.
| A．see a doctor to have an examination |
| B．have a little supper |
| C．go to a restaurant to enjoy a good meal |
| D．have a good supper |
Eating breakfast, in fact, makes your body_________.
| A．work out of order | B．produce too much energy |
| C．work well | D．feel hungry quicker |
In the last paragraph the writer mainly_________.
A. persuades us to have a good breakfast
B. tell us what food isn’t suitable for breakfast
C describes when and how we should have our breakfast
D .tell us what food we should have for breakfast