Although credit cards are becoming a more acceptable part of the financial scene, they are still regarded with doubts by many as being a major part of the “live now pay later” syndrome（综合症）．Along with hire-purchase, rental and leasing schemes（租赁项目）, they provide encouragement to spend more money．Of course, it is only the hotheaded who give way to the temptation to live, temporarily at least, beyond their means, and such people would no doubt manage to do so even without credit cards．
Advertising campaigns have, however, promoted a growing realization of the advantages of these small pieces of plastic. They prevent need to carry large amounts of cash and are always useful in emergencies．
All the credit card organizations charge interest on a monthly basis which may work out as high as 25 per cent a year, yet sensible purchasing using a card can mean that you obtain up to seven weeks, interest-free credit．Using the card abroad, where items frequently take a long time to be included on your account, can extend this period even further．
It is worthwhile shopping around before deciding on a particular credit card. It is necessary to consider the amount of credit granted; interest rates, which may vary slightly; the number and range of outlets（经销店）, though most cards cover major garages, hotels, restaurants and department stores; and of course, what happens if your card is lost or stolen．A credit card thief may be sitting on a potential goldmine particularly if there is a delay in reporting the loss of the card．
However, if used wisely, a credit card can cost nothing, or at least help to tide you over a period of financial difficulty．The hotheaded are people who ________．
| A．spend more money than they have |
| B．spend less money than other people |
| C．save money |
| D．make money |
The disadvantage of credit cards is ________．
| A．to enable you to buy things without carrying large amount of cash |
| B．to encourage people to spend more money |
| C．to be always useful in emergencies |
| D．to help people tide over a period of financial difficulty |
Deciding on a particular credit, you do not have to consider ________．
| A．the amount of credit granted |
| B．the number and range of outlets |
| C．the possibility of loss of money |
| D．the department stores where you are going to use your credit cards |
The underlined words in the last paragraph probably means ________．
| A．floating with the tide of | B．going through a difficult period of |
| C．rising and falling with the tide of | D．attempting to go against the tide of |
You know you have to read “between the lines” to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. You have to “mark between the lines”. By marking you can make the most efficient kind of reading.
There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property (财产) right you have by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. While full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing marks on it.
Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you awake. Second, active reading is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words. Finally, marking helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
Reading a book should be like making a conversation, a conversation between you and the author. Although he knows more about the subject than you do, don’t let anybody tell you that a reader is only on the receiving end. Understanding is a two-way operation. Reading doesn’t mean being a passive empty receiver, the reader has to question himself and question the author. And marking a book can show his own judgment on author’s opinion: agreement or difference.The author thinks “marking between the lines” is ______.
| A．the most important of all |
| B．more important than “reading between the lines” |
| C．as important as “reading between the lines” |
| D．not so important as “reading between the lines” |
“To own a book” in the most important sense means “______”.
| A．to absorb its content and make it a part of yourself |
| B．to have property right by paying for it |
| C．to write many words of sentences on it |
| D．to make a conversation with the author |
The underlined word “indispensable” most probably means “______”.
| A．troublesome | B．difficult | C．useless | D．necessary |
By saying “Understanding is a two-way operation” the author means_______.
| A．a reader will receive everything the book presents |
| B．the author should understand readers |
| C．a reader should have his own judgment of the author’s opinion |
| D．the author should help readers understand better |
What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．How to Own a Book | B．Mark Between the Lines |
| C．How to Understand Author | D．Read Between the Lines |
In 1909 an English newspaper offered £ 1,000 to the first man to fly across the English Channel in an aeroplane. Today, modern jets cross it in minutes. But at that time it still seemed a good distance. The race to win the money soon became a race between two men. Both were very colourful.
One was Louis Bleriot. He owned a factory in France that made motor car lamps. He was already well known as a pilot because he had had accidents several times. Some people laughed at him. One man said, “He may not be the first to fly across the Channel but he will certainly be the first to die in an accident!” But Bleriot was really a good and brave pilot. He also had many good ideas about aeroplane design.
The other man was Hubert Latham. He was half French and half English. He took up flying when his doctors told him he had only a year to live. “Oh, well,” he said, “if I’ m going to die soon, I think I shall have a dangerous and interesting life now.” Latham was the first to try the flight across the Channel. Ten kilometres from the French coast, his plane had some trouble. It fell down into the water and began to sink under the water. A boat reached Latham just in time. He was sitting calmly on the wing and was coolly lighting a cigarette. Bleriot took off six days later. He flew into some very bad weather and very low cloud. He somehow got to the English side and landed in a farmer’s field. When he did so, a customs (海关) officer rushed up to his plane. Planes have changed since then, but customs officers have not. “Have you anything to declare(报关)?” The officer demanded.Bleriot was well known as a pilot because ____ .
| A．he was unusually brave |
| B．he was quite rich |
| C．he had many good ideas about aeroplane design |
| D．he had had a few accidents |
Why did Hubert Latham want to fly across the Channel?
| A．He thought he could manage it easily. |
| B．He wanted to be the first one to cross the Channel. |
| C．He knew he only had a year to live. |
| D．He had always been interested in flying. |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Latham became a pilot on the doctor’s advice. |
| B．He was told he could live another year. |
| C．His plane had some trouble. |
| D．He was saved by a boat when his plane was sinking. |
I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed(解散). As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated in the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated in the test.The girl wanted to borrow a pen, because ____ .
| A．she had not brought a pen with her | B．she had lost her own on her way to school |
| C．there was something wrong with her pen | D．her own had been taken away by someone |
The teacher saw all this, so she asked the boy ____ .
| A．to go on writing his paper | B．to stop whispering |
| C．to leave the room immediately | D．to stay behind after the exam |
The thing(s) emphasized in her talk was(were) ____ .
| A．honesty | B．sense of duty | C．seriousness | D．all of the above |
The boy knew everything ____ .
| A．the moment he was asked to stay behind | B．when the teacher started talking about honesty |
| C．only some time later | D．when he was walking out of the room |
In Denmark, parents are allowed to set up a new school if they are dissatisfied with the school in the area where they are living. Although these schools have to follow the national courses, they are allowed a lot of choice in deciding what to teach. Some of these new schools are called “small schools” because usually the number of pupils in them is only sixty, but a school has to have at least twenty-seven pupils.
Cooleenbridge School in Ireland, is a small school similar to the ones in Denmark, it was set up by parents who came from Holland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, England and other parts of Ireland. They came because they wanted to live in the countryside and to grow their own food. In June 1986, they decided to start a school. They managed to get an old, disused primary-school building and started with twenty-four children aged from four to twelve.
The teachers say, “The important thing in school is doing, not sitting.” And so the courses includes yoga(瑜伽), cooking, knitting(编织), kite-making, music, fishing, drama(戏剧) and environmental river studies, as well as reading, writing, maths and science.What are the rules for setting up a new school in Denmark?
| A．Parents are allowed to set up their own school. |
| B．The school has to follow the national courses. |
| C．The school has to have at least 27 pupils. |
| D．All of the above. |
The writer tells about the Cooleenbridge School in Ireland because .
| A．it was set up by parents who are not people of Denmark |
| B．it was taken as an example of this kind of “small school” |
| C．there were only twenty-four children |
| D．the pupils there were aged from 4 to 12 |
What makes this kind of school special?
| A．It is set up by parents not by government. |
| B．It is free to decide what to teach. |
| C．The number of pupils in it is only sixty. |
| D．It has to have at least 27 pupils. |
“The important thing in school is doing, not sitting.” What the teachers say actually means .
| A．What we should do is teaching in the classroom, not sitting in the office. |
| B．Children should do more homework at home, not just sit in class to listen to the teachers. |
| C．Children should learn by themselves not rely on teachers. |
| D．Children should learn through practice not just from books. |
Grandma Moses is among the most famous twentieth-century painters of the United States, yet she did not start painting until she was in her late seventies. As she once said of herself: “I would never sit back in a rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me.” No one could have had a more productive old age.
She was born Anna Mary Robertson on a farm in New York State, one of five boys and five girls. At twelve she left home and was in domestic(家庭的) service until, at twenty-seven, she married Thomas Moses, the hired hand of one of her employers. They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia and then in New York State, at Eagle Bridge. She had ten children, of whom five survived; her husband died in 1927.
Grandma Moses painted a little as a child and made embroidery(刺绣) pictures as a hobby, but only changed to oils in old age because her hands had become too stiff(硬的) to sew and she wanted to keep busy and pass the time. Her pictures were first sold at a local market and were soon noticed by a businessman who bought everything she painted. Three of the pictures exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940 she had her first exhibition in New York. Between the 1930s and her death she produced some 2,000 pictures: detailed and lively portrayals(描绘) of the country life she had known for so long, with a wonderful sense of colour and form. “I think really hard till I think of something really pretty, and then I paint it.” she said.According to the passage, Grandma Moses began to paint because she wanted to.
| A．make herself beautiful | B．keep active |
| C．earn more money | D．become famous |
The underlined word “survived” means.
| A．graduated from college | B．examined the condition of the house |
| C．lived longer than the other children | D．gave up themselves to the police |
From Grandma Moses’ description of herself in the first paragraph, it can be inferred that she was.
| A．independent | B．pretty | C．rich | D．nervous |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Grandma Moses: Her Life and Pictures. | B．The Children of Grandma Moses. |
| C．Grandma Moses: Her Best Exhibition. | D．Grandma Moses and Other Older Artists. |