Most British telephone cards are just plain green, but card collecting is becoming a popular hobby in Britain and collectors even have their own magazine, International Telephone Cards. One reason for their interests is that cards from around the world come in a wide variety of different and often very attractive design, There are 100,000 different cards in Japan alone, and there you can put your own design onto a bank card simply by using a photograph or a business card.
The first telephone cards, produced in 1976, were Italian. Five years later, the first British card appeared, and now you can buy cards in more than a hundred countries. People usually start collecting cards because they are attractive, small and light, and they do not need much space. It is also a cheap hobby for beginners, although for some people it becomes a serious business. In Paris, for example, there is a market where you can buy only telephone cards, and some French cards cost up to 4,000 pounds. The first Japanese card has a value of about 28,000 pounds. Most people only see cards with prices like these in their collectors’ magazine.The passage is mainly about __________.
| A．the history of phone cards. |
| B．phone card collecting as a hobby |
| C．reasons for phone card collecting |
| D．the great variety of phone cards |
When did people in Britain begin to use phone card?
| A．In 1971. | B．In 1975 | C． In 1976. | D．In 1981. |
The main reason for most people to collect phone cards is that _________.
| A．they find the cards beautiful and easy to keep |
| B．they like to have something from different countries |
| C．they want to make money with cards |
| D．they think the cards are convenient to use |
The writer mentions a market in Paris in order to show that __________.
| A．card collecting is popular among young people |
| B．French and Japanese cards are the most valuable |
| C．People can make money out of card collecting |
| D．Card collectors’ magazines are very useful |
Making the announcement, Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, called Alice Munro a “master of the contemporary short story”.
“She has taken an art form, the short story, which has tended to live a little bit in the shadow of the novel, and she has cultivated it almost to perfection,” he said.
The 82-year-old, whose books include Dear Life and dance of the Happy Shades, is only the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature since its start in 1901.
“I knew I was in the running, yes, but I never thought I would win,” Munro told Canadian media.
Alice Munro: “I would really hope that this would make people see the short story as an important art form.”
Munro, who began writing in her teenage years, published her first story, The Dimensions of a Shadow, in 1950.
Dance of the Happy Shades, published in 1968, was Munro’s first collection, and it went on to win Canada’s highest literary prize, the Governor General’s Award.
In 2009, she won the Man Booker International Prize for her entire body of work — but she downplayed her achievements.
“I think maybe I was successful in doing this because I didn’t have any other talents,” she once said in an interview.
BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz said Munro had been “at the very top of her game since she started”.
“Very few writers are her equal,” he said, adding “She gets to the heart of what it is to be human”.
The award “probably won’t make a commercial difference” to the author, he added, but it “makes a huge difference to how her work will be viewed in historical terms”.
“If she hadn’t won it before she died, I think it would have been a terrible, terrible omission (遗漏).”
Often compared to Anton Chekhov, she is known for writing about the human spirit and a regular theme of her work is the dilemma faced by young girls growing up and coming to terms with living in a small town.
Several of her stories have also been adapted for the screen, including The Bear Came over the Mountain.According to the text, Alice Munro ________.
| A．is very good at writing short stories |
| B．had her first story published in 1968 |
| C．is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature |
| D．was confident of winning the Nobel Prize for literature |
What does Will Gompertz think of Alice Munro?
| A．He thinks very highly of her. |
| B．He thinks she’s a productive writer. |
| C．He is amazed by her different skills. |
| D．He compares her to Anton Chekhov. |
Which words can best describe Alice Munro?
| A．Honest and responsible. |
| B．Cautious and friendly. |
| C．Caring and determined. |
| D．Talented and modest. |
What’s the best title for the text?
| A．Short story — an important art form. |
| B．A master of the contemporary short story. |
| C．Alice Munro’s novel adapted for the screen. |
| D．Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize for Literature. |
If we are to help students develop reading skills in a foreign language, it is important to understand what is involved in the reading process itself. If we have a clear idea of how “good readers” read, either in their own or a foreign language, this will enable us to decide whether particular reading techniques are likely to help learners or not.
In considering the reading process, it is important to distinguish between two quite separate activities: reading for meaning (or “silent reading”) and reading aloud. Reading for meaning is the activity we normally engage in when we read books, newspapers, road signs, etc.; it is what you are doing as you read this text. It involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey, in other words “making sense” of a written text. It doesn’t normally involve saying the words we read, not even silently inside our heads.
Reading aloud is a completely different activity; its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the information to someone else. It is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom; common examples are reading out parts of a newspaper article to a friend, or reading a notice to other people who can’t see it. Obviously, reading aloud involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it. Because our attention is divided between reading and speaking, it is a much more difficult activity than reading silently; we often stumble and make mistakes when reading aloud in our own language, and reading aloud in a foreign language is even more difficult.
When we read for meaning, we do not need to read every letter or every word, nor even every word in each sentence. This is because, if the text makes sense, we can guess much of what it says as we read it.The passage is mainly about ____________.
| A．reading skills | B．silent reading |
| C．reading processes | D．reading aloud |
The underlined word “stumble” in Paragraph 3 means ____________.
| A．step over something and fall |
| B．repeat something or pause for too long |
| C．walk with heavy movements |
| D．speak in a fluent and confident way |
We can infer from the passage that the author will continue to ____________.
| A．discuss in detail how to read aloud |
| B．introduce some more reading activities |
| C．tell how good readers read in their own language |
| D．explain why we needn’t say the words when reading for meaning |
We can conclude that ____________.
| A．reading silently is easier than reading aloud |
| B．to understand a sentence, you have to read all the words in it |
| C．silent reading involves looking at a text and saying the words silently to yourself |
| D．there’s no difference between reading in one’s own language and in a foreign one |
Over 500 dogs being delivered to a butcher house were saved by a Chinese animal protection organization. The incident then triggered debate among Chinese netizens about the necessity of pouring so much money and efforts into saving dogs.
On Friday, a truck loaded with over 500 dogs were stopped by volunteers from animal protection organization on Jingha expressway Beijing section. Beijing Times reported these dogs were being delivered to slaughter houses in the city of Changchun, northeast Jilin province and would be eventually served on dinner tables.
After negotiations with the truck driver, pet service provider Leepet Holding Corp. and a philanthropic foundation, Shangshan Foundation, purchased these dogs, each paying 50,000 yuan. Dogs were then delivered to the headquarter of China Small Animal Protection Association (CS APA), being taken care of and waiting for adoption.
After the “dog saving mission” was reported, Chinese net users debate over whether saving dogs worth so much efforts and money while there are still many poor and needy people in China lacking assistance.
Some net users argue the dog saving mission is placing over attention to animals while lots of needy people are still left unattended.
A microblogger “Xiaowulaitajie” said on China’s twitter-like website, weibo.com, “Dogs are saved, adopted and they attracted media spotlight. We'd better spend such money and take such efforts in helping the needy people.”
Another microblogger, Liluping, said "We poured such huge sum of money into saving dogs. I would rather the money be spent on disaster relief."
Some applaud volunteers’ actions and show eagerness of offering their helping hands to those saved dogs.
Still many disapprove those "saving dogs" critics, but they argue that such act nonetheless embodies social progress.
A microblogger named "broken bridge" said, saving dogs does not run counter to taking care of people. Such enthusiasm in public affairs will help raise social awareness in helping the needy.
I think people and animals are created equal .Attention should be paid to people as well as animals.Where did the article come from ___________?
| A．newspaper | B．Internet |
| C．a TV programme | D．a magazine |
Whose opinion is closest to the writer's?
| A．Some net users' | B．Xiaowulaitajie's |
| C．Liluping's | D．Broken bridge's |
Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．All the people think it right to save these dogs with so much money. |
| B．These dogs were finally saved and sent back to their owners. |
| C．Some volunteers support the actions to save these dogs and the people who offered their helping hands to those saved dogs. |
| D．100,000 yuan was given to the truck driver to purchase these dogs. |
When I was about 14, I decided to make money, so I got a part-time job at a local restaurant. With my first paycheck, I realized that I would have to work awfully hard to make very little money. My boss had been making just above minimum wage for 20 years, and I knew I didn't want to spend the rest of my life working to death. Around the same time, my godparents took me to an investment(投资) workshop. Immediately, my eyes were opened to the power of compound growth in investing. I knew that this was a way to financial freedom. I left the workshop, determined to make my money work for me instead of just me working for money.
Honoring what my mother had taught me, to share whatever I had, I donated part of my paychecks to raise money for breast cancer, and saved everything else to build up a large enough nest egg to open a brokerage account (经纪人账户). Too excited to wait, I began reading everything I could about investing. With most of my life savings (which wasn't very much money), I invested in DuPont, AT&T, Caterpillar, and International Paper. The pride in being a shareholder （股东）in a company, along with watching my stocks increase in value, fueled my desire to learn more. I went to three more investment workshops with my godparents and browsed(浏览) books at the library.
I began with $4,000 in my account and have added about $2,000 since then. My portfolio is now worth roughly $12,000, five years later, having grown about 18% per year, on average. My favorite holdings are biotechnology companies that I know a fair amount about because they're based near me.
In the years since then, I have experienced many moments of gratitude for discovering investing so early in my life. I'm in college now, and plan to go on to medical school and become a family practice physician. And I know that, thanks to investing, my road will be much easier. Not only have I taken an active step towards improving my long-term financial future, but I am confident that I will also be able to generously support the causes I believe in with more ease than I otherwise would have imagined.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．The working condition in the local restaurant was awful. |
| B．The writer didn’t make much money because he took a temporary job. |
| C．People can’t make a lot of money unless they work hard as hard work always pays. |
| D．The investment workshop taught the writer that he could make money through investment. |
The writer was eager to learn more about investing because ________.
| A．he had invested all his life savings in stocks |
| B．he was too excited to wait to open a brokerage account |
| C．he wanted to donate more to raise money for breast cancer |
| D．he felt proud of being a shareholder with his stocks increasing in value |
Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Investing made his wealth grow effectively. |
| B．Investing enabled him to achieve his life goals. |
| C．Investing allowed him to pay off all his debts. |
| D．Investing helped him to reach financial independence. |
The best title of the passage should be __________.
| A．The Rewards of Investing |
| B．My Dream Career |
| C．The Key to Successful Investment |
| D．Thank You, My Godparents |
Marketing Professionals
A major US corporation in the health and nutritional industry has announced the opening of its direct selling division in Taiwan.
The company offers the most lucrative compensation plan in the industry and has paid over NTD (新台币) 3.5 billion in commissions in just 6 years in the US. We are a group of top earners.
Applicants should meet the requirements：
(1) Taiwan citizen
(2) Have experience in marketing
(3) Aggressive, energetic, and willing to learn
If you believe you have what it takes to develop this business, please dial 2742－6996.
Job B
An international company requires a Service Technician
To service and maintain electronic medical equipment，applicants should have degree in electronics. The selected candidate will have a training program to be conducted by our manufacturer's trained technical personnel.
Interested candidates please apply immediately with a resume(简历) and mail to P．O. Box 594. Or telephone Ms Chang at 2945－0027 for an immediate interview.
Job C
Wanted: Reporters & Editors
Qualifications：
* Strong command of English language
* Chinese speaking and reading ability a must
* A university degree
* Journalism education and/or experience preferred
* Flexible working hours (30 hours per week)
* Good work environment and medical insurance, etc.
Fax resume and work samples, if any, to The China Post at(03) 2595－7952.
Job D
Southeastern Travel Services Tour Guides
Duties: To conduct escorted tours(陪游) for foreign visitors；to assist with travel and transportation arrangements.
Qualifications: Good appearance. High school diploma.
Good knowledge of English. Outgoing personality.
Dial 2703－2172 after 3 p.m.. Ask for Gary.Which of the following is required for marketing professionals?
| A．A university degree. |
| B．Good appearance. |
| C．Good computer knowledge. |
| D．Some marketing experience. |
Wendy is good at Chinese and doesn't like to work on fixed schedules. Which of the four jobs might be suitable for her?
A. Job A． B. Job B． C. Job C. D. Job D.Charles has a strong interest in technology service. Which phone number should he dial?
| A．2742－6996. | B．2945－0027. |
| C．2595－7952. | D．2703－2172. |
Mary has attractive looks and a good command of English with an outgoing character. Which of the following would she choose?
A. Job A.B. Job B. C. Job C.D. Job D.