“Have a nice day!” may be a pleasant gesture or a meaningless expression. When my friend Maxie says “have a nice day” with a smile, I know she sincerely cares about what happens to me. I feel loved and secure since another person cares about me and wishes me well.
“Have a nice day. Next!” this version of the expression is spoken by a salesgirl at the supermarket who is rushing me and my groceries out of the door. The words come out in the same tone (腔调)with a fixed procedure. They are spoken at me, not to me. Obviously, the concern for my day and everyone else’s is the management’s attempt to increase business.
The expression is one of those behaviors that help people get along with each other. Sometimes it indicates the end of a meeting. As soon as you hear it, you know the meeting is at an end. Sometimes the expression saves us when we don’t know what to say. “oh, you just had a tooth out? I’m terribly sorry, but have a nice day.”
The expression can be pleasant. If a stranger says “Have a nice day!” to you, you may find it heart-warming because someone you don’t know has tried to be nice to you.
Although the use of the expression is an insincere, meaningless social custom at times, there is nothing wrong with the sentence except that it is a little uninteresting. The salesgirl, the waitress, the teacher, and all the countless others who speak it without thinking may not really care about my day. But in a strange and comfortable way, it’s nice to know they care enough to pretend they care when they really don’t care all that much. While the expression may not often be sincere, it is always spoken. The point is that people say it all the time when they like.How does the author understand Maxie’s word?
| A．Maxie shows her anxiety to the author. |
| B．Maxie really wishes the author a good day. |
| C．Maxie encourages the author to stay happy. |
| D．Maxie really worries about the author’s security. |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The salesgirl is rude. | B．The salesgirl is bored. |
| C．The salesgirl cares about me. | D．The salesgirl says the words as a routine. |
By saying “Have a nice day,” a stranger may______.
| A．try to be polite to you | B．express respects to you |
| C．give his blessing to you | D．share his pleasure with you. |
According to the last paragraph, people say “Have a good day” __________
| A．sincerely | B．as thanks | C．as a habit | D．encouragingly |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Have a Nice Day---- a Social Custom |
| B．Have a Nice Day----- a pleasant Gesture |
| C．Have a Nice Day----- a heart-warming Greeting |
| D．Have a Nice Day----- a polite ending of a Conversation |
Long, long ago there were a lot of donkeys. The donkeys worked hard every day. They had no time to play or to relax, but they never felt appreciated for the work they did.
One day two donkeys got bored. They wanted to live a comfortable life. So the donkeys went to see a wise old man. They told him their problem. The wise old man agreed that they worked too hard, and he wanted to help the donkeys. "I have an idea." he said.
"What is your idea?" asked the donkeys.
"I will paint you and no one will know you are donkeys," said the man.
The man went off to find some paint and he returned in just a matter of minutes. He had two pots of paint. One pot was filled with white paint, and the other black paint.
The old man first painted them white, and then painted black stripes(斑纹) over the white paint. When he finished, the donkeys did not look at all like donkeys. "You no longer look like donkeys, the old man said. Everyone will be fooled. I will call you something else, zebras. "
The zebras went to a field to eat grass. Now they did not have to work.
Soon, other donkeys saw the zebras. They asked the zebras where they came from. When the ' zebras told the donkeys their secret, the donkeys all rushed to see the old man.
"Make us into zebras, too," they pleaded. So the wise old man painted more donkeys. As he did, more and more donkeys came.
The old man could not paint fast enough. Soon the donkeys became impatient. They began to kick about, and they knocked over the paint pots.
There was no more paint. The painted donkeys ran off to become zebras. The unpainted don- keys, because of their impatience, had to return to work.
This is why it is important to be patient.The text was written to______.
| A．explain how donkeys became zebras |
| B．tell a good way to avoid hard work |
| C．tell an important truth about things |
| D．explain how zebras got their stripes |
The two donkeys went to see a wise old man in order to _____.
| A．tell him their problem | B．get some grass |
| C．change into zebras | D．ask him for help |
When the two donkeys returned, why did they no longer have to work?
| A．No one knew they were donkeys. |
| B．They didn't want to work. |
| C．They didn't eat enough grass |
| D．They were no longer donkeys. |
What does the underlined word " pleaded" mean?
| A．advised. | B．begged. | C．agreed. | D．ordered. |
Have you got teenage children between 12 and 17？Will they jump at the idea to go to South Africa too? Well, let me help you here. I will give you some great ideas about what teenagers can do in Cape Town and give you reasons why a stay in Cape Town will be cool for them too.
You will read where to find really interesting activities and how much money you will have to pay for them and also how your children can gain as many great experiences as possible when holidaying or even living in Cape Town.
·Mad about Football — not only for Soccer Fans
Where: Cape Town Stadium (体育场)，15 min from Cape Town’s central business district (CBD). The new visitor center offers several tours. How much does it cost? R45.6 for adults or kids over 12, R17.1 for kids up to 12 and R11.4 per student for school groups. The Biodiversity Garden next to the stadium is interesting as well and can be added into tour at an additional cost.
·Theme Park with more than 23 rides and roller coasters (过山车)
Where: Ratanga Junction, Century City, 20 min north of Cape Town CBD. Costs: R75 for kids under 1.3m and R152 for kids over 1.3m or adults, open only on school holidays and public holidays.
·Sandboarding anyone
Where: Atlantis, 45 min north of Cape Town CBD. Costs: R595 for a half day of fun in the sand.
·Ice skating
Where: Grand West Casino Complex, Goodwood, 20 min east of Cape Town CBD Costs:R35 (including skates)
·Enjoy mini golf(高尔夫)
Where: Several places around Cape Town CBD. Muizenberg Beach Promenade, Green Point Promenade, Durbanville Vodacom Golf Driving Range or try Cave Golf at the V&A Waterfront next to Scratch Patch. Costs:R8.
·Go bowling
Where: Several places aroun Cape Town CBD. Costs: R25.
·How about climbing walls
Where：Observatory, 20 min south of Cape Towm CBD. Costs: R50. A visitor can get the following information about the activities in the passage EXCEPT ______.
| A．locatin | B．cost | C．food | D．distance |
If a couple want to take their son aged 15 and daughter aged 9 to visit Cape Town Stadium, they shoul pay _________.
| A．R 182.4 | B．R153.9 | C．R125.4 | D．R114 |
In order to have fun on the sand, visitors should go to ________.
| A．Atlantis | B．Green Point Promenade |
| C．Ratanga Junction | D．Grand West Casino Complex |
Which of the following activities costs least?
| A．Theme Park | B．Climbing wall |
| C．Bowling | D．Mini golf |
As an expert on education, I finished a Junior Achievement course at a local middle school last week. I received some meaningful answers when I asked teens what they would want to tell their parents about money.
Max said,’Dear Mom, I need to give you some advice on money. I need more allowance (零用钱)！” I have to say many teenagers have the same idea as him. As an expert, I advise a little money for teens and more if they help with the housework. Now that your children are in middle school, it’s time to think about paying them to do something. My daughter missed a lot of school when she was a junior so I promised to buy her a notebook computer if she didn’t miss any school as a senior — she got the computer finally. What worked for my other daughter was a clothing allowance for her joining in the housework. She would receive a set amount every two months; it taught her a valuable lesson: when the clothing money ran out, she couldn’t buy more clothes until she got enough money through doing the housework. “I need more allowance,” should be the start, not the end, of a dialogue.
Grace wanted to tell Mom, “Only buy what we need.” Spending wisely and saving money was a good theme from all the students. The idea of thinking carefully about spending is just what I taught them at class, but this is not the subject of this Junior Achievement course. It shows me that these teenagers look at their parents’ spending habits, but they don’t tell their parents their opinions about them. Therefore, Moms and Dads, pay attention and remember: your children watch everything you do when it comes to money — do it right, point them in the right direction.
Nikola’s advice is valuable to all parents — “Mom and Dad, I think I should be more involved in money and financial (金融) things so I know how to do everything without a struggle when I get older.” This child has got it right. Her answer shows the fact that parents are responsible (负责的) for the financial training of their children. It is one of our most important parental goals.What does the author advise parents to do when their children want more allowance ?
| A．Stop giving them allowance at once. |
| B．Buy them something they are in need of. |
| C．Give them more allowance if they help do the housework |
| D．Encourage them to earn more allowance by doing part – time jobs. |
Why does the author mention his daughters in Paragraph 2?
| A．To show he does better than others in teaching his children. |
| B．To tell readers how to encourage children to study hard. |
| C．To show paying children to do things really works. |
| D．To tell readers he has children who often make trouble. |
In Paragraph 3 the author suggests that parents should ________.
| A．set good examples to their children in spending and saving money |
| B．set up a good relationship with their children |
| C．ask their children for advice on spending money |
| D．attend his Junior Achievement course |
We can learn from the passage that Nikola _______.
| A．expected her parents to think about her future |
| B．expected to learn how to manage money |
| C．worried about her ability to make a living |
| D．had a better understanding of the author’s course |
What’s this by my door? A handwritten letter from am old university friend. It stands out among the bills and junk mail like gold. Given its rareness, the Government should be praised for announcing that the new secondary school should include lessons that teach students how to write personal and business letters in the correct form.
Letter-writing skills have fallen off a lot in the age of eamils and text messages. Many pupils leave school only able to write a letter for a job application, let alone other kinds of letters. You can’t turn back the clock, but you can stick to your own rules to protect old-fashioned values. Someone who leaves school unable to write a letter is going into the adult world unprepared. And if teachers don’t ram home that message, who else will?
Usually, it does not matter whether someone can write a letter or not — other means of communication will serve. And with computerised spell-checks, people can get by for years without the kind of letter-writing skills. But it is the rare occasion that matters when things can not be made clear with a simple text. When the former England cricket(板球) captain Andrew Strauss decided to leave his job, he had sent handwritten letters to his teammates. Many people thought it unbelievable. But among the disbelief there was something else: admiration, even among the Twitter generation(一代).
I have been a letter-writing lover all my adult life, and am just about to sit down and pen a reply to my university friend. And I hope the sight of a letter by his door will give him as much pleasure as his did me.How did the author feel when receiving the handwritten letter?
| A．Disappointed. | B．Excited. | C．Worried. | D．Proud. |
The underlined part“ram home that message”in Paragraph 2 means“______”.
| A．teach the students the importance of letter writing |
| B．teach the students how to protect traditional values |
| C．teach the students the importance of communication |
| D．teach the students how to write letters of application |
The author mentions Andrew Strauss’s example in order to show that________.
| A．letter-writing skills are very important |
| B．handwritten letters can bring admiration |
| C．handwritten letters are more important than emails |
| D．whether someone can write a letter makes little difference |
What’s the text mainly about?
| A．A study on why handwritten letters become less popular. |
| B．A concern about the bad results of technology. |
| C．A call for more attention to letter writing. |
| D．A touching story between two friends. |
One in ten teens says they use“study drugs”to improve their performance in school. So-called “study drugs”refer to prescription medicines(处方药) that are used to treat ADHD(注意力缺乏症).But most parents have no understanding of the problem, a new study finds.
In January, 2013, researchers from the University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital did a national survey of more than seven hundred families with teens. They found that only one percent of parents believe their child has taken a study drug.
Yet in a 2012 University of Michigan study, ten percent of second-year high school students and twelve percent of third-year high school students say they use a study drug.
The misuse of study drugs didn’t come to the attention of almost all parents.“What we found in this survey is a clear mismatch(不协调)，”said Dr. Matthew Davis, one of the researchers. It is a mismatch between what parents believed and what their kids were reporting.
“We know teens are spreading the word that these drugs can improve their grades,”Davis said.“But these prescription medicines are drugs. And teens who use them without a prescription are taking a serious risk.”
The new survey showed that fifty-four percent of white parents were“very concerned”about their child taking study drugs, compared with thirty-eight percent of Hispanic(拉美的) parents and thirty-seven percent of black parents.
However, just twenty-seven percent of parents surveyed have talked to their teens about using study drugs. Of these parents, forty-one percent were black, twenty-seven percent were white and seventeen percent were Hispanic.
Students with a prescription for an ADHD drug should be required to keep their medicines in a safe place, such as the school nurse’s office. Seventy-nine percent of parents think so, the survey shows. This may help prevent it from being shared or used by other students.According to Paragraph 4, Dr. Daiv thinks__________.
| A．the 2012 University of Michigan study is untrue |
| B．it is a good way to take study drugs to treat ADHD |
| C．some parents still don’t realize the study drugs problem |
| D．it is necessary to do another new survey about study drugs |
Dr. Davis believed using study drugs to improve grades_________.
| A．is worth a try | B．is bad for health |
| C．sometimes works | D．causes little harm |
What does the underlined word“it”in the last paragraph refer to?
A.ADHD.B.The survey.
C.A safe place. D.The study drug.What is the purpose of this text?
| A．To give useful advice. |
| B．To introduce a new drug. |
| C．To report a research result |
| D．To explain what ADHD is. |