Nothing can destroy a vacation quicker than losing your money or credit cards. A few simple steps before you head out of the door can help protect your cash, card and personal information while you’re traveling.
Paul Stephens, a policy analyst San Diego, notes that people spend a lot of time planning their trips, from buying guidebooks to finding just the right beach outfits（装备）.“But their eyes glaze（呆滞） over when the subject of keeping money safe comes up,” he said.
“Why not take a few minutes to do something that could probably save your vacation?” Stephens asked．“In most cases, they can go on your to-do list with‘ buy travel bags’ and everything else,” he added.
The top recommendation is to clean your wallet. Remove unnecessary credit cards and any other unneeded documents that could compromise（危及...的安全）your identity(身份) if lost or stolen while you’re on vocation.
Then make a photocopy of the cards you’ve decided to take along and keep it in a secure location with you（not in your wallet）or leave it with a trusted relative or friend back home. Then you will know who you need to contact and how to reach it if your wallet is missing.
“Travelers should never leave their wallets or any identifying documents in their hotel room when they’re not there,” he said.” Choose a hotel with a safe to keep your valuable things in. Or keep your wallet and documents with you at all times. ”According to passage, _______can destroy one’s vacation the most quickly.
| A．being lost on vacation | B．losing money or credit cards |
| C．living in a bad hotel. | D．losing contact with family |
What does the underlined word stand for?
| A．The people who are going traveling. |
| B．The outfits that are prepare4d for traveling. |
| C．The suggestions on what to buy when traveling. |
| D．The steps to avoid losing money or credit cards. |
What should people do with their wallet before they go on vacation?
| A．Take it with them all the time. | B．Put it in a safe place at the hotel |
| C．Remove unnecessary cards and documents. | D．Leave it with family or friend. |
What is the topic of the passage?
| A．How to prepare for travel. |
| B．How to be happy during your vacation. |
| C．How to keep cash and cards safe on vacation. |
| D．How to protect your luggage on vacation |
According to the passage, we know ______.
| A．people don’t always know how to protect their money or credit cards |
| B．people should take a lot of money with them while traveling |
| C． people can leave their identifying documents in rooms, if the hotel is expensive |
| D．people can spend a few minutes preparing the luggage for travelling |
The World Bank has looked at the distinguishing features of successful school system.
According to the World Bank’s education specialist, Harry Patrinos, this include: improving the quality of teachers and making sure that teachers are highly regarded; providing information to make schools accountable and giving autonomy to schools and head teachers.
This matters not only for individual pupils but also for the well-being of countries, he says, because improving educational performance has a direct impact on improving economic performance.
China’s education performance— at least in cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong— seems to be as spectacular as the country’s fast growing economy.
Certainly both these open and outward-looking cities consider education to be important and are willing to adopt the best educational practices from around the world to ensure success. In Hong Kong, education accounts for more than one-fifth of entire government spending every year.
“Shanghai and Hong Kong are small education systems, with a concentration of ideas, manpower and resources for education,” says Prof Cheng.
Under the banner “First class city, first class education”, Shanghai set about systematically re-equipping classroom, upgrading schools and improving the curriculum in the last decade.
It got rid of the “key schools” system which concentrated resources only on top students and top schools. Instead staff were trained in more interactive teaching methods and computers were brought in.
About 80% of Shanghai school leavers go to university compared to an overall average of 24% in China.
Meanwhile, dynamic Hong Kong was forced into educational improvements as its industries moved to cheaper mainland Chinese areas in the 1990s.Its survival as a service and management hub depends on upgrading knowledge and skills.
In the last decade Hong Kong has concentrated on closing the gap for all students, says a report by McKinsey management consultants.
The report, How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better, rated Hong Kong’s education system among the best in the world.The World Bank’s survey about education mainly concentrates on .
| A．what has made some education systems successful |
| B．China’s education system and competitive exams |
| C．how to relieve Chinese students of their heavy schoolwork |
| D．the relationship between education and economic development |
According to Harry Patrinos, the key to successful school systems is .
| A．to give autonomy to all teachers to educate students freely in class |
| B．to let students attend after-school tutoring and do more exercises |
| C．to improve teachers’ abilities and give schools free performance right |
| D．to make school education directly serve the economy of the country |
We can learn from the text that.
| A．the “key school” system is the key to many schools’ failure |
| B．students in Shanghai and Hong Kong work the hardest |
| C．Hong Kong’s educational performance isn’t as good as Shanghai’s |
| D．Shanghai and Hong Kong’s economic performance will improve |
What is the author’s attitude towards the school systems of Shanghai and Hong Kong?
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. |
| C．Neutral. | D．Critical. |
Next year marks the 150th anniversary of when large numbers of Chinese started working on a huge project in the United States. They help to build America’s first transcontinental railroad between 1863 and 1869, connecting the East Coast with the West.
People know little about the Chinese railroad workers and what happened to them after the project was finished. Stanford University in California wants to learn more about the lives of these men by reaching out to their families.
Bill Yee’s ancestors came from southern China. He said, “My great-great-grandfather came to America during the‘gold rush’days and he returned to China as a wealthy man. And then my great-grandfather came to work on the railroad and died there.”
But that did not stop his grandfather from coming to the US on false papers. He operated a laundry. Bill Yee’s father continued to run the business and has never returned to China.
“Things were pretty bad in some parts of China in the 1860’s. They came to America at all costs in order that they no longer had to bear hunger,” Bill Yee said.
Shelley Fisher Fishkin is helping to direct the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University. She said, “Many of the Chinese workers who came to work on the transcontinental and other railroads returned to China after their work was done and created families there. Some of them settled in America and created new families, but they had families who they left when they came here and they may have descendants in China.”
There is a need to create a record of the object and spoken history from the families of the railroad workers.
“The US could not have become the modern industrial nation without the railroads. And the railroads would not have come together without the work of these Chinese workers,” said Shelley Fisher Fishkin.What do you know about Bill Yee?
A. His family was rich in the 1860’s.
B. His father settled in the USA.
C. He knows little about his ancestors and hopes to know more.
D. His grandfather came to America with his great-grandfather.According to Bill Yee, many Chinese went to America in the 1860’s mainly .
| A．to run their own businesses |
| B．to find their ancestors |
| C．to make a living |
| D．to dig gold |
According to Shelley Fisher Fishkin,.
| A．the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers all live a good life |
| B．they expect to find all the descendants of the Chinese railroad workers |
| C．some Chinese railroad workers hope they can find their descendants in China |
| D．some Chinese railroad workers have descendants both in China and the US |
Why did Stanford University carry out the project?
| A．Because they want to help the Chinese railroad workers’ descendants to get together. |
| B．Because they want to show the importance of America’s first transcontinental railroad. |
| C．Because they want to learn more about how to build a railroad in the past in America. |
| D．Because they want Americans to remember the Chinese railroad workers’ role in US history. |
Alibaba started taking the lead in China by connecting big Chinese manufacturers(制造商) with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to judge: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its market attracts 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year — and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets — not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. “You’re looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba’s original business-to-business model now is second to consumer buying. Chinese retail(零售) buying makes up 80% of Alibaba’s profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items(物品) for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you’ll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping — big-box retailers especially —in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how wide the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I’m not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.Alibaba’s advantage mainly lies in .
| A．its business-to-business service |
| B．its big size |
| C．its not charging small sellers |
| D．its low price |
What can we learn from the underlined sentence in the passage?
| A．Alibaba is of middle size among all the online sites. |
| B．Alibaba will continue to develop. |
| C．Alibaba acts as a bridge between the buyers and sellers. |
| D．Alibaba stands out as the best online site. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Alibaba’s business-to-business service earns more money than retail. |
| B．Taobao has no obvious advantage over other similar online sites. |
| C．TMall.com provides more profit than Taobao. |
| D．The author’s Chinese teacher is also an online purchase lover. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Shopping online in China is TaoBao. |
| B．Alibaba influences people’s daily purchase in China. |
| C．Shopping online goes beyond traditional shopping. |
| D．How the author purchases online in China. |
Stop wasting your time thinking of reasons for your failures. Instead, realize that the seeds of success were planted within you when you were born. Only you have the power to make those seeds grow.
The seeds, and the power to grow them, are contained in the most awesome machine ever created: the human mind. Success is a choice and not a chance. You were born a winner. You were born rich. You can be a success if only you make the right choice.
You cannot be successful without first developing your self-confidence. Your level of self-confidence is always based on the degree of control that you are able to exercise over yourself, and thus over your life. People with low self-confidence are people who do not believe that they have any power, or responsibility for their lives. They are always victims. They are leaves tossed (摇摆) by the winds of chance blown about with any sudden change in the weather.
You can exercise control over your life only to the degree that you believe you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Failures think that everything happens by accident and chance. Successful people realize that they are responsible.
Everything happens as a result of something. If we can identify(确定) the cause, we can control the effect. We are responsible for what we choose to think and believe. One generally rises to the level that one expects. We are responsible for setting our expectations. Our success is dependent upon our level of confidence.
In all areas of your life, whether they are financial, physical, or spiritual, you are responsible. Once you recognize this, accept it, and firmly believe it. You are on the road to success.People with low self-confidence are compared to leaves because they .
| A．don’t have the power to face their lives |
| B．are ready to change their minds |
| C．can’t exercise control over themselves |
| D．are easily affected by windy weather |
Losers would think that .
| A．they fail only because of bad luck |
| B．they don’t make efforts to succeed |
| C．success is the result of hard work |
| D．working hard will lead to success |
It can be inferred from the fifth paragraph that .
| A．what we believe in is the result of creative mind |
| B．whether we will succeed depends on our attitudes |
| C．setting our expectations is vital before taking action |
| D．knowing cause and effect is the key to future success |
The last paragraph serves as .
| A．an introduction to another topic |
| B．a comparison between two views |
| C．the proof of the author’s points |
| D．the conclusion of the argument |
Music died here last spring, or rather, it was killed by members of the school committee who ignored the importance of music as part of the high-school curriculum.
The committee decided that teaching students how to take a test is more important than a curriculum in which students can explore their interests in the arts as well as academics. Because the school system is running out of funding(资金), it needs to make sure that students pass the test or even more money will be lost. If students fail the state test，it is not the fault of music classes — they are failing because the “academic” classes are not adequate.
It is painful to think of how many students will be discouraged from singing, acting, and playing instruments because school programs are no longer offered. Many families cannot afford private music lessons, and many potential musicians may not find their calling if they are not exposed to it in school. The fact that the school committee thinks the arts are not worth the investment(投资) will certainly make some students believe the arts are not worth their time or support and the cycle will continue.
Teaching for a test does not shape students into complete, well-rounded people. It blocks the natural sense to create and express feelings through art — there is more to life than the analytical(善于分析的) thinking that math and English provide. What happens after a test? Sure, a student might graduate, but they will have limited knowledge — certainly not a good preparation for the real world.Music is not included in the high school curriculum mainly because.
| A．the school committee pays no attention to it |
| B．the students are not interested in it |
| C．the school is afraid of losing financial support |
| D．the state test is more important |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The number of the classes determines students’ performance in the test. |
| B．The school committee completely influences students’ attitude towards art. |
| C．Students can be musicians only if they can afford private music lessons. |
| D．Quite a few students are discouraged from learning music at school. |
We can learn that music and art can .
| A．make students round-shaped people in future |
| B．motivate students in creativity and expression |
| C．provide students with analytical thinking |
| D．prevent students graduation from high school |
The best title of the passage can be .
| A．Who on earth killed music? |
| B．Can curriculum go without music? |
| C．Can we ignore the importance of music? |
| D．How to prepare for the real world? |