In the current economic downturn, many American schools are adding a new subject to the curriculum（课程）; financial literacy. One program in Virginia even gets students out of the classroom for a day to learn how far their money will go in the real world.
What looks like a shopping mall is actually an educational field trip experience for a group of young people. Finance Park is a special facility where students apply what they have been taught in class about money management.
“They become, essentially, adults for the day,” says Alice Reilly, social studies coordinator for Fairfax County Public Schools. “They are asked to develop a budget for 18 line items that you and I might have in our budget; things like utilities, insurance, groceries, housing.”
Each budget item is represented by a storefront where students collect an option sheet. Students must refer to a card that shows their income and their family size, when they choose what to buy. There’s also a stock ticker so students can keep track of shares in their portfolios（投资组合）.
The facility opened last year in Fairfax, Virginia. It is the fifteenth Finance Park built in the last decade by Junior Achievement USA, a non-profit organization dedicated to preparing young people for financial success.
“Since the financial crisis, the demand for Finance Parks around the country has grown exponentially," says Ed Grenier, president of the Washington, DC chapter. "We have a number under way in the planning and building stages.”
Financial literacy has only recently become part of the regular curriculum in Fairfax County.“Some students, some teachers, some schools did it, but now it is much more systematic," Reilly says, "and it is much more consistent to ensure that all students get this background information.”
That is why every eighth grade student in Fairfax County will eventually spend a day here.Thirteen-year-old Sam says she has learned an important life lesson. “I didn’t know how expensive everything would be.”
Anthony, also 13, is looking forward to telling his parents what he learned. “I’ll probably tell them I want to stay a kid a little longer and take my time to become an adult.”
This isn’t the end of financial studies for Anthony and the other students here. Virginia is one of 13 states which requires students to take a financial education in high school in order to graduate.What is the aim of this Finance Park?
A . To raise enough money for the secondary schools in Virginia.
B. To enable students to apply money management knowledge to practice.
C. To provide students in Virginia with special chances for Advanced Placement.
D. To direct students in Washington,D.C. to learn more about money management.Who is expected to spend a whole day in the Finance Park?
A .Young people all over Virginia.
B. Junior students in Washington,D.C.
C. Eighth graders in Fairfax County.
D. Eighth graders' parents in Virginia. What can we learn from this passage?
A . Extra curriculum is necessary in secondary schools.
B. Fairfax County Public Schools set a good example.
C. An organization helps youth in U.S. for financial success.
D. Financial Literacy is very popular in Washington,D.C.It can be inferred from the passage that _________________.
A . Alice Reilly developed a budget for 18 items in the Finance Park.
B. ED Grenier was against building more finance parks in U.S.A.
C. Sam did quite well in managing his budge in the Finance Park.
D. Anthony came to know that adult life wasn't as good as expected.
C
Bob Butler lost his legs in a 1965 landmine explosion in Vietnam. He returned home as a war hero. Twenty years later，he proved once again that heroism comes from the heart.
Butler was working in his garage in a small town in Arizona on a hot summer day when he heard a woman’s screams coming from a nearby house. He rolled his wheelchair toward the house，but the dense bush wouldn’t allow him to approach the back door. So he got out of his chair and crawled through the dirt and bushes.
“I had to get there，”he says. “It didn’t matter how much it hurt.”
When Butler arrived at the house，he traced the screams to the pool，where a three year old girl，Stephanie，was lying at the bottom. She had been born without arms and had fallen in the water and couldn’t swim. Her mother stood over her baby screaming loudly. Butler dove to the bottom of the pool and brought little Stephanie up to the deck. Her face was blue，she had no pulse and she was not breathing.
Butler immediately went to work performing CPR(心肺复苏) to revive her while Stephanie’s mother telephoned the fire department. She was told the rescue team was already out on a call .Helplessly，she sobbed and hugged Butler’s shoulders.
As Butler continued with his CPR，he calmly reassured Stephanie’s mother. “Don’t worry，”he said. “I was her arms to get out of the pool. It’ll be okay. I’m now her lungs. Together we can make it.”
Seconds later the little girl coughed，regained consciousness and began to cry. As they hugged and rejoiced together，the mother asked Butler how he knew it would be okay.
“When my legs were blown off in the war，I was all alone in a field，”he told her.“ No one was there to help except a little Vietnamese girl. As she struggled to drag me into her village，she whispered in broken English，‘It okay. You can live. I be your legs. Together we make it.’”
“This was my chance，”he told Stephanie’s mom，“to return the favor.”When Butler heard the woman’s scream, he ________.
| A．was swimming in a nearby pool after work |
| B．dialed the fire department immediately |
| C．tried his best to the house without second thought |
| D．believed that everything will be OK and he would make it. |
What made Stephanie’s mother feel more helpless?_______.
| A．her daughter was lying at the bottom of the pool. |
| B．Little Stephanie was born without arms. |
| C．Little Stephanie had no pulse and was not breathing. |
| D．The doctors couldn’t come to help. |
Why was Butler so confident that the little girl would revive?________.
| A．Because he had once experienced the same scene in Vietnam. |
| B．Because he had saved many children in dangerous situation |
| C．Because he remembered the Vietnamese girl’s words all time long. |
| D．Because he knew some knowledge of first aid and medical care. |
Which of the followings would probably be the best title of the passage?________.
| A．Together We Can Make It |
| B．An Unforgettable Experience |
| C．How a Veteran Saved a Girl |
| D．Everything Will be OK |
B
For several years now, the dollar has fallen lower and lower against other major currencies. Lately, though, the dollar has risen, especially against the Japanese yen and the euro. Some traders think the dollar will continue to rise, but that is not clear.
The dollar moved up this week after comments by American officials in support of a strong dollar policy.
On Monday, before he left for his last trip as president to Europe, George Bush said: "A strong dollar is in our nation's interests. It is in the interests of the global economy." Also Monday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on CNBC television that he would consider intervention to keep the dollar from sliding further.
The United States has not intervened in currency markets since two thousand. That year the administration of president Bill Clinton bought euros to support the European currency.
But on Tuesday, President Bush said in Slovenia that the "relative value of economies will end up setting the proper valuation of the dollar."
A weaker dollar helps American exporters. But it means Americans have to pay more for imports and for travel to other countries.
Some experts say dollar weakness is the main reason why oil prices have risen so high. Oil is priced in dollars on the world market.
But Treasury Secretary Paulson dismissed any link. He noted that since two thousand two, the dollar has fallen about twenty-four percent. But the price of oil has gone up well over five hundred percent.
Adding to pressure on the dollar, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet suggested that the E.C.B will raise interest rates next month. European officials are increasingly concerned with inflation. But investors can already get higher rates of return on investments in euros than in dollars.
High prices for oil, food and other products have raised inflation concerns worldwide. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the latest increases in energy prices have added to inflation risks.
His comments in recent days have suggested that the central bank could stop cutting rates as it has since September. Its rate for overnight loans between banks is currently at two percent. Some market watchers think the Fed could raise rates as early as this month.
Finance ministers from nations in the Group of Eight will discuss the dollar and other issues at their meeting this weekend in Osaka, Japan.The passage is mainly concerned about ___
| A．the history of American currency |
| B．the inflation in America |
| C．the political cases in America |
| D．the price of the oil in the world |
Why did the dollar move up a little this week according to the passage?
| A．Because of George Bush’s visit to the Europe |
| B．Because of the official’s support of the policy. |
| C．Because of the increasing of the oil price. |
| D．Because of the meeting of the Group of Eight. |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．The dollar will continuously rise, especially against the Japanese yen and the euro. |
| B．Some government officials’ comments made the dollars rising a lot.. |
| C．Many measures have taken to stop dollars from falling further.. |
| D．Few countries in the world are all concerned about the inflation |
We can infer from the passage that____
| A．the dollar is sure to continue to rise |
| B．the dollar is sure to slide further |
| C．investors will get more benefit from dollars |
| D．there is a chance of inflation in the world |
A
Some good news for online holiday shoppers: bargain-hunting binges (狂热行动) will drive prices down as web-based retailers compete to offer bigger discounts, marketing researchers predict.
A recent survey by Shopzilla found that nearly 84 percent of online retailers would offer Cyber Monday discounts, up 12 percent from last year. Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, is the online response to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when stores are traditionally flooded with customers, some of whom camp at the entrances overnight to take advantage of discounts.
However, in the current economic climate, online retailers have felt pressure to offer sales and discounts even before Black Friday. But how online retailers decide to offer those big savings isn’t a simple matter of trying to attract the consumers who are watching their wallets, Bohlmann of Sabanci University in Istanbul says. Online stores will also pay attention to the deals their competitors are offering, potentially leading to price wars between certain retailers to attract all those potential bargain-hunting customers.
Online shoppers can be divided into two types, Bohlmann said, ―switchers and ―loyals. Switchers compare prices between retailers and go for the cheapest one, while loyals stick to one brand or store. It almost doesn’t matter what price you charge.
Online retailers will look at the percentage of switchers and loyals they have in order to decide whether to offer discounts. The more switchers they have, the more likely they will offer discounts. But retailers don’t just look at the percentage of their own customers; they also look at the competition.
If one online store has a higher percentage of loyals than the competitor, it can afford to keep prices higher. On the contrary, if it has a higher percentage of switchers than the competitor, it might want to lower prices.According to the text, on Cyber Monday, customers often______
| A．feel tired because of Thanksgiving |
| B．prepare for the coming Black Friday |
| C．spend their holidays in the stores |
| D．wait for online retailers’ discounts |
According to the text, “loyals” should refer to online shoppers who____
| A．care about prices than anything else |
| B．focus on the quality of products |
| C．matter little what price you charge |
| D．hope a higher price of products |
It can be inferred from the text that ____
| A．retailers should know more about customers’ interest |
| B．There will be no shoppers who go out in crowds |
| C．Barnes&Noble’s prices are lower than other companies’ |
| D．Retailers like the switchers more than the loyals |
My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn’t forced on us either. He took Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, Addison’s essays, and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them hilarious, even at eight o’clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own some of them seemed dead, but the second time, after his explanation, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen the humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with allusions(典故) and irony and hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.
My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be wonderfully funny. Many others did not. He assigned journals over a six week period, to be written in every day. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of bits and pieces about my ideas, short stories, reactions to what we had read, and so on. Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other’s journals. Mine was passed to Joe, that class clown, who always behaved in a funny or silly way. He saw it fit to make joke of and said, “This writing isn’t fit to line the bottom of a birdcage.” Our teacher laughed at that funny remark. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven my writing and teaching ever since.
So what makes the difference? Humor is one of the most powerful tools teachers or writers have. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing, or it can tear them apart. It is true that humor is either productive or counter-productive and self-defeating. The passage mainly discusses _____.
| A．teaching |
| B．literature |
| C．humor |
| D．knowledge |
The underlined word “hilarious” in Paragraph 1 probably means _____.
| A．funny |
| B．tiring |
| C．inspiring |
| D．brilliant |
With his favorite English teacher, the writer found it most amazing that _____.
| A．his teacher was very learned |
| B．his teacher was very humorous |
| C．the works by Johnson and Addison were very humorous |
| D．few were able to find humor in works by Johnson and others |
The English teacher the writer disliked most _____.
| A．was not able to make students laugh |
| B．hurt his students’ feelings |
| C．didn’t let his students do the grading |
| D．had no sense of humor |
阅读下面的短文，并用英语回答问题，请注意问题后的词数要求。
Everyone dreams of being successful. Does anyone think of the mere question as to what elements determine success? Is there a “success personality”--- some winning combination of qualities that leads almost inevitably to achievement? If so, exactly what is that secret success formula, and can anyone develop it? At the Gallop Organization we recently focused on success, inquiring into the opinions of 1,500 distinguished people selected at random from who’s who in America. Our research finds out a number of qualities that occur regularly among top achievers. Here is one of the most important, that is common sense.
Common sense is the most obvious quality possessed by our participants. Seventy-nine percent award themselves a top score in this quality. And sixty-one percent say that common sense greatly contributes to their success.
To most, common sense means the ability to present sound, practical judgments on everyday affairs. To do this, one has to sweep aside extra ideas and get right to the key of what matters. A Texas oil and gas businessman put it in this way: “The key ability for success is simplifying. In conduction of meeting and dealing with industry, reducing a complex problem to the simplest term is highly important.”
Besides common sense, there are many other factors that influence success. You need to believe in yourself that you can achieve it, you need to have faith in your goals and your path to that success. However, nothing move until you do something. Belief alone is not going to achieve anything for you. It must be followed up with concrete action. Your plan for career success is nothing unless you act upon it whole-heartedly.What does “success personality” refer to? (no more than 6 words)
Who were chosen to give their opinions about the secret to success? (no more than 3 words)
What does “common sense” mean to most participants? (no more than 8 words)
What is a businessman’s idea of the key ability for success? (no more than 5 words)
What are many other factors that influence success besides common sense? (no more than 6 words)