When my daughter was in the fifth grade, she came home from school almost every night with three or more hours of homework. It was my duty to help her get it done. One night she worked until midnight doing her homework.
I felt annoyed, but I didn’t want the teacher to think I was lazy. So I never complained. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed to me that five hours of homework was a bit too much for a fifth grade student.
Later, I found out that parents and educators have discussed about homework for more than a century. Parents who like more homework want to give their children every advantage to succeed in today’s world. Some educators see homework as a way to help students perform better in tests.
Other parents dislike the recent trend toward more homework. They don’t want to stay up until midnight helping their children. They would prefer to spend their time going to the park or reading some really good books with their children. Added to the opposition(反对)are those who say that homework increases the gap(差距)between the rich and the poor. That’s because middle class families do better when it comes to helping their children with their homework.
So, who is right? Is homework an enemy or a help? According to experts, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.The author thought that her daughter’s homework _________.
| A．was too difficult |
| B．was too much to finish |
| C．was done more carefully than other students’ |
| D．could be done as long as she helped her daughter |
The author never complained to the teacher because _________.
| A．she was too angry to talk with the teacher. |
| B．she did not like complaining. |
| C．she was afraid of being thought lazy by the teacher. |
| D．her daughter would be annoyed if she complained. |
In the last paragraph, experts __________.
| A．think middle school students should do lots of homework. |
| B．haven’t come up with any idea to solve this problem. |
| C．think homework should be given, but not too much. |
| D．support the idea that homework is good for students. |
Is it possible to persuade mankind to live without war? War is an ancient custom which has existed for at least six thousand years. It was always evil and usually foolish, but in the past the human race managed to live with it. Modern skill has changed this. Either man will stop war, or war will stop man. For the present, it is nuclear weapons that cause the greatest danger, but bacteriological(细菌的)or chemical weapons may, before long, offer an even greater threat. If we succeeded in stopping war, there would be no danger for us. To do this, we need to persuade mankind to look upon international questions in a new way, not by contests of force, in which the victory goes to the side which is most skillful in massacre(大屠杀), but by arbitration(仲裁)in accordance with agreed principles of law. It is not easy to change old mental habits, but this is what must be attempted.
There are those who say that the adoption of this or that ideology(意识形态)would prevent war. I believe this to be a complete error. All ideologies are based upon beliefs without proof which are, at best, doubtful, and at worst, totally false. Those people who believe them are willing to go to war in support of them.
The movement of world opinion during the past two years has changed very largely such as we can welcome. It has become a common belief that nuclear war must be avoided. Of course, very different problems remain in the international world, but the spirit in which they are being approached is a better one than it was some years ago. It has begun to be thought, even by the powerful men who decide whether we shall live or die, that agreements should be reached even if both sides do not find these agreements wholly satisfactory. It has begun to be understood that the important conflict(冲突)nowadays is not between East and West, but between Man and the H-bomb. From the first paragraph we can know that________.
| A．we may face greater threat from weapons |
| B．bacteriological or chemical weapons are less dangerous than nuclear weapons |
| C．man's idea of victory has changed |
| D．dangerous weapons are forbidden in modern society |
The author believes that the only way to stop war is to________.
| A．stop nuclear weapons |
| B．settle international issues through agreements |
| C．destroy bacteriological and chemical weapons |
| D．let the stronger side take over the world |
The last paragraph suggests that________.
| A．nuclear war will definitely not take place |
| B．real agreements have been now reached |
| C．world opinion is still divided on nuclear war |
| D．man is beginning to realize that nuclear war is his greatest enemy |
Which of the following words can best describe the author's feeling in writing this passage?
| A．Disappointed. |
| B．Doubtful. |
| C．Worried. |
| D．Hopeful. |
As societies develop, their members start to see things not so much according to what they need, but according to what they want. When people have enough money, these wants become demands.
Now, it's important for the managers in a company to understand what their customers want if they are going to develop effective marketing strategies(策略). There are various ways of doing this. One way at supermarkets(超市), for example, is to interview(采访)customers while they're doing their shopping. They can be asked what they prefer to buy and then the results of the research can be studied. This provides information on which to base future marketing strategies. It's also quite normal for top managers from department stores to spend a day or two each month visiting stores and mixing freely with the public, as if they were ordinary customers, to get an idea of how customers act.
Another way to get information from customers is to give them something. For example, some fast food restaurants give away tickets in magazines or on the street that permit customers to get part of their meal for nothing. As well as being a good way of attracting customers into the restaurants to spend their money, it also allows the managers to get a feel for where to attract customers and which age-groups to attract.
Another strategy used at some well-known parks such as Disneyland is for top managers to spend at least one day in their work, touring the park dressed as Mickey Mouse or something like that. This provides them with a perfect chance to examine the scene and watch the customers without being noticed. The text is designed for________.
| A．managers |
| B．salesmen |
| C．researchers |
| D．customers |
Which of the following can help managers get useful information?
| A．Visiting customers themselves. |
| B．Giving customers free food on the street. |
| C．Visiting parks as ordinary customers. |
| D．Asking customers questions at supermarkets. |
What does the word “this” underlined in the last sentence refer to?
| A．Visiting Disneyland. |
| B．Wearing attractive clothes. |
| C．Acting Mickey Mouse. |
| D．Dressing up and walking around. |
The main idea of the text is________.
| A．how to do market research |
| B．how to develop marketing strategies |
| C．how to find out customers' social needs |
| D．how to encourage customers to spend more money |
Rail passengers are being forced to pay thousands of pounds more in fares as a result of poor advice from the national telephone helpline and individual stations, a consumer organization reveals today. Research by Which found that in some cases passengers are being charged almost double the cheapest price because of errors made by staff.
Which asked 25 questions of both station staff and the National Rail Enquiries(NRES)helpline. Only half of the 50 questions were answered correctly. If customers had followed all the advice given, they would have seen ￡ 1,263,60 worse off.
Bad advice was given for the cheapest fare for a single journey between London and Grantham. For a ticket bought on the day of travel, both NRES and a King's Cross station clerk quoted GNER's ￡ 44.50 fare, ignoring a Hull Trains service which leaves 10 minutes earlier and costs just ￡ 20.
Some of the most costly misinformation was given for journeys where season tickets should have been recommended. Passengers making a return journey between Swindon and Penzance twice in a week could buy a ticket from one company for ￡ 70 which would cover all the travel. But both NIRES and station staff quoted ￡ 67 for each journey, making ￡ 134. However, the NRES website proved to be a much more reliable source of information.
Which also checked “the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket” claims by five companies and found this was not always the case. On some services, prices went up and down at random. Ithiel Mogridge, 52, gave one example of poor advice：“Last Christmas I found my brother a ticket on the thetrainline. com to travel from Blackburn to Yate. While the direct route was ￡ 51, this one involved a change in Newport and cost just ￡ 21. I emailed the details to him and and his partner. They went to Blackburn station, where the clerk insisted the fare was ￡ 51.”Malcolm Coles, editor of which. co. uk, said：“Staff training needs to be improved. In the meantime, we've designed a checklist, available at which. co. uk/railiadvice.”According to the passage “Which” is a________.
| A．national telephone helpline |
| B．department under the British Rail |
| C．consumer organization |
| D．website under the National Rail Enquiries |
When the author said that customers “would have been ￡ 1,263,60 worse off”， he was telling us that customers would have________.
| A．saved ￡ 1,263,60 if they had followed the advice |
| B．spend ￡ 1,263,60 more than the lowest price |
| C．used ￡ 1,263,60 for the survey of 25 questions |
| D．been cheated of ￡ 1,263.60 from the poor advice |
The phrase “at random” in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to“________”．
| A．casually |
| B．purposefully |
| C．exactly |
| D．inevitably |
At one time no one could travel on an English road faster than four miles an hour. That was the law until 1896. A man had to walk in front of a car which could not go faster than man. At night the man had to carry a red lamp.
Once Charles Rolls brought a car from France to England, but he wanted to drive faster than four miles an hour. In order to have no trouble with the police, he had a talk with some of the police officers，who ordered their policemen to_look_the_other_way when the car came along the road. This was a good plan in the country, but not so easy to follow in the busy streets of London.
One night Roils and some friends started from London on their journey to Cambridge. One of the men walked in front with the red lamp, but he walked as fast as he could. The police became very interested in walls and shop－fronts when they heard the car, and not one of them saw it.
They reached a hill, but what a waste of time it was to drive down the hill at four miles an hour! Rolls was getting ready to jump into the car, but then he noticed a policeman who was not looking the other way. The slow car reached him.
“Good evening，” said the policeman, looking at the car.
“Good evening，” said Rolls, holding the lamp.
“One of these horseless things，” said the policeman, looking at it with interest.
“Yes，” said Roils, and waited.
“I've often wanted a ride in one. but of course policemen can't buy things like that.” He turned and looked hopefully in Roll's face.
“Jump in.” said Rolls.
“Thanks，” said the policeman, and did so.“ Now, ”he said, “sitting down, you can let it go just as you like down this hill.
There isn't another policeman on this road for a mile and a half.”The policemen were told “to look the other way”(the underlined part in Paragraph 2)so that________.
| A．they could watch the car coming from the other direction |
| B．the car could go faster than four miles an hour |
| C．they could make sure no one was in the way |
| D．the car would not hit them on the road |
In what way did the policemen carry out the order from their officers?
| A．They greeted Rolls when the car came along. |
| B．They walked in front of the car with a red lamp. |
| C．They pretended to be attracted by something else. |
| D．They stood on duty every 1.5 miles along the road. |
The policeman who said “Good evening” to Rolls wanted to________.
| A．teach Roils a lesson |
| B．have a talk with Rolls |
| C．take a free ride home |
| D．have a car ride experience |
After the policeman jumped into the car, Rolls________.
| A．dared not drive the car faster than he was allowed to |
| B．could drive as fast as he wished within a certain distance |
| C．could drive on any road he liked for the rest of the journey |
| D．drove his car as fast as he could down the hill to Cambridge |
Some of Beijing Zoo's animals are suffering menu changes because of the bird flu spread in Asia.
Gone are the lions' and tigers' delightful “live” chicken dinners. In their menus, instead, are raw beef and mutton. While the lions and tigers go chicken less, the zoo's birds are also receiving some special and uncomfortable treatment these days. The peacocks in Befalling Safari Animal World, who used to be featured in the park and could walk around showing off their beautiful feathers, now are forced to stay in cages.
And turkeys at the Beijing Zoo—believed to be most likely to suffer from the bird flu virus have been moved out of their old home to places separate from visitors. In most cases，display areas with birds have been closed for health reasons.
Yet a good thing about the present situation is that the living conditions of the zoo's birds are being improved, with keepers keeping the display areas cleaner and not as crowded as before. Almost all zoos have done more frequent cleaning and disinfection for bird cages——measures to prevent infection.
In this special period, pigeons(鸽子)are_frowned_upon._In Beijing, many homing pigeon lovers use balconies(阳台)to build cages for birds. Most neighbours are fed up with these cages since they can produce waste and feathers. Now the city's homing pigeon organization is asking all its members to stop letting pigeons out of their cages and keep cages clean. Still, pigeons and some other birds seem less lovely to people than before.
As a Chinese newspaper put it “Doves, are you still angels？”which of the following shows the menu changes in the Beijing Zoo?
| A．The lions and tigers have “live” chicken dinners. |
| B．The lions and tigers eat raw beef and mutton. |
| C．The lions and tigers have chickens only for supper. |
| D．The lions and tigers have beef and mutton for part of meals. |
We can conclude from the text that________.
| A．turkeys have been moved out of the zoo because of the bird flu virus |
| B．peacock shows used to be free of charge |
| C．people can hardly see peacock shows in the Beijing Zoo now |
| D．homing pigeons are safe from the bird flu virus |
The underlined sentence in the text means“________”．
| A．pigeons receive the best care |
| B．people are worried about pigeons |
| C．people feel displeased with pigeons |
| D．people show no interest in pigeons |