Taste is such a subjective matter that we don’t usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone’s preference is that it’s one person’s opinion. But because the two big cola companies—Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are marketed so aggressively, we’ve wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty. We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-Cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic (传统型) or Pepsi, Diet (低糖的) Coke, or Diet Pepsi. These were people who thought they’d have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand.
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers. Then we fed them four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other. We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants’ choices with what mere guess-work could have accomplished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse----only 7 of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
While both groups did better than chance would predict, nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times. Two people got all four samples wrong. Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burnout, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price.According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to ________.
| A．show that a person’s opinion about taste is mere guess-work |
| B．compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks |
| C．find out the role taste preference plays in a person’s drinking |
| D．reveal which cola is more to the liking of the drinkers |
It is implied but not stated in the first paragraph that ________.
| A．the competition between the two colas is very strong |
| B．blind tasting is necessary for identifying fans |
| C．the purpose of taste tests is to promote the sale of colas |
| D．the improvement of quality is the chief concern of the two cola companies |
The word “burnout” (Line3, Para. 5) refers to the state of _________.
| A．being seriously burnt in the skin |
| B．being badly damaged by fire |
| C．being unable to function because of excessive use |
| D．being unable to burn for lack of fuel |
The author’s purpose in writing this passage is to ________.
| A．emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other |
| B．recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control of colas |
| C．show that taste preference is highly subjective |
| D．argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy |
In the age of reality television, success isn’t the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame, just like William Hung, 21, a native of Hong Kong.
Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They will publish a full-length record, titled “The True Idol” on April 6.
The idol is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on the television show “American Idol 3”, on January 27. The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung, however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act.
Hung’s response? “I already gave my best, so I have no regrets at all.” That’s good, because any common person would have found plenty to regret: The off-key singing. The blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high. The terrible dancing. The hips jerking (摇摆) to a beat that did not belong to the song, maybe not even to this planet. It was, by all accounts, bad.But, it was this very bad act that sold well.Marc Juris, president of Fuse, explained it this way: “Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom, completely off-key and completely unworried. That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America.”
Whatever it is, for the moment it’s big. Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno-music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station.So, what does Hung think of this?
“There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean.”
Now he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour (魅力) or to accept it. Returning to normal hasn’t been easy.
13.What is the main idea of this passage?
A.Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly.
B.Hung’s performance attracted the public eye.
C.How an unsuccessful person became famous.
D.Success sometimes does not require hard work.
14.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 7 refer to?
A.William Hung. B.Hung’s bad act. C.Hung’s website. D.The public’s opinion.
15.Which of the following shows the correct order of what happened to Hung?
a.The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung.
b.The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest.
c.Hung became popular among Americans.
d.Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best.
e.Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet.
A.d, b, e, c, a B.a, c, d, b, e C.a, d, b, c, e D.d, b, a, e, c
16.Why was Hung able to win the hearts of America?
A.His success was based on his own hard work.
B.He attracted people’s attention in the contest.
C.He was good-looking though he didn’t sing well.
D.His character was completely different from other idols’.
How the iron of tomorrow (the first Self Clean Iron)can change your lifestyle today?
General Electric introduces the iron of tomorrow. The iron can clean itself. Inside where irons get dirty. Because it cleans itself each and every time you empty it.How? With a push of a magic blue button.
The magic blue button.The first thing you’ll notice that’s different about this iron is the blue button on the side. It’s marked “Self Clean”. Push this blue button, and you can wash out loose mineral deposits that remain and block up inside. Push this button, and you’ve made life a lot easier.
Less chance of brown spotsSure, Self Cleaning Iron is going to cut down on brown spots. (Those ugly spots that happen on nice, cleanly pressed clothes.) Because a Self Cleaning Iron becomes clean each time you press that magic blue button.Steams much longerCommon sense tells you that if you’ve an iron that blocks less often it has to stay younger for a long period of time. In other words, it steams much longer. That’s another joy of owning General Electric’s Self Cleaning Iron.What does it mean to youToday you are doing so much more than just running a house and running after the kids. You’re working. You’re going to school. It’s all part of your lifestyle. The iron can change that lifestyle. By giving you less trouble before you iron. If we can make it easier for you to be a better wife, a better mother, a better housemaker, we want to. The new Self Cleaning Iron is another one of Home-Makers from General Electric.
Lifestlye.We’re with yours. GENERAL ELECTRIC
9.This passage is ______.
A.an introduction to General Electric B.an operating instruction of Self Cleaning Iron
C.an advertisement of Self Cleaning Iron D.a description of the change of lifestyle
10.This iron can clean itself by ______.
A.empting itself B.washing out mineral deposits
C.blocking up mineral deposits D.giving off more steam
11.According to the passage, what is most likely to attract the customers?
A.It is made by General Electric.
B.The iron will not produce mineral deposits.
C.There will be fewer brown spots on pressed clothes.
D.Their clothes will be cleaned at the same time.
12.Self Cleaning Iron can help change your lifestyle because ______.
A.you can run your house better B.you don’t have to run after the kids
C.you can use it while you are working D.we want you to be a better housemaker
WASHINGTONLaura Straub is a very worried woman. Her job is to find families for French teenagers who expect to live with American families in the summer.
It’s not easy, even desperate.
“We have many children left to place: 40 out of 75,” said Straub, who works for a Paris based foreign exchange programme called LEC.
When exchange programmes started 50 years ago, more families were willing to help others. For one thing, more mothers stayed home.
But now, increasing numbers of women work outside the home. Exchange student programmes have struggled in recent years to sign up host families for the 30,000 teenagers who come from abroad every year to have some courses for one year in the United States. as well as the thousands more who take part in summer programmes.
School systems in many parts of the US,unhappy about accepting nontaxpaying students, have also strictly limited the number of exchange students they accept. At the same time, the idea of hosting foreign students is becoming less exotic (异国情调的).
In searching for host families, who usually receive no pay, exchange programmes are increasingly broadening their requests to include everyone from young couples to the retired.
“We are open to many different types of families.” said Vickie Weiner, eastern regional director for ASSE, a 25-year-old programme that sends about 30,000 teenagers
on one-year exchange programmes worldwide.
For elderly people,exchange students “keep up young——they really do,” said Jean Foster,who is hosting 16-year-old Nina Porst from Denmark.
5.Foreign teenagers come to American families wilh the purpose of .
A.finding thier parents in America B.finding good jobs in America
C.learning the culture of America D.enjoying the life of America
6.In the past, Straub’s job was easy, because American families .
A.needed more money to live B.had fewer children to support
C.had spare rooms to rent D.were not as busy as now
7.To deal with the problem in recent years, Straub and her workmates have to .
A.ask different kinds of families for help B.limit the number of the exchange students
C.borrow much money to pay for the costs D.force some families to accept students
8.From the last paragraph we can conclude that __________.
A.exchange students are welcome in America
B.exchange students must pay much money to the host families
C.American students don’t want to join the exchange programmes
D.old Americans can benefit from hosting exchange students
When several different people look at the same person, it is not unusual for each of them to see different things; when you alone observe one behavior or one person at two different times, you may see different things. The following are but some of the factors that lead to these varying perceptions:
Each person’s perceptions of others are formed by his or her own cultural conditioning, education, and personal experience.
Sometimes perceptions differ because of what we choose to observe and how we deal with what we’ve observed. It is not necessarily true that person’s perception is based on observations of a particular person. Your observations may be totally controlled by some. Your observations may be totally controlled by what others have told you about this person; or you may focus primarily on the situation or role relationship. Most people do not use the same yardstick to measure their parents, their friends, and strangers.
Sometimes we see only what we want to see what may be obverse to others because of our own needs, desires, or temporary emotional states. This is a process known as selective perception. Selective perception is obviously more difficult when contradictory information is particularly obvious, but it can be done. We can ignore the stimulus—“He’s basically a good boy, so what I saw was not shoplifting.” We can reduce the importance of the contradictory information—“All kids get into mischief(顽皮). Taking a book from the bookstore isn’t such a big deal.” We call change the meaning of the contradictory information—“It wasn’t shoplifting because he was going to pay for it later.”..
1.While observing a particular person, .
A.one is likely to take all aspects into consideration
B.one pays more attention to his or her advantages
C.children often differ from gownups in perception
D.one tends to choose certain cues to look for
2.Observation of the same person by two people at the same time may differ because .
A.their yardsticks are not the same
B.either of them may be slow to catch information
C.the time for observations is not long enough
D.each of them uses different language to express his or her impressions
3.The underlined word “ignore” in Paragraph 4 means to .
A.understand something B.try to do something
C.pay no attention to something D.know something better
4.The worst thing in selective perception is that .
A.perceived information runs against your desire
B.facts can be totally ignored and distorted
C.importance of contradictory information can be overrated
D.the same information may not be dealt with in the same way
More surprising,perhaps, than the present difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving.As Skolnick notes,Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a drop in the early 1915s,the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate needs to be taken in this promarriage context: some 30 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vast majority of people in our society.
What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twentyfive years ago, the typical American family was made up of a husband, a wife, and two or three children.Now,there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children. And there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s former marriage, or the husband’s, or both.Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses (配偶).
Thus, one can find every type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the persent marriage; marriages with “fulltime” children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with “fulltime” children from the present marriage and “parttime” children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, halfbrothers, and halfsisters.It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are great changes from the traditional nuclear family.But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: Most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.
13.By calling American marrying people the author means that .
A.Americans are more traditional than Europeans
B.Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans
C.there are more married couples in U.S.A. than in Europe
D.more of Americans,as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age
14.Divorced Americans .
A.prefer the way they live
B.will most likely remarry
C.have lost faith in marriage
D.are the vast majority of people in the society
15.Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families?
A.Many types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable.
B.A typical American family is made up of only a husband and a wife.
C.Americans prefer to have more kids than before. D.There are no nuclear families any more.
16.“Part time”children .
A.spend some of their time with their half brothers and some of their time with their halfsisters
B.spend all of their time with one parent from the previous marriage
C.are shared between the two former spouses D.cannot stay with “fulltime” children
17.Even though great changes have taken place in the structure of American families, .
A.the vast majority of Americans still have faith in marriage
B.the functions of marriage remain unchanged
C.most Americans prefer a second marriage
D.most divorced Americans would rather not remarry