Shopping in the United States changes a lot．About ninety years ago most people shopped in small stores that were owned by one person or a family．Women went from the bakery to the butcher's to the grocer and on to the fruit and vegetable seller in order to get their food for the week．
Then about sixty years ago, supermarkets were born．In a supermarket, people could get all the different kinds of food they needed without going to different stores．
The next big change in shopping in the United States was the shopping mall．A shopping mall is a group of stores under one roof．Because malls allowed people to shop without worrying about the weather, they soon became very popular．The mall became a place for people to socialize in addition to shopping．If you walk through a mall, you will see older people sitting, chatting and drinking coffee．Malls are places for teenagers to hang out．Many teens will often just "go to the mall" and spend time with their friends．
The recent change in American shopping was the superstore．Large chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Office Depot and Toys "R" Us have been built all across the United States．Because they are so large, they can buy goods at a great discount and sell them much cheaper than smaller stores．
Sometimes, when they are built near small towns, many of the small town stores have to close．They just cannot compete with their giant neighbors．
And now, online shopping is becoming more and more popular all over the States．People are too busy to go to the physical stores, so they go shopping over the Internet．Online shopping has lots of advantages．For instance, online stores are usually available 24 hours a day．Searching or browsing online shops can be faster than browsing the physical stores．While, online shopping also has its disadvantages．People are at higher risk of being cheated on the part of the merchant than in a physical store．And privacy of personal information may be let out．Which of the following shows the right order of shopping development in the United States?
①small stores ②superstores ③shopping malls ④shopping online ⑤supermarkets
| A．①②③④⑤ | B．①⑤②③④ |
| C．①⑤③②④ | D．②③④①⑤ |
Which is the place for people to spend time with others according to the passage?
| A．Shopping malls | B．Small stores |
| C．Supermarkets | D．Superstores |
Why can the superstores sell products at much lower prices?
| A．Because they are built near small towns． |
| B．Because they are across the United States． |
| C．Because they sell all kinds of products people need． |
| D．Because they can buy goods at a reduction in the price． |
What's the disadvantage of online shopping according to the passage?
| A．Wasting time． | B．Leaking personal information． |
| C．Fixed prices． | D．No chance to do physical activities |
TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010
Frequently Asked Questions
What is TEENSGIVING?
TEENSGIVING is an exciting event where hundreds of New York City teens gather together annually for a remarkable day of community service. This year, TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010 participants will once again better New York City and impact thousands of lives!
When is TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010?
SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 2010
Where is TEENSGIVING?
All over New York City. Everyone will meet at the 92nd Street Y (92nd and Lexington) at 9:00 AM for the event kick-off. Then, all TEENSGIVING volunteers will disperse across the city to work with our partnering agencies where they will make a HUGE difference (and have fun!).
Who participates in TEENSGIVING?
Hundreds of teenagers from around the city. Teens come from the 92nd Street Y, various city schools, youth groups, and organizations in the area. In addition, many adult volunteers (ages 21 and older) will donate their time to TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010.
What projects do participants do at the agencies?
Sample projects include painting park benches, planting gardens, visiting and playing with underprivileged children, assembling craft kits for children in hospitals, assisting at animal shelters, working at soup kitchens, delivering meals and celebrating with families at homeless shelters.
Do
I get anything for participating in TEENSGIVING?
Yes! Everybody benefits! Teen volunteers will receive *6 hours* of community service credit, good towards honor society, high school graduation and college application requirements. Adult volunteers will be “thanked” with a light breakfast, a gift certificate for their troubles, and
the satisfaction of helping our city’s youth contribute to their community. In addition, all teen and adult volunteers will receive a cool TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010 T-shirt.
This sounds awesome! How do I register for TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010?
Interested teens and/or adults should e-mail the TEENSGIVING Coordinator Josh Hyman at jhyman@92Y.org (subject: TEENSGIVING) to receive more information and to register for this fantastic event!
**Teens can also contact their school’s Community Service Advisor
TEENSGIVING is sponsored by the 92nd Street Y. TEENSGIVING is an event held ____________.
| A．from time to time | B．every year | C．every two years | D．twice a year |
Teenagers may do the following in the event EXCEPT ____________.
| A．watering flowers | B．cooking | C．cleaning streets | D．taking care of animals |
An adult volunteer may get ______ for his time devoted to TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010.
| A．community service credit and a T-shirt |
| B．a high school certificate, a T-shirt and a light breakfast |
| C．a T-shirt, a light breakfast and a gift certificate |
| D．a gift certificate and community service credit |
The writer’s purpose in writing the passage is to __________.
| A．inform readers of some frequently asked questions |
| B．introduce TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010 to readers |
| C．encourage readers to ask more questions about TEENSGIVING |
| D．call on readers to participate in TEENSGIVING in SPRING 2010 |
Japanese people,who never miss a chance to be photographed,were lining up to get their pictures on a postage stamp．Vanity（虚荣）stamps with personal photographs went on sale for the first time in Japan as part of an international postage stamp exhibition．The customer’s photo was taken with a digital camera and then printed on stamp sheets,a process that takes about five minutes．Sold in a sheet of 10 stamps for $8．80,little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo,each stamp printed a different scene from a traditional painting along with the photo．
The stamps can be used normally to mail a letter,and postal officials hope they will help encourage interest in letter writing in the Internet age．“Certainly e-mail is a useful method of communication,but letters are fun in a different way,”said Hatsumi Shimizu an official in the Post Ministry．“We want to show young people that letters can be fun too．”
While similar stamp sheets appeared in Australia in 1999 and are now sold in some nations and territories,Japan’s fondness for commemorative photos is likely to make them especially popular here．Indeed,officials had prepared 1 000 sheets but they were sold out in less than 30 minutes．Although the stamps are currently only available as a special service during the exhibition,postal officials said they may start selling them on a regular basis in the future．The best title of this passage might be______．
| A．Never Miss a Chance to be Photographed | B．Your Own Face on a Postage Stamp |
| C．First Japanese Postage Stamps with a Photo | D．Letters are as Fun as E-mails |
By saying“little more than the cost of lunch in Tokyo”,the author really means______．
| A．this service is not very expensive | B．the cost of this service is very high |
| C．food in Tokyo is very dear | D．$8．80 is a very small amount of money |
The purpose of this activity is______．
| A．to make the international postage stamp exhibition more interesting | |
| B．to make more stamps for normal use | C．to draw interest in writing letters |
| D．to satisfy Japan’s fondness of commemorative photos |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Japanese people like to take photos． | B．This kind of stamps must be used to mail letters． |
| C．Japanese people can get this kind of stamps easily after the stamp exhibition． | |
| D．This service is more popular in Japan than in other places． |
If women are mercilessly exploited（剥削） year after year, they have only themselves to blame．Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores．Clothes wh
ich have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion．
Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste．Many women spend large sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn．Women who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way, waste hours of their time changing their old-fashioned dresses．Skirts are lengthened or shortened; neck-lines are lowered or raised, and so on．
No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society．Fashion designers are rarely concerned with necessary things like warmth, comfort and durability （耐用）．They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort, as long as they look right．There can hardly be a man who hasn't at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day, or picking her way through deep snow in high heeled shoes．
When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusions to be drawn are obvious．Do the constantly changing fashions of women's clothes, one wonders, reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability? Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers．Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability? That is for you to decide．Designers and big stores always make money_________．
| A．by mercilessly exploiting women workers in the clothing industry |
| B．because they are capable of predicting new fashions |
| C．by constantly changing the fashions in women's clothing |
| D．because they attach great importance to quality in women's clothing |
To the writer, the fact that women change their old-fashioned dresses is seen as ___________．
| A．a waste of money | B．a waste of time |
| C．an expression of taste | D．an expression of creativity |
New fashions in clothing are created for ___________．
| A．the commercial exploitation of women | B．the women's strength of character |
C．basic qualities of i nconstancy and instability |
D．an important contribution to society |
By saying "the conclusions to be drawn are obvious" （ Line One to Line Two, Paragraph Four）, the writer means that ___________．
| A．women's inconstancy in their choice of clothing is often laughed at |
| B．women are better able to put up with discomfort |
| C．men are also exploited greatly by fashion designers |
D．men are more reasonable in the matter of fashion |
Disposing（处理）of waste has been a problem since humans started producing it．As more and more people choose to live close together in cities,the waste-disposal problem becomes increasingly difficult．
During the eighteenth century,it was usual for several neighboring towns to get together to select a faraway spot as a dump site．Residents or trash haulers（垃圾拖运者）would transport household rubbish,rotted wood,and old possessions to the site．Periodically some of the trash was burned and the rest was buried．The unpleasant sig
hts and smells caused no problem because nobody lived close by．
Factories,mills,and other industrial sites also had waste to be disposed of．Those located on rivers often just dumped the unwanted remains into the water．Others built huge burners with chimneys to deal with the problem．
Several facts make these choices unacceptable to modern society．The first problem is space Dumps,which are now called landfills,are most needed in heavily populated areas．Such areas rarely have empty land suitable for this purpose．Property is either too expensive or too close to residential neighborhoods．Long-distance trash hauling has been a common practice but once farm areas are refusing to accept rubbish from elsewhere,cheap land within trucking distance of major city areas is almost nonexistent．
Awareness of pollution dangers has resulted in more strict rules of waste disposal．Pollution of rivers,ground water,land and air is a price people can no longer pay to get rid of waste．The amount of waste,however,continues to grow．
Recycling efforts have become commonplace,and many towns require their people to take part．Even the most efficient recycling programs,however,can hope to deal with only about 50 percent of a city’s reusable waste．The most suitable title for this passage would be ______．
| A．Places for Disposing Waste | B．Waste Pollution Dangers |
| C．Ways of Getting Rid of Waste | D．Waste Disposal Problem |
During the 18th century,people disposed their waste in many ways EXCEPT for ______．
| A．burying it | B．recycling it |
| C．burning it | D．throwing it into rivers |
What can be inferred from the fourth paragraph?
| A．Farm areas accept waste from the city in modern society． |
| B．There is cheap land to bury waste in modern society． |
| C．It is difficult to find space to bury waste in modern society． |
| D．Ways to deal with waste in modern society stay the same． |
The main purpose of writing this article is to ______．
| A．draw people’s attention to waste management |
| B．warn people of the pollution dangers we are facing |
| C．call on people to take part in recycling programs |
| D．tell people a better way to get rid of the waste |
The use of the word imitation（模仿） reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime（犯罪） or violence．First there was always a risk of children acting out scenes which could be dangerous．For example,I remember a woman who was head of a middle school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were on th
e playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck and the rope over the branch of a tree;fortunately she was in time to get there before the child was hanged．I remember a film in particular in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by electrocuting（通电触死） his guard,the technique of doing this being shown in detail．This was the kind of scene which we could cut for these reasons．
In films for young people and adults we always tried to keep off the screen the details of criminal techniques,such as how to open a locked door with a piece of hard plastic or how to open a safe;if we were consulted（请教） before production,I used to advise that the details should not be shown．When I gave talks in prisons about film checking I had full support for this,since fathers who were in prison for criminal offences did not want their children to get on crime．
Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi．made by Jules Dassin in 1954．This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweller’s shop,the robbery lasting about half an hour and being backed by only natural sound．．．one of the most brilliant film sequences（连续镜头） of all time．I remember our discussion at the time．We thought that the robbery was finished only with the use of advanced and obviously expensive equipment and that only the most experienced and skilled criminals could possibly imitate it;we believed therefore that it was relatively safe．When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied,so perhaps we were wrong．The writer thinks that______．
| A．the details of the criminal technique should be kept |
| B．the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen |
| C．children should not imitate what they see on the screen |
| D．it is dangerous to imitate what they see on the screen |
What is the writer’s attitude（态度） towards the film in which the hero had escaped by electrocuting the guard?
| A．The writer likes it very much． |
| B．The writer is strongly against it． |
| C．The writer thinks the film has some value． |
| D．The writer does not show his/her attitude． |
All the following statements about“Rififi”are true EXCEPT______．
| A．that the robbery shown needs experience and skills |
B．that some very good tools were used in the r obbery |
| C．that the film showed the technique in detail |
| D．that the technique of the robbery was not imitated |
It can be inferred from the passage that______．
| A．it is hard for children to tell the differences between real life and the imaginary |
B．only people in prison support film checking |
| C．only children imitate what they have seen on the screen |
| D．the writer used to advise the details of crime should be shown |