When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet (图章) ring. They were the "in" thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials (姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.
What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn't being "replaced". We'd been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the “new" stuff (东西) we got was really just to replace what we'd lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.
Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took it off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.
Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents' when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn't my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. “You’ll recognize this one," she said, smiling.
Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it, they realized who owned the ring. They'd had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.The underlined word "in" in the first paragraph probably means "_____".
| A．practical | B．available | C．fashionable | D．renewable |
When she got the ring back, the writer was about _____.
| A．13 years old | B．15 years old |
| C．26 years old | D．28 years old |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The writer's family moved several times. |
| B．The writer never stopped looking for her ring. |
| C．The writer lost her ring in the morning when she took it off. |
| D．The writer's ring was cleaned up by the new house owner. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．My New Ring | B．Lost and Replaced |
| C．Lost and Found | D．An Expensive Ring |
Coupons to spend
“How did you spend your coupons?”
On their first day back to school, many students in Hangzhou greeted each other this way.
The coupons referred to the 100 yuan coupons each student received form the city government before the Spring Festival holidays. Over 260,000 primary school and middle school students were given coupons. They could use them in local stores and supermarkets, or to see movies and buy books.
The same coupons have also been given to low income families in Hangzhou. Other cities, including Chengdu and Nanjing, also gave coupons to their citizens. More cities are expected to follow their lead.
Why are local governments doing this?
These programmes are all part of a broader effort in China to increase domestic demand in the face of the global financial crisis.
The crisis has seriously affected China’s exports and investments (投资). Many factories in southern cities have been closed down. Some companies are laying off workers or reducing their pay. The stock market and real estate market have been falling.
In a time of financial crisis, people usually respond by saving money. They are uncertain about the future and are afraid that more difficult times may be ahead. Now many people are choosing not to spend money carelessly. Major chain stores have seen a sharp slowdown in sales, analysts say.
But spending keeps an economy healthy. If people don’t spend, there will be too many products in the market. Then shops will stop buying products from factories. When factories receive no orders, they close down. The workers there accordingly lose their jobs. Also, if people don’t spend, the service industry suffers. The total result is that the whole economy breaks down.
Issuing coupons is a practical and effective way to increase domestic demand in the current situation, said Jiang Zengwei, vice-minister of China’s Ministry of Commerce. Hangzhou reported a rise in customers in local markets during Spring Festival holiday.
However, issuing coupons is only a temporary measure. To increase consumers’ confidence, the government needs to establish a sound secure social system in the long term. When people don’t have to worry about education, health care and their pension, they will be more willing to spend instead of saving.Why are local governments issuing coupons?
| A．To increase domestic demand in the face of the global financial crisis. |
| B．To enable students to use them in local stores and supermarkets, or to see movies and buy books independently. |
| C．To help those low income families in the global financial crisis. |
| D．To show the government’s ability to solve economic problems |
What is NOT the influence that the global financial crisis has brought us?
| A．China’s exports and investments have been seriously affected. |
| B．People begin to spend money without a second thought. |
| C．Workers are faced with losing jobs and the reduction of the salaries. |
| D．The active stock market and real estate market have gone. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Issuing coupons is a practical and effective way to increase domestic demand in a long term. |
| B．The total result of saving money is that the whole economy breaks down. |
| C．The government may carry out new policies to encourage citizens to be willing to spend in the near future. |
| D．After issuing the coupons, the local markets have seen a rise in customers during Spring Festival holiday. |
If the government is to print a slogan on the coupons to restore consumers’ confidence, what might be used to promote the idea?
| A．Spend now, save later. |
| B．Spend money like there’s no tomorrow; come on! |
| C．Spend money like it’s going out of style; let’s do it! |
| D．Big spender, wise spender. |
We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. A day may begin well enough, but suddenly everything seems to get out of control. It seems as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions. Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time. The telephone rings and this means your troubles are beginning. While you are on the phone, the baby pulls the tablecloth off the table, destroying your half prepared meal. You hang up hurriedly and attend to your baby. Meanwhile, the meal gets burnt. As if this were not enough to bring you to tears, your husband arrives, unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.
Things can go wrong on a big scale, as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney. During the rush hour one evening two cars hit each other and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner. She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car. This made the driver following her brake hard. His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake. As she was thrown forward, the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road. Seeing a cake flying through the air, a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car, pulled up all of a sudden. The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road. This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile, the traffic piled up behind. It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again. In the meantime, the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles. Only two dogs benefited from all this confusion, for they were happily having what was left of the cake. It was just one of those days!According to the author’s opinion, ______.
| A．a small matter may cause great trouble | B．accidents may happen anytime |
| C．anyone may have trouble any day | D．troubles always come in groups |
When the telephone rings, ______.
| A．your trouble is approaching if you are taking care of your baby |
| B．you should never go to answer it in a hurry unless you know it’s an important one |
| C．you’d better have your baby a little distant from your table before going to answer it |
| D．you’d better just let it ring all the way unless you can find someone to take care of |
your baby What did the police do after the accident?
| A．They helped the drivers to go on with their journey. |
| B．They helped the truck-driver to clean up the road. |
| C．They would find out who should be fined. |
| D．They tried to stop the people from arguing. |
From the story we can see ______.
| A．such accidents are usually funny |
| B．such accidents are rather common |
| C．no one can explain why such accidents happen |
| D．some drivers should take responsibility for their carelessness |
When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near a copper smelter（炼铜厂），and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on, something happened inside him.
Years later Paul was back in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was “No”.
Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately, his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. Everyone knew that, he was told. Even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected, he wouldn’t get his idea accepted.
Paul later got married and had some kids. But his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. As Samuel Johnson wrote, “It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. Attainable good is often ignored by minds busied in wide ranges.” Under the cover of darkness, he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.
And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against the plain common sense. Slowly rabbits appeared. Later, as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.
Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.When Paul was a boy，______________.
| A．he had decided never to leave his hometown |
| B．the economy of Utah depended wholly on the copper smelter |
| C．no laws were made to protect the environment against pollution |
| D．he had determined to stop the copper smelter polluting the area |
Why did Paul go to college to study the science of plants？
| A．Because he wanted to find out the best way to save the area himself. |
| B．Because he was interested in planting trees since he was young. |
| C．Because he wanted to get more knowledgeable people to help him. |
| D．Because he thought his knowledge would make his advice more persuasive. |
What does the underlined phrase “the plain common sense” probably refer to?
| A．That it was impossible for trees to grow on the wasteland. |
| B．That his normal work and life would be greatly affected. |
| C．That no one would like to join him in the efforts. |
| D．That he had to keep everything he did secret. |
The company hired Paul to plant trees and grass because___________.
| A．they realized the importance of environmental protection |
| B．What Paul was doing moved them |
| C．Paul persuaded them to help him |
| D．they had legal pressure |
The message of the passage is that _____________.
| A．action speaks louder than words |
| B．perseverance（持之以恒）will work wonders |
| C．God helps those who help themselves |
| D．many hands make light work |
As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.
The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities, others lose heart at the first sign of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "flight or fight" and in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Since we can't remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it.People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because _____.
| A．they regard working as their greatest enjoyment |
| B．they believe that work is superior to relaxation |
| C．they are traveling fast all the time |
| D．they are becoming busier with their work than ever before |
According to the author, the most important character for a good manager is his _____.
| A．strong will to hold out stress |
| B．knowing the art of relaxation |
| C．high sense of responsibility |
| D．having control over performance |
Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?
| A．We can find quite a few ways to avoid stress. |
| B．Stress is always harmful to people's health |
| C．It's easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work. |
| D．Different people can bear different amount of stress. |
In the last sentence of the passage, “do so” refers to _____.
| A．"expose ourselves to stress" |
| B．"find ways to deal with stress" |
| C．"remove stress from our lives" |
| D．"establish links between diseases and stress" |
According to the author, the right attitude toward stress is _____.
| A．to avoid it |
| B．to try to cope with it |
| C．to regard it as a vital motivation |
| D．to find some relaxation |
A week ago, I had the great pleasure of reading an e-book, When Money Talks, Listen! By Rich Ezzo. It took only about an hour to read.
When I first received a copy, I thought it was a Get Rich Quick type of publication. Nothing is wrong with Get Rich Quick, but my mind just doesn’t chase after dreams of wealth. I think that if God ever wants me to be rich, he knows where to find my purse.
When I began reading When Money Talks, Listen!, I was overjoyed to find that Rich Ezzo isn’t money hungry either. He, too, is hungry far more important than money.
Since I love this e-book so much, why wait a week to write the review? Simple. I wanted to see if the effect it had on me was a keeper. After reading the last word of the e-book, I totally agreed with the subtitle which promised to forever change the way we thought about money. I had so many thoughts running around my mind that I had to install(安装) a stoplight to stop some while others made their way into the picture, then I yielded(让路) them as a few ones arrived in town. I had a mental traffic jam, which only goes to show how slow the traffic usually is.
It has been a week and the effect is the same. I truly do look at money differently and have even done a few things differently this week. This is an e-book you’ll want to read, I promise. I often recommend books to my daughter, and this is one that I didn’t just “suggest”---I left it open at the bottom of the computer and told each one, “Read it, you’ll love it.”
I would never point someone in a direction I wouldn’t go myself. I urge you to visit the author’s website, Myster Money, and to download the e-book. You won’t regret it.The author wrote this passage to _________
| A．strongly recommend an e-book. |
| B．show the author's attitude to money. |
| C．introduce the general idea of an e-book. |
| D．point out Rich Ezzo isn't money hungry. |
According to the passage, a Get Rich Quick type of publication ______.
| A．is what the author really cares for |
| B．deals with how to make money |
| C．is also an e-book written by Rich Ezzo |
| D．is more popular than e-books |
The author didn't write the review as soon as he finished reading the book because________.
| A．he was too excited to write anything |
| B．he was not sure whether he did well |
| C．he had to wait for Rich Ezzo's permission |
| D．he wondered if the book would have long influence on him |
By saying the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4, the author probably __________.
| A．shows that the book brought him many new thoughts |
| B．shows how bad the traffic is in town |
| C．describes the difficulty in understanding the book |
| D．explains it's hard to change one's attitude to money |
Which of the following is supported by the passage?
| A．The author had known Rich Ezzo before. |
| B．The author hasn't dreamed of getting rich immediately. |
| C．The author always prefers e-books to paper books. |
| D．The author likes Get Rich Quick-type of publications. |