For most city people, the elevator is an unremarkable machine that inspires none of the enthusiasm or interest that Americans afford trains, jets，and even bicycles. Dr. Christopher Wilk is a member of a small group of elevator experts who consider this a misunderstanding. Without the elevator, they point out, there could be no downtown skyscrapers or tall buildings, and city life as we know it would be impossible. In that sense, they argue，the elevator’s role in American history has been no less significant than that of cars. In fact, according to Wilk? the car and the elevator have been locked in a “secret war” for over a century, with cars making it possible for people to spread horizontally (水平地)，and elevators pushing them toward life in close groups of towering vertical (垂直的)columns.
If we tend to ignore the significance of elevators, it might be because riding in them tends to be such a brief, boring, and even awkward experience^one that can involve unexpectedly meeting people with whom we have nothing in common, and an unpleasant awareness of the fact that we’re hanging from a cable in a long passage.
In a new book, Lifted, German journalist and cultural studies professor Andreas Bernard directed all his attention to this experience, studying the origins of elevator and its relationship to humankind and finding that riding in an elevator has never been a totally comfortable experience. “After 150 years, we are still not used to it”， Bernard said. “We still have not exactly learned to cope with the mixture of closeness and displeasure.” That mixture, according to Bernard, sets the elevator ride apart from just about every other situation we find ourselves in as we go about our lives.
Today，as the world’s urban population explodes，and cities become more crowded, taller, and more crowded, America’s total number of elevators—900,000 at last count, according to Elevator World magazine’s “2012 Vertical Transportation Industry”一are a force that’s becoming more important than ever. And for the people who really, really love them, it seems like high time that we looked seriously at just what kind of force they are.What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．The general view of elevators. |
| B．The particular interests of experts. |
| C．The desire for a remarkable machine. |
| D．The enthusiasm for transport vehicles. |
The author’s purpose in mentioning cars is .
| A．to contrast their functions with elevators, |
| B．to emphasize the importance of elevators |
| C．to reveal their secret war against elevators |
| D．to explain people’s preference for elevators |
According to Prof. Bernard, what has made the elevator ride different from other life experiences?
| A．Vertical direction. |
| B．Lack of excitement. |
| C．Little physical space. |
| D．Uncomfortable conditions. |
The author urges readers to consider .
| A．the exact number of elevator lovers |
| B．the serious future situation of elevators |
| C．the role of elevators in city development |
| D．the relationship between cars and elevators |
High-quality customer service is preached (宣扬) by many, but actually keeping customers happy is easier said than done.
Shoppers seldom complain to the manager or owner of a retail store, but instead will alert their friends, relatives, co-workers, strangers—and anyone who will listen.
Store managers are often the last to hear complaints, and often find out only when their regular customers decide to frequent their competitors, according to a study jointly conducted by Verde Group and Wharton School.
“Storytelling hurts retailers and entertains consumers,” said Paula Courtney, President of the Verde Group. “The store loses the customer, but the shopper must also find a replacement.”
On average, every unhappy customer will complain to at least four others, and will no longer visit the specific store. For every dissatisfied customer, a store will lose up to three more due to negative review. The resulting “snowball effect” can be disastrous to retailers.
According to the research, shoppers who purchased clothing encountered the most problems. Ranked second and third were grocery and electronics customers.
The most common complaints include filled parking lots, cluttered (塞满了的) shelves, overloaded racks, out-of-stock items, long check-out lines, and rude salespeople.
During peak shopping hours, some retailers solved parking problems by getting moonlighting (业余兼职的) local police to work as parking attendants. Some hired flag wavers to direct customers to empty parking spaces. This guidance eliminated the need for customers to circle the parking lot endlessly, and avoided confrontation between those eyeing the same parking space.
Retailers can relieve the headaches by redesigning store layouts, pre-stocking sales items, hiring speedy and experienced cashiers, and having sales representatives on hand to answer questions.
Most importantly, salespeople should be diplomatic and polite with angry customers.
“Retailers who’re responsive and friendly are more likely to smooth over issues than those who aren’t so friendly,” said Professor Stephen Hoch. “Maybe something as simple as a greeter at the store entrance would help.”
Customers can also improve future shopping experiences by filing complaints to the retailer, instead of complaining to the rest of the world. Retailers are hard-pressed to improve when they have no idea what is wrong.Why are store managers often the last to hear complaints?
| A．Most customers won’t bother to complain even if they have had unhappy experiences. |
| B．Customers would rather relate their unhappy experiences to people around them. |
| C．Few customers believe the service will be improved. . |
| D．Customers have no easy access to store managers. |
What does Paula Courtney imply by saying “…the shopper must also find a replacement” (Line 2, Para. 4)
| A．New customers are bound to replace old ones. |
| B．It is not likely that the shopper can find the same products in other stores. |
| C．Most stores provide the same kind of service. |
| D．Not complaining to manager causes the shopper some trouble too. |
What contributes most to smoothing over issues with customers?
| A．Manners of the salespeople. |
| B．Hiring of efficient employees. |
| C．Huge supply of goods for sale. |
| D．Design of store layout. |
To achieve better shopping experiences, customers are advised to ________.
| A．exert pressure on stores to improve their service |
| B．settle their disputes with stores in a diplomatic way |
| C．voice their dissatisfaction to store managers directly |
| D．shop around and make comparisons between stores |
About five years ago, an American electrical engineer named Scott Brusaw and his wife Julie came up with the idea of putting solar panels (控制板) on the ground rather than the roof. Then they began to develop the Solar Roadway. The Solar Roadway is an intelligent road that provides clean renewable energy using power from the sun while providing safer driving conditions, along with power and data delivery. They predict that the Solar Roadway will pay for itself through the generation of electricity along with other forms of income and that the same money that is being used to build and resurface current roads can be used to build the Solar Roadways.
Each Solar Road Panel measures roughly 4 meters by 4 meters and contains a microprocessor (微处理器) that monitors and controls the panel, while communicating with neighboring panels and the vehicles traveling overhead. The inventors suggest that this provides a communications device every 4 meters on every road which could be used for example to warn drivers of cars which are moving across a centre line and various other speed control problems. The top of the Solar Road panels is made of super-strong glass that would offer vehicles the tractions (抓地力) they need.
According to the inventors, the Solar Roadway creates and carries clean renewable electricity and therefore electric vehicles can be recharged at any conveniently located rest stop, or at any business that has paved Solar Road Panels in their parking lots.
The inventors say their Solar Roadway has many functions and advantages from main roads to driveways, parking lots, bike paths, sidewalks and runways. The Federal Highway Administration has given Brusaw ＄100,000 to develop the invention and Brusaw hopes to build a smart-road parking lot in the coming spring .In the inventors’ opinion, the Solar Roadway ___________________________ .
| A．is too expensive to build at present |
| B．costs no more money than current roads |
| C．can provide as many data as present computers |
| D．will bring them a large sum of money |
The underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 refers to.
| A．the panels | B．the inventors |
| C．the researchers | D．the vehicles |
It can be inferred from the text that ____________________________.
| A．the Solar Roadway has already been put into use |
| B．＄100,000 is only enough to build a smart-road parking lot |
| C．the Solar Roadway is not available for gas-powered cars |
| D．future electric vehicles can be charged anytime and anywhere |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．Solar-powered smart road of the future |
| B．The great changes on the roadway |
| C．The influence the Solar Roadway has on people |
| D．The Solar Road—a much faster road |
It’s 4 am, and Danilo C. Dequina is already awake. Holding a flashlight and a bucket, he is walking in the pre-dawn darkness along the shore of Old Poblacion Beach in the town of Maitum, Sarangani, in the far south of the Philippines.
A few minutes later, he spots a patch of sand that appears to have been disturbed by a turtle. Dequina studies the area carefully, figuring out where the eggs have been buried, and then starts digging slowly. After clearing away several centimeters of sand, he uncovers a large group of eggs, roughly the size of ping-pong balls. He picks them up and puts them in the bucket.
Dequina carries the eggs to his hatchery (孵卵所), some 50 meters away from the seashore. The hatchery is really just a sandy patch of land under the coconut trees enclosed by a black fence. It is here that he buries the turtle eggs he has collected. Today, Dequina scoops a hole, puts the eggs in it, and covers them with sand. After 45 to 70 days, the eggs will hatch. Dequina will then carry the hatchlings to the shore, and release them into the sea. He admits to feeling sorrow as he sets the hatchlings free -- most are hunted down by natural predators, and just one percent survive to adulthood.
According to the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), eight species of sea turtles face extinction, including four that come to the shores of Sarangani to lay their eggs -- the Hawksbill, Olive Ridley, Loggerhead and Green Turtles.
After learning about their plight (困境), Dequina attended a DENR training session on turtle conservation and decided to take action. He helped the local government to set up the Pawikan Nesting Sanctuary next to his house in 2003.
The hatchery drew the attention of the locals. “They started to change their attitudes towards sea turtles,” 52-year-old Dequina says. “If they see turtle eggs, they will either bring them to me or inform me of the nesting places.” Over the past ten years, more than 3,000 hatchlings have been released to the ocean.Dequina walks along the shore to ________.
| A．release small turtles |
| B．bury turtle eggs deeper |
| C．look for newly laid turtle eggs |
| D．clear away trash from the seaside |
When Dequina finds turtle eggs along the shore, he will ________.
| A．put them into the sea instantly |
| B．just bury them |
| C．pick them up and put them in the bucket |
| D．take them and go to his house |
What is the attitude of local people toward Dequina’s efforts?
| A．Doubtful. | B．Disappointed. |
| C．Opposed. | D．Supportive. |
What do we learn from the passage?
| A．Dequina feels sad when he releases hatchlings. |
| B．Dequina has worked for the hatchery for six years. |
| C．The hatchery is far from Dequina’s house. |
| D．The hatchery mainly protects injured turtles. |
In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and preparing for the worst, Australian adventurer Peter Seiter wrote a farewell note to his family, put it in a bottle and threw it overboard. With a sense of bad feeling he wrote: “The ocean has a personality of its own. The place can be such a peaceful environment to be in, yet it can be frightfully violent. I’ve experienced both.” Fearing he wouldn’t make it home, he placed the note -- dated June 11, 1998 -- in a wine bottle and covered the bottle.
“I included my geographical coordinates, so if anything happened to me, they’d know my last place when I threw the bottle into the ocean,” says Peter, who was then sailing from the Azores in Portugal to New York and knew the Atlantic could be dangerous. He also included some money with his message, asking whoever found it to use the money to post the letter to his family.
Seventeen days later he reached his destination, having survived the dangerous seas, but he assumed his message in the bottle had not -- until it was found on shore, 11 years later!
Recently, American woman Katherine Ginn and her friend came across the bottle on a deserted beach in the Bahamas. “Alongside it they’d found a life jacket and, assuming the worst, opened the bottle and spent 24 hours drying it out so they could read my story and write to my family as I requested,” says Peter, 44. “I couldn’t believe it -- that after all these years my bottle had turned up with its contents, still undamaged.”
Overjoyed, he wrote to the pair, saying he was alive and living in Australia with his family.
Katherine posted him his letter, money and some broken glass of his bottle placed in a tiny box as a special souvenir. These special items now share pride of place among photos of Peter’s Atlantic voyage. “I can’t express what this old letter means to me,” Peter says. “It gives me a sense of hope and belief. It’s something special to share with my children as they grow up.” Why did Peter have the idea of a message bottle?
| A．He missed his family very much then. |
| B．He hoped to share his experience with his family. |
| C．He regretted taking a risk on the ocean. |
| D．He thought he might lose his life on the voyage. |
As for the survival of the message bottle, Peter ________.
| A．felt very certain about it |
| B．thought it had little chance of reaching land |
| C．took a long time to search for it |
| D．wrote a letter to Katherine |
What can be inferred about the message bottle according to Paragraph 3 and 4?
| A．Katherine found it by chance on a crowded beach. |
| B．It was 11 years before they came across it at sea. |
| C．Perhaps there was water in it when Katherine found it. |
| D．Peter couldn’t believe more that it was not damaged. |
From the passage, we can learn that ________.
| A．this was Peter’s first voyage in the Atlantic |
| B．Peter spent eleven days in the Atlantic |
| C．without the life jacket, the bottle wouldn’t have survived |
| D．Katherine was a caring and careful person |
What should you think about when trying to find your career? You are probably better at some school subjects than others. These may show strengths that you can use in your work. A boy who is good at mathematics can use that in an engineering career. A girl who spells well and likes English may be good at office work. So it is important to know the subjects you do well in at school. On the other hand, you may not have any specially strong subjects but your records show a general satisfactory standard. Although not all subjects can be used directly in a job, they may have indirect value. A knowledge of history is not required for most jobs but if history is one of your good subjects you will have learned to remember facts and details. This is an ability that can be useful in many jobs.
Your school may have taught you skills, such as typing or technical drawing, which you can use in your work. You may be good at metalwork or cookery and look for a job where you can improve these skills. If you have had a part-time job on Saturdays or in the summer, think what you gained from it. If nothing else, you may have learned how to get to work on time, to follow rules and to get on with older workers. You may have learned to give correct change in a shop, for example. Just as important, you may become interested in a particular career you see from the inside in a part-time job.
Facing your weak points is also part of knowing yourself. You may be all thumbs when you handle tools; perhaps you are a poor speller or cannot add up a number of figures. It is better to face any weakness than to pretend they do not exist. Your school record, for instance, may not be too good, yet it is an important part of your background. You should not be apologetic(认错的) about it but instead recognize that you will have a chance of a fresh start at work.What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The importance of working hard at school. |
| B．Choosing a career according to one’s strengths. |
| C．How to face one’s weakness. |
| D．The value of school work. |
The writer thinks that for a student to have a part-time job is probably __________.
| A．a good way to find out his weak points |
| B．one of the best ways of earning extra money |
| C．of great use for his work in the future |
| D．a waste of time he could have spent on study |
From the passage we learn that if a student’s school performance is not good, he _________.
| A．should pay more attention to learning skills and developing abilities |
| B．will be regretful about his bad results |
| C．may also do well in his future work |
| D．should restart his study in school |
The underlined phrase “be all thumbs” (in para. 3) probably means “_______”.
| A．be not good at doing things |
| B．be skillful in doing things |
| C．be not interested in certain things |
| D．be easily bored in doing things |