You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation: "I can't believe it—a Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome."
They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It's nice and the price is right. You've never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes.
Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.
Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation—consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It is a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads.
So advertising agencies hire young actors to "perform" in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice deceptive (骗人的), but marketing manager Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. "Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing."
However, one might ask what exactly is "real" about of young women pretending to be enthusiastic about a sweater? Advertising managers would say it's no less real than an ad. The difference is that you know an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. You don' t know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.The two attractive young women were talking so that they could _____.
| A．get the sweater at a lower price | B．be heard by people around |
| C．be admired by other shoppers | D．decide on buying the sweater |
Lorenzo Bertolla is _____.
| A．the name of a popular singer | B．an advertising agency |
| C．a clothing company in Rome | D．the brand name of a sweater |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Two Attractive Shoppers | B．Lorenzo Bertolla Sweaters |
| C．Ways of Advertising | D．Undercover Marketing |
The latest research suggests that the key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success. Instead, it’s purposeful practice. Top performers spend more hours practising their craft. It you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you’d take a girl who possessed a slightly above average language ability. It wouldn’t have to be a big talent, just enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar qualities. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same family background, or shared the same birthday.
This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would hive her some idea of a fascinating circle who might someday join. It would also help if one of her parents died when she was 12, giving her a strong sense of insecurity and fuelling a desperate need for success. Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and life stories of writers without end. This would give her a primary knowledge of her field. She’s be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly understand its inner workings.
Then she would practise writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused. By practising in this way, he delays the automatizing process. Her mind wants to turn conscious, newly learned skills into unconscious. Automatically performed skills. By practising slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, she forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance. Then she would find an adviser who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance form the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges. By now she is redoing problems—how do I get characters into a room—dozens and dozens of times. She is establishing habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.
The primary quality our young writer possesses is not some mysterious genius. It’s the ability to develop a purposeful, laborious and boring practice routine; the latest research takes some of the magic out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is affected by genetics and what we’re “hard-wired” to do. And it’s true that genes play a role in our capabilities. But the brain is also very plastic. We construct ourselves through behaviour. The passage mainly deals with .
| A．the function of I.Q. in cultivating a writer |
| B．the relationship between genius and success |
| C．the decisive factor in making a genius |
| D．the way of gaining some sense of distinction |
By reading novels and writers’ stories, the girl could .
| A．come to understand the inner structure of writing |
| B．join a fascinating circle of writers someday |
| C．share with a novelist her likes and dislikes |
| D．learn from the living examples to establish a sense of security |
In the girl’s long painstaking training process, ________.
| A．her adviser forms a primary challenging force to her success. |
| B．her writing turns into an automatic pattern of performance |
| C．she acquires the magic of some great achievement |
| D．she comes to realize she is “hard-wired” to write |
What can be concluded from the passage?
| A．A fuelling ambition plays a leading role in one’s success |
| B．A responsible adviser is more important than the knowledge of writing. |
| C．As to the growth of a genius, I.Q. Doesn’t matter, but just his/her effort. |
| D．What really matters is what you do rather than who you are. |
Winners Club
You choose to be a winner!
The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account（交易账户）where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7 – that’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
It’s a club with impressive features for teenagers:
⊙ No account keeping fees!
You’re no millionaire so we don’t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees!
⊙ Excellent interest rates!
You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits（储蓄）withouttaking them out in a month.
⊙ Convenient
Teenagers are busy – we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet •••You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job!
⊙ Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money .There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian (So we can organize that cool key card), but it is easy. We can not wait to hear from you. It’s the best way to a winner.Which of the following is TRUE about the Winners Club?
| A．Special gifts are ready for parents. |
| B．The bank opens only on work days. |
| C．Services are convenient for its members. |
| D．Fees are necessary for the account keeping. |
The Winners Club provides magazines which ________.
| A．encourage spending |
| B．are free to all teenagers |
| C．are full of adventure stories |
| D．help to make more of your money |
If you want to be a member of the Club, you must ________.
| A．be an Internet user |
| B．be permitted by your parent |
| C．have a big sum of money |
| D．be in your twenties |
What is the purpose of this text?
| A．To set up a club. |
| B．To provide part-time jobs. |
| C．To organize key-cards. |
| D．To introduce a new banking service. |
The cheetah(猎豹)is best known for being the world’s fastest land animal, reaching speeds of just over 110kph for short period of time. However, many people know little else about this wonderful animal. The word cheetah probably comes from a Hindi word spotted animal. It is very similar to other cats but also has some obvious differences. Its body is much leaner than most cats and it has much longer legs.
People sometimes make a cheetah a leopard(美洲豹)because they both have spots, but in fact they are very different. A leopard is far heavier and more powerful, but also much slower. The cheetah’s spots cover most of its body except for its stomach and throat. The cheetah’s tail has spots and these become rings at the end of the tail.
An adult cheetah weighs between 35-65 kilograms and is about 80 centimeters high at the shoulder. The cheetah’s head is quite small and the eyes are quite high up. A black line runs from each eye down to its mouth and makes it look a little sad. It has high shoulders that help it to walk so gracefully.
Cheetahs are very fast but they are not very strong. They are not good fighters and will run away rather than fight another animal to protect their food. If they make a kill, it is sometimes taken away from them by stronger animals such as lions and leopard. These animals will kill their young if they get the chance. The cheetah is not a threat to humans at all. It will not attack humans and prefers to stay away from occupied areas.Many people know that the cheetah________
| A．is a fast runner |
| B．runs faster than any other animal on land |
| C．runs as fast as it can |
| D．is very fast for periods of time |
The cheetah ________
| A．has spots all over its body including its tail |
| B．has spots on its stomach and throat |
| C．does not have spots on its stomach and throat |
| D．has spots everywhere except for its stomach and throat |
Cheetahs will not fight another animal to protect their food because _______
| A．they can quickly run away |
| B．they are very fast runners |
| C．They want to protect their young |
| D．They are poor fighters |
Last year, on the night before the first day of the Spring Festival, Hugo Pang was sitting in his huge flat on Hong Kong Island. It was late in the evening, and Hugo was sipping a glass of his favorite French brandy, and listening to music on his huge, expensive music center. Pang lived alone, apart from the six maid who cooked and cleaned for him, and the chauffeur（私家司机） who drove his Rolls-Royce。
Suddenly, the room seemed to begin spinning around him. Then there was a flash of light and a puff of smoke, and before him Pang saw an old man dressed in traditional Chinese clothes. Pang looked at his brandy glass, and looked again at the old man. He was so frightened he couldn’t speak.
“Come with me,” said the old man, “I’m going to show you something.” He took Pang’s hand, and immediately the room disappeared, and Pang was standing in a field outside a village in Guangdong Province. The houses were small and the village was poor, but in front of him Pang saw a little crowd of children were playing. It was Spring Festival, and the sound of firecrackers could be heard from inside the village, while smoke rose over the roofs of the houses. Then, among the children playing, Pang recognized himself. “We were poor then,” he said, “but we were happier. We had to work hard to get everything we had.” The first paragraph tells us that Hugo Pang was________
| A．fat, rich and lazy | B．busy and tired |
| C．rich but lonely | D．very happy |
When the old man first appeared, Pang looked at his brandy glass because__________
| A．he thought he had too much brandy |
| B．he wanted to offer the old man some brandy |
| C．the glass was empty |
| D．he wanted more brandy |
The village in the last paragraph was___________
| A．not a real village |
| B．very peaceful and beautiful |
| C．the place where Pang lived |
| D．where Pang had lived as a child. |
The old wanted to show Pang that________
| A．Spring Festival in Gang dong was fun |
| B．his money had not made him happier |
| C．life is better when you are a child |
| D．it is better to be rich and lazy that to be poor and hard working |
When we see well, we do not think about our eyes very often. It is only when we cannot see perfectly that we realize how important our eyes are.
People who are near-sighted can only see things that are very close to their eyes. Everything else seems blurry. Many people who do a lot of work, such as writing, reading and sewing become near-sighted. People who are far-sighted suffer from just the opposite problem. They can see things that are far away, but they have difficulty in reading a book unless they hold it at arm’s length. If they want to do much reading, they must get glasses, too.
Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. They have what is called astigmatism (散光). This, too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people’s eyes become cloudy because of cataracts (白内障). Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to operate on the cataracts and remove them.
Having two good eyes is important for judging distances. Each eye sees things from a slightly different angle. To prove this to yourself, look at an object out of one eye; then look at the same object out of your other eye. You will find the object’s relation to the background and other things around it has changed. The difference between these two different eye views helps us to judge how far away an object is. People who have only one eye cannot judge distances as people with two eyes.We should take good care of our eyes________. .
| A．only when we can see well |
| B．only when we cannot see perfectly |
| C．even if we can see wel |
| D．only when we realize how important our eyes are |
When things far away seem indistinct(模糊不清) , one is probably________. .
| A．near-sighted | B．far-sighted |
| C．astigmatic | D．suffering from cataracts |
The underlined word blurry in the second paragraph probably means_______.
| A．obvious | B．possible | C．clear | D．unclear |
Having two eyes instead of one is particularly useful for_______
| A．seeing at night | B．seeing objects far away |
| C．looking over a wide area | D．judging distances |