Tourism probably started in Roman times. Rich Romans visited friends and family who were working in another part of the Roman empire. When the empire broke down, this kind of tourism stopped.
In the early 17th century, the idea of the "Grand Tour" was born. Rich young English people sailed across the English Channel. They visited the most beautiful and important European cities of the time, including Paris in France, and Rome and Venice in Italy. Their tours lasted for two to four years, and the tourists stayed a few weeks or months in each city. The "Grand Tour" was an important part of young people's education-but only for the rich.
In the 18th century, tourism began to change. For example, people in the UK started to visit some towns, such as Bath to "take the waters". They believed that the water there was good for their health. So large and expensive hotels were built in these towns.
In the 19th century, travel became much more popular and faster. When the first railways were built in the 1820s, it was easier for people to travel between towns, so they started to go for holidays at the seaside. Some started to have holidays in the countryside as cities became larger, noisier and dirtier.
Traveling by sea also became faster and safer when the first steamships were built. People began to travel more to faraway countries.
The 20th century saw cars become more and more popular among ordinary people. Planes were made larger, so ticket prices dropped and more people used them.
Thus tourism grew. In 1949, Russian journalist Vladimir Raitz started a company called Horizon Holidays. The company organizes everything-plane tickets, hotel rooms, even food-and tourists pay for it all before they leave home. The package tour (包办旅行) and modern tourism industry was born.
The first travel agency in China was set up as early as 1949. But tourism did not take off until 1978. In 2002, the industry was worth 500 billion yuan and became an important part of China's social development.In the early times, the travelers _______ .
| A．all came from China |
| B．were very young and strong |
| C．had lots of money |
| D．traveled by boat |
_______ played the most important role in the tourism development.
| A．Education | B．Money |
| C．Transportation | D．People's ideas |
According to the passage , which of the following is right ?
| A．Money played the most important role in the tourism development . |
| B．In the 20 th century, people preferred traveling by sea to traveling by air. |
| C．China’s tourism did not take off until 1949. |
| D．In 2002 , the tourism industry became an important part of China’s social development. |
Modern tourism industry was born _______
| A．in 1949 |
| B．in Roman times |
| C．in the early 17th century |
| D．in the 19th century |
The underlined phrase "take off" means _______ .
| A．rise into the air | B．develop very fast |
| C．remove hats and clothes | D．bring down the prices |
Well-known companies are powered by their names and reputations. When people walk into a Pizza Hut in Tokyo, Rome, or Miami, they know exactly what they are getting. Through franchising, an investor (投资者) can make use of this brand power by opening a Pizza Hut of his or her own. The risk is low, and the rewards can be big. No wonder franchising is such a successful business model.
Franchising had been around for more than 100 years, but its popularity took off in the 1950s. Leading the trend were fast food restaurant like McDonald’s. These days, there are franchises in more than eighty-five industries, including dry cleaning, hotels and supermarkets. It’s a very big business. In the US, there are some 760,000 franchises, totaling more than $1.5 trillion in yearly revenues (income).
There are two sides in a franchise: the franchisor—the owner of the business system and the franchisee—the person who licenses the system. After signing a “franchise agreement”, the franchisee pays a fee. He or she also pays for equipment, supplies, and, if necessary, building costs. The total investment usually ranges from $10,000 to $1,000,000. After the business opens, the franchisee also pays a percentage of sales revenues—called a royalty—to the franchisor. Marking fees must also be paid.
In return, the franchisee receives many benefits. Training is among the most common ones. It includes everything from dealing with customers to understanding the company’s standards. The franchisor also handles advertising. On top of that, there’s the benefit of the brand reputation that the company has built up. All of these benefits make the risk of opening a franchise much smaller than that of starting a business from scratch.
However, a franchise can also have drawbacks. If a customer at a single restaurant gets sick, it may hurt every franchise in the system. Running a franchise also means closely following the company’s standards. So, one has to give up a degree of independence. You have to do things their way and trust that the system will work.
If you want to earn a lot of money from the business, you have to work hard. Also, remember that the monthly royalty must be paid, even if you are losing money. However, there are thousands of opportunities in franchising. They will surely grow as brand recognition becomes more important in the global economy(经济学).What does the word “franchise” mean in the passage?
| A．A company policy for building up service reputation. |
| B．A permission given by a company for selling its goods. |
| C．An official association for improving business network. |
| D．A system operated by an organization for lower marketing fee. |
What is the most important factor to make a franchise successful?
| A．Brand power. | B．Agreement. |
| C．Training. | D．Royalty. |
After signing a franchise agreement, a franchisee will _________.
| A．pay for the advertisement |
| B．get free necessary equipment |
| C．receive the monthly revenues |
| D．maintain the company’s standards |
What does the author think of franchising?
| A．It will have a promising future. |
| B．It will bring higher business risk. |
| C．It will control the global economy. |
| D．It will cause losses of brand recognition. |
Many people say dolphins are very intelligent. They seem to be able to think, understand, and learn things quickly. But are they smart like humans or more than cats or dogs? Dolphins use their brains differently from people. But scientists say dolphin intelligence and human intelligence are similar in some ways. How?
Fact 1: Talk to me
Like humans, every dolphin has its own “name”. The name is a special whistle. Each dolphin chooses a specific whistle for itself, usually by its first birthday. Actually, scientists think dolphins, like people, “talk” to each other about a lot of things, such as their age, their feelings, or finding food. And, like humans, dolphins use a system of sounds and body language to communicate. But understanding their conversations is not easy for humans. No one speaks “dolphin” yet, but some scientists are trying to learn.
Fact 2: Let’s play
Dolphins are also social animals. They live in groups, and they often join others from different groups to play games and have fun—just like people. In fact, playing together is something only intelligent animals do.
Fact 3: Fishermen’s helper
Dolphins and humans are similar in another way: both make plans to get something they want. In the seas of southern Brazil, for example, dolphins use an interesting strategy to get food. When fish are near a boat, dolphins show signs to the fishermen to put their nets in the water. Using this method, the men can catch a lot of fish. What is the advantage for the dolphins in doing so? They get to eat some of the fish.What does a dolphin often use as its “name”?
| A．A body language. | B．A special whistle. |
| C．Its feeling. | D．Its age. |
Why do dolphins join others from different groups?
| A．To learn to “talk”. |
| B．To meet their families. |
| C．To play games. |
| D．To find food. |
How do dolphins help fishermen catch fish?
| A．By playing with other fish. |
| B．By following fishing boats. |
| C．By leading the fish into the net. |
| D．By showing signs to the fishermen. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Dolphins are smarter than humans. |
| B．Dolphins make friends with humans. |
| C．Dolphins teach humans to speak “dolphin”. |
| D．Dolphins and humans are similar in some ways. |
Ecoworld Discovery Centre
The future is here at Ecoworld Discovery Centre!
Class for children!
Hands-on games, challenging and fun! Discover the environmental world in an exciting and educational way. Special activities for different ages.
Organic gardens!
Find out how to protect the environment in your own back garden! Learn practical and exciting tips to follow at home. Find out what live under the grass and in the trees!
Wind turbine (风车) tower!
Climb the 500 steps to the top of the 85-metre wind turbine tower and see the amazing view of Carlstown and the river beyond. For a little more charge, go on a special tour of the machine room(children under 12 not allowed without an adult).
Gift shop and restaurant!
Amazing gifts for all the family, each one specially chosen by our team of eco experts! The restaurant has a great choice of food and drinks, with a wide selection of vegetarian dishes available. There is access for wheelchair users to both the gift shop and the restaurant, and large print food menus for visitors with poor eyesight. Picnic area and free parking every day.
KIDS-Special meals at reduced prices!
Opening time:
April 1st--- September 30th.
Monday-Friday 10 am-6pm, Weekends 10am-7pm.
October 1st---March 31st.
Monday-Friday 10am-2pm, Weekends 10am-4pm.
Tel: 01882-7092, Fax:01882-7093What can children do in the Class for children?
| A．Play some hands-on games. |
| B．Enjoyed different food and drinks. |
| C．Go on a tour of the machine room. |
| D．Get some tips to protect their home. |
Where can you see the view of Carlstown?
| A．Outside the restaurant. |
| B．On the wind turbine tower. |
| C．Near the picnic area. |
| D．In the organic garden. |
At what time does the centre close on Monday in April?
| A．2pm. | B．4pm. | C．6pm. | D．7pm. |
Who is the Ecoworld Discovery Centre mainly designed for?
| A．Eco expert. |
| B．Special helpers. |
| C．Children and their parents. |
| D．Gift shop-keepers. |
Greenwich (格林威治) is on the River, five miles from the middle of London, and its history is two thousand years old. The first English people were fishermen there, and they named the place Greenwich, meaning "green village". Later the English kings and queens lived at Greenwich in their beautiful places.
The name of the earliest palace was Placentia. Its windows were made of glass--the first in England. But trouble was coming to Greenwich. In 1649, a war started in England and for eleven years there was no king. The men who had worked for him at Placentia decided to live in the place themselves. They sold all its beautiful things, and bought small pieces of the palace garden with money. Finally, the war ended and King Charles II came back. But Placentia was falling down. So King Charles built a new and bigger palace, which is now open to the public.
At this time, Charles was worried about losing so many of its ships at sea because their sailors did not know how to tell exactly where they were. So in 1675, Charles made John Flamsteed, the first astronomer (天文学家) in England, try to find the answer. Flamsteed worked in a new building on the high ground in Greenwich Park. From it with a telescope which he made himself, Flamsteed could look all round the sky. And he did, night after night, for twenty years. Carrying on Flamsteed's work a hundred years later, an astronomer called Harrison finally made a clock which told the time at sea, and helped sailors to know where they were.You can see Harrison's clock, still working, in Greenwich's museum of the sea. Because of Flamsteed's work, every country in the world now tells its time by Greenwich time.The first English people living in the "green village" were _____.
| A．sailors |
| B．fishermen |
| C．King Charles and his family |
| D．The families of king and queens |
Placentia was _____ palace in Greenwich.
| A．the biggest | B．smallest |
| C．the earliest | D．the latest |
What kind of trouble came to Greenwich in 1649?
| A．A war started in England. |
| B．Placentia was destroyed. |
| C．Ship-yards were built . |
| D．King Henry died. |
Charles made John Flamsteed try to find ______.
| A．how to tell the time |
| B．hot to build ships |
| C．a way for sailors to tell their positions at sea |
| D．a place to set up a telescope |
Who made the first clock which could tell the time at sea?
| A．Harrison | B．Flamsteed |
| C．Henry | D．Charles |
Fish have ears. Really. They’re quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths.
As fish grow, so do their otoliths. Each day, their otoliths gain a ring of calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). By looking through a microscope and counting these rings, Thorrold can determine the exact age of a young fish. As a fish gets older, its otoliths no longer get daily rings. Instead, they get yearly rings, which can also be counted, giving information about the fish’s age, just like the growth rings of a tree.
Ring counting is nothing new to fish scientists. But Thorrold has turned to a new direction. They’re examining the chemical elements (元素) of each otolith ring.
The daily ring gives us the time, but chemistry tells us about the environment in which the fish swam on any given day. These elements tell us about the chemistry of the water that the fish was in. It also says something about water temperature, which determines how much of these elements will gather within each otolith ring.
Thorrold can tell, for example, if a fish spent time in the open ocean before entering the less salty water of coastal areas. He can basically tell where fish are spending their time at any given stage of history.
In the case of the Atlantic croaker, a popular saltwater food fish, Thorrold and his assistant have successfully followed the travelling of young fish from mid-ocean to the coast, a journey of many hundreds of miles.
This is important to managers in the fish industry, who know nearly nothing about the track of the young fish for most food fish in the ocean. Eager to learn about his technology, fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears.What can we learn about fish ears from the text?
| A．They are small soft rings. |
| B．They are not seen from the outside. |
| C．They are openings only on food fish. |
| D．They are not used to receive sound. |
Why does the writer compare the fish to trees?
| A．Trees gain a growth ring each day. |
| B．Trees also have otoliths. |
| C．Their growth rings are very small. |
| D．They both have growth rings. |
Why is it important to study the chemistry of otolith rings?
| A．The elements of the otoliths can tell the history of the sea. |
| B．Chemical contents of otoliths can tell how fast fish can swim. |
| C．We can know more about fish and their living environment. |
| D．Scientists can know exactly how old a fish is. |
How would you understand “fish scientists are now lending their ears”?
| A．They are very interested in Thorrold’s research findings. |
| B．They want to know where they can find fish. |
| C．They lend their fish for chemical studies. |
| D．They wonder if Thorrold can find growth rings from their ears. |
If the passage goes on, it possibly refers to _________.
| A．fish life | B．food fish |
| C．fish industry | D．young fish |