Higher hotel prices, airline capacity（容量） cuts and rising travel demand mean travelers will have to work harder to find a good deal in 2013. But there are plenty of online tools to help keep your vacation expenses in check. Here are some websites to help you save money on air tickets this year.
Looking for sales on a specific routs, or just want to go somewhere cheap? AirfareWatchdog. com searches for deals computers tend to miss, like promotion codes airlines include in e-mail advertisements. It also finds sales from Allegiant and Southwest, which typically aren’t listed on major airfare（机票）search engines. You can sign up for specific fare notifications（通告）or a list of all the cheap round-trip fares from your local airport.
Where can you go for $500 or less? Kayak.com/explore will show you where you can go for a vacation for a particular price .You can narrow your search by month, region, flight length, weather or activity. Clicking on a price reveals dates the fare is available.
If you already know where you want to go, use itasoftware.com to find the cheapest dates to fly. To purchase, you must go to the airline’s website or online agencies like Travelocity.
To figure out whether to buy that plan ticket now or wait, go to Bing.com/travel. Its Price Predictor can determine how likely a fare is to rise or fall during the next seven says from more than 250 cities in the Unites States to top domestic destinations and major airports in Europe. The site claims that its predictions are about75 percent accurate and save customers more than $50 on average for a round trip.
After you’ve booked your tickets at an airline site, enter your flight information at Yapta.com to track the price so you don’t miss out on savings if the price drops.The underlined phrase “in check” in Paragraph 1 can be best replaced by“______”。
| A．above limit | B．under control |
| C．beyond expectaion | D．in danger |
We can infer from the passage that Allegiant is probably__________.
| A．an airline company |
| B．a well-known travel destination |
| C．a travel agency for cheap vacations |
| D．a search tool for low-cost air tickets |
If you’ve chosen a vacation destination, which website should you visit to choose the cheapest dates for air tickets?
| A．Airfare Watchdog.com | B．kayak.com/explore |
| C．Itasoftware.com | D．Yapta.com |
Who are the intended readers of the passage?
| A．Travel agency owners |
| B．Advertising company bosses |
| C．Hotel managers hoping to attract customers |
| D．Holidaymakers looking for cheap air tickets |
What can we know about the website Bing.com/travel from the passage?
| A．Its predictions are always accurate |
| B．Its predictions focus on European airports |
| C．Its predictions are about how air tickets will vary in a week |
| D．Its predictions help customers save over $50 for a single trip |
Comment on CRI
Here are the comments on CRI (China Radio International) given by people from different countries on the Internet.
| People |
Comments |
| Yingtian Hu Guangzhou, China |
This is the first time that I participate in CRI. And I like it very much. I hope its website will become the most excellent one with the foreign languages. And I choose the important news which I think has a great influence on our society and our lives. In the end, I hope that more and more persons join in CRI and make it perfect! |
| SujanParajuli, Select city, Nepal |
I am both a regular listener of CRI and visitor of its wonderful Website. First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to CRI for its great efforts to keep the listeners up-to-date during the year 2008. We, the listeners, are greatly grateful to CRI for its praise-worthy efforts to quench the thirst of its dear listeners. During the Year 2008, I found all of your programs quite interesting, informative and educational. Once again, thanks a lot for offering bonanza of information, news, entertainment and many items which have indeed broaden the horizons of our knowledge and understanding as well. |
| Ibrahim Rustamov, Tajikistan |
With CRI, I was impressed by China’s rapid development in all spheres. But I felt so sorry to get to know about the snowstorms in China and Wenchuan earthquake. CRI and CCTV play a great role in introducing China to the world! Kudos! My friends and I wish CRI all the best! |
| Mike Thatcher, London |
My family and I are all keen on Chinese Culture, especially the beautiful Chinese folk music. Various interesting programs by CRI just open a window for us foreigners, through which we can know more about China and have a better understanding of the Chinese culture. Best wishes to CRI! Best wishes to China! |
Which of the following benefits of CRI is NOT mentioned above?
| A．CRI helps to keep its listeners up-to-date. |
| B．CRI helps its listeners to better understand China. |
| C．CRI helps its listeners to practice and improve foreign languages. |
| D．CRI helps its listeners broaden their knowledge with its rich contents. |
The underlined phrase “quench the thirst” refers to _____.
| A．satisfy one’s need | B．supply drinks |
| C．take care of | D．keep in touch with |
What can be concluded from the four comments?
| A．CRI has a great influence on our society and lives. |
| B．Wonderful though CRI is, there are still many weaknesses. |
| C．CRI plays an important role in introducing the world to China. |
| D．CRI has made great efforts to make itself better and gained popularity. |
Father’s Garden
My father was always a good(酷爱的) gardener. One of my earliest memories is standing without shoes in the freshly tilled(翻耕的) soil, my hands blackened from digging in the ground.
As a child, I loved following Dad around in the garden. I remember Dad pushing the tiller(耕作机) ahead in perfectly straight lines. Dad loved growing all sorts of things: yellow and green onions, watermelons almost as big as me, rows of yellow corn, and our favorite--- red tomatoes.
As I grew into a teenager, I didn’t get so excited about gardening with Dad. Instead of magical land of possibility, it had turned into some kind of prison. As Dad grew older, his love for gardening never disappeared. After all the kids were grown and had started families of their own, Dad turned to gardening like never before. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he still took care of his garden.
But then, the cancer, bit by bit, invaded his body. I had to do the things he used to do. What really convinced me that Dad was dying was the state of his garden that year. The rows and rows of multicolored vegetables were gone. Too tired to weed them, he simply let them be. He only planted tomatoes.
For the first few years after he died, I couldn’t even bear to look at anyone’s garden without having strong memories pour over me like cold water from a bucket. Three years ago, I decided to plant my own garden and started out with just a few tomatoes. That morning, after breaking up a fair amount of soil, something caught the corner of my eye and I had to smile. It was my eight-year-old son Nathan, happily playing in the freshly tilled soil.Why did the author like the garden when he was a child?
| A．He wanted to be a garden-crazy like his father. |
| B．He loved being in the garden with his father. |
| C．The garden was full of his favorite food. |
| D．The garden was just freshly tilled. |
When all the kids started their own families, the author’s father _____.
| A．stopped his gardening. |
| B．turned to other hobbies. |
| C．devoted more to gardening. |
| D．focused on planting tomatoes. |
What happened to the garden when the author’s father was seriously ill?
| A．There was a great harvest. |
| B．The garden was almost deserted. |
| C．No plant grew in the garden at all. |
| D．The author’s son took charge of the garden. |
Why did the author start his garden with tomatoes?
| A．He wanted to honor his father. |
| B．His son liked the fields of tomatoes. |
| C．He only knew how to grow tomatoes. |
| D．He thought tomatoes were easy to manage. |
After students come home from a tiring day at school, they tend to worry a lot about their homework.
Whether students are working on English or chemistry homework, they are simply working on the assignment in order to get it done, attempting to memorize the concepts for the time being and do not absorb any of the information afterward. Students are wasting their time on insignificant assignments rather than effectively using that time to achieve other accomplishments. According to www.dailymail.com, many parents are concerned that homework is being assigned rather than being used to integrate (整合) what teachers are covering in the classroom. In their eyes, if less homework is assigned, students would have much less stress and could focus more on their passions and hobbies.
Homework gets in the way of participating in community service events as well as opportunities for getting a job or being a part of an extra-curricular activity. These responsibilities are important for teenagers to take on because they prepare the teenagers for the "real world." Without the proper exposure to work that is not school related, students will find themselves lost after they graduate. If homework were no longer given, students would have a lot more time to mature in other fields rather than being educated only on academics.
In spite of the fact that teachers want students to do better on tests and absorb the material that they are teaching, homework is not accomplishing its purpose. Because school is becoming increasingly more competitive and challenging, homework is becoming a setback rather than extra practice. Its removal would benefit the well being of teenagers as well as encourage them to get out in the "real world" and discover themselves instead of staring at a pile of assignments.Students are wasting their time on insignificant homework because
| A．they are working on it carelessly and hurriedly |
| B．they attempt to get only part of the information memorized |
| C．they spend too much time doing it without understanding |
| D．they fail to take in the information after finishing it |
Many parents think that teachers should ______.
| A．help students integrate the homework |
| B．simplify what they teach in the classroom |
| C．reduce homework to develop students' own interests |
| D．assign more effective homework for students |
From the third paragraph, we can infer that homework might ______.
| A．leave students lack of job opportunities |
| B．make students lose the sense of responsibilities |
| C．weaken students' social adaptation ability |
| D．cause students to feel lost after graduation |
The author insists that homework should be ______.
| A．made simpler and easier |
| B．completely cancelled |
| C．connected with social activities |
| D．switched over to subject competitions |
Eyeglasses correct many different types of sight problems, including nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism (散光). Trying to understand those different numbers on an eyeglass prescription (验光单) requires understanding the measurements optometrists (验光师) use when fitting you for corrective lenses (镜片). 
Diopters (屈光度)
The numbers on your prescription are given in diopters, whose short form is "D". It is used to measure the focusing power, or amount of correction.
O.S. and O.D.
Optometrists use the Latin short form O.S. and O.D. to distinguish between your eyes. O.S. refers to your left eye, while O.D. refers to the right eye.
Generally, your prescription will show a number for O.S. and O.D. (given in diopters). The farther this number is on a number line from zero, the more correction your eyeglasses should provide. A plus sign means the eye is farsighted, while a minus sign means the eye is nearsighted.
Spherical Value
This plus or minus number for each eye is called the spherical value, or the degree of nearsightedness or farsightedness you have. Its short form is "S."
Cylinder
If you have an astigmatism, the optometrist will also measure its degree. The higher the number (given in diopters) marked as the cylinder of astigmatism, (its short form is "C"), the more astigmatism there is in that eye.
Axis
An astigmatism is also measured in terms of its axis, which is a number between 0 and 180. The axis of the astigmatism does not relate to the amount of cylinder, just the location of the irregularity of the astigmatism on that particular eye.According to the first paragraph, various sight problems ______.
| A．should be understood by the patients |
| B．can be avoided by wearing corrective lenses |
| C．should be tested by different optometrists |
| D．can be corrected by wearing eyeglasses |
If you need a pair of corrective lenses, the optometrist will first value the numbers of ______.
| A．Diopters | B．Spherical Value | C．Cylinder | D．Axis |
From the prescription above we can learn that Li Hua ______.
| A．is farsighted | B．is nearsighted |
| C．has no astigmatism | D．is normal in sight |
The text is probably taken from ______.
| A．an education report | B．a school bulletin |
| C．a local newspaper | D．an encyclopedia (百科全书) |
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for family, health, and life in general. However, Black Friday has turned it into a business.
Traditionally, the true value of Thanksgiving lies at home not the shopping centers. However, Black Friday has nowadays allowed society to ignore this as individuals long for something that they do not need or even truly want. Shopping on Black Friday becomes a sign of a shift into a culture that values material wealth over spending time with loved ones. People are willing to force their way through the crowds in their desperate search for marked-down sweaters and necklaces.
In recent years, Thanksgiving has become a pre-Black Friday holiday for many families. They are devoted to mapping out shopping routes and making organized schedules for which stores to hit first. By drawing individuals out to shopping centers with "matchless savings", businesses encourage this behavior of ignoring Thanksgiving. Many families take their home-cooked meals while camping out at the door of shopping centers. With each new year, Thanksgiving is becoming victim to over-commercialization—switching from a meaningful time of thanks and family to a day dedicated to products and profit.
Black Friday has shown that with current common standards, people cannot even set aside a single day to appreciate what they already have without immediately buying more. Families have lost sight of what is truly important in life, and have found reasons in debating between a low cost HD television and an appreciation for what they already have. Remember, Thanksgiving should be a day in which people are grateful for all that they have.The underlined word "this" in paragraph 2 probably refers to ______.
| A．the sign of a shift | B．the material wealth |
| C．the shopping crowd | D．the true value of Thanksgiving |
In recent years, what will many families do when thanksgiving comes?
| A．Make full preparations for the Black Friday shopping. |
| B．Visit some newly-opened shopping centers in advance. |
| C．Find it difficult to choose a store for their first visit. |
| D．Go camping at the gate of shopping center for a good deal. |
In the last paragraph, the author mainly intends to tell us that we should ______.
| A．set aside a single day to buy more |
| B．try to spend less to get low cost products |
| C．stay with our families as long as we can |
| D．appreciate what we've possessed with our families |
What's the author’s attitude towards the present ways people celebrate Thanksgiving?
| A．Annoyed. | B．Worried. | C．Supportive. | D．Unconcerned. |