Water is of vital importance in a healthy diet and lifestyle. There are many health benefits of drinking water .It helps get toxins out of our systems. It aids in the delivery of oxygen and nutrients .In fact, nearly every system in our bodies depends on water for proper functioning .But how can we tell whether the water we’re drinking is healthy?
As to tap water, it’s relatively easy .If your water comes from a governmental source , the suppliers are required by law to provide annual water quality reports .If you have a well, you can have an authorized lab test your water .It may cost $100 or more, but it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind .
When it comes to bottled drinking water, it can be more difficult to know what you’re getting .Start by checking the label or the bottle cap. Some may tell you that the water comes from a governmental source or “community water system”, which means tap water .If the label doesn’t give any information, you can call the bottler and ask .But don’t be surprised if you get the runaround and are transferred to several different departments .Some states have a bottled water program that tracks bottled drinking water and can tell you the origin of the water as well as other information .
Safe and healthy drinking water has become big business .Thousands of companies are competing for your hard earned cash , and some are not always honest about what their products offer .The initial investment in a home drinking water filtration (过滤)system can seem expensive at first , but over time , it is usually less expensive than bottled drinking water .And with a water filter , you at least know where the water you drink comes from and how it is treated .
Before going out and spending your hard earned money on bottled drinking water , it’s a good idea to do some research .You’re likely to find that a drinking water filtration system or purifier is a healthier choice and provides the best value as well .According to the second paragraph, we can know tap water _____
| A．costs us a large amount of money to test |
| B．is very hard to judge its safety |
| C．is reliable if it comes from a government approved source |
| D．needs to be tested every month |
By using a water filter, people_____
| A．can drink water without fearing that the water isn’t treated |
| B．will have to pay more money eventually than if they just drink bottled water |
| C．will know if the water company is honest or not |
| D．can check the quality of the water by themselves. |
What’s the author’s attitude towards drinking bottled water?
| A．Concerned | B．Indifferent |
| C．Positive | D．Opposed |
What is the meaning of the underlined word “toxins” in the first paragraph?
| A．extra blood | B．harmful material |
| C．useless tissue | D．polluted chemicals |
What is the main idea of this passage?
| A．The disadvantages of bottled water |
| B．The benefits of drinking water |
| C．The difference between tap water and bottled water |
| D．The ways to ensure the safety of your drinking water |
“I find myself glancing at my watch to see how long I’ve been standing in line,” she said. “Everywhere I go, I notice if the dumpster(垃圾罐)gates are open or if there’s trash in the parking lot.” Ms. Clark is a “mystery shopper”, one of thousands of contract workers that companies hire to pretend as regular customers in order to judge customer service, cleanliness and whether a store is selling a product that meets company specifications (规格).
Mystery shoppers can be found or, rather, not found, everywhere from restaurants and automotive shops to convenience stores and department stores. They play a constant cat-and-mouse game with store and restaurant employees and managers. However it’s not all fun and games. Once in the field, a mystery shopper will typically visit several stores or restaurants per hour, taking mental notes while inside, then jotting down physical notes after they leave.
It’s important for mystery shoppers to be as exact as possible, because the client companies are looking for data they can use to improve their service. The questionnaire won’t say, “Does the trash can need to be emptied?” What an educated shopper will say is, “The trash can to the left of the front door was overflowing with 10 pieces of trash on the ground.” Companies don’t need opinion but facts.
Nowadays mystery shoppers are armed with a number of high-tech devices, such as a digital scale and a digital thermometer, as well as a handheld PC for recording the entire experience. It’s a challenging job but a rewarding one. Mystery shoppers can be full time or part time, but the full-time workers tend to stick to standard mystery shopping while part-timers often choose the less complex reward-based programs. In those , the shoppers stay disguised(装扮的) only until the “shop” is finished, and then reveal (透漏) themselves to the store management and award prizes to employees who provided excellent service.
To be a mystery shopper, it’s important to be a good observer, but sometimes it’s important to have the right profile(外表), too. Companies often hire shoppers from particular backgrounds to better blend in with clients’ regular customers. If a secret shopper will be sent in, for example, to do a high-end automotive shop, the candidate must have a particular profile that meets a high-end, luxury car-type buyer profile. “It’s a challenge to perform your shop without being discovered,” Ms. Clark said, “because most of the people that we work for are very aware of the mystery shopping program.”
67. According to the text a “mystery shopper” would not have to .
A. sign a contract with the employer B. travel a lot around the city
C. provide exact facts to the company D. fill in questionnaires
68. We learn from the text that Ms. Clark .
A. visits some shops regularly and sometimes does something special
B. pretends to be a shopper and evaluates the services
C. is a government official looking into the services
D. is a manager of a company offering good services
69. People are willing to become a mystery shopper mainly because they can .
A. get the best service and get paid at the same time
B. play a cat-and-mouse game with shop employees and managers
C. do the job either full time or part time and get paid well
D. observe clearly what happens in the shops
70. What does the underlined word “those” in the 4th paragraph refer to?
A. The shops where the mystery shoppers go.
B. The less complex reward-based programs.
C. Part-time jobs.
D. Excellent services.
Just as mankind has always had a desire to fly, the human race has wanted to swim under the water since prehistoric times. Pictures of primitive devices to enable people to breathe underwater have been found dating from 3000 years ago, but our dream of moving freely beneath the ocean waves for long periods of time was only realized about 60 years ago, when French diving legend Jacques Cousteau developed the first practical Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus(SCUBA). Since then the sport of SCUBA diving has gone from strength to strength.
Lovers of SCUBA diving like the feeling of weightlessness, the peace and quiet under the water, the ability to move in three dimensions and the sense of adventure they get while on a dive. SCUBA divers often travel to some of the most beautiful and remote places in the world in the search for rare underwater flora and fauna(动、植物). Palau, The Red Sea, The Maldives and Hawaii have many of the most popular diving sites, but recreational divers often have to make do with less exotic local destinations, like the North Sea in Britain.
SCUBA diving is not without its dangers, however. The mixture of nitrogen and oxygen divers breathe underwater, combined with the pressure under the water can be deadly if a diver rises too quickly to the surface, causing a condition called ‘the bends’. Divers can also get lost or trapped when diving on wrecks, and fatalities(死亡)are particularly common in cave diving, where divers add to the dangers of diving by swimming through underground caves filled with water. Diving can also be harmful to the underwater environment. However with proper precautions diving can open up a whole new world, far from the stresses of daily life.
63. What is the writer trying to do in the text?
A. Advertise some popular diving sites.
B. Describe how to dive underwater.
C. Warn people against diving in the sea.
D. Give information about SCUBA diving.
64. What can the reader learn from the text?
A. There is uncertainty about SCUBA diving safety.
B. Divers have caused a lot of damage to the environment.
C. SCUBA diving is an old sport with a long history.
D. Divers always face the pressures in their life.
65. How might the writer describe SCUBA diving?
A. Interesting. B. Relaxing. C. Frightening D. Unpleasant.
66. What do you think the author is most likely to suggest if he continues to write?
A. Getting out to dive underwater. B. Stopping damaging environment.
C. Making better use of SCUBA. D. Getting over the troubles of daily life.
Bicycles for rent could become as common as newspaper stands and mail boxes on Germany’s street corners if a scheme launched by Deutsche Bahn is successful.
The German rail operator has launched a bicycle-hire scheme designed for simple one-way trips.
“It’s a new concept,”said Andreas Knie, head of the project.
Users must first register with Call-A-Bike at a cost of 15 euros（US$14.7）. With a simple phone call, they can hire one of the many bikes parked outside stations, at a cost of 3 to 5 cents per minute. At the end of their journey, they ring a computer and tell it where the bike is parked.
The bikes are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
No one will be breaking speed records with Call-A-Bike bicycles. They weigh in at 25 kilograms, at least double the weight of a normal bicycle, though they do have eight gears（齿轮）.
“They are pretty heavy, but we don’t want people taking them on the train or into the subway,” Knie said.
They are also designed with parts that do not fit a normal bicycle. Even the screws are irregular and the bike looks so odd that thieves would stand out.
Vandalism and theft have led to the downfall of previous schemes which date back to Amsterdam’s 1966“White Bike”scheme.
In that short-lived experiment, anti-establishment groups painted bikes white and left them around the Dutch capital.
However, many were taken permanently and repainted, while the police took away others on the basis that ownerless bikes were street rubbish.
Copenhagen, Vienna and Helsinki also have free bike schemes, in which users deposit a coin in Copenhagen’s case 20 crowns（US$2.50）—to free a bike from a rack.
“The advantage these schemes have is ease of use. But because they’re so cheap, people tend to hold on to the bikes and then there are none on the streets,”the person in charge said.
Oslo is also planning a bike-hire system where users will pay a symbolic fee of 50 Norwegian crowns（US$6.50）for unlimited use in the city for a year.
Users will buy an electronic identity card as a key that will register when the bike is parked or taken from a rack.
59. How many European countries have already launched the free bike schemes?
A. Four. B. Five. C. Six. D. Seven.
60.What can be learned about Amsterdam’s 1966“White Bike”scheme?
A. The bicycles were twice as heavy as a normal bicycle.
B. A heavy rain stopped the scheme from being carried out.
C. Some bicycles were damaged or stolen and the scheme failed.
D. The police ended the scheme for traffic safety
61.What can be inferred from the text?
A. Bicycles for rent have become as common as newspaper stands and mail boxes on Germany’s street corners.
B. The bikes in Germany are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
C. German bicycles for rent are designed specially so that they will draw people’s attention.
D. Germany has taken some measures to stop the bicycles for rent from being taken away.
62.Which do you think is the best title?
A. Free Bicycles for Europeans.
B. Tough Transporters.
C. Customer is King.
D. Unpractical Scheme.
The New York Times is now better than ever－All the more reasons to order home delivery now.
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NEW－The House & Home section, Thursday, filled with useful, interesting features（特别报道）and articles about making the most of all sorts of living spaces.
NEW－An Enlarged, two-part Weekend section, Friday with more ideas about movies, shows, art exhibitions, outdoor and indoor recreation.
Latest news and sports results daily. And of course, daily world and national news, Sunday’s special sections and all the other great features you’ll continue to find in the Times.
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Call 1－800－311－1969 or use the postage-paid order card to order convenient home delivery at 50％ OFF our regular price.
56. If you want to find out the more information of films you should _________.
A. call 1-800-311-1969 B. go over the House and Home section
C. read the Art section D. read Weekend section
57. From the passage we know that _______.
A. the Times sells at a lower price than before
B. the Times has improved a great deal and everyone likes to read it
C. many of the good features of the Times remain unchanged
D. you will learn everything by reading the Times every day
58. The owner of the passage advertises ________.
A. to introduce the new sections
B. to announce the new sections of the Times
C. to make known his new plan of the Times
D. to persuade people to buy the Times
Tens of thousands of Chinese have joined a debate (辩论) on whether students should be separate
d into science（理科） and liberal 
arts（文科）classes in high school, a practice that allows them to stay competitive in college entrance exam by choosing preferred subjects. The debate came after the Ministry of Education began to ask for opinions from the public on Friday on whether it was necessary and possible to stop the dividing system, which has been accepted for decades.
In a survey started by www. qq. com, more than 260 000 people cast their votes, with 54 percent of those voted for the 
abolishment (废除)and 40 percent against.
A netizen from Chengdu said: “Sciences can activate the mind, while arts could strengthen their learning ability.”
But some people disagreed with him. A netizen nicknamed “gentle scholar” said the students would have more burden if they have more subjects to study. “You don’t even know how difficult the courses are. I suggest a survey among students.”
“Abolish the current system of di
vision? We have to study nine subjects? Finally we will study everything and have learnt little,” wrote another netizen.
Li Yanling, an education expert in Beijing, called on education authorities to consider students’ school burden.
Chinese students are required to choose either arts or
science subjects after ten years’ education, which include six years in primary school, three years i
n junior high school and one year in senior high school.
Besides the Chinese language, mathematics and English, which are must for everyone, science students are required to take physics, biology and chemistry, while arts students study politics, history and geography. Choosing preferred subjects can help students__________.
| A．have more chance to look for jobs in future |
| B．find a good job after graduation |
| C．have more advantages to enter a university |
| D．show interest in daily life |
Netizen nicknamed “gentle scholar” __________.
| A．is for the abolishment | B．is against the abolishment |
| C．doesn’t care the abolishment | D．prefers students to learn more |
Which of the following statements is NOT true? .
| A．The debate is on whether the students should choose science or liberal arts classes in high school |
| B．More people on the Internet are for the abolishment |
| C．The students who are against the abolishment think abolishing the current system of division will heavy their burden. |
| D．Science students are required to take physics, biology and chemistry besides |
Chinese, math and English. What must a Chinese student learn in 2008?
| A．Chinese, math and English. | B．Physics, biology and chemistry. |
| C．Politics, history and geography. | D．Both B and C |