阅读下面的短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中，选出最佳选项。
Rush hour traffic is a problem in many big cities around the world. Commuters(道勤者)rush to and from their jobs in cars, buses, subways, trains, and even on bicycles. Large cities in the United States have two rush hours—one in the morning and one in the evening. But in cities in other parts of the world, there are four rush hours. In Athens and Rome, for example, many workers go home for lunch and a nap. After this midday break, they rush back to their jobs and work for a few more hours.
In Tokyo, there's a big rush hour underground. Most of the people in Tokyo take the subways. The trains are very crowded. Subway employees called packers wear white gloves and help pack the commuters into the trains when the doors place. They make sure that all purses, briefcases, clothes, and hands are inside the trains.
In Seoul, many computers prefer to take taxis to get to work. To hail_a_cab,_many people stand at crossroads and raise two fingers. This means they'll pay the cab driver double the usual fare. Some people even raise three fingers! They'll pay THREE times the normal rate.
Streets in Rome are very crowded with automobiles and mopeds(摩托自行车)during rush hours. The city can't make its streets wider, and it can't build new highways, because it doesn't want to disturb many historic sites in the city, such as the Forum and the Colosseum. It took the city fifteen years to construct a new subway system. Construction had to stop every time workers found old artifacts and discovered places of interest to archaeologists(考古学家)．
In many big cities, there are special lanes on highways for carpools. These are groups of three or more people who driver to and from work together. They share the costs of gas and parking and take turns driving into the city.
Getting to work and getting home can be difficult in many places around the world. Rush hour traffic seems to be a universal problem.Big cities have traffic problems during rush hours because there are________.
| A．special lanes on highways |
| B．many commuters |
| C．four rush hours |
| D．many cars on the street |
Most of commuters in Tokyo________.
| A．take subway trains to work |
| B．are packers |
| C．take taxis to work |
| D．carry briefcases to work |
To “hail a cab” means to________.
| A．pay double the normal rate |
| B．try to get a cab |
| C．prefer to take taxis |
| D．to stand at crossroads |
Why did it take a long time to build a subway system in Rome?
| A．Because the streets were very crowded. |
| B．Because there are many historic sites. |
| C．Because the workers discovered many artifacts and places of interest. |
| D．Because the traffic always stopped the construction. |
Commuters in carpools probably________.
| A．live in the city |
| B．take the subway to work |
| C．save money on gas and parking fees |
| D．have special license plates(牌照) |
(2010·全国卷Ⅰ)
Along the river banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken, eats green leaves, has the stomach of a cow and has claws (爪) on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river, an important feature (特征) for the safety of the young. It is called the hoatzin.
In appearance, the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside. The head is small, with a large set of feathers on the top, bright red eyes, and blue skin. Its nearest relatives are the common birds, cuckoos. Its most striking feature, though, is only found in the young.
Baby hoatzins have a claw on the leading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip. Using these four claws, together with the beak (喙), they can climb about in the bushes, looking very much like primitive birds must have done. When the young hoatzins have learned to fly, they lose their claws.
During the drier months between December and March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds, but in April, when the rainy season begins, they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes.What is the text mainly about?
| A．Hoatzins in dry and rainy seasons. |
| B．The relatives and enemies of hoatzins. |
| C．Primitive birds and hoatzins of the Amazon. |
| D．The appearance and living habits of hoatzins. |
Young hoatzins are different from their parents in that ______.
| A．they look like young cuckoos |
| B．they have claws on the wings |
| C．they eat a lot like a cow |
| D．they live on river banks |
What can we infer about primitive birds from the text?
| A．They had claws to help them climb. |
| B．They could fly long distances. |
| C．They had four wings like hoatzins. |
| D．They had a head with long feathers on the top. |
Why do hoatzins collect together in smaller groups when the rainy season comes?
| A．To find more good. |
| B．To protect themselves better. |
| C．To keep themselves warm. |
| D．To produce their young. |
Is it possible to persuade mankind to live without war? War is an ancient custom which has existed for at least six thousand years. It was always evil and usually foolish, but in the past the human race managed to live with it. Modern skill has changed this. Either man will stop war, or war will stop man. For the present, it is nuclear weapons that cause the greatest danger, but bacteriological(细菌的)or chemical weapons may, before long, offer an even greater threat. If we succeeded in stopping war, there would be no danger for us. To do this, we need to persuade mankind to look upon international questions in a new way, not by contests of force, in which the victory goes to the side which is most skillful in massacre(大屠杀), but by arbitration(仲裁)in accordance with agreed principles of law. It is not easy to change old mental habits, but this is what must be attempted.
There are those who say that the adoption of this or that ideology(意识形态)would prevent war. I believe this to be a complete error. All ideologies are based upon beliefs without proof which are, at best, doubtful, and at worst, totally false. Those people who believe them are willing to go to war in support of them.
The movement of world opinion during the past two years has changed very largely such as we can welcome. It has become a common belief that nuclear war must be avoided. Of course, very different problems remain in the international world, but the spirit in which they are being approached is a better one than it was some years ago. It has begun to be thought, even by the powerful men who decide whether we shall live or die, that agreements should be reached even if both sides do not find these agreements wholly satisfactory. It has begun to be understood that the important conflict(冲突)nowadays is not between East and West, but between Man and the H-bomb. From the first paragraph we can know that________.
| A．we may face greater threat from weapons |
| B．bacteriological or chemical weapons are less dangerous than nuclear weapons |
| C．man's idea of victory has changed |
| D．dangerous weapons are forbidden in modern society |
The author believes that the only way to stop war is to________.
| A．stop nuclear weapons |
| B．settle international issues through agreements |
| C．destroy bacteriological and chemical weapons |
| D．let the stronger side take over the world |
The last paragraph suggests that________.
| A．nuclear war will definitely not take place |
| B．real agreements have been now reached |
| C．world opinion is still divided on nuclear war |
| D．man is beginning to realize that nuclear war is his greatest enemy |
Which of the following words can best describe the author's feeling in writing this passage?
| A．Disappointed. |
| B．Doubtful. |
| C．Worried. |
| D．Hopeful. |
As societies develop, their members start to see things not so much according to what they need, but according to what they want. When people have enough money, these wants become demands.
Now, it's important for the managers in a company to understand what their customers want if they are going to develop effective marketing strategies(策略). There are various ways of doing this. One way at supermarkets(超市), for example, is to interview(采访)customers while they're doing their shopping. They can be asked what they prefer to buy and then the results of the research can be studied. This provides information on which to base future marketing strategies. It's also quite normal for top managers from department stores to spend a day or two each month visiting stores and mixing freely with the public, as if they were ordinary customers, to get an idea of how customers act.
Another way to get information from customers is to give them something. For example, some fast food restaurants give away tickets in magazines or on the street that permit customers to get part of their meal for nothing. As well as being a good way of attracting customers into the restaurants to spend their money, it also allows the managers to get a feel for where to attract customers and which age-groups to attract.
Another strategy used at some well-known parks such as Disneyland is for top managers to spend at least one day in their work, touring the park dressed as Mickey Mouse or something like that. This provides them with a perfect chance to examine the scene and watch the customers without being noticed. The text is designed for________.
| A．managers |
| B．salesmen |
| C．researchers |
| D．customers |
Which of the following can help managers get useful information?
| A．Visiting customers themselves. |
| B．Giving customers free food on the street. |
| C．Visiting parks as ordinary customers. |
| D．Asking customers questions at supermarkets. |
What does the word “this” underlined in the last sentence refer to?
| A．Visiting Disneyland. |
| B．Wearing attractive clothes. |
| C．Acting Mickey Mouse. |
| D．Dressing up and walking around. |
The main idea of the text is________.
| A．how to do market research |
| B．how to develop marketing strategies |
| C．how to find out customers' social needs |
| D．how to encourage customers to spend more money |
Rail passengers are being forced to pay thousands of pounds more in fares as a result of poor advice from the national telephone helpline and individual stations, a consumer organization reveals today. Research by Which found that in some cases passengers are being charged almost double the cheapest price because of errors made by staff.
Which asked 25 questions of both station staff and the National Rail Enquiries(NRES)helpline. Only half of the 50 questions were answered correctly. If customers had followed all the advice given, they would have seen ￡ 1,263,60 worse off.
Bad advice was given for the cheapest fare for a single journey between London and Grantham. For a ticket bought on the day of travel, both NRES and a King's Cross station clerk quoted GNER's ￡ 44.50 fare, ignoring a Hull Trains service which leaves 10 minutes earlier and costs just ￡ 20.
Some of the most costly misinformation was given for journeys where season tickets should have been recommended. Passengers making a return journey between Swindon and Penzance twice in a week could buy a ticket from one company for ￡ 70 which would cover all the travel. But both NIRES and station staff quoted ￡ 67 for each journey, making ￡ 134. However, the NRES website proved to be a much more reliable source of information.
Which also checked “the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket” claims by five companies and found this was not always the case. On some services, prices went up and down at random. Ithiel Mogridge, 52, gave one example of poor advice：“Last Christmas I found my brother a ticket on the thetrainline. com to travel from Blackburn to Yate. While the direct route was ￡ 51, this one involved a change in Newport and cost just ￡ 21. I emailed the details to him and and his partner. They went to Blackburn station, where the clerk insisted the fare was ￡ 51.”Malcolm Coles, editor of which. co. uk, said：“Staff training needs to be improved. In the meantime, we've designed a checklist, available at which. co. uk/railiadvice.”According to the passage “Which” is a________.
| A．national telephone helpline |
| B．department under the British Rail |
| C．consumer organization |
| D．website under the National Rail Enquiries |
When the author said that customers “would have been ￡ 1,263,60 worse off”， he was telling us that customers would have________.
| A．saved ￡ 1,263,60 if they had followed the advice |
| B．spend ￡ 1,263,60 more than the lowest price |
| C．used ￡ 1,263,60 for the survey of 25 questions |
| D．been cheated of ￡ 1,263.60 from the poor advice |
The phrase “at random” in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to“________”．
| A．casually |
| B．purposefully |
| C．exactly |
| D．inevitably |
At one time no one could travel on an English road faster than four miles an hour. That was the law until 1896. A man had to walk in front of a car which could not go faster than man. At night the man had to carry a red lamp.
Once Charles Rolls brought a car from France to England, but he wanted to drive faster than four miles an hour. In order to have no trouble with the police, he had a talk with some of the police officers，who ordered their policemen to_look_the_other_way when the car came along the road. This was a good plan in the country, but not so easy to follow in the busy streets of London.
One night Roils and some friends started from London on their journey to Cambridge. One of the men walked in front with the red lamp, but he walked as fast as he could. The police became very interested in walls and shop－fronts when they heard the car, and not one of them saw it.
They reached a hill, but what a waste of time it was to drive down the hill at four miles an hour! Rolls was getting ready to jump into the car, but then he noticed a policeman who was not looking the other way. The slow car reached him.
“Good evening，” said the policeman, looking at the car.
“Good evening，” said Rolls, holding the lamp.
“One of these horseless things，” said the policeman, looking at it with interest.
“Yes，” said Roils, and waited.
“I've often wanted a ride in one. but of course policemen can't buy things like that.” He turned and looked hopefully in Roll's face.
“Jump in.” said Rolls.
“Thanks，” said the policeman, and did so.“ Now, ”he said, “sitting down, you can let it go just as you like down this hill.
There isn't another policeman on this road for a mile and a half.”The policemen were told “to look the other way”(the underlined part in Paragraph 2)so that________.
| A．they could watch the car coming from the other direction |
| B．the car could go faster than four miles an hour |
| C．they could make sure no one was in the way |
| D．the car would not hit them on the road |
In what way did the policemen carry out the order from their officers?
| A．They greeted Rolls when the car came along. |
| B．They walked in front of the car with a red lamp. |
| C．They pretended to be attracted by something else. |
| D．They stood on duty every 1.5 miles along the road. |
The policeman who said “Good evening” to Rolls wanted to________.
| A．teach Roils a lesson |
| B．have a talk with Rolls |
| C．take a free ride home |
| D．have a car ride experience |
After the policeman jumped into the car, Rolls________.
| A．dared not drive the car faster than he was allowed to |
| B．could drive as fast as he wished within a certain distance |
| C．could drive on any road he liked for the rest of the journey |
| D．drove his car as fast as he could down the hill to Cambridge |