Thousands of taxi drivers in Shenyang, Liaoning province, reportedly blocked streets with their vehicles on Sunday in protest against unlicensed vehicles using taxi-hiring apps(打车软件) and apps-based car rental companies providing passenger services, including high-end cars. Although the drivers also complained about the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy by the government, their main complaint was the loss of business because of the rising number of Internet-based car services companies.
On Wednesday, news reports came that Beijing transport authorities will take measures to stop the illegal “taxi business” of private cars through the newly rising Internet apps, following the footsteps of Shenyang and Nanjing.
It is not yet clear how the Shenyang city government will handle the issue and whether it will declare the services offered by market leaders such as Didi Dache, a taxi-hiring app provider backed by Tencent Holdings, and Kuaidi Dache illegal. But Shanghai transport regulators have set a rule, by banning Didi Zhuanche, or car services offered by Didi Dache in December.
Such regulations will cause a setback to the car-hiring companies and investors that are waiting to cash in on the potentially booming business. Just last month, Didi Dache got $700 million in funding from global investors, including Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings, Russian investment company DST Global and Tencent. Besides, the market is uncertain that Kuaidi Dache is about to finalize its latest round of funding after getting $800 million from global investors.
Regulatory uncertainties, however, could cast a shadow on the future of the Internet-based car-hiring services, which have become popular in most of China’s big cities. To be fair, these companies’ business model is anything but bad. For example, Didi Zhuanche works side by side with established car rental companies to provide high-end car service mainly for businesspeople through the Internet and mobile phone apps.
Every link in this business model chain has legal companies and services. Hence, it is hard to define it as illegal and ban it.Why did taxi drivers in Shenyang block the streets with their vehicles?
| A．Because they wanted the government to increase their driving allowances. |
| B．Because they wanted to be educated how to use the taxi-hiring apps. |
| C．Because they wanted to make their main complaints known to the government. |
| D．Because they wanted to call on passengers not to hire the private cars. |
The author’s attitude to banning internet car-hiring service is______.
| A．positive | B．negative | C．neutral | D．unclear |
Which of the following statements is false according to the passage?
| A．The problem referred to in the passage exists in all cities |
| B．App-based car rental is helpful to some degree |
| C．The government should regulate the app-based car rental market |
| D．Didi Dache is a China-foreign joint company |
From the passage we learn ___________.
| A．Shenyang banned apps-based car rental companies |
| B．Shanghai is the second city banning Didi Zhuanche |
| C．some international investment companies have faith in the future of apps-based car rental companies |
| D．it is easy to describe the apps-based car rental companies illegal |
The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment, self-improvement.
Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure , excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three-day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.Raising children, in the author’s opinion, is .
| A．a moral duty | B．a thankless job |
| C．a rewarding task | D．a source of inevitable pain |
According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because .
| A．he is reluctant to take on family responsibilities |
| B．he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single |
| C．he finds more fun in dating than in marriage |
| D．he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement |
To understand what true happiness is, one must .
A have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime
B. make every effort to liberate oneself from pain
C. put up with pain under all circumstances
D .be able to distinguish happiness from funFrom the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes results from .
| A．hatred | B．misunderstanding |
| C．prejudice | D．ignorance |
.What is the author trying to tell us?
| A．How to get happiness |
| B．Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain |
| C．The importance of happiness in our lives |
| D．Happiness equals fun |
New technology links the world as never before. Our planet has shrunk. It’s now a “global village” where countries are only seconds away by fax or phone or satellite link. And, of course, our ability to benefit from this high-tech communications equipment is greatly increased by foreign language skills.
Deeply involved with this new technology is a kind of modern businesspeople who have a growing respect for the economic value of doing business abroad. In modern markets, success overseas often helps support domestic business efforts.
Overseas assignments (指派) are becoming increasingly important to advancement within executive (行政) ranks. The executive stationed in another country no longer need fear being “out of sight and out of mind.” He or she can be sure that the overseas effort is central to the company’s plan for success, and that promotions often follow or accompany an assignment abroad. If an employee can succeed in a difficult assignment overseas, superiors will have greater confidence in his or her ability to manage back in the United States where cross-cultural considerations and foreign language issues are becoming more and more common.
Thanks to a variety of relatively inexpensive communications devices (装置) with business applications, even small businesses in the United States are able to get into international markets.
English is still the international language of business. But there is an ever-growing need for people who can speak another language. A second language isn’t generally required to get a job in business, but having language skills gives a candidate the edge when other qualifications appear to be equal.
The employee posted abroad who speaks the country’s language has an opportunity to fast-forward certain negotiations, and can have the cultural insight (洞察力) to know when it is better to move more slowly. The employee at the home office who can communicate well with foreign customers over the telephone or by fax machine is an obvious asset (有价值的人或物) to the firm. With the increased use of high-tech communications equipment, businesspeople ________.
| A．are eager to work overseas |
| B．have to get familiar with modern technology |
| C．are gaining more economic benefits from domestic operations |
| D．are attaching more importance to their overseas business |
In this passage, “out of sight and out of mind” (Line 3, Para. 3) probably means ________.
| A．leaving all care and worry behind |
| B．being unable to think properly for lack of insight |
| C．being totally out of touch with business at home |
| D．missing opportunities for promotion when abroad |
According to the passage, what is an important consideration of international corporations in employing people today?
| A．Ability to speak the customer’s language. |
| B．Connections with businesses overseas. |
| C．Technical know-how. |
| D．Business experience. |
The advantage of employees having foreign language skills is that they can ________.
| A．fast-forward their proposals to headquarters |
| B．better control the whole negotiation process |
| C．easily make friends with businesspeople abroad |
| D．easily find new approaches to meet market needs |
Humans have sewn by hand for thousands of years. It was said that the first thread was made from animal muscle and sinew. And the earliest needles were made from bones. Since those early days, many people have been involved in the process of developing a machine that could do the same thing more quickly and with greater efficiency.
Charles Wiesenthal, who was born in Germany, designed and received a patent on a double-pointed needle that eliminated the need to turn the needle around with each stitch(缝合) in England in 1755. Other inventors of that time tried to develop a functional sewing machine, but each design had at least one serious imperfection.
Frenchman Barthelemy Thimonnier finally engineered a machine that really worked. However, he was nearly killed by a group of angry tailors when they burned down his garment factory. They feared that they would lose their jobs to the machine.
American inventor Elias Howe, born on July 9, 1819, was awarded a patent for a method of sewing that used thread from two different sources. Howe’s machine had a needle with an eye at the point, and it used the two threads to make a special stitch called a lockstitch. However, Howe faced difficulty in finding buyers for his machines in America. In frustration, he traveled to England to try to sell his invention there. When he finally returned home, he found that dozens of manufacturers were adapting his discovery for use in their own sewing machines.
Isaac Singer, another American inventor, was also a manufacturer who made improvements to the design of sewing machines. He invented an up-and-down-motion mechanism that replaced the side-to-side machines. He also developed a foot treadle(脚踏板) to power his machine. This improvement left the sewer’s hands free. Undoubtedly, it was a huge improvement of the hand-cranked machine of the past. Soon the Singer sewing machine achieved more fame than the others for it was more practical, it could be adapted to home use and it could be bought on hire-purchase. The Singer sewing machine became the first home appliance, and the Singer company became one of the first American multinationals.
However, Singer used the same method to create a lockstitch that Howe had already patented. As a result, Howe accused him of patent infringement（侵犯）. Of course, Elias Howe won the court case, and Singer was ordered to pay Howe royalties（版税）. In the end, Howe became a millionaire, not by manufacturing the sewing machine, but by receiving royalty payments for his invention. Barthelemy Thimonnier’s garment factory was burned down because _____________.
| A．people did not know how to put out the fire |
| B．Elias Howe thought Thimonnier had stolen his invention |
| C．the sewing machines was couldn’t work finally |
| D．workers who feared the loss of their jobs to a machine set fire |
Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Singer is an American inventor and manufacturer. |
| B．The Singer sewing company became more practical. |
| C．The foot treadle helped to make the sewer’s hands free. |
| D．Singer made improvements to the design of sewing machines. |
Why did the court force Isaac Singer to pay Elisa Howe a lifetime of royalties?
| A．Because the judge was against Singer for his surly attitude. |
| B．Because Howe had already patented the lockstitch used by Singer. |
| C．Because Singer had borrowed money from Howe and never repaid it. |
| D．Because Singer and Howe had both invented the same machine. |
Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?
| A．Stitch in Time Saves Nine |
| B．The Case between Howe and Singer |
| C．Patent Laws on the Sewing Machine |
| D．The Early History of the Sewing Machine |
Television is a relatively stable advertising medium. In many ways, the television ads today are almost the same to those two decades ago. Most television ads still feature actors, still run 30 or 60 seconds, and still show a product. However, the different medium of the Internet causes unique challenges to advertisers, forcing them to adapt their practices and techniques.
In the early days of Internet marketing, online advertisers used banner (框式广告) and pop-up ads (弹出式广告) to attract customers. These techniques reached large audiences, led to many sales leads, and came at a low cost. However, a small number of Internet users began to consider these advertising techniques annoying. Yet because marketing strategies relying heavily on banners and pop-ups produced results, companies invested growing amounts of money into purchasing these ad types. As consumers became more complicated, frustration with these online advertising techniques grew. Independent programmers began to develop tools that blocked banner and pop-up ads.
A major development in online marketing came with the introduction of pay-per-click ads. Unlike banner or pop-up ads, which originally required companies to pay every time a website visitor saw an ad, pay-per-click ads allowed companies to pay only when an interested potential customer clicked on an ad. More importantly, however, these ads are not affected by the pop-up and banner blockers. As a result of these advantages and the incredible growth in the use of search engines, which provide excellent places for pay-per-click advertising, a great number of companies began turning to pay-per-click marketing. However, as with the banner and pop-up ads, pay-per-click ads came with their shortcomings. When companies began pouring billions of dollars into this emerging medium, online advertising specialists started to notice the presence of what would later be called click fraud (欺诈): representatives of a company with no interest in the product advertised by a competitor click on the competitor’s ads simply to increase the marketing cost of the competitor. Click fraud grew so rapidly that marketers sought to diversify (摆脱) their online positions away from pay-per-click marketing through new mediums.
Although pay-per-click advertising remains a common and effective advertising tool, marketers adapted yet again to the changing elements of the Internet by adopting new techniques such as pay-per-performance advertising. As the pace of the Internet’s evolution increases, it seems all the more likely that advertising successfully on the Internet will require a strategy that avoids constancy (持续性) and welcomes change.What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．The pace of the Internet’s evolution is increasing and will only increase in the future. |
| B．Internet advertising fails to reach Internet users, causing ads to be blocked. |
| C．The Internet has experienced dramatic changes in short periods of time. |
| D．Rapid development of the Internet calls for new advertising strategies and mediums. |
As an advertising medium, the television and the Internet mainly differ in ________.
| A．the type of individual each medium reaches |
| B．whether the medium is interactive |
| C．the pace at which the medium develops |
| D．the cost of advertising with each medium |
According to the passage, which of the following is a typical click fraud?
| A．Using software to block competitors’ advertisements. |
| B．Clicking on the pay-per-click ads of competitors. |
| C．Clicking on the banner advertisements of opponent companies. |
| D．Using search engine to attack the pages of competitors. |
What does the author imply about the future of pay-per-performance advertising?
| A．It will eventually become less popular just like other forms of Internet advertising. |
| B．It will not face shortcomings due to its differing approach to online marketing. |
| C．Internet users will develop free software to block its effectiveness. |
| D．Although it improves on pay-per-click advertising, it still suffers from click fraud. |
Winter begins in the north on December 22nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels (松鼠), for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.
They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut (黑胡桃) trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.
Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.
Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.
The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause.The study done by Rob Swihart and Jake Goheen is to ________.
| A．find out the living conditions for squirrels |
| B．learn squirrels’ influence on black walnut trees |
| C．do something to get rid of squirrels |
| D．save the forests in the American state of Indiana |
The difference between gray squirrels and red squirrels mainly lies in ________.
| A．the way they gather the walnut |
| B．the time they have winter sleep |
| C．the place they have winter sleep |
| D．the place they store the walnuts |
When Professor Swihart says “death traps for seeds”, he actually means that ________.
| A．red squirrels eat more nuts than gray squirrels |
| B．gray squirrels and red squirrels will have severe fights |
| C．nuts above the ground will not develop into plants |
| D．seeds can be traps for other animals in the forest |
According to the passage, which of the following is true?
| A．The black walnut is equally attractive to both gray and red squirrels. |
| B．Gray squirrels do more harm to the forest than red squirrels. |
| C．Red squirrels and gray squirrels have helped the spread of walnut trees. |
| D．The cleaning of forest land benefits red squirrels directly. |