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However wealthy we may be, we can never find enough hours in the day to do everything we want. Economics deals with this problem through the concept of opportunity cost, which simply refers to whether someone’s time or money could be better spent on something else.
Every hour of our time has a value. For every hour we work at one job we could quite easily be doing another, or be sleeping or watching a film. Each of these options has a different opportunity cost—namely, what they cost us in missed opportunities.
Say you intend to watch a football match but the tickets are expensive and it will take you a couple of hours to get to and from the stadium. Why not, you might reason, watch the game from home and use the leftover money and time to have dinner with friends? This—the alternative use of your cash and time—is the opportunity cost.
For economists, every decision is made by knowledge of what one must forgo—in terms of money and enjoyment—in order to take it up. By knowing precisely what you are receiving and what you are missing out on, you ought to be able to make better-informed, more reasonable decisions. Consider that most famous economic rule of all: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Even if someone offers to take you out to lunch for free, the time you will spend in the restaurant still costs you something in terms of forgone opportunities.
Some people find the idea of opportunity cost extremely discouraging: imagine spending your entire life calculating whether your time would be better spent elsewhere doing something more profitable or enjoyable. Yet, in a sense it’s human nature to do precisely that we assess the advantages and disadvantages of decisions all the time.
In the business world, a popular phrase is “value for money.” People want their cash to go as far as possible. However, another is fast obtaining an advantage: “value for time.” The biggest restriction on our resources is the number of hours we can devote to something, so we look to maximize the return we get on our investment of time. By reading this passage you are giving over a bit of your time which could be spent doing other activities, such as sleeping and eating. In return, however, this passage will help you to think like an economist, closely considering the opportunity cost of each of your decisions.According to the passage, the concept of “opportunity cost” is applied to ________.
| A．weighing the choice of opportunities |
| B．reducing missed opportunities |
| C．making more money |
| D．taking more opportunities |
The “leftover ... time” in Paragraph 3 probably refers to the time ________.
| A．taken to have dinner with friends |
| B．spared for watching the match at home |
| C．saved from not going to watch the match |
| D．spent on the way to and from the match |
What are forgone opportunities?
| A．Opportunities you make up for. |
| B．Opportunities you forget in decision-making. |
| C．Opportunities you give up for better ones. |
| D．Opportunities you miss accidentally. |
What is the author’s attitude towards the concept of “opportunity cost”?
| A．Indifferent | B．Negative |
| C．Subjective | D．Objective |
The customs in different countries are rather different. If I have dinner with a Chinese host, he always puts more food onto my plate as soon as I have emptied it. That often discomforts me greatly. I have to eat the food even if I do not want to, because it is considered bad manners in the west to leave one’s food on the plate. I have also noticed that when a Chinese sits at an American’s dinner party, he often refuses the offer of drink though he’s in fact still hungry or thirsty. This might be good manners in China but it is not in the west at all. In the United States, it is impolite to keep asking someone again and again or insist on his accepting something. Americans have a direct way of speaking. If they want something, they will ask for it. If not, they will say, “No, thanks.” When an American is served with beer by the host, for example, he might say, “No, thanks. I’ll take some orange juice if you have it.” That is what an American will do. So when you go to the United States, you’d better remember the famous saying: “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”From this passage we can see that the writer is .
| A．a Chinese | B．a Roman |
| C．an American | D．a European |
When a Chinese host kept putting more food onto his plate, the writer felt .
| A．very happy | B．sad | C．angry | D．uneasy |
In the west, people consider it bad manners .
| A．to refuse an offer |
| B．to ask for something directly |
| C．to eat at a dinner party |
| D．to keep asking someone to accept something |
A guest at an American’s dinner party should show his politeness by .
| A．putting more food onto his plate as soon as he emptied it |
| B．refusing the offer of food or drink though he is still hungry or thirsty. |
| C．asking for things directly if he wants them |
| D．not eating all the food offered |
There was a story many years ago of a school teacher--- Mrs. Thompson. She told the children on the first day that she loved them all the same. But that was a lie. There in the front row was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. He didn’t play well with the other children and he always needed a bath. She did not like him.
Then Mrs. Thompson got to know that Teddy was actually a very good boy before the death of his mother. Mrs. Thompson was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when, like all her other students, Teddy brought her a Christmas present too. It was his mother’s perfume(香水)。
Teddy said, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smell just like my Mom used to.” After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she stopped teaching reading, writing and math. Instead, she began to teach children.
Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. The boy’s mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he improved. By the end of the sixth grade, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class.
Six years went by before she got a note from Teddy. He wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. He went to college. Mrs. Thompson got two more letters from him with the last one signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M. D. (医学博士).
The story doesn’t end there. On his wedding day, Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson’s ear, “Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. You made me feel important and showed me that I could make a difference.”
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back, “Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach until I met you.”What did Mrs. Thompson do on the first day of school?
| A．She made Teddy feel ashamed. |
| B．She asked the children to play with Teddy. |
| C．She changed Teddy’s seat to the front row. |
| D．She told the class something untrue about herself. |
What did Mrs. Thompson find out about Teddy?
| A．He often told lies. |
| B．He was good at math. |
| C．He needed motherly care. |
| D．He enjoyed playing with others. |
In what way did Mrs. Thompson change?
| A．She taught fewer school subjects. |
| B．She became stricter with her students. |
| C．She no longer liked her job as a teacher. |
| D．She cared more about educating students. |
Why did Teddy thank Mrs. Thompson at his wedding?
| A．She had kept in touch with him. |
| B．She had given him encouragement. |
| C．She had sent him Christmas presents. |
| D．She had taught him how to judge people. |
Australia is the smallest continent in the world. It is a little smaller than China. It is on the Southern Hemisphere of the earth. Australia is big, but its population is small. The population of Australia is nearly as large as that of Shanghai.
Enough laws have been made to fight against pollution. The cities in Australia have little air or water pollution. The sky is blue and the water is clean. You can clearly see fish in the rivers. Plants grow very well.
Last month we visited Perth, the biggest city in Western Australia, and went to a wild flower exhibition. There we saw large numbers of wild flowers on show, most of which we had never seen before. We had a wonderful time. Perth is famous for its beautiful wild flowers. Every year in spring Perth has a wild flower exhibition. After visiting Perth, we spent a day in the countryside. We sat down and had a rest near a path at the foot of a hill. It was quiet and we enjoyed ourselves very much. When we heard bells ringing at the top of the hills, we looked up, but what we saw made us pick up all our things and run back to our car as quickly as we could. There were about three hundred sheep coming towards us along the path.
Australia is famous for its sheep and kangaroos（袋鼠）. After a short drive from any town, you will find yourself among the white sheep. Sheep, sheep, everywhere you can see sheep.Which country is the writer most possibly from?
| A．Japan | B．Canada | C．China | D．America |
We can learn from the passage that _________.
| A．Australia is the smallest country in the world |
| B．Australia is the same size of Shanghai. |
| C．Australia is in the northern part of the earth. |
| D．The people in Australia are as many as those in Shanghai. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Australia has enough laws to fight against pollution. |
| B．Perth is the biggest city in Australia. |
| C．The wild flowers in Perth must be different from what the author sees in his/her country. |
| D．The author enjoyed his/her visit in the country. |
The underlined word “exhibition” in the third paragraph means _________.
| A．a public show for people to visit |
| B．a market where you can buy all kinds of flowers |
| C．a place where all kinds of flowers are grown |
| D．a field where there are flowers and animal |
What is your favorite color? Do you like yellow, orange, or red? If you do, you must be an active person who enjoys life. Do you like blue? Then you are probably quiet, shy, and would rather follow than lead.
Colors do influence our moods (情绪). A yellow room makes most people feel more cheerful and more relaxed than a dark green one; and a red dress brings warmth and cheer to the saddest winter day. On the other hand, black is depressing(令人压抑的). There was a black bridge over the Thames River, near London. The number of people who killed themselves on that bridge used to be larger than on any other bridge in the area -- until it was repainted green.
Light and bright colors make people not only happier but also more active. In the factory, the workers will work better, harder, and have fewer accidents when their machines are painted orange rather than black.An active person may like ____
| A．yellow, orange, or red | B．yellow, black, or red |
| C．orange, blue, or black | D．black, red, or orange |
Most people feel more __ in a yellow room than in a dark green one.
| A．tired | B．bored | C．worried | D．relaxed |
More people killed themselves on the black bridge than on any other bridge probably because ____
| A．the bridge was very tall |
| B．the bridge was too crowded |
| C．people didn't like the bridge |
| D．the color of the bridge was depressing |
In the factory, when the machines are painted orange, the workers will work __
| A．worse | B．harder | C．more slowly | D．more angrily |
Most American students have to say goodbye to fancy (高档的) fruits these days. In school restaurants across the country, cheaper fruits like apples and oranges have taken their place.
“People are afraid to spend now.” said Linda Morrow, who owns a shoe and handbag store. “They don’t know what the future will bring”. During the financial crisis (金融危机), several of the country’s biggest banks have been forced to sell or close. This has made lots of Americans afraid to buy expensive things.
The crisis began last year. Experts (专家) think it was because US banks lend money too easily. Last year a lot of people and companies, who borrowed money, found themselves unable to pay it back. This left the banks, as well as the people who put their money in the banks, without money. Since the banks borrowed money between themselves and even across borders (国界), the whole world was in trouble.
This month the US government agreed on a $700 billion plan to try to save the financial market. But no one is sure whether it will help or not. Last week presidents from 20 countries promised to work together to find a way out of the money trouble. This passage is probably taken from ___________.
| A．a story book | B．a novel | C．a newspaper | D．an advertisement |
Why are people in the US afraid to spend?
| A．Because they think it’s unnecessary |
| B．Because they don’t have the habit of spending money |
| C．Because they worry about their future |
| D．Because they don’t have any money |
From the passage, we still don’t know ________.
| A．when the financial crisis began |
| B．when the financial crisis will end |
| C．why some of the US banks closed |
| D．whether the crisis has spread to other countries |
The best title for the passage is ___________.
| A．Ways to Save Money |
| B．Financial Crisis facing the World |
| C．Banks in the USA |
| D．The USA Becoming Poor |