Singles' Day ---- the Chinese opposite of Valentine’s Day has turned into a massive online shopping event. It is a day when single people are supposed to buy themselves presents. But there are sociological reasons behind China's “celebration” of single life. And the imbalance could have big consequences for the country.
There were 34 million more men than women in China in 2011. Part of that is natural – usually there are 105 boys born for every 100 girls. But the Chinese gender ratio (性别比例) at birth is much more obvious. It was 116 boys to 100 girls in 2012. The one child policy is largely to blame. Brought in to limit population expansion, the policy allows only one child per family. But because male children are seen as more valuable, as well as more likely to support their parents in old age, some parents choose to have a son over a daughter. The result is that large numbers of men will likely never get married. In fact, one study has predicted that by 2030, 1 in 5 Chinese men in their 30s will never have married, while another states that 94% of unmarried people in China are men.
Traditionally, China has seen high levels of marriage, usually among the young. Besides, the increased education and career opportunities for women have meant that marriages are happening later. It is also traditional that women often marry men of a higher socioeconomic status than themselves. So women at the top and men at the bottom find themselves alone. One study has even suggested a link between an imbalanced gender ratio and growth in violent crime in the country.
Singles’ Day can’t solve all the problems China’s singles face. Indeed, it is possible that it is causing even more problems, as men resort to increasingly risky lines of work to increase their chances of gaining money and thus a wife. I am worried that as money starts to overcome romance, there is evidence that China ' s marriage market is increasingly materialistic.
In 2012, if 50 girls were born, how many boys were probably born?
| A．50. | B．52. | C．58. | D．60. |
What made women in China get married late?
| A．Their support of the government’s late marriage policy. |
| B．Their higher education level and more work chances. |
| C．That they expect to enjoy their single time when young. |
| D．That there are too many excellent young men to choose from. |
What’s the writer’s attitude to the imbalance gender ratio in China?
| A．Optimistic | B．Concerned |
| C．Indifferent | D．Unknown |
We can learn from the passage that .
| A．Singles' Day is celebrated all over the world. |
| B．by 2030, 1 in 5 Chinese women in their 30s will be out of marriage. |
| C．an imbalanced gender ratio is related to the growth in violent crime. |
| D．Singles' Day will solve all the problems China’s singles face. |
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.
| 1． |
According to the passage, the concept of "opportunity cost" is applied to.
|
| 2． |
The "leftover ... time" in Paragraph 3 probably refers to the time.
|
| 3． |
What are forgone opportunities?
|
Why did the BeauxArts style attract American entrepreneurs?
| A．It helped display their money status. |
| B．It was created by famous architects. |
| C．It was named after a famous institute. |
| D．It represented the 19th century urban culture. |
What is unique of SieMatic BeauxArts?
| A．Its designs are anti-conventional. |
| B．Its designs come from famous structures. |
| C．Its customers can enjoy their own composition. |
| D．Its customers can choose from various new styles. |
Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage.
Kids and Ponds
Years ago there was a group of kids who would hang around at some local ponds in the woods near their houses in Warwick, Rhode Island. In summer they caught frogs and fish. When winter arrived they couldn't wait to go skating. Time passed, and the ponds became the only open space for the kids to enjoy themselves in that neighborhood.
One day. a thirteen-year-old boy from this group of kids read in the local newspaper that a developer wanted to fill in the ponds and build over a hundred small houses called condominiums. So the boy went door to door and gathered more than two hundred signatures (签名）to stop the development A group of citizens met and decided to support him.
At the meeting of the town planning board (委员会)，the boy was quite nervous at first and spoke very softly. But when he saw the faces of his friends and neighbors in the crowd and thought about what was happening to their favorite ponds，his voice grew louder. He told the town officials that they should speak for the citizens. He also insisted that they should leave enough space for children. A few days later，the developer stopped his plan.
Nine years later, when that teen was a senior in college, he was informed that the developer was back with his proposal to build condominiums. Now twenty-two years old, he was studying wetlands ecology. He again appeared before the town planning board. This time as an expert witness, he used environmental protection laws to explain restrictions on development in and around wetlands and the knowledge of wetlands ecology to help improve the development. Finally some condominiums were built, but less than half the number the developer wanted. The ponds where those kids used to hang around were protected by a strip of natural land，and are still there today.
| 1． |
What did the kids like to do at the local ponds in winter? |
| 2． |
How did the boy win the citizens' support? |
| 3． |
What did the boy tell the town officials? |
| 4． |
What helped the boy to protect the ponds successfully nine years later? |
The behaviour of a building’s users may be at least as important as its design when it comes to energy use, according to new research from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The UK promises to reduce its carbon emissions (排放）by 80 percent by 2050, part of which will be achieved by all new homes being zero-carbon by 2016. But this report shows that sustainable building design on its own — though extremely important- is not enough to achieve such reductions: the behaviour of the people using the building has to change too.
The study suggests that the ways that people use and live in their homes have been largely ignored by existing efforts to improve energy efficiency (效率)，which instead focus on architectural and technological developments.
‘Technology is going to assist but it is not going to do everything,’explains Katy Janda, a UKERC senior researcher，‘consumption patterns of building users can defeat the most careful design. ’In other words，old habits die hard, even in the best-designed eco-home.
Another part of the problem is information. Households and bill-payers don’t have the knowledge they need to change their energy-use habits. Without specific information，it’s hard to estimate the costs and benefits of making different choices. Feedback (反馈） facilities, like smart meters and energy monitors，could help bridge this information gap by helping people see how changing their behaviour directly affects their energy use; some studies have shown that households can achieve up to 15 percent energy savings using smart meters.
Social science research has added a further dimension (方面），suggesting that individuals’behaviour in the home can be personal and cannot be predicted 一 whether people throw open their windows rather than turn down the thermostat (恒温器) , for example.
Janda argues that education is the key. She calls for a focused programme to teach people about buildings and their own behaviour in them.As to energy use, the new research from UKERC stresses the importance of________.
| A． zero-carbon homes | B．the behaviour of building users |
| C． sustainable building design | D．the reduction of carbon emissions |
The underlined word “which” in Paragraph 2 refers to”________.”
| A．the ways | B．their homes |
| C． developments | D．existing efforts |
What are Katy Janda’s words mainly about?
| A． The importance of changing building users, habits. |
| B． The necessity of making a careful building design. |
| C． The variety of consumption patterns of building users. |
| D． The role of technology in improving energy efficiency. |
The information gap in energy use _______.
| A． can be bridged by feedback facilities |
| B． affects the study on energy monitors |
| C． brings about problems for smart meters |
| D． will be caused by building users’ old habits |
What does the dimension added by social science research suggest?
| A． The social science research is to be furthered. |
| B． The education programme is under discussion. |
| C． The behaviour of building users is unpredictable. |
| D． The behaviour preference of building users is similar. |
In the mid-1950s, I was a somewhat bored early-adolescent male student who believed that doing any more than necessary was wasted effort. One day, this approach threw me into embarrassment
In Mrs. Totten’s eighth-grade math class at Central Avenue School in Anderson, Indiana, we were learning to add and subtract decimals (小数).
Our teacher typically assigned daily homework, which would be recited in class the following day. On most days, our grades were based on our oral answer to homework questions.
Mrs. Totten usually walked up and down the rows of desks requesting answers from student after student in the order the questions had appeared on our homework sheets. She would start either at the front or the back of the classroom and work toward the other end.
Since I was seated near the middle of about 35 students, it was easy to figure out which questions I might have to answer. This particular time, I had completed my usual two or three problems according to my calculations.
What I failed to expect was that several students were absent, which threw off my estimate. As Mrs. Totten made her way from the beginning of the class，I desperately tried to determine which math problem I would get. I tried to work it out before she got to me, but I had brain freeze and couldn’t function.
When Mrs. Totten reached my desk，she asked what answer I’d got for problem No. 14. “I…I didn’t get anything,” I answered，and my face felt warm.
“Correct,” she said.
It turned out that the correct answer was zero.
What did I learn that day? First, always do all your homework. Second, in real life it isn’t always what you say but how you say it that matters. Third，I would never make it as a mathematician.
If I could choose one school day that taught me the most, it would be that one.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 indicate?
| A． It is wise to value one’s time. |
| B． It is important to make an effort |
| C． It is right to stick to one’s belief. |
| D． It is enough to do the necessary. |
Usually, Mrs. Totten asked her students to _______.
| A． recite their homework together |
| B． grade their homework themselves |
| C． answer their homework questions orally |
| D． check the answers to their homework questions |
The author could work out which questions to answer since the teacher always _______.
| A． asked questions in a regular way |
| B． walked up and down when asking questions |
| C． chose two or three questions for the students |
| D． requested her students to finish their usual questions |
The author failed to get the questions he had expected because _______.
| A． the class didn’t begin as usual |
| B． several students didn’t come to school |
| C． he didn’t try hard to make his estimate |
| D． Mrs. Totten didn’t start from the back of the class |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A． An Unforgettable Teacher |
| B． A Future Mathematician |
| C． An Effective Approach |
| D． A Valuable Lesson |