Background music may seem harmless, but it can have a powerful effect on those who hear it. Recorded background music first found its way into factories, shops and restaurants in the USA. Very soon it spread to other parts of the world. Now it is becoming difficult to go shopping or eat a meal without listening to background music.
　　To begin with, background music was intended simply to create a soothing (舒適的) atmosphere. Recently, however, it's becoming a big business. An American marketing expert has shown that music can boost(提升) sales or increase factory production by as much as a third.
　　But it has to be the light music. Lively music has no effect at all on sales. Slow music can increase receipts(收入) by 34%. This is probably because shoppers slow down and have more opportunity to spot items they would like to buy. Yet, slow music isn't always the answer. The expert found that in restaurants slow music meant customers took longer to eat their meals, which reduced overall sales. So restaurant owners might be well advised to play faster music to keep the customers moving-unless, of course, the resulting indigestion(消化不良) leads to complaints.
小題1:Background music was first used ________.

A．in the cinemas and theatres in the USA

B．in the offices and hospitals in the USA

C．in the schools and churches in the USA

D．in the factories, shops and restaurants in the USA

小題2:An American marketing expert has found background music can __________.

A．increase sales or factory production

B．create a soothing atmosphere

C．make people slow down

D．make people forget their worries

小題3:Slow music is useless in ________ in increasing sales.

A．shops

B．restaurants

C．factories

D．cinemas

小題4:Restaurant owners are advised to play ________ to increase overall sales.

A．lively music

B．loud music

C．slower music

D．faster music

2008 will be remembered by us Chinese people as a year of sadness and happiness. May of the year sadly saw the Great Sichuan Earthquake, the worst earthquake in China over 30 years. It killed around 70,000 people. Tens of thousands were injured or went missing.
However, to our delight, China also hosted its first Olympic games that summer in Beijing. It was a very successful games with a great opening ceremony. 43 new world records and 132 new Olympic records were made. And China came out first with 51 gold medals.
小題1:When did the Great Sichuan Earthquake happen?

A．In 2005.

B．In 2006.

C．In 2007.

D．In 2008.

小題2:About 70,000 people ______ in the earthquake.

A．were killed	B．were injured
C．went missing	D．went hungry

小題3:How many gold medals did China win at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games?

A．175.

B．132.

C．51.

D．43.

小題4:We Chinese people were ______ in 2008.

A．sad

B．happy

C．neither sad nor happy

D．both sad and happy

When creating a digital advertisement or something to promote a product or service ,music is one of the most important aspects. Whether it is simply a jingle（短歌）,musical note or any other use of sound，music can play a huge role in attracting a customer’s attention or being noticed by your target audience.
Music can work hand-in-hand with what you are advertising. Many times the advertising jingle, or saying, is what the audience remembers. Companies such as McDonald’s and Subway have used this method many times with different jingles and little sayings that are easy to remember and fun to sing along with.
Usually concepts that are part of a jingle would sound conceited(自負(fù)的)  and pompous(浮夸的) when said in a normal conversation. When put to music however, and sung in a rhythm，it suddenly sounds attractive. For example, if someone said,” No one does it better than me” in a normal statement, this would sound very conceited. Add music and a tune to this statement and it becomes attractive and fun for others to sing along with.
While understanding how important music is for your advertising needs, it is also important for you to know the best way to get special music.
Having people from many different backgrounds all over the world write something specifically for you is one of the best ways to get songs written just for you. You simply choose which one you believe is best for the project. So instead of hiring a single songwriter to compose your music, you can run a contest for you advertising jingle and songwriters around the world write you a finished jingle in an attempt to win your contest.
小題1:What does the passage mainly tell us?

A．How to use music in advertising.

B．Advertising music can help sell products.

C．How to get an advertising jingle.

D．Advertisements are important in promoting.

小題2:What makes concepts of an advertising jingle sound attractive?

A．Wonderful sayings.	B．Word and pictures.
C．Beautiful voice.	D．Music and tune.

小題3:According to the writer, the best way to get an advertising jingle is____.

A．to collect works from public	B．to invite a famous singer
C．to get advice from experts	D．to hire a top songwriter

小題4:What’s the advantage of your running a contest for an advertising jingle?

A．It will save much time.	B．You can get the best works.
C．It will cost less money.	D．You can sell more products.

More than half of the parents in the United States are helping, or have helped, support their adult children who have been hit by high unemployment and poor wages(工資), according to a new survey. It showed that present economic conditions are discouraging young adults from leaving home and forcing those who have already gone, so-called boomerang kids, to return.
“Parents are continuing their financial involvement longer than we expected,” said Ted Beck, president of National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).
About 60 percent of parents questioned in the survey said they’re helping their adult children who are no longer in school financially. Half are providing housing and nearly half are helping with living expenses.
For an increasing number of adult children, the situation is bad. Two-thirds of adult children, aged 18 to 39, who are not in school said they faced tougher financial pressures than previous generations, according to the survey. And nearly one-third of parents agreed that it was easier for them to find their financial feet than for their children.
Parents are helping their children out of genuine concern because they do not want to see them struggle. But Beck said that parents who make sacrifices(犧牲) to help their adult children should be careful about their own finances.
“If you are taking on extra debt or delaying(推遲) retirement to help your adult child, you could be making a mistake and putting your own financial future in danger,” Beck warned.
Boomerang children can also cause other problems for their parents. Thirty percent of parents said they had given up privacy since their adult children moved back home, while more than a quarter have taken on added debt, and seven percent have delayed retirement. But the survey also showed 42 percent of adult children living at home are helping with the cooking and cleaning.
小題1:According to the text, boomerang kids refer to ____.

A．married adult children

B．grown-ups living with parents

C．a(chǎn)dult children independent and successful in life

D．young adults depending on parents for financial support

小題2:According to the survey, we can infer that _____.

A．a(chǎn)bout 30% of parents offer their adult children housing

B．one-third of adult children earn money more easily than their parents

C．two-thirds of adult children are faced with financial problems in school

D．a(chǎn)bout 50% of parents give money to their adult children to cover the daily cost

小題3:What is Ted Beck’s suggestion to the parents?

A．Asking their children to help with the housework.

B．Being careful when helping their children financially.

C．Leaving their children to struggle to live.

D．Putting off their time of retirement.

小題4:What would be the best title for the text?

A．Adult children are less independent	B．Parents help support adult children
C．Bad conditions affect children a lot	D．Adult children like living with parents

Earlier, in the old days, women used to sit at home separated from the outside world. They used to manage the home and look after children. They were free of the responsibility of earning money to support the family, which was left to men.
With the coming of industrialization (工業(yè)化) and technological development, the lifestyles of human beings started to change. The needs of human beings started to grow. In this process, women slowly started to move outside the home. Women received the same education as men. Gradually, women slowly started to think independently and participated equally with men in all fields of life, including politics, sports and even military.
With changing environments, the role of women has become more important in society. To match today’s standard of living, it is necessary for both men and women to support the family.
Today, women have been given bigger roles to play in society. They are even taking more responsibility than men. At first, men disagreed with women pursuing (追求) their careers outside the home. However, with growing needs and a shortage of money, they had no other way but to accept the reality.
The financial contributions from women to their families have increased, but in some places, the home is still managed only by women as in the past. It is a challenging task for women to manage both. Women are bearing the stress and suffering mental difficulties with both managing the home and pursuing their careers.
小題1:The best title for the passage would be _________.

A．Women's Responsibility in Society	B．The Changing Social Environments
C．The Changing Role of Women in Society	D．Women's Financial Contributions

小題2:Earlier in the old days, women used to do the following EXCEPT _________.

A．wash clothes	B．prepare dinners
C．look after children	D．make money for the family

小題3:We can infer from the last paragraph that ______.

A．women don't need to manage the home today

B．women are taking more responsibility than before

C．men still disagree with women pursuing their careers

D．men have begun to do more housework than women

In South Korea, children get used to the Internet at an early age. A survey last year by the Ministry of information and Communication showed that nearly half of children between the age of 3 and 5 use the internet.
“In south Korea, the Internet has become a babysitter, said Lee Kyong Ko, a professor at Duksing, Women’s University in Seoul.   
Online role-playing games, where participants make friends and band together, have a strong appeal to Koreans,“One problem with those games is that you build your online person through countless hours of battles, and you develop a huge emotional attachment to your game character,”said Chang Woo Min, a one-time online gamer.
Parents report that their children steal money and do not come home for days and even weeks, practically living in Internet Cafes, and sometimes they refuse to look for jobs and play games all night and sleep during the day.
The authorities require Internet cafes to keep their distance from schools, and they open camps for teenage addicts and distribute booklets(小冊子) on the dangers of game addiction. In addition, they are training hundreds of counselors, who visit schools and Internet Cafes.
In the 28,000 Internet Cafes in South Korea, persons under 18 are banded from entry after 10 p.m.. The authorities have even discussed reducing the points of gamers who play for more than three consecutive (連續(xù)的) hours, But such talks have produced no agreement, amid concerns that such restrictions would put a high-growth industry in danger and worse the problem of teenagers stealing adult online identification numbers,“Sooner or later we will be able to announce our measures,”the minister of Information and Communication, Rho Jun Hyoung, said at a news conference in May.“Since South Korea is one of the most active and developed countries in the Internet, the world is paying great attention to What policy we will adopt on this problem.”
小題1:According to the passage, in order to solve the Internet problem, the authorities of South Korea took the following measures EXCEPT              

A．demanding the Internet Cafes to be far away from schools

B．telling the students about the dangers of game addiction

C．training counselors to visit schools and cafes

D．banning all the people from entering the Internet after 10 p.m.

小題2:We can learn that                 from the passage.

A．most children under 6 in the South Korea use the Internet

B．some parents hope their children use the Internet only at home

C．a(chǎn)ll kinds of measures are not supported by all the people

D．the authorities in the South Korea believe that it is most active and developed country in the Inter

小題3:In paragraph 2,the underlined sentence “the Internet has becomes a babysitter”means     .

A．children are well looked after on the Internet

B．children likes sitting in the Internet Cafes

C．children can earn money working as a babysitter in Internet Cafes

D．Internet has become a place where children are looked after while their parents are not there

小題4:The passage is written to tell us_________________.

A．the Internet problems in South Korea	B．the bad effects of the Internet
C．the measures of the authorities	D．teenagers like going surfing in South Korea

All you need to participate in home exchange is a house! You don't need to compare values of the houses or search for a swapping partner in the case of a home similar to yours. It just requires identifying a home where you and your family can stay comfortably in the place you wish to visit. You need to search for a person or a family with whom you would be comfortable exchanging your home with，for a short period of time. In home exchange，you would be taking care of other people's home，as well as enjoying the country while they would be doing the same from your home.
People who have traveled a lot would know that the most expensive part of traveling is paying hotel bills. In many cases, vacations cannot last for long mainly because of the high accommodation (住房) expenses. Holiday home exchange is one of the most simple and intelligent ways to cut down an accommodation expenses. It is an equal trade for bath the families and enables both to enjoy the advantages of a home while traveling to another country.
Home exchanges have become very popular in major cities in the United Kingdom as it allows you to benefit from time-share. Mostly, people participating in home exchanges prefer to involve their friends or neighbors to entertain their visitors, by providing the home exchange visitors with information regarding the local sightseeing attractions. Many families with children try to swap houses with families who have children of the similar age group. It saves time and energy that is often exhausted in carrying around a number of toys and equipment. The individual traveler often finds house swapping a great way of relaxing in the comforts of a home after a tiring day of sightseeing and can spend more time to get to know the area better.
小題1:The most suitable title for the passage is__________.

A．Home Exchange for Your Holiday

B．How to Find the Best House

C．Everyone Loves Exchanging Homes

D．Tips for Your Trip

小題2:What does the underlined word “swapping” mean in Line 2? __________

A．participating

B．enjoying

C．exchanging

D．identifying

小題3:What's the main reason for people exchanging homes during the holiday?

A．To experience other people's lifestyles.

B．To get to know new neighbors and make new friends.

C．To avoid paying expensive hotel bills while traveling

D．To get more information from locals.

小題4:We can learn from the last paragraph that___________.

A．more families prefer to exchange homes than individual travelers.

B．families with kids are more likely to exchange homes with families with kids.

C．it is difficult for individual travelers to find partners to exchange their homes.

D．the individual travelers love to introduce their friends and neighbors to the visitors.

Japanese couples, too busy for a normal social life, are increasingly turning to actors to play their friends on the most important days of their lives.
Several agencies have sprung up(涌現(xiàn))offering actors to attend weddings or even funerals.The first guest-for-hire company was established about nine years ago and around 10 agencies now send out dozens of pretend friends to family events.
Agencies such as Hagemashi Tai, which means “I want to cheer you up”, charge around ￡100 for each “guest”. Other services such as giving a speech in praise of a bride or the groom cost extra.
The appearance of the small fake friends industry has been linked to social and economic changes in Japan.With lifetime employment (終身雇傭制)a thing of the past, couples feel uncomfortable about inviting work colleagues to their wedding.Increasingly busy and put upon, many Japanese surround themselves with only a very small circle of friends.
When they marry, however, they are under pressure to match the number of their new partner’s wedding guests.
Office Agents, the largest provider of pretend friends, makes sure that its employees have done their homework and know all about the bride or groom before the wedding.
Hiroshi Mizutani, the company’s founder, said the fake friends he provides must look happy, be well dressed and look like people with good jobs.
小題1:Why did fake friends industry come into being in Japan?

A．Because of social and economic changes	B．Because of lifetime employment
C．Because of normal social life	D．Because of work pressure

小題2:Pretend friends will be present at the following occasions except ________.

A．weddings

B．funerals

C．work

D．family gathering

小題3:The agents make sure that ________.

A．fake friends have done their housework	B．fake friends have good jobs
C．fake friends must look happy and be well dressed	D．fake friends feel uncomfortable

小題4:What is the best title of this passage?

A．Japanese Couples are Under Pressure to Get Married	B．Japanese Couples’ Social Life
C．The First Guest-for-hire Company in Japan	D．Japanese Couples Rely on Fake Friends

Divorces in Japan have more than doubled, according to health ministry statistics. One in three Japanese marriages now ends in divorce.
Atsuko Okano was in one of those failed marriages. Three years ago, she found herself alone in her 30s, with children to raise and a future full of question marks and social shame. But she also saw an opening, and became an advisor helping people like herself.
“My husband was cheating on me,” she recalled. ‘I did everything to bring him back to me but it didn’t work, so I dumped him.” Such frankness is a major characteristic of Japan’s recently divorced.
Divorced people – particularly woman – have long been looked down upon in Japan, where self-sacrifice and family stability are regarded as ideals. In the past, bored housewives remained bored. The security of the family unit was the most important thing. Now, young Japanese are increasingly choosing satisfaction in life over the demands of tradition, and more woman are financially independent. As a result, Japanese divorce rates are flying. Experts attribute this to the erosion of a long-standing double standard that granted divorced men respectability, but branded(gave somebody a bad name) divorced women as damaged goods.
Over the past decade, growing numbers of highly educated and successful professional women have challenged that assumption(something taken for granted) by turning their backs on unhappy marriages and paying no attention to the taboo（禁忌）of divorce. The majority of divorce behavior now is started by women.
小題1:This passage mainly talks about the fact that nowadays Japanese women _________.

A．a(chǎn)re granted respectability after they get divorced

B．a(chǎn)re becoming brave enough to challenge the taboo of divorce

C．still consider the security of the family unit to be very important

D．a(chǎn)re becoming more financially independent

小題2:It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that Atsuko Okano __________.

A．had some children to raise

B．was very confident with her future

C．was not greatly respected by Japanese society

D．might have found a job to help divorced people

小題3:The underlined word “dumped” in paragraph 3 probably means _________.

A．looked down upon

B．had a quarrel with

C．hated

D．divorced

小題4:Which of the following is NOT mentioned as the reason for rising rate of Japanese divorces?

A．Self-sacrifice and family stability are not much appreciated in Japan as before.

B．More women can support themselves financially.

C．Divorced men and women can quickly find their new partners

D．Young Japanese care more about satisfaction in life than their elders did.

Some nations think they must have more and more babies, more and more people, if they are to remain strong and free.
Actually, this is not so. Very often in history, small nations have conquered large ones. It’s not so much the size of the army as its organization and the technical level of its weapons. Thus, Greece took over Persia in the 300s B.C., Great Britain took over India in the 1700s, even though Persia and India had far bigger population than Greece and Great Britain.
If a nation wishes to avoid being dominated by its neighbors, its best chance is to raise its standard of living and its level of technology.This can be done best by not allowing its population to grow to such a point that it is sunk in misery and poverty. In fact, the worst way in which a nation can try to avoid being dominated by its neighbor is to increase its population to the point of misery and poverty.
If every nation tries to compete with its neighbors by raising its population, then the whole world will be sunk in misery and poverty. The nations will become weak in a disaster that will leave nothing behind that is worth dominating. No one will have gained anything. Everyone will have lost everything.
Once all this is understood, and people generally agree that population growth must not be allowed to continue, they must also come to understand how that growth can be stopped. Population grows because more people are being born than are dying. There are two ways, then, in which the growth can be stopped. You can increase the number of people who die until it matches the number of people who are being born. Or else you can decrease the number of people who are born until it matches the number of people who are dying.
The first method—increasing the death rate—is the usual way in which population is controlled in all species of living things other than ourselves, but we don’t want that, for disaster lies that way. The intelligent way is to reduce the birth rate. But how can the birth rate be reduced?
小題1: In paragraph 3, the word “This” refers to ______.

A．a(chǎn)voidance of poverty	B．improvement of life and technology
C．growth of population	D．enhancement of living standard and competition

小題2: It can be inferred from the passage that if a country had fewer people, ______.

A．it could still remain strong	B．it would be defeated by a strong neighbour
C．its standard of living could be high	D．its people would live misery

小題3: What might the author be further discussing after the passage?

A．Needs to balance population.	B．Problems involved in birth control.
C．Methods of decreasing population.	D．Opposition from some nations.

小題4: The passage mainly focuses on ______.

A．why we must control population	B．where we can find a solution
C．how to stop population growth	D．how to become a strong nation