They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend. And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy－games, CDs and clothing－are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a troublesome business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parent’s card. They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (網(wǎng)絡(luò)的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products can stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and ￡20bn annually in the UK. Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school－88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online－mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing them to spend on the high street. They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as InternetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK. Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as￡20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.
【小題1】What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Sellers.

B．Buyers.

C．Teenagers.

D．Parents.

【小題2】According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．More than half of the teenagers in the US and the UK have Internet access.

B．Teenagers pay for goods online with their own credit cards.

C．Most teenagers in the US and the UK have bought something online.

D．Teenagers found it easier to persuade parents to buy online than in a shop.

【小題3】New way to help teenagers shop online is to use ______.

A．a(chǎn) new machine	B．special coins and notes
C．prepaid cards	D．pay-as-you-go mobile phones

【小題4】What is the passage mainly about?

A．Online shopping traps.

B．Internet users in the US and the UK.

C．New credit cards for parents.

D．The arrival of cyber pocket money.

No doubt that you know about Charities. Here it is another chance for you to know more. Difficult times often bring out the best in people. And this was the case for basketball star Yao Ming, who hosted a television show in Shanghai that raised US$300,000 to help researchers find a cure for SARS. Fundraising, or charity, is an act of goodwill towards others. Charities in the West have more flexible ways. Look at a typical day for Ruth, a wealthy woman in the UK, for example. Ruth wakes up in the morning and collects her post. There’s a letter addressed to her with a picture of a half-dead, beaten horse. It’s from a charity asking Ruth to donate money to save the animals. The door bell rings and there, on Ruth’s doorstep, is an old woman asking for money to help the aged. She turns on the television, hears sad music and sees a picture of a wide-eyed child dying of hunger in Africa with an appeal for money to help the child. Ruth then goes shopping for a dress to wear to that evening’s large party for the rich and famous. The ticket cost her a small fortune, but she doesn’t mind because most of the money is going to a charity that fights AIDS. She feels good about going because she’s helping the sick. Within five minutes of walking down the street, Ruth has passed a charity shop. She doesn’t stop because she doesn’t think she’d find a suitable dress there—it’s full of old, secondhand clothes. But, many other people enter and but all sorts of bargains. Edna, a little old lady, looks after the shop. Any profit it has made goes to a cancer charity. Now that she has retired, she has plenty of spare time to offer her services for free.
For people like Yao Ming, Ruth and Edna, charity is a virtue that holds the same importance in life as faith and hope. “As you look back on your life, the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others,” said Scottish author Henry Drummond.
【小題1】Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the story as a way of fundraising    ?

A．Charity party	B．Charity post
C．Charity TV program	D．Charity for beggars.

【小題2】What does the word “raise” in the first paragraph mean    ?

A．Collect together	B．Donate
C．Increase	D．Bring to someone’s attention.

【小題3】We can infer from the passage that    .

A．Yao Ming donated US$300,000 to help researchers find a cure for SARS

B．Edna may not be a rich lady but she is willing to do something for others

C．Ruth leads a busy life and she feels very tired

D．Ruth is angry because so many people ask her for money every day

【小題4】What’s the writer’s attitude towards charity    ?

A．The writer thinks it’s something only people like Ruth can afford to do

B．The writer just wants to inform us of the different ways to practice charity

C．The writer thinks it’s a virtue and admires the people who practice it

D．The writer doesn’t make it clear in the story

【小題5】The underlined part in the last paragraph probably means that    .

A．when you look back sometimes, you need stand out

B．when you want to do something for others, you need stand out

C．the moment you stand out, you can do something for others

D．what impresses people deeply is what they have done for others

A large number of people in the world eat fast food. Whenever you go into a fast food restaurant, you can see lots of people enjoying their meals there. How do you know in which country people like fast food best?
　　The English people are the world’s biggest fans of fast food, while the French are the least interested in quick meals, according to a survey done last year.
　　The survey of thirteen countries shows 45% of the English people say they can’t give up fast food because it’s delicious. And 44% of Americans and 37% of Canadians say the same.
　　The French, proud of their delicious cuisine, don’t like fast food. 81% of them think it is unhealthy, followed by 75% of the Japanese.
　　How about the Chinese? How often do you have hamburgers or fried chicken? It doesn’t matter whether you like Western fast food or Chinese food. The most important thing is to keep a balanced diet.
【小題1】According to the survey, some people can’t give up fast food because _____.

A．it’s cheap	B．it’s safe
C．it’s delicious	D．it’s healthy From the survey，

【小題2】We know _____ like fast food best.

A．the Chinese

B．the French

C．the Japanese

D．the English

【小題3】The survey is about _______.

A．Western countries	B．fast food
C．restaurants in the world	D．Chinese food

【小題4】The word “cuisine” in the passage means _______.

A．food

B．house

C．water

D．country

One’s style of the dress reveals the human obsession with both novelty and tradition. People use clothing to declare their membership in a particular social group; however, the rules for what is acceptable dress for that group may change. In affluent societies, this changing of the rules is the driving force behind fashions. By keeping up with fashions, that is, by changing their clothing style frequently but meanwhile, members of a group both satisfy their desire for novelty and obey the rules, thus demonstrating their membership in the group.
There are some interesting variations (變種) regarding individual status. Some people, particularly in the West, consider themselves of such high status that they do not need to display it with their clothing. For example, many wealthy people in the entertainment industry appear in very casual clothes, such as the worn jeans and work boots of a manual laborer. However, it is likely that a subtle but important signal, such as an expensive wristwatch, will prevail over the message of the casual dress. Such an inverted (顛倒的)status display is most likely to occur where the person’s high status is conveyed in ways other than with clothing, such as having a famous face.
【小題1】According to the author, fashions serve all the following purposes EXCEPT

A．satisfying an interest in novelty

B．signaling a change in personal beliefs

C．displaying membership in a social group

D．following traditional rules

【小題2】Why does the author discuss individual status in paragraph 2?

A．To state that individual’s status is not important in the West

B．To argue that individuals need not obey every fashion rule

C．To contrast the status of entertainers with that of manual laborers

D．To explain how high status may involve an inverted status display

【小題3】What’s the meaning of the underlined word?

A．newness

B．convention

C．nobleness

D．benzene

For generations here in the deepest South, there had been a great taboo（禁忌）: publicly crossing the color line for love. Less than 45 years ago, marriage between blacks and whites was illegal, and it has been forbidden for much of the time since.
So when a great job about an hour’s drive north of the Gulf Coast attracted him, Jeffrey Norwood, a black college basketball coach, had reservations. He was in a serious relationship with a woman who was white and Asian.
“You’re thinking about a life in South Mississippi?” his father said in a skeptical voice, recalling days when a black man could face mortal（致命的） danger just being seen with a woman of another race, regardless of intentions. "Are you sure?"
But on visits to Hattiesburg, the younger Mr. Norwood said he liked what he saw: growing diversity. So he moved, married, and, with his wife, had a baby girl, who was counted on the last census（人口普查） as black, white and Asian. Taylor Rae Norwood, three, is one of thousands of mixed-race children who have made this state home to one of the nation's most rapidly expanding multiracial populations, up 70 percent between 2000 and 2010, according to new data from the Census Bureau.
In the first comprehensive accounting of multiracial Americans since statistics were first collected about them in 2000, reporting from the 2010 census, made public in recent days, shows that the nation’s mixed-race population is growing far more quickly than many researchers had estimated, particularly in the South and parts of the Midwest. That conclusion is based on the bureau’s analysis of 42 states; the data from the remaining eight states will be released soon.
In North Carolina, the mixed-race population doubled. In Georgia, it grew by more than 80 percent, and by nearly as much in Kentucky and Tennessee. In Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota, the multiracial population increased by about 70percent.
Census officials estimated the national multiracial growth rate was about 35 percent since2000 according to the known result, when seven million people ----- 2.4 percent of the population chose more than one race.
【小題1】If a black man married a white woman 50years ago, the worst result was that _____.

A．he was sentenced to death	B．he was considered to be immoral
C．he was criticized by the public	D．he was treated as a lawbreaker

【小題2】The underlined word “serious” in Paragraph 2 can be replaced by “____”.

A．stable

B．bad

C．mixed

D．dangerous

【小題3】What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．Jeffrey Norwood was born in Hattiesburg and grew up there.

B．Taylor Rae Norwood’s mother is a white-Asian.

C．70 percent of the people in Mississippi are multiracial.

D．Mississippi has the largest multiracial population in the US.

【小題4】Which of the following states had the fastest growth rate of mixed-race population?

A．Georgia.

B．Tennessee.

C．North Carolina.

D．South Dakota.

Endless playing of songs like All I want for Christmas in shops during the festive season doesn’t just drive us mad —the songs also make us more careless with our money, research has warned.
While repeated performance of Jingle Bells may seem like an innocent attempt to raise customers’ spirits during the nightmare of Christmas shopping, the songs also have a more delicate impact.
“Background music, or “Muzak”, can be used by marketers to impose cultures ---such as the commercialization of Christmas--- onto consumers and influence their behaviour,” experts said.
Dr. Alan Bradshaw of Royal Holloway, University of London, said, “Festive jingles are force-fed to Christmas shoppers in a bid to change their mood, influence their sense of time and what sort of products they buy. In other words, this is an attempt to control your shopping habits in a way that you might hardly be aware of.”
“Often we are told that we have the freedom to choose where we want to shop, but during Christmas the use of music in this way is so common that our freedom to choose disappears.”
Dr. Bradshaw and Prof Morris Holbrook of Columbia University examined the phenomenon and found that retailers often “dumb down” the music played in shops to relax customers, meaning it is easier to control their behaviour.
It is thought that slowing down the rhythm of music in shops can trick customers into thinking less time has passed, and therefore spend more time examining the shelves, for example.
Some providers of background music have been known to promote their services by claiming they can boost profits by controlling the behaviour of customers.
“A common trick is to take a popular current song and record an instrumental version which can be slowed down or sped up at different time of the day to influence behaviour in different ways,” Dr. Bradshaw said.
Background music is often classed as “Muzak” in honor of the Seattle-based company which began producing its soft-sounding melodies in the 1930s.
【小題1】According to Dr. Bradshaw, in what ways does Christmas music influence customers?
①their mood ②their income ③their sense of time ④ the sort of products they buy

A．①②③

B．①③④

C．②③④

D．①②④

【小題2】Shopkeepers slow down the rhythm of music in shops to ___________.

A．let customers spend more time shopping

B．make customers and sales assistants relaxed

C．let customers enjoy the beautiful music

D．help customers find what they really want

【小題3】What kind of music is now often adapted to influence customers in shops?

A．Classical music

B．Popular modern songs.

C．Folk songs.

D．Jazz music.

【小題4】What is the best title of the passage?

A．Music makes happy Christmas

B．Christmas “Muzak”

C．How to make Christmas music?

D．Christmas music makes us spend more

About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table，I couldn’t help overhearing parts of their conversation．At one point the woman asked，“So，how have you been?" And the boy -who could not have been more than seven or eight years old-replied．“Frankly, I've been feeling a little depressed lately．"
This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing．As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn’t find out we were “depressed”，that is，in low spirits，until we were in high school．
Undoubtedly a change in children has increased steadily in recent years．Children don't seem childlike anymore．Children speak more like adults，dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to．
Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different．Childhood as it once was no longer exists．Why?
Human development is depended not only on born biological states，but also on patterns of gaining social knowledge．Movement from one social role to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new social posifions．Children have always been taught adult secrets，but slowly and in stages；traditionally,we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders．
In the last 30 years，however, a secret-revelation(揭示)machine has been equipped in 98 percent of American homes．It is called television．Television passes information to all viewers allke，whether they are children or adults．Unable to resist the temptation(誘惑)，many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging，more attractive moving pictures．
Communication through print，as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information which children will gain．Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials．
【小題1】According to the author, feeling depressed is      ．

A．a(chǎn) sure sign of a mental problem in a child

B．a(chǎn) mental state present in all humans, including children

C．something that cannot be avoided in children’s mental development

D．something hardly to be expected in a young child

【小題2】Traditionally, a child is supposed to learn about the adult world     ．

A．through connection with society

B．gradually and under guidance

C．naturally without being taught

D．through watching television

【小題3】According to the author’that today’s children seem adultlike results from   ．

A．the widespread influence of television

B．the poor arrangement of teaching content

C．the fast pace of human scientific development

D．the rising standard of living

【小題4】What does the anthor think of communication through print for children?

A．It enables children to gain more social information．

B．It develops children’s interest in reading and writing．

C．It helps chlldren to read and write well

D．It can control what children are to learn．

【小題5】What does the author think of the change in today’s children?

A．He feels their adultlike behavior is so funny．

B．He thinks the change worthy of note．

C．He considers it a rapid development．

D．He seems to be upset about it．

When a magazine for high school students asked its readers what life would be like in twenty years, they said: Machines would be run by solar power. Buildings would rotate（旋轉(zhuǎn)）so they could follow the sun to take maximum advantage of its light and heat. Walls would “give light” and “change color with the push of a button.” Food would be replaced by pills. School would be taught by electrical impulse（電脈沖）while we sleep. Cars would have radar（雷達(dá)）. Does this sound like the year 2000? Actually, this article was written in 1958 and the question was, “what will life be like in 1978?
The future is much too important to simply guess about, the way the high school students did, so experts are regularly asked to predict accuately. By carefully studying the present, skilled businessmen, scientists, and politicians are supposedly able to figure out in advance what will happen. But can they? One expert on Cities wrote: Cities of the future would not be crowded, but would have space for farms and fields. People would travel to work in “airbuses”, large all-weather helicopters carrying up to 200 passengers. When a person left the airbus station he could drive a coin-operated car equipped with radar. The radar equipment of cars would make traffic accidents “almost unheard of”. Does that sound familiar? If the expert had been accurate it would, because he was writing in 1957. His subject was “The city of 1982”.
If the professionals sometimes sound like high school students, it’s probably because future study is still a new field. But economic forecasting, or predicting what the economy will do, has been around for a long time. It should be accuate, and generally it is. But there have been some big mistakes in the field, too. In early 1929, most forecasters saw an excellent future for the stock market. In October of that year, the stock market had its worst losses ever, ruining thousands of investors who had put their faith in financial foreseers.
One forecaster knew that predictions about the future would always be subject to significant error. In 1957, H.J. Rand of the Rad corporation was asked about the year 2000, “Only one thing is certain,” he answered. “Children born today will have reached the age of 43.”
【小題1】How many examples does the author offer to describe the future life?

A．Three

B．Four

C．Five

D．Six

【小題2】The high school students’ answers to “What would life be like in 1978?” sound __________.

A．a(chǎn)ccurate

B．imaginative

C．correct

D．foolish

【小題3】In the second paragraph, the writer gives examples to show _________.

A．predicting about the future can be done in a humorous way

B．no predictions are based on careful research

C．experts are always better than others in figuring out what the future will be like

D．forecasting the future is not an easy job even for experts in this field

【小題4】From the third paragraph we can learn that _________.

A．economy forecasting is rather a new field

B．experts began economy forecasting in 1929

C．the predictions about economic situation caused the investors to lose lots of money

D．good, accurate forecasting helped the stock market overcome the difficulties

【小題5】H.J.Rand’s prediction about the year 2000 shows that ________.

A．it is easy to figure out in advance what will happen

B．it is difficult to figure out in advance what will happen

C．only professionals can figure out in advance what will happen

D．very few professionals figure out in advance what will happen

Recently, professor of philosophy（哲學(xué)）in the United States has written a book called Money and the Meaning of Life. He has discovered that how we deal with money in our daily life has more meaning than we usually think. One of the exercises he asked his students to do is to keep a record of every penny they spend for a week. From the way they spend their money, they can see what they really value in life.
He says our relations with others often become clearly defined（清晰的）when money enters the picture. You might have wonderful relationship with somebody and you think that you are very good friends. But you will know him only when you ask him to lend some money. If he does, it brings something to the relationship that seems stronger than ever before or it can suddenly weaken the relationship if he doesn’t. This person may say that he has a certain feeling, but if it is not carried out in the money world, there is something less real about it.
Since money is so important to us, we consider those who possess a lot of it to be very important. The author interviewed some millionaires in researching his book.
Question: What is the most surprising thing you have discovered about being rich, because you are a self-made man?
Answer: The most surprising thing is how people give me so much respect. I am nothing. I don’t know much. All I am is rich.
People just have an idea of making more and more money, but what is it for? How much do I need for any given purposes in my life? In his book, the professor uncovered an important need in modern society: to bring back the idea that money is an instrument rather than the end. Money plays an important role in the material world, but expecting money to give happiness may be missing the meaning of life.
【小題1】According to the first paragraph, people have not realized ______.

A．how important money is in their daily life

B．how one spends money shows what is important to him

C．that money is more important than their philosophy of life

D．that their understanding of life is more important than money

【小題2】The author seems to believe that asking your friend to lend you some  money ________.

A．is a good way to test your friendship

B．will do harm to your friendship

C．will strengthen your friendship

D．is a good way to break off your friendship

【小題3】What does the American professor of philosophy want to explain in his book?

A．Money is an end．	B．Money is a means．
C．Money is everything．	D．Money is unimportant

【小題4】The underlined phrase “enter the picture” in the second paragraph can be replaced by “_________”.

A．is used up	B．is spent on pictures
C．is paid in the right way	D．is paid attention to

【小題5】What can we learn about the millionaire from his answer in the interview?

A．He doesn’t feel that he is well educated.

B．He doesn’t think he is a very important person.

C．He doesn’t consider himself to be very successful.

D．He doesn’t think that being rich deserves so much attention.

How do you design a pay plan that motivates people to do their best work? A new study by three Harvard researchers suggests a novel answer: Shortly after you hire new workers, give them a raise.
"Previous research has shown that paying people more than they expect may elicit reciprocity(相互作用) in the form of greater productivity," notes Deepak Malhotra, a Harvard business-administration professor who worked on the study. What he and his colleagues found, however, was that the connection between more pay and extra effort depends on presenting the increase "as a gift—that is, as something you've chosen to do purely as a nice gesture, with no strings attached."
Malhotra and his team studied 267 people hired by oDesk, a global online network of freelancers, to do a one-time data-entry project for four hours. All of the new hires were people in developing countries, for whom hourly wages of $3 and $4 were higher than what they had been making in previous jobs.
The researchers split the group up into three equal parts. One group was told they would earn $3 an hour. A second group was initially hired at $3 an hour but, before they started working, they got a surprise: The budget for the project had expanded unexpectedly, they were told, and they would now be paid $4 an hour. The third group was offered $4 an hour from the start and given no increase.
Even though the second and third groups were eventually paid the same amount, the second group worked harder and produced more—about 20% more—than either of the other two. People in the second group also showed the most stamina, maintaining their focus all the way through the assigned task and performing especially well toward the end of the four hours. Interestingly, the more experienced employees in the high-performing group were the most productive of all, apparently because their previous work experience led them to appreciate the rarity of an unexpected raise.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Malhotra points out that higher pay, in and of itself, didn't promote productivity: People who made $4 an hour from the beginning worked no harder than those who were hired at $3 and were then paid $3.
To get the most impact from their pay plans, he adds, companies might consider not only what to pay new hires, but when to pay it.
"The key thing is how you present [the reason for an increase]," he says. Doling out extra money could promote productivity most "if you make it clear that the pay raise is something you're choosing to do just because you can. Our theory is that people will reciprocate. If you do something nice, they'll do something nice back."   
【小題1】What does the underlined word “stamina” most probably mean?

A．The quality of being intelligent or clever.

B．The quality of doing something difficult or dangerous.

C．The physical or mental energy needed to do a tiring activity for a long time.

D．A particular method of doing an activity, usually involving practical skills.

【小題2】Why did the second group produce more than the other two groups?

A．Because they thought they were better paid than the other groups.

B．Because they were experienced employees from developing countries.

C．Because an unexpected raise reminded them of their previous work.

D．Because they felt they were nicely treated and tried best to repay it.

【小題3】What can we infer from this passage?

A．No pains, no gains.

B．It matters not what we give but how.

C．Honesty is the best policy.

D．Actions speak louder than words.