The Internet has led to a huge increase in credit-card(信用卡) fraud. Your card information can even be on sale on an illegal website. Websites offering cheap goods and services should be regarded with care. Online shoppers whoenter their credit-card information may never receive the goods they thought they had bought.
The thieves then go shopping with your card number—or sell the information over the Internet. Computer hackers(黑客)have broken down security system, raising questions about the safety of card holder information.
Several months ago, 25,000 customers of a CD universe, an online music retailer(批发商), were not lucky. Their names, addresses and credit-card numbers were posted on a Website after the retailer refused to pay $ 157,828 to get back the information.
Credit-card firms are now fighting against online fraud. Master-card is working on plans for web-only credit-cards, with a lower credit limit. The card can be used only for shopping online. However , there are a few simple steps you can take to keep from being cheated.
Ask about your credit-card firm’s online rules: under British law, cardholders are responsible for the first $ 78 of any fraudulent spending. And shop only at secure sites: send your credit-card information only if the website offers advanced security system.
If the security is in place, a letter will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. The website address may also start with https://--the extra “s” stands for security. If in doubt, give your credit-card information over the telephone.
Keep your password safe: most online sites require a user name and password before placing an order. Treat your password with care.
51. The underlined word “fraud” in the first paragraph probably means ______.
A. cheating B. sale C. payment D. use
52. According to this passage most people worry about shopping on the Internet because ______.
A. a great number of stolen credit-cards are sold on the Internet every day
B. fraud on the Internet happens very often
C. many Websites break down every day
D. there are too many illegal Websites on the Internet
53. Thieves usually get the information of the credit-card ______.
A. because many customers lost their cards
B. by paying money for people working in the information companies
C. because of the carelessness of the customers
D. by stealing the information from Websites
54. If the passwords of your credit-cards are not properly kept, _____.
A. the bank and the shop will suffer great losses
B. you will not be able to get back your information
C. you might suffer great losses
D. the bank will answer for your loss
55. What’s the best title of the passage?
A. How to Beat Online Credit-card Thieves
B. How to Shop on the Internet
C. Never Use Credit-card Without an Advanced Computer
D. Why Thieves Steal Credit-card Information
We’ve reached a strange—some would say unusual—point. While fighting world hunger continues to be the matter of vital importance according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO), more people now die from being overweight, or say, from being extremely fat, than from being underweight. It’s the good life that’s more likely to kill us these days.
Worse, nearly 18 million children under the age of five around the world are estimated to be overweight. What’s going on?
We really don’t have many excuses for our weight problems. The dangers of the problem have been drilled into us by public health campaigns since 2001 and the message is getting through—up to a point.
In the 1970s, Finland, for example, had the highest rate of heart disease in the world and being overweight was its main cause. Not any more. A public health campaign has greatly reduced the number of heart disease deaths by 80 per cent over the past three decades.
Maybe that explains why the percentage of people in Finland taking diet pills doubled between 2001 and 2005, and doctors even offer surgery of removing fat inside and change the shape of the body. That has become a sort of fashion. No wonder it ranks as the world’s most body conscious country.
We know what we should be doing to lose weight—but actually doing it is another matter. By far the most popular excuse is not taking enough exercise. More than half of us admit we lack willpower.
Others blame good food. They say: it’s just too inviting and it makes them overeat. Still others lay the blame on the Americans, complaining that pounds have piled on thanks to eating too much American style fast food.
Some also blame their parents—their genes. But unfortunately, the parents are wronged because they’re normal in shape, or rather slim.
It’s a similar story around the world, although people are relatively unlikely to have tried to lose weight. Parents are eager to see their kids shape up. Do as I say—not as I do.What is the “strange” point mentioned in the first sentence?
| A．The good life is a greater risk than the bad life. |
| B．Starvation is taking more people’s lives in the world. |
| C．WHO report shows people’s unawareness of food safety. |
| D．Overweight issue remains unresolved despite WHO’s efforts. |
Why does the author think that people have no excuse for being overweight?
| A．A lot of effective diet pills are available. |
| B．Body image has nothing to do with good food. |
| C．They have been made fully aware of its dangers. |
| D．There are too many overweight people in the world. |
The example of Finland is used to illustrate ________.
| A．the cause of heart disease |
| B．the fashion of body shaping |
| C．the effectiveness of a campaign |
| D．the history of a body conscious country |
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Actions or Excuses? |
| B．Overweight or Underweight? |
| C．WHO in a Dilemma |
| D．No Longer Dying of Hunger |
Chinese writer Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize for Literature might set off an explosion of global interest in Chinese literature and lead to more titles translated into English, European experts say.
“Hopefully, the award means more people will read Chinese literature and more works will get translated,” says Michel Hockx, professor of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia from University of London. “Many very good Chinese writers have been accepted globally for a long time already. Mo Yan is probably the most translated Chinese writer alive, with at least five of his novels made available in English over the past 20 years.”
Jonathan Ruppin, web editor of bookseller Foyles, says Mo’s win coincides with（与……一致）growing interest in Chinese literature and recognizes the talents of a distinctive and visionary（富于幻想的）writer.“We are very excited by the fact that English translations of more of his books should now become available,” Ruppin says. He made the comment after Mo became the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in its century-long history.
As East-West cultural exchange has been booming, Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention in recent years. Hockx explains, “It’s mainly because there are many more opportunities for Chinese writers to visit other countries, to publish their works outside China and to interact with readers abroad. At the same time, more and more people globally are learning Chinese and taking an interest in the Chinese language and culture.”
University of Oxford lecturer in modern Chinese literature Margaret Hillenbrand says, “The obvious reason for the growing global presence of Chinese literature is the growing global presence of China itself. People have come to realize that there is a serious knowledge gap between China and its international counterparts — in particular, China knows considerably more about Europe and America than the other way round — and reading Chinese literature is an effective, simple means of solving that gap.”Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Chinese literature has spread with the development of China. |
| B．The Nobel Prize for Literature has a history of hundreds of years. |
| C．In the past, no Chinese writers were accepted outside China. |
| D．Foreigners know about China mainly by reading Mo Yan’s works. |
Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention mainly because _______.
| A．Chinese writers have been writing more and more books in English |
| B．the Chinese language has become the most widely used language in the world |
| C．the Chinese government attaches great importance to literature |
| D．the cultural communication between China and western countries has developed |
How do you understand the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?
| A．China knows more about Europe and America than before. |
| B．China knows more about Europe and America than they know about China. |
| C．China, Europe and America know one another more than before. |
| D．Compared with America, China knows more about Europe. |
Last week, my granddaughter started kindergarten, and I wished her every success. But part of me didn’t. I actually wanted her to fail in some ways because I believe that failure can be good for our learning process. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can often be a problematic (存在问题的) victory. First-time success is usually a fluke (侥幸). First-time failure, by contrast, is expected to be the natural order of things. Failure is how we learn.
In Africa they describe a good cook as “She who has broken many pots.” If you’ve spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about cooking. I once had dinner with a group of cooks, and they spent time comparing knife wounds and burn scars. They knew how much credibility (可信) their failures gave them.
I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I am aware that one column I write is going to be the worst column. I try my best every day. I have learned to cherish that column. A successful column usually means that I am discussing my familiar topic, writing in a style I am used to or saying the same things as anyone else but in a fancy way.
My younger daughter is a trapeze artist. She spent three years putting together a show, and she did it successfully for years. There was no reason for her to change it but she did anyway. She said she was no longer learning anything new and she was bored. And if she was bored, there was no point in subjecting (使……服从于) her body to all that stress. She risked failure and great public embarrassment in order to feed her soul.
My granddaughter is a perfectionist. She will feel her failures, and I will want to comfort her. But I will also, I hope, remind her of what she learned, and how she can do better next time. I hope I can tell her, though, that it’s not the end of the world. Indeed, with luck, it is the beginning.Why did the author want his granddaughter to fail?
| A．Success is boring though beneficial. |
| B．She would learn more from failure. |
| C．It’s impossible to do everything successfully. |
| D．He wanted her to be strong enough to face hardships. |
What’s the author’s attitude toward his daughter changing her show?
| A．Negative | B．Worried | C．Positive | D．Ambiguous(模凌两可的) |
The author develops the article mainly by __________.
| A．giving examples |
| B．following the time order |
| C．comparing different opinions |
| D．presenting a cause and analyzing its effects |
The writer talked about his own experience to show that _________.
| A．we cannot depend on luck to live a good life |
| B．we should try every possible way to avoid failure |
| C．past failures made him dare not take risks in writing |
| D．the thought of failure will make you work even harder |
Although the U.S. is so big and its people have so many different ethnic (racial) backgrounds, it is in some ways less varied than Europe. The English language is used almost everywhere in its American form. The American way of speaking has developed independently of England and is on the whole closer to what can be heard in Ireland.
American instance of uniformity（一致性） is in habits and ways of living. From Boston to Los Angeles it is as far as from France to Central Asia, and from east to west there are five time zones; but everywhere people get up and go to bed at about the same time, eat the same kind of food, buy in the same kind of shops, work and rest at the same times of the day and have the same pattern of holidays. In most of the things that matter there is less difference between rich people and ordinary people, or between town and country, than in any single European nation.
Although the United States covers so much land and the land produces far more food than the present population needs, its people are by now almost entirely an urban society. Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in agriculture, and most of the rest live in or around towns, large and small. Here the traditional picture is changing; most Americans do not live in small towns any more. Half the population now live in some thirty metropolitan（大城市的） areas.
The fact that the United states has always been a single economic unit has contributed to uniformity. Modern industry favors large organizations, and it is no accident that the world’s biggest commercial firms are American. The people can choose between the products of competing manufacturers, but the products are all much alike. In describing the uniformity in the U.S. the author does not mention that
| A．the American people get up and go to work at the same time. |
| B．the American people spend their holidays in the same pattern. |
| C．the American people buy and eat the same kind of food. |
| D．the American people have more or less the same income. |
What can we learn from the passage about the U.S. agriculture?
| A．The American farmers need more land than before. |
| B．More and more Americans are interested in farming. |
| C．It is quite modernized. |
| D．It is now going backward. |
What is the feature of the U.S. modern industry according to the last paragraph?
| A．The production scale and the organizational scale are very big. |
| B．It is a single economic unit that manufactures the same kind of products. |
| C．There are more and more competing manufacturers. |
| D．There are always a variety of products to choose from. |
What does “most of the things” in the second paragraph refer to?
| A．food, clothing and houses. |
| B．Cars, computers and TV sets. |
| C．Their wealth and income. |
| D．Land, housing and bank savings. |
You're rushing to work and a man ahead of you falls down on the sidewalk. Do you stop to help? In a study of by-standers, it was found that some people keep on walking.
"There is a tendency to decide that no action is needed," says a psychologist, "In order to take action, you have to work against them." Here are some common thoughts that stop you from helping.
●Why should I be the one? I'm probably not the most able person in this crowd. You might think someone older or with more medical knowledge should offer assistance.
●What if he doesn't really need my help? The fear of embarrassment is powerful; no one wants to risk looking foolish in front of others.
●No one else looks concerned. We can follow the people around us, but most people tend to hold back their emotions in public.
"If you spot trouble and find yourself explaining inaction, force yourself to stop and figure out the situation instead of walking on," says the psychologist. "Then retry to involve other people; you don't have to take on the entire responsibility of being helpful. Sometimes it's just a matter of turning to the person next to you and saying, 'It looks like we should do something.' Or asking someone if an ambulance has been called and, if not, to call for one. Once you take action, most people will follow you."Which is NOT the common thought that stops you from helping others?
| A．I'm not the very capable person. |
| B．It looks like we should do something. |
| C．No one else is concerned. |
| D．He doesn't really need my help. |
In order to offer your timely help, you need to .
| A．go directly to the police station |
| B．get along well with the passers-by who spot the trouble |
| C．ask others for help and call the police |
| D．work against the first thoughts that stop you from offering help |
The main purpose of the passage is to tell readers .
| A．to give others a hand | B．to be more able |
| C．to explain their inaction | D．to evaluate the situation |
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