You can deposit money in a building society and obtain yearly interest at a certain rate．You can also borrow money from a building society．What, then, is difference between a bank and a building society? In fact, a building society does not seem to be very different from a savings bank．Many people regularly save money by depositing small amounts monthly in a building society, just as other people regularly save money by depositing small amounts monthly in a savings bank．Some people deposit large amounts in a building society as an investment．They receive higher interest than they would receive from a savings bank; their money can be invested either in building society shares or in loans to the society．
These societies are controlled by law, but they are not government organizations．They were originally started to enable people to buy houses．One of their main purposes is to provide loans for buying or building houses．Many people prefer buying a house to paying rent, but some of them cannot afford to buy a house．To cover the cost they borrow the money from a building society．The loan plus the interest is paid back in monthly amounts over an agreed number of years．Probably the payments made in this way are no more than the rent of a rented house．But at the end of the stated period, when the debt is paid, the borrower becomes the owner of the house．To protect the building society from “bad debts” he must sign a statement to say that the house belongs to the society until the debt is paid．
A building society invests the savings of its shareholders in houses and property．Unlike a bank, it does not serve as a general clearing house （清算所） for every kind of exchange or business operation．Its activities are limited compared with those of a bank．
68．A building society is different from a bank in that ____．
A．the former is limited in its activities
B．the latter is limited in function compared with the former
C．a bank doesn’t serve as a general clearing house
D．a building society can protect itself from “bad debt”
69．Some people put large amounts of money in the building society because _______．
A．they can get more profit than they do in a bank．
B．they may choose between the form of building society shares and that of loans for their investment
C．they may enjoy shares and loans at the same time
D．they like the society
70．If you borrow money from the society to buy a house, ____．
A．you have to return the money to the building society the moment it is needed．
B．you have to sign an agreement to repay the loan after a number of years
C．what you pay back monthly for the loan would be less than the rent
D．the house doesn’t belong to you unless you have repaid all the debt
With the start of the new semester students around the country exchange their fun and fashionable clothes for boring school uniforms.
"The uniform makes us look like a bunch of clones, especially when we are doing morning exercises in the playground, "said Qing, a Senior 2 from a high school in Shanghai. "But we are not exactly the same from the top to the bottom. The boys wear different sport shoes and girls have different decorations ( 装饰品 )in their hair. These are the areas where you can express yourself" said Qing.
Although it might be strange for boys to talk about fashion, they do care about what they wear in school, especially shoes, according to Qing.
"Nike and Adidas basketball shoes, although they are still the must for many of my friends ,are becoming out-of-date,” added. He explained, "Since Liu Xiang ran so fast in Athens, running shoes are becoming popular in this autumn."
"Still in fashion are the various baseball caps and American-style T-shirts with random English words printed on them, "said Qing. "The accuracy ( 准确性 )of the written message isn't important. Often, the words are misspelt . Sometimes they do not even make sense “ Qing said with a smile.
Besides sports shoes and T-shirts, styles and colours of school bags are another opportunity for students to express their taste in fashion. Some bags are made more eye-catching by decorating them with small hanging dolls. Other fashionable items are the colourful drink contains which are now popular among girls this semester.
As in China, the new semester in the US also brings new fashion trends: shirts printed with Chinese words, necklaces with Hebrew ( 希伯莱 )or Hindi ( 印度的 )characters, and Brazilian jewelry, are all common in schools in Florida, according to Carmen Domingues, a high school student.What does "a bunch of clones”( Paragraph 2)mean?
| A．All of the clothes are the same. | B．All of the exercises are the same. |
| C．All of the clothes are different. | D．All of the exercises are different. |
How do the students express themselves in school?
| A．The girls wear different sport shoes. |
| B．All the students wear school uniforms. |
| C．The girls have different decorations in their hair. |
| D．The boys drink water from colourful drinks containers. |
Why are Nike and Adidas basketball shoes becoming out-of-date?
| A．Because the shoes are not eye-catching. |
| B．Because running shoes become more popular. |
| C．Because the shoes have been popular for a long time. |
| D．Because they have changed their opinions for Liu Xiang. |
Which of the following is NOT the new fashion trends in the US?
| A．Necklace with Hebrew or Hindi characters. |
| B．Baseball caps and American-style T-shirts. |
| C．Shirts printed with Chinese words. |
| D．Brazilian jewelry. |
A man once said how useless it was to put advertisements in the newspapers. “Last week,” said he, “my umbrella was stolen from a London church. As it was a present, I spent twice its worth in advertising ,but didn’t get it back ”
“How did you write your advertisement ?”asked one of the listeners ,a merchant .
“Here it is,” said the man ,taking out of his pocket a slip cut from a newspaper. The other man took it and read, “Lost from the City Church last Sunday evening a black silk umbrella .The gentleman who finds it will receive ten shillings on leaving it at No 10 Broad Street .”
“Now ,”said the merchant, “I often advertise ,and find that it pays me well .But by the way in which an advertisement is expressed is of extreme importance .let us try your umbrella again ,and if it fails ,I will buy you a new one. ”
The merchant then took a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote :“If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the City Church last Sunday evening doesn’t wish to get into trouble, he will return the umbrella to No. 10 Broad Street .He is well known .”
This appeared in the paper ,and on the following morning ,the man was astonished when he opened the front door. In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colors that had been thrown in and his own was among the number. Many of them had notes fastened to them saying that they had been taken by mistake, and begging the loser not to say anything about the matter This is a story about ________.
| A．how a man lost and found his umbrella. |
| B．how to make an effective advertisement. |
| C．how to find lost things. |
| D．how to put an advertisement in the newspaper. |
“If it fails, I will buy you a new one ” suggested that _______.
| A．he was rich enough to afford an umbrella |
| B．he was not sure he would get the umbrella back |
| C．he was quite sure of his success . |
| D．he was ready to help others . |
The result of the first advertisement was that ________.
| A．the man got his umbrella back . |
| B．the man wasted some money advertising . |
| C．the man found his umbrella |
| D．someone found his umbrella . |
According to the first advertisement ,anyone who ___would receive ten shillings.
| A．left the umbrella in the City Church |
| B．found the umbrella at No. 10 Broad Street |
| C．gave the message to the man |
| D．left the umbrella at No. 10 Broad Street |
Everywhere man is altering the balance of nature．He is facilitating the spread of plants and animals into new regions, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unconsciously．He is covering huge areas with new kinds of plants, or with houses, factories, slag-heaps and other products of his civilization．He exterminates some species on a large scale, but favours the multiplication of others．In brief, he has done more in five thousand years to alter the biological aspect of the planet than has nature in five million．
Many of these changes which he has brought about have had unforeseen consequences．Who would have thought that the throwing away of a piece of Canadian waterweed would have caused half the waterways of Britain to be blocked for a decade, or that the provision of pot cacti for lonely settlers’ wives would have led to Eastern Australian being overrun with forests of Prickly Pear? Who would have prophesied that the cutting down of forests on the Adriatic coasts, or in parts of Central Africa, could have reduced the land to a semidesert, with the very soil washed away from the bare rock? Who would have thought that improved communications would have changed history by the spreading of disease-sleeping sickness into East Africa, measles into Oceania, very possibly malaria into ancient Greece?
These are spectacular examples; but examples on a smaller scale are everywhere to be found．We make a nature sanctuary for rare birds, prescribing absolute security for all species; and we may find that some common and hardy kind of bird multiplies beyond measure and ousts the rare kinds in which we were particularly interested．We see, owing to some little change brought about by civilization, the starling spread over the English country-side in hordes．We improve the yielding capacities of our cattle; and find that now they exhaust the pastures which sufficed for less exigent stock．The following examples except ________ reflect man altering the balance of nature．
| A．man is covering huge areas with new kinds of plants |
| B．man is facilitating the spread of animals into new regions． |
| C．man is killing some species on a large scale |
| D．man is getting to know the importance of keeping the balance of nature． |
What had a piece of Canadian waterweed cause?
| A．Eastern Australian was overrun with forests． |
| B．Half the waterways of Britain blocked for a decade． |
| C．In parts of central Africa, the land reduced to a semidesert． |
| D．Disease-sleeping has been caused． |
What have spread diseases?
| A．Disease-sleeping sickness． | B．Measles． |
| C．Improved communications． | D．Malaria． |
We make a nature sanctuary for rare birds but __________
| A．some common and hardy kind of bird multiplies |
| B．rare kinds multiply |
| C．all bird multiply |
| D．no bird multiply |
The main idea of the passage is _________．
| A．that man is deliberately destroying the balance of nature |
| B．that man has foreseen the consequences of altering the balance old nature |
| C．that improved communications have changed history |
| D．that man is altering the balance of nature |
An annoying problem for humans, who like to boast (夸耀) about all the distant planets and moons we have explored, is that we've never taken a good look right under our noses. The inside of the earth is relatively close, but how can we get there?
The deepest oil well enters a mere six miles into the crust (地壳) (the center of the earth is about 4,000 miles deeper). Russian scientists dug the deepest hole in Siberia, but bottomed out at about 7.5 miles below the surface. The Mohole project, a U.S. plan in the 1950s, called for drilling a hole 25 miles down to the boundary between the hard rocks of the crust and the soft mantle (地幔). Sadly the project involved government supporting.
It gets harder and harder to drill deep into the earth because rocks get softer and softer. Hard but easily broken at the surface, rocks become plastic at depth, and the pressure caused by the weight of the overlaying crust --- about 52,800 pounds per square inch at a depth of ten miles, makes further drilling impossible.
What little we know about the inside of the earth (like the fact that there's a crust, a mantle, and a core) comes from indirect evidence, such as the analysis of earthquakes.
So maybe it's time for a thorough new method to explore the earth's inside. Scientist David Stevenson says we should forget about drilling holes. Instead, we should open a crack (裂缝).
Stevenson suggests digging a crack about a half mile long, a yard wide, and a half mile deep (not with a shovel) but with an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb. Next, he'd pour a few hundred thousand tons of molten (熔化的) iron into the crack, along with a robot. The iron, thicker than the surrounding crust, would move downward at about 16 feet per second, carrying the robot with it and opening the crack deeper and deeper. The iron mass would drop for about a week and 2,000 miles to the outer edge of the earth core, the robot sending out data to the surface.
Stevenson compares his idea to space exploration. "We're going somewhere we haven't been before,"he says. "In all possibility, there will be surprises.”
This idea can probably be put in the drawer marked with Isn't Going To Happen. The robot would have to survive temperatures that would melt pretty much anything. But Stevenson's idea may inspire a new look at an old problem. Great things can come from what seems like impossible ideas.Going inside the earth is _____ than going into space.
| A．more interesting | B．more possible | C．easier | D．more challenging |
How deep have we gone into the earth until now?
| A．6 miles. | B．4,000 miles. | C．7.5 miles. | D．25 miles. |
Which of the following is TRUE about David Stevenson's idea?
| A．It is an inspiring but not practical idea now. |
| B．It is a practical proposal that has come into use now. |
| C．It is a good proposal that will soon be put into practice. |
| D．It is a false theory that cannot be carried out at all. |
What might be the most suitable title for the text?
| A．An Annoying Problem for Humans |
| B．To the Center of the Earth |
| C．The Mohole Project |
| D．David Stevenson's Proposal |
Building after building under water．Refugees in shelters．Thousands of others unsure where to go．Bodies in streets．This is what one of America's historic cities was reduced to this week by a powerful storm, Katrina（卡特里娜）．The mayor of New Orleans says thousands may be dead．Hurricane Katrina also caused death and destruction in parts of Mississippi and Alabama along the Gulf of Mexico．
New Orleans is famous for its wild Mardi Gras celebrations．New Orleans is also a major port for foreign oil and other shipping trade．Yet the city of nearly five hundred thousand people was built below sea level．New Orleans has depended on levees to control floods from the Mississippi River．Katrina struck on Monday．New Orleans avoided a direct hit．But two of the levees failed the next day．Most of the city was flooded．Helicopters dropped huge sandbags to fill the breaks．But the water had no place to go．Pumping stations had no power．
America faces one of the worst natural events in its history．President Bush says the recovery will take years．People were told to leave the path of the storm．But some would not or could not．Many of those worst affected by Katrina are poor and black．African-American leaders and others were angry that government aid did not arrive faster．President Bush visited some of the damaged areas on Friday．He said the way officials reacted to the crisis was unacceptable．Which is true of the following details about New Orleans?
| A．New Orleans is a newly－built city of America |
| B．There were no black people in New Orleans． |
| C．This is the first time that hurricane has stricken it． |
| D．New Orleans is a major port for foreign oil and other shipping trade． |
What does the underlined word “levees”(in the second paragraph) mean?
| A．trees | B．dams | C．ports | D．ships |
Which is right about the Hurricane Katrina?
| A．It also caused the destruction in parts of Mississippi． |
| B．A lot of people died in this disaster． |
| C．It cut off the electricity supply of the city． |
| D．All of the above is right． |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．President Bush was not concerned about this disaster． |
| B．The recovery of the city will take a few days． |
| C．In this disaster the government aid didn’t arrive in time． |
| D．In this city there were no pump stations． |
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