阅读理解（共20题； 每小题2分， 满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C 和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
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 tricky 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 (网络的) 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 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.What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Sellers. | B．Buyers. | C．Teenagers. | D．Parents. |
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. |
A new way to help teenagers shop online is to use _________.
| A．a new machine | B．special coins and notes |
| C．prepaid cards | D．pay-as-you-go mobile phones |
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. |
Which of the following words can best describe the writer’s attitude towards the phenomenon?
| A．Proud and satisfied. | B．Worried and anxious. |
| C．Objective and informative. | D．Concerned and sad. |
My own experiment with culture shock came to a fruitless end when I returned with homesick from a year’s study in Italy. I had never heard of culture shock. All I knew was that I was unhappy and wanted to go home.
That was twenty years ago, and since then culture shock has become a real field of study. It is now understood that any normal person, finding him or herself for an extended time in a new culture, is in for trouble.
The process of “culture shock” is now recognized as so predictable that its four stages have been noticeable. The first is the honeymoon stage, familiar to those of us who love to travel, but never stay in one place long enough to find out what follows. In this stage, the new country and its people seem delightful. Everything is better than home. Everything is so different and charming.
Then the bloom comes off the rose. Now the people start to look shallow, selfish and stupid. The different ways of doing things don’t seem interesting any more. You start to feel tired all the time. Culture shock has set in. You feel at sea.
The emotional response to culture shock in stage two can be extreme. Confusion, depression and anxiety, and resentment can all enter to varying degrees. You may become physically ill. Little things seem terribly annoying.
The happier resolution is to move on to stage three. Adjusting. Rather than itemizing（列举） what’s “wrong” with Americans, you remind yourself that “right” and “wrong” are not meaningful terms in cultural matters.
Instead, you try to understand what motivates Americans, perhaps realizing that many of the things you don’t like are related to the things you do like.
As time goes on, you should be moving into stage four. Acceptance. At this point, you simply don’t think any more about the specialties of Americans. You accept them as individuals. You have started to feel at home; you know how to do things. You have not rejected your old culture; but the American ways have settled upon you. You feel optimistic about your future here. You have truly arrived. Why do people not suffer from culture shock when they first arrive in a foreign country?
| A．They love to travel. |
| B．They don’t stay in one place long enough. |
| C．The new country and its people are delightful. |
| D．Everything is so different and charming. |
What do you understand by the underlined sentence “Then the bloom comes off the rose”?.
| A．The rose comes up. | B．The rose blooms. |
| C．Something good comes about. | D．Something good goes away. |
Which one is the possible psychological effect of culture shock on the second stage?
| A．Anxiety. | B．Excitement. | C．Shock. | D．Delight. |
Which of the following statements will the writer agree with?
| A．Any normal person facing a new culture will be in trouble. |
| B．Culture shock is now recognized as unpredictable. |
| C．There is no “right” and “wrong” in terms of cultural matters. |
| D．When you reject your old culture, you can accept the new one. |
The passage is mainly about __________.
| A．the study of culture shock |
| B．how to get rid of culture shock |
| C．the writer’s own experiment with culture shock |
| D．the four stages of culture shock and their features |
The use of lotteries (彩票) to allocate (分配) school places is to be reviewed by the British government because more than 20 percent of children are failing to get into their first-choice schools in parts of the country.
The struggle for secondary school places has reached record levels this year, increasing anxiety for hundreds of thousands of families. A report from 43 local authorities suggests that in many areas, up to a fifth of children face disappointment. Families in London are the hardest hit.
This week is admissions week, when about 570,000 families will receive notice about their child’s secondary school acceptance. As the recession (不景气) forces more parents to consider a state education rather than a private one for their children, more than a third of local authorities have noted rises in the number of applications for secondary school places.
This year, just 62 percent of children in Richmond-upon-Thames got into their parents’ first-choice school, down from 64 percent last year. The council said this was caused by an increase in applications.
In another London authority, Tower Hamlet, 71.1 percent of children were admitted to their parents’ first choice school. In Leeds and Warwickshire, 85 percent were successful. In Derby the figure was 81 percent, while in Wiltshire, Stockport and Lincolnshire, the figure was 89 percent.
In many authorities, the figures are similar to those of last year. Exceptions include Brighton and Hove, which introduced a lottery system to allocate oversubscribed places last year. This year, it has seen a 3.5 percent increase in the number of children obtaining their first choice, bringing the total to nearly 88 percent. However, more than 5 percent of children in this area have been allocated a place at a school that was not among any of their choices.
Lotteries are being used at the government’s suggestion by a small number of oversubscribed schools in around twenty-five local authorities. They were meant to prevent middle-class parents from abusing the system by buying or renting homes close to the best schools. According to the passage, more and more parents in Britain prefer to send their children to _______.
| A．a state school | B．a private school |
| C．a school in London | D．a school in Brighton |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．The lottery system is certainly a good way to allocate school places. |
| B．Over one in five children fail to get into their first-choice schools in parts of Britain. |
| C．The lottery system is welcomed by parents around twenty-five local authorities. |
| D．The number of applications for secondly school places is falling this year. |
In the following places, the highest preferred school admission rate is in _______.
| A．Richmond-upon-Thames | B．Brighton and Hove |
| C．Lincolnshire | D．Derby |
The purpose of using lottery system is to ________.
| A．keep middle-class parents buying or renting homes close to the best schools. |
| B．increase the number of children obtaining their first choice |
| C．decrease the number of applications for some good schools |
| D．create equality between children from different social classes |
The passage is most probably taken from _______.
| A．a survey on education | B．a textbook on science |
| C．a speech on radio | D．an essay on economy |
The life of an actor appears attractive and many young people dream about becoming one. But the truth is, it is very hard work. If you’re successful, there are deadlines to be met, appointments to keep and the press to deal with. If you’re not successful, then life is extremely tough.
I remember when I started out, I had to search the advertisement board at my drama school every day to look for acting jobs. Drama school was expensive and I needed extra cash to help pay the fees. I welcomed every small job. I played extras in many crowd scenes and became a confident participant in a lot of TV commercials for hair shampoo, soap and washing powder.
I had been working for about two years before I got my lucky break. One day, as I was passing the drama school, I decided to go in to check the notice board. There was nothing on it and I was just leaving when the secretary came along the corridor with a piece of paper. She asked me how I was and I told her life was hard and work was difficult to find. The next moment, she put the paper in my hand and walked away. My hands were shaking as I unfolded the paper, full of expectation. To my surprise, it was an audition (试演) for a clown（小丑）for the Canadian circus. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I had expected an audition with a famous director for a new film!
When I was at drama school, there had been a course in acrobatics and clown tricks. I had gained top marks in this course for originality and daring. Later I went to the audition feeling very strange. This was not what I’d had in mind when I enrolled in drama school. To my surprise, the job as a clown turned out to be exactly what I wanted. I loved every moment of getting dressed up and putting on the make-up. I had the opportunity to travel the world and I was more than an actor, I was an entertainer as well. I had visited over 32 different countries and entertained millions of people. The first paragraph is about how _______ it is to be an actor, whether you’re successful or not.
| A．easy | B．attractive | C．enjoyable | D．difficult |
According to paragraph 3, the writer went into the drama school __________.
| A．to look for a job |
| B．to see the secretary |
| C．to collect a piece of paper |
| D．to put a notice on the notice board |
Which of the following can best describe the author’s feeling when he unfolded the paper?
| A．Extremely frightened. | B．Feeling anxious and excited. |
| C．Very worried. | D．Trembling with fear. |
From the whole passage, we can tell that the writer is ___________.
| A．sad that he was not a famous actor |
| B．happy to travel the world |
| C．feeling very strange to be a clown |
| D．very content with his life |
Which of the following would be the best title?
| A．The Life of a TV Actor | B．Acrobatics and Clown Tricks |
| C．More than an Actor | D．Going to Drama School |
LONDON (Reuters) — Children are dying for lack of drugs tailored to their needs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which launched a global campaign on Thursday to promote more research into child medicine.
More than half of the drugs currently used to treat children in the industrialized world have not been specifically tested on youngsters.
The problem is even worse in developing countries where price remains a major barrier and 6 million children die each year from treatable conditions.
In the case of HIV/AIDS, the few existing pediatric therapies（儿科的疗法）developed for children generally cost three times more than adult ones.
As a result, clinicians lack clear guidelines on the best drug to use and often have to guess at the correct dose.
Fortunately, the WHO has drawn up the first international List of Essential Medicines for Children, containing 206 products considered safe for children.
“But a lot remains to be done. There are priority medicines that have not been adapted for children’s use or are not available when needed,” said Dr Hans, the U.N. agency’s director of medicines policy and standards.
Medicines that need to be adapted to children’s needs include many antibiotics, pain drugs as well as combination pills for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The agency is building an Internet entrance linking to clinical trials carried out in children and will launch a Web site with the information early next year.
Testing medicines on children has always been a controversial issue, since good ethical（伦理的）practice requires informed agreement from people participating in clinical trials, which is difficult to obtain in the case of children.
As a result, research-based drug companies have been wary of developing child-friendly medicines and general companies have been slow to produce them at lower cost.
In an attempt to deal with the issue, both Europe and the United States now have special rules offering extended patent protection for drugs that have been tested on children. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
| A．A Global Campaign to Promote Research into AIDS Medicine |
| B．WHO Says Children are Dying for Lack of Child-sized Drugs |
| C．Many People are Concerned about Children’s Drugs |
| D．Measures Taken to Develop Child-friendly Medicine Quickly |
Which of the following medicine is not needed to be adapted to children’s need according to the passage?
| A．Pain killers. | B．Tuberculosis. |
| C．AID pills. | D．Flu pills. |
Why has testing medicines on children always been a controversial issue?
| A．It is against good ethical practice |
| B．Children shouldn’t take part in clinical trials. |
| C．It is hard to get informed agreement from children tested. |
| D．Parents don’t allow their children to be tested on medicine. |
The underlined word “wary” in the last but one paragraph means _________.
| A．fast | B．fond | C．cautious | D．uninterested |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．There is still a long way to go on children’s medicine. |
| B．An Internet entrance is being built to link to clinical trials carried out in children. |
| C．Both Europe and the United States now have special rules offering extended patent protection for children’s drugs. |
| D．Less than half of the drugs currently used to treat children in the industrialized world have not been specifically tested on youngsters |
Online shoppers would rather receive an offer for a product or service than make their own offer 3 according to a study led by a Michigan State University scholar that has implications for the fast-growing e-commerce industry. The findings may come as a surprise given that shopping online is an anonymous(匿名的）process that seemingly can give consumers more confidence to drive a hard bargain,said Don Conlon ，Professor of Management in MSU’s Broad College of Business.
But the study found that participants who made their own offers were less successful in sealing the deal and ，when they were successful? worried they overpaid Many shoppers found the process of researching an offer to be a hassle. “ Americans are very busy，and it’s less time-consuming to be the one receiving the offer rather than the one proposing the offer ” Conlon said. u People tend to be happier when they’re in the receiver role. ”
Online spending in the United States is expected to jump 45 percent in the next four years， from $ 226 billion this year to $ 327 billion in 2017，according to Forrester Research Inc. Nevertheless, researches into this prosperous market remain largely focused on the strategies of companies, rather than those o£ shoppers. Conlon’s study is ，obviously, a rare exception.
Conlon got the idea for the study after considering the difference between two popular sites for hotels and airline flights, priceline.com, which takes bids, and hotwire.com ，which provides offers. Using these two models ，Conlon and his fellow researchers conducted a series of experiments with more than 850 people who were charged with booking a fictional hotel room and acquiring a fictional antique car. Not only did participants prefer to receive bids, Conlon said ，but they also secured more deals in that receiver role. Further ，when they had to make the bids ，they were left more mentally taxed and regretful.
From an industry perspective，putting customers in the receiver role may help fill more hotel rooms and airplane seats. “If you’re a business with a lot of products3 ” Conlon said，“you may want to be the one making the offers. ” However, when selling single items, such as an antique car， accepting bids may be a better option since that typically drives up the price, he said.
What can we learn from Para. 1?
| A．The result of the study gives customers more confidence. |
| B．Scholars aren’t surprised at the findings of the study. |
| C．Online shoppers don’t bargain as much as expected. |
| D．E-commerce industry drives more hard bargains. |
It can be concluded from Conlon’s experiments that______.
| A．online shopping is time-consuming |
| B．given prices help promote online sales |
| C．online businesses provide a lot of products |
| D．receiving offers makes online shoppers regretful |
The underlined word “taxed” in Para. 4 probably means______.
| A．burdened | B．numbed | C．relieved | D．challenged |
The passage is mainly about______.
| A．the big advantages of online shopping |
| B．the rapid development of online shopping |
| C．online shoppers’ preference for taking offers |
| D．online companies strategies to improve service |
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