Exploit your parking space
An unused parking space or garage can make money. If you live near a city center or an airport, you could make anything up to £200 or £300 a week. Put an advertisement（广告）for free on Letpark or Atmyhousepark.
Rent（出租）a room
Spare room? Not only will a lodger（房客）earn you an income, but also, thanks to the government-backed "rent a room" program, you won't have to pay any tax on the first £4500 you make per year. Try advertising your room on Roomspare or Roommateeasy.
Make money during special events
Won't want a full-time lodger? Then rent on a short-term basis. If you live in the capital, renting a room out during the Olympics or other big events could bring in money, Grashpadder can advertise your space.
Live on set
Renting your home out as a "film set" could earn you hundreds of pounds a day, depending on the film production company and how long your home is needed. A quick search on the Internet will bring up dozens of online companies that allow you to register your home for free-but you will be charged if your home gets picked.
Use your roof
You need the right kind of roof, but some energy companies pay the cost of fixing solar equipment(around￡14,000), and let you use the energy produced for nothing. In return, they get paid for unused energy fed back into the National Grid. However, you have to sign a 25-year agreement with the supplier, which could prevent you from changing the roof.
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If you earn ￡5000 from renting a room in one year, the tax you need to pay will be based on.
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| 2． |
Where can you put an advertisement to rent out a room during a big event?
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| 3． |
If you want to use energy free, you have to.
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| 4． |
For whom the text most probably written?
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Blogs are being used more and more by teachers. Many Internet services now offer free and easy ways to create personal Web pages.
Through comments on blogs, or Web logs, teachers can share their classroom experiences. They can exchange ideas and discuss successes and failures. They can debate educational policies. Or they can just sympathize with each other.
A teacher in the American state of North Carolina recently wrote on her blog: “Apparently the teachers at my school use too much paper. So my principal yelled at everyone at the last staff meeting for, like, ten minutes. Now, I’ve just been told, we are not getting anymore paper for the rest of the year.”
This unidentified blogger is now in her third year of teaching, but still calls her site firstyearteacher.blogspot.com.
A blogger who calls himself Minister Lawrence works as a substitute teacher. In April he wrote about a disputed plan to split the Omaha, Nebraska, public schools into separate systems for black, Latino and white students. Supporters say minority parents do not have enough power over their children’s education.
But Minister Lawrence wrote at teachersparadise.blogspot.com: “I’m afraid that what this says’ to a lot of people is that blacks, whites and Hispanics are not equal, and “reinforces” racist beliefs among people.”
Educators did not become involved with blogging right away. Many were concerned with privacy issues and security. But now, thousands of teacher blogs can be found on the Internet. Many teachers do not identify themselves, and they change the names of students and co-workers.What are teachers not doing through blogs?
| A．They discuss educational problem. | B．They send money to the poor students. |
| C．They share teaching ideas. | D．They comfort each other. |
What is the main idea for the passage?
| A．More and more teachers are using blogs. | B．It is exciting to use blogs. |
| C．Blogs are popular with students. | D．Educational problems are settled through blogs. |
Why some teachers do not identify themselves? Because ___
| A．they are forbidden to identify themselves. |
| B．they are forbidden to write something through blogs |
| C．they want to ensure their security |
| D．they want to amuse others. |
Which of the following is the result of the teachers’ using blogs?
| A．Paper consuming is declining. | B．Teaching is improving. |
| C．Classes are more active. | D．Government is against it. |
Minister Lawrence’s blogs are about___
| A．classroom experiences | B．teaching plans |
| C．educational policies | D．the black minority |
Just like the young character in Hannah Montana, who so often fights with her father over her desire to be more independent, British teenagers also have their troubles.
A recent survey among 2,000 British parents shows that girls and boys experience similar kinds of stress, with some slight differences .
Girls want to grow up fast, demanding greater freedom. They feel pressure from their peers to be thin and sometimes dangerously experiment with alcohol .
Girls over 14 are more concerned with getting a boyfriend, make-up and going out with friends than with their schoolwork. They are more likely to complain about pocket money .
Parents found they have their toughest time with boys over the age of 15. Their sons are battling bad skin, are reluctant(不情愿的) to speak, and just like girls over 14 are little interested in their studies. Seven out of ten parents said their s
ons become frustrated(挫败的) when they are not understood .
Unsurprisingly, it isn’t just British teenagers who have such problems.
In a survey published in the US last month, two out of three high school students said their life was tough. There was a universal worry over body image and ability to fit in socially.
Plenty of the teenagers feel great pressures to get good grades, with nearly half regarding this as their top worry. The next biggest issue is pressure they face to get into good college. According to the survey, 66 percent reported saving their money to pay for all or part of college.
“Today’s American teens have witnessed what their families have endured during recent economic challenges, and they are much more aware of the importance of planning ahead,” said Stuart Rubinstein, managing director with TD Ameritrade, which carried out the survey.What is the article mainly about?
| A．What makes the lives of teenagers so hard? |
| B．How to deal with teen problems? |
| C．Stress faced by UK and US teenagers. |
| D．Peer pressure faced by UK and US teenagers. |
According to the survey, boys over 15 often feel great pressure to ______.
| A．grow up fast | B．experiment with alcohol |
| C．get into a good college | D．be more open and communicative |
The underlined word “universal” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．global | B．common | C．average | D．reasonable |
How have recent economic challenges affected American teens?
| A．They have become more concerned about their future. |
| B．They are now more worried about the ability to fit in socially. |
| C．They are attempting to learn more about money management. |
| D．They are spending more time developing their practical skills. |
When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers（铜钱）.The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip（条）of vellum（牛皮纸）on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”!
The touchstone was a small pebble（小园石）that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was thi
s: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.
So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold-throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea. 
The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.
So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant（警惕的）, it’s easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.The book was special to the man because ______.
| A．it was made of vellum |
| B．it was the only book that survived the great fire |
C．it was a story about how to tell th e touchstone from ordinary stones |
| D．it included the secret of the touchstone |
He threw pebbles into the sea ______.
| A．to test how far he could throw |
| B．to practice throwing pebbles |
| C．to avoid picking up the same pebble once again |
| D．to express his disappointment at failing to find the touchstone |
What message does the story want to convey?
| A．Careful habits can lead to success. |
| B．Habits can benefit you but also hold you back. |
| C．Never judge a person or a thing by appearances. |
D．Opportunity only visits the re ady and watchful mind |
A Train Floating On Air
A train that floats on air? It's not magic—it's magnets (磁).And it's close to reality.
In Virginia USA the fall of 2002, a train with no wheels traveled on air and carried college students across their campus.In Japan, a whisper-quiet railway engine hovered and raced at 350 miles per hour using magnets and electricity as the power.And in China, a magnet train line linked Shanghai with nearby Pudong Airport.
These trains use magnetic levitation (悬浮) technology, “maglev” for short. They use the same rules as the magnets you pick up at home or school: opposite poles of magnets attract each other, and like poles repel each other.
How does it work?
Powerful magnets on the bottom of the train repel magnets on the track, which is actually just a magnet-filled guiding way. With a magnetic field of sufficient force, the train will go hovering on air, which seemed impossible to us in the past.
When an electrical current is sent through the track, the train moves. Turn the current backwards and the train slows down.
Maglev doesn't rely on the friction (摩擦力) of wheels on track, so it can climb a much steeper hill than a traditional train. And it can travel easily in snow and ice, something that could bring normal trains to a screaming stop.
60. This passage is about __________.
A. maglev B. magnets C. levitation D. electricity
61. Which of the following is a repelling action?
A. B. C. D.
62. What can we learn from the text?
A. A magnet-filled guiding way is formed inside a maglev train.
B. Instead of electricity, magnets are used as the power of a maglev.
C. Maglev trains can climb hills with the help of magnetwheels.
D. Electric currents decide
the movements of a maglev train.
63. What is the difference between a maglev train and an ordinary train?
A. A maglev train can climb mountains without power while an ordinary one can’t.
B. A maglev train can travel in college campus while an ordinary train is not allowed.
C. Travelling without a track, a maglev train is safer and smoother than an ordinary one.
D. Floating on a track, a maglev train is faster, quieter than an ordinary railway train.
It’s a goal for millions and millions of families every year——keep the Christmas spending within a certain amount, but can still afford the gifts that your loved ones will enjoy. Never has this concern been greater in recent years than right now. Even so, there are several things that you can do to help.
Hit the sales.
No one wants to get up at four o’clock in the morning and fight to get the best deal on Black Friday, and it’s surely very tough to pick up the courage and get out there in the cold for a good deal, but sometimes——it can be well worth. Many retailers(零售商) offer specials all through the day——and some even offer online Black Friday specials, so you may still be able to get a great deal on Black Friday.
Pay close attention to advertisements.
Once the Christmas shopping season is coming, retailers hungry for business will do just about whatever to get you in the store. Pay very close attention to weekly advertisements of sales among the major retailers and you may be lucky enough to find different prices for the same thing in different shops.
Shop online.
Some of us don’t like running from store to store in order to get the best price on the perfect gift, and some of us don’t like to go out in the cold at all——thankfully for us, we can do online shopping.
The world of online shopping lets people visit all the major retailers as well as some specialty stores that could only be found on the Internet. Customers can find exactly what they are looking for, at the best possible price without ever having to leave the house. With traditional Christmas shopping consumers are sometimes limited to what’s left in stock if they wait too long to get to a particular store.
The first paragraph implies that ______.
| A．nowadays not many people can afford expensive gifts |
| B．recently many people don’t want to spend money on gifts |
| C．Christmas is a time to make our loved ones enjoy their gifts |
D．Christmas is a time to  make us feel free to buy our loved ones gifts |
In the writer’s opinion, it is rewarding on Black Friday _____.
| A．if the weather is not very cold | B．if we don’t have to fight for the best deals |
| C．if we don’t have to get up early | D．If we get what we want at a good price |
The underlined word “specials” means_______.
| A．some experts in shopping |
| B．certain things for especially low price |
| C．some kind of help for a certain customer |
| D．things that can only be found on Friday |
We can have more choices _____.
| A．on Black Friday | B．in a particular store |
| C．on the Internet | D．from retailers |
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