Cleveland has won the distinction of being the worst city in the United States, according to a new survey. The city has high unemployment, terrible weather, heavy taxes, and ordinary sports teams, all of which have pushed it to the No. 1 position in the Forbes.com list.
"Cleveland was the only city that fell in the bottom half of rankings in all nine categories. And it has been entitled with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake by the lake," Forbes said on its website,
The economic downturn hit cities across the United States last year particularly in the mid-west section of the country. Crime and unemployment secured the No. 2 spot for Stockton, which held the top position in last year's ranking. Memphis got third place thanks to its violent crime rate and the number of officials who are guilty, while the poor auto industry drove the Michigan cities of Detroit and Flint into the top five.
"A lot of the cities that showed up on our list are going through hard times fight now, dealing with high unemployment, with declining producing bases. Many have experienced strong movement out of the city over the last 20 and 30 years."
Despite (尽管) its fine weather, Miami scored in the bottom 10 percent in commuting (上下班往返) time, and violent crime which sent it into sixth place.
"One of the biggest surprises is Miami. The good weather and no state income taxes blur some of the severe problems that Miami has related to crime as well as long commutes," Badenhausen added.
Florida was followed in the poor ranking by St Louis, Buffalo, Canton, Ohio and Chicago, which has the country's highest sales tax at 10.25 percent. New York, the nation's biggest city, is rich in culture but its lengthy commuting time and high income taxes pushed it into 16th place.From the text we can learn that ______.
| A．Cleveland has been entitled a lovely nickname |
| B．the economic downturn hit cities in the mid-east section |
| C．Miami scored in the bottom 10 percent in all nine categories |
| D．commuting time in New York is too long |
What information can be inferred according to the text?
| A．The number of officials who are guilty is large in Memphis. |
| B．Stockton got second place in last year's ranking. |
| C．High income taxes made New York get 16th place. |
| D．Ohio has the country's highest sales tax. |
The word "blur" underlined in the last paragraph but one probably means ______.
| A．make it possible | B．make it unclear | C．make if obvious | D．make it important |
Which of the following is the correct ranking order?
| A．Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, Buffalo, Florida. |
| B．Stockton, Miami, Flint, Florida, Canton. |
| C．Cleveland, Stockton, Miami, Chicago, Florida. |
| D．Stockton, Detroit, Miami, Florida, St Louis. |
WUHAN - A 72-year-old woman, Wang Yulan, has started legal procedures against Carrefour after she was falsely accused of stealing in the supermarket.
Wang’s lawyer Wen Jun said they filed a lawsuit (提起诉讼) at the Donghu district court, making two demands.
First, Wang wants Carrefour to make a public apology and the apology letter should be put up in the Carrefour store or in the media.
“We also demand 50,000 yuan in compensation (赔偿) for my wife’s psychological injuries,” Wang’s husband, Yan Fucun, said, “We don’t mean to extort money from Carrefour, but asked for it as a recognition of respect. Besides the money spent on lawsuit costs, I will donate the rest to charity.”
Wang earlier said she went to the store’s Guanggu branch to buy cereal. She picked up 20 packs of a particular brand and was given another four as gifts by a saleswoman. However, when she arrived at the checkout, the cashier insisted Wang pay for all 24 packs, which led to an argument. The saleswoman later denied she said the extra packs were free. A store supervisor led Wang to an office, accused her of theft and had her sign a form and pose for photos. Wang and her husband returned to the store the next day with the local media to demand an explanation.
Carrefour China then apologized for the incident on its Sina micro blog, saying the managers and staff members involved have visited Wang’s home and apologized. The company also sent three apology letters to Wang in the following three days.
Eric Legros, president of Carrefour China, said，“We made a mistake and we apologized four times. Four times, you know. And Carrefour will not do anything more about it.”
Wen Jun said the supermarket’s management came with risks. For instance, Wen said the company would offer employees money if they caught a thief in the store. “I hope this case will be a warning for the staff who want to get money by such an immoral (不道德的) method,” Wen said.The purpose of this passage is to ____
| A．warn customers of the trap in buying |
| B．report an incident and related information |
| C．appeal to customers to defend their own rights |
| D．support Wang in dealing with the incident |
It can be inferred that ____.
| A．Wang and Carrefour will soon make up |
| B．Wang and her husband asked for 50,000 yuan for psychological injuries |
| C．Carrefour admitted their mistake but will not do anything more |
| D．It may be long before Wang and Carrefour reach an agreement |
What does the underlined word mean in paragraph 4?
| A．spent money as one likes |
| B．asked for money illegally |
| C．received money in compensation |
| D．collected money for a particular purpose |
What is the order of things happening?
a. The saleswoman denied she said the extra packs were free.
b. Wang and her husband returned to the store for an explanation.
c. Wang took 24 packs of cereal to the checkout
d. A store supervisor accused her of theft
e. Carrefour China apologized for the incident on its micro blog
| A．c, a, d, b, e | B．c, d, a, b, e |
| C．a, d, b, c, e | D．e, b, a, c, d |
Part-Time Trainer -- Hong Kong (Financial Markets)
Objectives and responsibilities:
•Teach public and/or in-house training programs, based on Kaplan training materials
•Work 1 or 2 mornings/afternoons on weekends or a few evenings on weekdays
•Flexibility to work in our centre
Requirements:
•Provide legal advice to banks or financial institutions
•Possess solid knowledge in finance and risk management
•Years of experience as a banker, lawyer, business advisor or analyst
•Strong communication skills
Email your cover letter and resume to seiling.ng@kaplan.com
Lecturer
Requirements:
•Holder of accountancy qualification
•Deliver accounting material in clear and straight-forward manner
•Understand students learning needs
•Keen on teaching & able to work flexible hours
•Full time Universities or Institutions teaching experience is a must.
Send your application letter with full resume stating present and expected salary to: Human Resources Manager, Kaplan Hong Kong via email hr@kaplan.com.hk.
Part-time helper
Duties:
•To add Chinese to videos by using a software, training will be provided
Requirements:
•University Graduate
•Proficient (精通) in English & Chinese
•Able to read & understand simplified Chinese
•Proficient in MS office and Chinese Word Processing (simplified or traditional Chinese)
•Being immediately available is a must.
Send your application letter with full resume stating present and expected salary to: Human Resources Manager, Kaplan Hong Kong via email hr@kaplan.com.hkIf you want to apply for Part-Time Trainer, you should ____.
| A．email hr@kaplan.com.hk |
| B．have experience of teaching before |
| C．speak fluent English and Chinese |
| D．be able to communicate with people easily |
Who can get the job of Lecturer?
| A．A man who has a clear way of teaching accounting materials. |
| B．A man who has ever taught part time in Universities and Institutions. |
| C．A man who can just work on fixed time. |
| D．A man without an accountancy qualification but are keen on teaching |
If a man meets all the requirements but can’t go to the new job at once, which job is NOT suitable?
| A．Part-Time Trainer | B．Lecturer |
| C．Part-time helper | D．All the three jobs |
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on well with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it had ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one number of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with me.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change. ”What is the popular image of the teenagers today?
| A．They worry about school. |
| B．They quarrel a lot with other family members. |
| C．They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. |
| D．They dislike living with their parents. |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents ____________.
| A．go to clubs more often with their children |
| B．are much stricter with their children |
| C．give their children more freedom |
| D．care less about their children’s life |
According to the writer, teenage rebellion __________.
| A．may be a false belief |
| B．is common nowadays |
| C．existed only in the 1960s |
| D．resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Negotiation in family. |
| B．Education in family. |
| C．Harmony in family. |
| D．Teenage trouble in family. |
Everyone, please imagine, a big explosion breaks out as the plane takes us high in the sky. The plane is full of smoke and the engine sounds scary. Two minutes later, the engines are turned off. We are now sitting in a plane with no sound. And we can see: Life is over.
That really happened. In January 2009, I had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York.
Now let me tell you the three things I learned when the silence came.
First, I thought about all the people I wanted to reach out to but didn’t. I thought about all the experiences I wanted to have but never did. I no longer wanted to put off anything in life. Second, I really regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter. I decided to remove negative energy from my life. Third, I realized, wow, dying was not scary. But it was very sad just because I only wished I could have seen my kids grow up.
Fortunately, I was given the gift of a miracle of not dying that day. I was given another gift, with which I was to see into the future and come back and live differently.
About a month later, my wife and I were at a performance by my daughter, not much artistic talent. Yet, I’m crying. I realized that above all, the only goal in my life was to be a good father.
Audience, again, imagine the same thing happening on your plane. How would you change? What would you get done? And more than anything, are you being the best parent you can?
Thank you.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．Air crash is always a tragedy. |
| B．What I learned from the air crash. |
| C．Life is a miracle as we imagine. |
| D．How to become a good father. |
When does the idea “Life is over” come into being?
| A．Exactly during the explosion. |
| B．When the plane was full of smoke. |
| C．Before the engines sounded scary. |
| D．When the engines were turned off. |
What is the author’s final goal in life?
| A．Never to put off anything in life. |
| B．To remove negative energy from life. |
| C．To see his daughter grow up. |
| D．To be a good father. |
What type of writing is this text?
| A．A speech on one’s air travel experience. |
| B．An emergency crash-landing guide. |
| C．An introduction of an adventure novel. |
| D．A safety training for air passengers. |
Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.
Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.
Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims（声称）as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species (物种) are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.
If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting（筑巢）season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.
Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.
You can see that birds have a language all their own. Most of it has to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.Some scientists believe that most of the time birds’ singing is actually __________.
| A．an expression of happiness | B．a way of warning |
| C．an expression of anger | D．a way of greeting |
What is a bird’s “territory”?
| A．A place where families of other species are not accepted. |
| B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice. |
| C．An area for which birds fight against each other. |
| D．An area which a bird considers to be its own. |
Why do birds keep on singing at nesting season?
| A．Because they want to invite more friends. |
| B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away. |
| C．Because they want to find outsiders around. |
| D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears. |
How does the writer explain birds’ singing?
| A．By comparing birds with human beings. |
| B．By reporting experiment results. |
| C．By describing birds’ daily life. |
| D．By telling a bird’s story. |
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