Like lots of small-business owners, Lola Gonzalez had to decide to cut down her company’s nine-person staff (员工) when the economic recovery began to fail last spring. Unlike other companies, she picked an unlikely employee to lay off (解雇): herself.
Her business began to have problems in 2008 after going through her books (账簿)
One day, her husband, Marcos, told her she had to reduce her payroll（薪金总额）by one person. Gonzalez said at a meeting, “I want you all to know that I have to lay somebody off and it’s been a very difficult decision. And that person is me.” Employees first froze in amazement and then burst into laughter until they realized she was serious. Gonzalez ’s employees said they were grateful for her kindness.
Her reason was simple. Although she ran the business and her employees did the legwork (跑腿), she thought she could find work more easily than her staff. Sure enough, she soon got a job as a social worker for a non-profit organization called Devereux Kids. She enjoys her social-worker job now, but the salary (薪水) cut has required some lifestyle changes. She and Marcos no longer eat out daily; they no longer pay for their son’s car and mobile phone, and they changed their car to a smaller one to save $300 a month.
Her business has picked up a bit recently and Marcos has begun to work part-time at Gonzalez’s company. Gonzalez says she has no plan to return to work at her company until the economic situation becomes better, perhaps in a year. Her employees, however, will get Christmas bonuses (奖金) this year.How many workers are there in Gonzalez’s company at present?
| A．8. | B．9. | C．10. | D．11. |
How did her employees feel at first when they heard Gonzalez’s decision?
| A．Happy. | B．Grateful. | C．Surprised. | D．Unbelievable. |
After leaving her company, _____________.
| A．Gonzalez sold her car and went to work by bus |
| B．Gonzalez always had meals in a restaurant |
| C．Gonzalez’s son helped her a lot |
| D．Gonzalez changed her lifestyle a lot |
From the text, we can learn that ___________.
| A．Gonzalez will not return to her company in future |
| B．Gonzalez’s business has improved a little lately |
| C．Gonzalez got her social-worker job with great difficulty |
| D．Marcos lost his job and had to work at Gonzalez’s company |
It is now February 7, 2035. The search engine TalkTalk will be open to the public next week and this service will soon be something beyond your imagination. For the first time you can not only talk to the search engine, but you can discuss with it what you are looking for.
For example, if you want to know more about the oil price, TalkTalk asks if you want to know the current oil price, the development of the oil price, or news related to the oil price. You say that you want to read news about it and TalkTalk then directs you to your source, or lets you have the latest news related to the oil price in order from the most respectable sources.
Compared with other search services that use a certain algorithm (程序) to provide data from a search, the artificial intelligence (人工智能) behind TalkTalk is said to easily spot if a certain source is aiming to cheat the searcher. TalkTalk also judges and stores every given reply and discussion, to learn how to give correct answers. TalkTalk is also set to answer questions directly where there is a definite answer. How well this will work in the long run is yet to be seen, but thousands of people have tested TalkTalk and the quality is really good.
The first talking search engine saw the light of day more than 30 years ago and was called Speegle. It could read the results from a written search on the Internet, and was mostly for blind people.
So far, TalkTalk cannot read the information from a certain source to you by phone, if it is not freely available. There are currently talks to find an arrangement for this, but it would most likely be difficult because of copyright(版权).
TalkTalk is available over the Internet and also by phone, even though it only speaks English. There are no plans to add other languages in the near future, most likely because it will cost a lot of money. When you are tired of asking TalkTalk all your questions, just ask, “Where is TalkTalk?” and you will get an answer that will make you leave it with a smile on your lips.
The example in Paragraph 2 is given to show .
| A．how to use the search engine TalkTalk |
| B．how to search for news on the Internet |
| C．the oil price is a very hot issue currently |
| D．TalkTalk has a very high intelligence |
The advantage of TalkTalk is that it can .
| A．be available wherever you go |
| B．tell if a certain source is reliable |
| C．read the search results for you |
| D．offer different kinds of search results |
What can be inferred from the text?
| A．TalkTalk can read all the information online. |
| B．TalkTalk will speak other languages soon. |
| C．TalkTalk may have a bright future. |
| D．TalkTalk is very expensive. |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Hello, TalkTalk |
| B．Where is TalkTalk |
| C．TalkTalk is improving |
| D．Development of search engines |
In which part of a future newspaper can you read the text?
| A．Opinion. | B．Culture. |
| C．Lifestyle. | D．Technology. |
When you walk into a room on the 17th floor of Copenhagen’s Bella Sky Hotel, you’ll be greeted by soft roses and other fresh flowers, fruits, fashion magazines, and a bathroom with beauty products. This is Europe’s first hotel floor dedicated（专用的）entirely to women—and according to the hotel’s CEO Arne Bang Mikkelsen, it is designed by women, for women.
“Women’s hotel preferences（偏爱）are very different from men’s with key priorities（优先考虑的事）being to feel safe and comfortable. When men come into a hotel room, the first thing they do is check the view, turn on the TV, plug in their computer, and check out the fridge. Women, on the other hand, go straight to the bathroom. Does it smell nice? Is it clean? Does it have a nice bathtub and shower?”
Unlike other hotels, it seemed like someone actually thought about what women wanted. To get it right, the hotel asked a number of women what they wanted, and added to their list of things like cleanliness, a nice bathroom, high-powered hairdryers, steam irons, cosmetic mirrors, healthy choices on the room service menus, and full-body mirrors.
It seems that they are helped by the boom（繁荣）in female business travelers. Global numbers are hard to get, but a research report shows women account for about half of all business travelers in the US in 2010, up from approximately 25% in 1991.
Places like the Naumi Hotel in Singapore, the Premier Hotel in New York, the London Dukes Hotel and the Georgian Court Hotel in Vancouver seem to be realizing the possibility in catering（迎合）for women.
At the London Dukes Hotel, the manager says bookings（预订）for their “Duchess Rooms”，which are standard rooms with fresh flowers, fruit, and styling things, have increased 25% over the past year.We can learn from the text that Bella Sky Hotel _______.
A. is the first hotel designed for women
B. offers special service to women guests
C. has a big garden with all kinds of flowers
D. can arrange rooms according to guests’ wishes
57. Paragraph 2 mainly wants to tell us _______.
A. men are wiser in choosing hotels
B. guests usually care about fort most
C. women differ from men in judging a hotel
D. hotels have difficulty satisfying each guestWhat can we learn from the text?
| A．Men guests usually don’t care about hotels’ cleanliness. |
| B．Living in a hotel, women guests may consider their safety. |
| C．Women business travelers spend more than men in hotels. |
| D．In the US the number of women travelers is higher than men. |
The example of the London Dukes Hotel is used to show ________.
| A．London is known for hotel management |
| B．guests like to experience different hotels |
| C．the new hotel service is very popular |
| D．hotel industry is developing rapidly |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．How to run hotels. |
| B．A new practice in hotel service. |
| C．Different hotels’ service in the world. |
| D．Differences between men and women hotel guests. |
PART THREE READING PREHENSION （共15小题；每小题 2分，满分30分）
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage.
A
With school out and hot weather in, it’s not unusual for youngsters to gather around the refrigerator or the television rather than take part in active play. Such habits may be relaxing but can wreck a healthy lifestyle, say specialists at Texas Children’s Hospital.
“For some kids, the state of feeling bored triggers（引发）eating,” says Jennifer Thomas, a doctor at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. “A child can pick up 5 to 10 pounds over the course of a summer, so it’s important to recognize the difference between boredom（无聊）and hunger.”
Because children may be adjusting（适应）to lack of routine, adding some structure to their daily schedules can help. “For example, instead of letting kids eat while they watch television, permit eating only in the kitchen with the television turned off,” says Thomas. “This way can help determine if they are really hungry or just bored.”
If hunger causes a snack attack, nutritious snacks should be available（可得到的）and easy to reach, says Thomas. She suggests two or more servings of fruit and three or more servings of vegetables as a reasonable（合情理的）daily goal. Thomas says, “Fresh or frozen fruit is better than fruit juice. Fresh or frozen vegetables are better because canned vegetables usually contain salt.”
In general, kids should avoid snacks with high sugar content, says Thomas. “More importantly, if a sugary snack takes the place of healthier food, the child is not getting the nutrition he or she needs. High-fat food tends to make a child feel worried, while eating foods that are naturally lower in fat will make it easier for kids to feel more energetic and stay on the go.”
What can help to stop children from eating because of boredom?
| A．Giving them a daily schedule. |
| B．Giving them a lot of snacks. |
| C．Preventing them from watching TV. |
| D．Making them eat a lot of fruits. |
What kind of snacks should we give children?
| A．Fruit juice. |
| B．Frozen fruit. |
| C．Canned vegetables. |
| D．Snacks rich in sugar. |
Foods that are naturally lower in fat are necessary for children because _______.
| A．they help children lose weight |
| B．they help children get necessary nutrition |
| C．they stop children from getting bored |
| D．they make children active and energetic |
We can infer from the text that _______.
| A．it’s hard to tell the difference between boredom and hunger |
| B．children may get bored for lack of routine in summer |
| C．we should limit children’s eating while they’re watching TV |
| D．nutritious snacks should be available at any time |
The underlined word “wreck” in Paragraph 1 probably means“_______”.
| A．improve | B．change | C．ruin | D．include |
A Korean wave is sweeping across China, with many Chinese women worshiping South Korean actors Kin Soo hyun and Lee Min ho as demigods(偶像)．Chinese netizens always have different opinions．Over South Korean TV dramas, but there is no doubt that programs from the neighboring country are now enjoying a new round of popularity in China, And a big part of the credit for that goes to You Who Came From The Star, the South Korean TV series which is on the air now．
You Who Came From The Star and The Heirs (继承者们) have been subjects of hot online discussions throughout Asia．Besides, the book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, read by the hero You Who Came From The Star was a hard to get item on Amazon for a while．
The two TV programs have several common elements (因素)：a tall, handsome, and rich hero who loves the heroine blindly and always protects her, and an equally handsome man madly in love with the same woman．Both programs describe the purity of love, which is expressed through a kiss or a warm hug．Perhaps that’s the secret of their success; perhaps people still like Cinderella type stories．
The widening wealth gap is a matter of social concern both in South Korea and China, and the challenges that young people face in their hope for a better life might have caused many ordinary girls to dream of marrying rich, caring men．This is precisely what the popular South Korean TV drams describe．In fact, South Korean TV dramas are tailored to meet the market’s demands．
Many netizens even said at an earlier time that South Korean TV dramas had become popular because of their stereotyped (模式化的) themes: traffic accidents, cancer and other incurable diseases．But all that has changed with the success of You Who Came From The Star and The Heirs, which Chinese directors can use as examples, as well as inspiration, to improve their productions．What is the main reason for a new round of popularity in China?
| A．The dramas are from the neighboring country North Korea． |
| B．Most of the Chinese netizens have voted for them． |
| C．The actors in the dramas are all gods． |
| D．It is because of You Who Came From The Star． |
Which is NOT included in the elements for the success of South Korean dramas?
| A．Charming pure love stories． |
| B．A tender kiss and a warm hug． |
| C．Handsome and rich heroes． |
| D．The heroine’s blind love with the rich． |
The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 means that they are designed to _______．
| A．develop in a large scale |
| B．be measured to a certain size |
| C．meet popular taste purposely |
| D．be shown in a big market |
The main purpose of stereotyped themes in South Korean dramas is to________．
| A．present an idea |
| B．attract TV viewers |
| C．make them colorful |
| D．arouse some challenges |
Our risk of cancer rises rapidly as we age．So it makes sense that the elderly should be routinely screened(拍片检查) for new tumors (肿瘤) or doesn’t it?
While such tracking of cancer is a good thing in general, researchers are increasingly questioning whether all of this testing is necessary for the elderly．With the percentage of people over age 65 expected to nearly double by 2050, it s important to weigh the health benefits of screening against the risks and costs of routine testing．
In many cases, screening can lead to additional examinations and operations to remove cancer, which can cause side effects, while the cancers themselves may be slow growing and may not cause serious health problems in patients’ remaining years．But the message that everyone must screen for cancer has become so ingrained (根深蒂固的) that when health care experts recommended that women under 50 and over 74 stop screening for breast cancer, it caused a noisy reaction among doctors, patients and social groups．
It’s hard to uproot deeply held beliefs about cancer screening with scientific data．Certainly, there are people over age 75 who have had cancers detected by routine screening, and gained several extra years of life because of treatment．And clearly, people over age 75 who have other risk factors for cancer, such as a family history or previous personal experience with the disease, should continue to get screened regularly．But for the rest, the risk of cancer, while increased at the end of life, must be balanced with other factors like remaining life expectancy．
A recent study suggests that doctors start to make more objective decisions about who will truly benefit from screening—especially considering the explosion of the elderly．
It’s not an easy calculation to make, but one that makes sense for patients．Dr．Otis Brawley said, “Many doctors are ordering these tests purely to cover themselves from medical disputes（争端）．We need to think about the wise use of health care, which means making some difficult decisions with elderly patients, and going against the misguided belief that when it comes to health care, more is always better．”
Routine cancer screening for the elderly people makes sense because ______．
| A．it is believed to contribute to a long life |
| B．it is part of their health care package |
| C．they are more sensitive about the health |
| D．they are in greater danger of tumor growth |
How do some researchers now look at routine cancer screening for the elderly?
| A．It adds too much to their medical bills． |
| B．They are doubtful about its necessity． |
| C．It helps increase their life expectancy． |
| D．They think it does more harm than good． |
What is the traditional view about women screening for breast cancer?
| A．It is a must for adult women． |
| B．It applies to women over 50． |
| C．It is intended for young women． |
| D．It doesn’t apply to women over 74． |
What does the writer say is the general view about health care?
| A．Better care, longer life． |
| B．Prevention is better than cure． |
| C．Better early than late． |
| D．The more, the better． |
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