A businessman walks into a bank in San Francisco and asks for the loan officer. He says he is going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000．The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for such a loan. So the businessman hands over the keys to a Rolls Royce parking on the street in front of the bank. Everything checks out, and the bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. An employee drives the Rolls into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there.
Two weeks later, the businessman returns, and repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41.
The loan officer says, “We are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is why would you bother to borrow $5,000?”
Laughing, the businessman replies, “Where else in San Francisco can I park my car for two weeks for $15?”The businessman walks into the bank with the true purpose of _________.
| A．borrowing $5,000 |
| B．meeting the loan officer |
| C．finding a place to park his car |
| D．showing how rich he is |
The loan officer is puzzled because _________.
| A．he never thought he could meet a multimillionaire in his bank |
| B．he thinks the businessman is crazy to leave his car in the bank |
| C．he never thought the businessman could drive a Rolls Royce |
| D．he thinks $5,000 is so small a sum of money to the businessman |
The underlined word “collateral” in Paragraph 1 most probably means “_________”.
| A．security | B．payment |
| C．reward | D．deal |
Which of the following words can best describe the businessman according to the story?
| A．Honest. | B．Clever. | C．Rich. | D．Kind. |
C
However wealthy we may be, we can never find enough hours in the day to do everything we want. Economics deals with this problem through the concept of opportunity cost, which simply refers to whether someone’s time or money could be better spent on something else.
Every hour of our time has a value. For every hour we work at one job we could quite easily be doing another, or be sleeping or watching a film. Each of these options has a different opportunity cost—namely, what they cost us in missed opportunities.
Say you intend to watch a football match but the tickets are expensive and it will take you a couple of hours to get to and from the stadium. Why not, you might reason, watch the game from home and use the leftover money and time to have dinner with friends? This—the alternative use of your cash and time—is the opportunity cost.
For economists, every decision is made by knowledge of what one must forgo—in terms of money and enjoyment—in order to take it up. By knowing precisely what you are receiving and what you are missing out on, you ought to be able to make better-informed, more reasonable decisions. Consider that most famous economic rule of all: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Even if someone offers to take you out to lunch for free, the time you will spend in the restaurant still costs you something in terms of forgone opportunities.
Some people find the idea of opportunity cost extremely discouraging: imagine spending your entire life calculating whether your time would be better spent elsewhere doing something more profitable or enjoyable. Yet, in a sense it’s human nature to do precisely that—we assess the advantages and disadvantages of decisions all the time.
In the business world, a popular phrase is “value for money.” People want their cash to go as far as possible. However, another is fast obtaining an advantage: “value for time.” The biggest restriction on our resources is the number of hours we can devote to something, so we look to maximize the return we get on our investment of time. By reading this passage you are giving over a bit of your time which could be spent doing other activities, such as sleeping and eating. In return, however, this passage will help you to think like an economist, closely considering the opportunity cost of each of your decisions.According to the passage, the concept of “opportunity cost” is applied to ________.
| A．making more money |
| B．taking more opportunities |
| C．reducing missed opportunities |
| D．weighing the choice of opportunities |
The “leftover ... time” in Paragraph 3 probably refers to the time ________.
| A．spared for watching the match at home |
| B．taken to have dinner with friends |
| C．spent on the way to and from the match |
| D．saved from not going to watch the match |
What are forgone opportunities?
| A．Opportunities you forget in decision-making. |
| B．Opportunities you give up for better ones. |
| C．Opportunities you miss accidentally. |
| D．Opportunities you make up for. |
B
One morning, Ann’s neighbor Tracy found a lost dog wandering around the local elementary school. She asked Ann if she could keep an eye on the dog. Ann said that she could watch it only for the day.
Tracy took photos of the dog and printed off 400 FOUND fliers（传单）, and put them in mailboxes. Meanwhile, Ann went to the dollar store and bought some pet supplies, warning her two sons not to fall in love with the dog. At the time, Ann’s son Thomas was 10 years old, and Jack, who was recovering from a heart operation, was 21 years old.
Four days later Ann was still looking after the dog, whom they had started to call Riley. When she arrived home from work, the dog threw itself against the screen door and barked madly at her. As soon as she opened the door, Riley dashed into the boys’ room where Ann found Jack suffering from a heart attack. Riley ran over to Jack, but as soon as Ann bent over to help him the dog went silent.
“If it hadn’t come to get me, the doctor said Jack would have died,” Ann reported to a local newspaper. At this point, no one had called to claim the dog, so Ann decided to keep it.
The next morning Tracy got a call. A man named Peter recognized his lost dog and called the number on the flier. Tracy started crying, and told him, “That dog saved my friend’s son.”
Peter drove to Ann’s house to pick up his dog, and saw Thomas and Jack crying in the window. After a few moments Peter said, “Maybe Odie was supposed to find you, maybe you should keep it.”What did Tracy do after finding the dog?
| A．She looked for its owner |
| B．She gave it to Ann as a gift. |
| C．She sold it to the dollar store. |
| D．She bought some food for it. |
How did the dog help save Jack?
| A．By breaking the door for Ann. |
| B．By leading Ann to Jack’s room. |
| C．By dragging Jack out of the room. |
| D．By attending Jack when Ann was out. |
What was Ann’s attitude to the dog according to Paragraph 4?
| A．Sympathetic | B．Doubtful |
| C．Tolerant | D．Grateful |
For what purpose did Peter call Tracy?
| A．To help her friend’s son. |
| B．To interview Tracy |
| C．To take back his dog. |
| D．To return the flier to her. |
What can we infer about the dog from the last paragraph?
| A．It would be given to Odie. |
| B．It would be kept by Ann’ family. |
| C．It would be returned to Peter. |
| D．It would be taken away by Tracy. |
A
Guide to Stockholm University Library
Our library offers different types of studying places and provides a good studying environment.
Zones
The library is divided into different zones. The upper floor is a quiet zone with over a thousand places for silent reading, and places where you can sit and work with your own computer. The reading places consist mostly of tables and chairs. The ground floor is the zone where you can talk. Here you can find sofas and armchairs for group work.
Computers
You can use your own computer to connect to the wi-fi specially prepared for notebook computers; you can also use library computers, which contain the most commonly used applications, such as Microsoft Office. They are situated in the area known as the Experimental Field on the ground floor.
Group-study Places
If you want to discuss freely without disturbing others, you can book a study room or sit at a table on the ground floor. Some study rooms are for 2-3 people and others can hold up to 6-8 people. All rooms are marked on the library maps.
There are 40 group-study rooms that must be booked via the website. To book, you need an active University account and a valid University card. You can use a room three hours per day, nine hours at most per week.
Storage of study material
The library has lockers for students to store course literature. When you have obtained at least 40 credits (学分), you may rent a locker and pay 400 SEK for a year’s rental period.
Rules to be followed
Mobile phone conversations are not permitted anywhere in the library. Keep your phone on silent as if you were in a lecture and exit the library if you need to receive calls.
Please note that food and fruit are forbidden in the library, but you are allowed to have drinks and sweets with you.The library’s upper floor is mainly for students to ______.
| A．read in a quiet place |
| B．have group discussions |
| C．take comfortable seats |
| D．get their computers fixed |
Library computers on the ground floor ______.
| A．help students with their field experiments |
| B．contain software essential for schoolwork |
| C．are for those who want to access the wi-fi |
| D．are mostly used for filling out application forms |
What condition should be met to book a group-study room?
| A．A group must consist of 8 people. |
| B．Three-hour use per day is the minimum. |
| C．One should first register at the university. |
| D．Applications must mark the room on the map. |
A student can rent a locker in the library if he ______.
| A．can afford the rental fee |
| B．attends certain courses |
| C．has nowhere to put his books. |
| D．has earned the required credits |
What should NOT be brought into the library?
| A．Mobile phones |
| B．Orange juice |
| C．Candy |
| D．Sandwiches |
阅读短文，按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
I’m Evan Ducker. I’m just like every other 15-year-old teenager, except that I was born with a red birthmark .Doctors don’t know the exact cause of birthmarks like mine---but they do know it occurs in about 3 of every 1,000 children all over the world.
Some birthmarks are marks of serious medical conditions. I’m very fortune--mine isn’t. I pretty much live a regular life, except for people asking me about it all the time, which can get me annoyed sometimes. But, overall, my birthmark is just a spot on my skin. It’s not harmful to other people.
When I was about 4 years old, I asked my mom why there weren’t any characters with birthmarks in the books she would read for me. When we went to the library, we realized there weren’t any for little kids. My mom knew I was disappointed. There weren’t any books with cool characters who had birthmarks.
So she said we could write our own. She took all my ideas and we created the first book of its kind to educate kids about birthmarks and also offer a more realistic, positive character with a birthmark. I based the story on all real things that happened in my life. But instead of people, the characters in the book are real animals from the Galapagos Islands, including a red-footed bird. When people ask why I picked a red-footed bird as the main character, I tell them that the bird has red feet, similar to a human birthmark! He is pretty cool.
It was really tough to get my book published. It took a long time because a lot of publishers refused it. They would tell my family there wasn’t a market big enough for a book about birthmarks. But we knew the book wasn’t about birthmarks. It was about tolerance for people’s differences in general. We just picked a character with a birthmark because that was what I knew.
Why did Evan say he was very fortunate? ( no more than 12 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
Why did Evan want to write a book with characters who had birthmarks? (no more than 15 words)
______________________________________________________________________
What does the underlined word “tough” mean? ( no more than 3 words)
______________________________________________________________________
What did Evan think of the main character in his book? ( no more than 5 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
In your opinion, how would you treat a friend with a birthmark?
( no more than 20 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
D
Metro Pocket Guide
Metrorail (地铁)
Each passenger needs a farecard to enter and go out .Up to two children under age five may travel free with a paying customer .
Farecard machines are in every station .Bring small bills because there are no change machines in the stations and farecard machines only provide up to $5 in change.
Get one ticket of unlimited Metrorall rides with a One Day Pass .Buy it from a farecard machine in Metro stations .Use it after 9:30 a,m. until closing on weekdays , and all day on weekends and holidays .
Hours of service
Open 5am Mon-Fri 7a.m Sat-Sun
Close midnight Sun-Thurs. 3a.m. Sat-Sun
Last train times vary .To avoid missing the last train , please check the last train time posted in the station.
Train times Posted in stations
Metrobus
When paying with exact charge , the fare is $1.35.When paying with a SmatTripⓇcard , the fare is 1.25.
Fares for the senior/ disabled customers
Senior citizens 65 and older and disabled customers may ride for half the regular fare .On Metrorail and Metrobus , use a senior/disabled farecard or Smar/Trip Ⓡcard .For more information about buying senior .disabled farecards , farecard or SmarTripⓇcards and passes , please visit MetroOpensDoors .com or call 202-637-7000and 202-637-8000.
Senior citizens and disabled customers can get free guide on how to use proper Metrobus and Metrorall services by calling 202-962-1100.
Travel tips (提示)
. Avoid riding during weekday rush periods –before 9:30 a.m. and between 4and 6p.m.
. If you lose something on a bus or train or in a station, please call Lost &Found at 202-962-1195,
What should you know about farecard machines?
| A．They start selling tickets at 9:30 a.m. |
| B．They are connected to change machines . |
| C．They offer special service to the elderly . |
| D．They make change for no more than $5. |
At what time does Metroarll stop service on Saturday ?
| A．At midnight . |
| B．At 3 a.m. |
| C．At 5 a.m. |
| D．At 7a.m. |
What is good about a SmarTripⓇcard ?
A. It is convenient for old people .
B. It saves money for its users
C It can be bought at any train
D. It is sold on the Internet
Which number should you call if you lose something on the Metro?
| A．202-962-1195 |
| B．202-962-1100 |
| C．202-637-7000 |
| D．202-637-8000 |
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