If a business wants to sell its products internationally, it had better do some market research first. This is a lesson that some large American corporations have learned the hard way.
What’s in the name?
Sometimes the problem is the name. When General Motors introduced its Chevy Nova into Latin America, it overlooked the fact that Nova in Spanish means “It doesn’t go”. Sure enough , the Chevy Nova never went anywhere in Latin America.
Translation problems
Sometimes it is the slogan that doesn’t work. No company knows this better than Pepsi-Cola, with its “Come alive with Pepsi!” campaign. The campaign was so successful in the United States , Pepsi translated its slogan literally for its international campaign. As it turned out , the translations weren’t quite right. Pepsi was begging Germans to “Come out of the grave(坟墓)” and telling the Chinese that “Pepsi brings your ancestors(老祖宗) back from the grave.”
A picture’s worth a thousand words
Other times, the problem involves packaging. A picture of a smiling baby has helped sell countless jars of Gerber baby food. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in African countries , the picture on the jar shows what the jar has in it, for many people there can’t read.
Twist of fate
Even the culture and religious factors and pure coincidence can be involved . Thorn McAn shoes have a Thorn McAn “signature” inside. To people in Bangladesh, which is a Muslim country , this signature looked like Arabic script for the word Allah. In that country , feet are considered unclean, and Muslims felt the company was offending God’s name by having people walk on it.From the text we learned that _________.
| A．Chevy Nova was brought in Latin America |
| B．General Motors did the best market research of all companies |
| C．Pepsi still sold well in China owing to the translation problems |
| D．the “Come alive with Pepsi” campaign worked well in the US |
What was “Gerber’s problem”?
| A．A translation problem |
| B．Cultural factor |
| C．Religious factor |
| D．The picture on the jar |
For what reason were Thorn McAn shoes turned down in Bangladesh?
| A．They are not designed attractively |
| B．Their advertisements are not persuasive |
| C．A signature looking like the word Allah was in the shoes |
| D．Problem for Thorn McAn was the company’s name |
What does the text mainly tell us?
| A．Lessons from some large corporations. |
| B．How to make use of advertisements |
| C．The importance of market research |
| D．The importance of packaging |
LEEDS, England—A Leeds University psychology professor is teaching a course to help dozens of Britons forgive their enemies.
"The hate we hold within us is a cancer, " Professor Ken Hart said, adding that holding in anger can lead to problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
More than 70 people have become members in Hart's first 20-week workshop in London—a course he says is the first of its kind in the world.
These are people who are sick and tired of living with a memory. They realize their bitterness is a poison they think they can pour out, but they end up drinking it themselves, said Canadian- born Hart.
The students meet in groups of eight to ten for a two-hour workshop with an adviser every fortnight.
The course, ending in July, is expected to get rid of the cancer of hate in these people. "People have lots of negative attitudes towards forgiveness," he said, "People confuse forgiveness with forgetting. Forgiveness means changing from a negative attitude to a positive one."
Hart and his team have created instructions to provide the training needed.
"The main idea is to give you guidelines on how to look at various kinds of angers and how they affect you, and how to change your attitudes towards the person you are angry with," said Norman Claringbull, a senior expert on the forgiveness project.
Hart said he believes forgiveness is a skill that can be taught, as these people "want to get free of the past".From this passage we know that________.
| A．high blood pressure and heart disease are caused by hate |
| B．high blood pressure can only be cured by psychology professors |
| C．without hate, people will have less trouble connected with blood and heart |
| D．people who suffer from blood pressure and heart disease must have many enemies |
If you are angry with somebody, you should________.
| A．attend Hart’s course |
| B．never meet him or her any longer |
| C．persuade him or her to have a positive talk with you |
| D．treat him or her positively instead of negatively |
In Hart's first 20- week workshop, people there can ________.
| A．meet their enemies |
| B．change their attitudes |
| C．enjoy the professor's teaching |
| D．learn how to quarrel with others |
If you are a member in Hart's workshop, you'll________.
| A．meet in eight or ten groups |
| B．get rid of the illness of cancer |
| C．attend a gathering twice a month |
| D．pour out everything stored in your mind |
The author wrote this passage in order to________.
| A．persuade Britons to go to Hart's workshop |
| B．tell us the news about Hart's workshop |
| C．tell us how to run a workshop like Hart's |
| D．help us to look at various kinds of angers |
When you’re an employee of a company, no matter the size, it’s common to see co-workers promoted, or transferred to a different department. But there is another way to move around—by creating a new position for yourself. I did this several years ago, though I wasn’t actively looking for a different job.
In 2007, I was hired at the Transamerica Life Insurance Company, as a customer service representative in the distributions services department. I processed requests for distributions from our annuity(养老金)policy holders around the country. Someone might have forgotten to sign a form, for example, or might have omitted security information. To solve the problem, I’d mail the person a letter.
The company had been through several combinations, so in our department alone we had a collection of about 140 templates(模板) for letters related to distributions. The longer I worked with the letters, the more I saw how they could be improved. Some had overlapping information and could be combined. Some had incorrect grammar or needed updating. I also noticed that industry terminology(专业术语) wasn’t standard across all the versions.
When I told my department supervisor about this in 2008, she agreed that the letters needed revamping. She said I should stop what I’d been doing and start the new work. In a relatively short time, I was able to make numerous improvements and reduce the number of letters to 70. It was an informal job change until a managers’ meeting several months later.
At that meeting, a vice president who was unaware of my new work mentioned that the division’s entire stock of 1,700 letters should be reviewed. My manager told her that she knew the perfect person for the job—me. The position was still considered temporary when I took on the extra tasks, but I was able to show that the work had value, and I was officially promoted and given a raise in November 2009.According to Paragraph 1, which of the following statements is true?
| A．The author admired those who got a promotion in his company. |
| B．It is no surprise to see people around us change their positions. |
| C．The author tried his best to get a promotion in his company |
| D．The author was eager to seek another job. |
Which of the following problems with the letters is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Some information was overlooked. |
| B．Some information needed to be united. |
| C．Some had grammatical mistakes. |
| D．Industry terminology didn’t meet the standard. |
The underlined word “revamping” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to .
| A．repeating | B．rebuilding | C．improving | D．strengthening |
The author started to review the letters when .
| A．he was hired by the company |
| B．he was promoted |
| C．he was recommended at a managers’ meeting |
| D．his department supervisor agreed his idea |
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．Where there is will, there is a way. |
| B．Creating a position, and earning a promotion. |
| C．Don’t let the chance go, when it comes. |
| D．Ways to get a promotion. |
Millions of Americans return from long-distance trips by air, but their luggage doesn’t always come home with them. Airline identification tags（标签） can come loose, and the bags go who-knows-where. And passengers leave all kinds of things on planes.
The airlines collect the items and, for 90 days, attempt to find their owners. They don’t keep them, since they’re not in the warehouse business. And by law, they cannot sell the bags, because the airlines might be tempted to deliberately misplace luggage.
So once insurance companies have paid for lost bags and their contents, and they no longer belong to passengers, a unique store in the little town of Scottsboro, Alabama, buys them. The “Unclaimed Baggage Center,” is so popular that the building, which is set up like a department store, is the number-one tourist attraction in all of Alabama. More than one million visitors stop in each year and take one of the store’s shopping carts on a hunt for treasures.
Each day, clerks bring out 7,000 new items, and veteran（老练的）shoppers rush to paw over them. You can find everything from precious jewels to hockey sticks, best-selling novels, leather jackets, tape recorders, surfboards, even half -used tubes of toothpaste.
The store’s own laundry washes or cleans all the clothes found in luggage, then sells them. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has found guns, illegal drugs and even a live rattlesnake.
The store has a little museum where some of its most unusual acquisitions（获得物） have been preserved. They include highland bagpipes, a burial mask from an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, and a medieval suit of armor.
Statistics indicate that less than one-half of one percent of luggage checked on U.S. carriers is permanently lost and available to the store.Paragraph1 shows that many passengers lose their luggage because______.
| A．they are forgetful |
| B．the owners of some luggage can’t be identified |
| C．they are in a hurry |
| D．there is no lost and found office in many airports |
The reason why the airlines cannot sell the bags is that ______.
| A．they have to find the owners |
| B．they have to keep the bags as long as possible |
| C．some bags are expensive |
| D．they are likely to make a profit on the bags on purpose |
The Unclaimed Baggage Center is very popular because______.
| A．visitors may purchase something undervalued. |
| B．all thethings there are very cheap. |
| C．there's a large variety of goods. |
| D．visitors will enjoy some amusing activities there. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．A little museum will keep all the precious unclaimed baggage. |
| B．The things in the Unclaimed Baggage Center are articles for daily use. |
| C．The percentage of passengers who lose their baggage for ever is small. |
| D．People are not allowed to buy the illegal things in the store. |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To introduce an attractive place to tourists. |
| B．To remind passengers of taking care of their baggage. |
| C．To advise the airlines to find the owners of the unclaimed baggage. |
| D．To introduce how the unclaimed baggage in the airports is handled in America. |
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Too often young people get themselves employed quite by accident, not knowing whether there will be opportunities for promotion (晋升), happiness and security. As a result, they are employed in doing jobs that afford them little or no satisfaction.
Our school leavers face so much competition that they seldom care what they do as long as they can earn a living. Some stay long at a job and learn to like it; others leave one for another looking for something to suit them. The young graduates leave the university with the dream of looking for jobs that offer a salary up to their expectation.
Very few go out into the world knowing exactly what they want and the limits of their own abilities. The cause behind all this confusion is that there has never been a proper vocational（职业的） guidance in our educational institutions. Nearly all the graduates feel their way in the dark. Their chief concern is the salary. They never bother to think whether they are suited for the job or, even more important, whether the job suits them. Having a job is more than merely providing one and one’ s dependants with daily bread and some money for leisure and entertainment. It sets a pattern of life and, in many ways, determines a person ’s social status in life and selection of friends, leisure and interest.
In choosing a profession, one should first consider which type of work will suit his or her interest. Nothing is sadder than taking on a job in which one has no interest, for it will not only ruin one’ s talents but also discourage one’ s desire to succeed in life. According to Paragraph l, why do many young people find their jobs unsatisfactory? (within 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________ According to Paragraph 2, what do university graduates expect of their future jobs? ‘(within l0 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________What does the underlined word “dependants” in Paragraph 3 probably mean? (within 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________According to Paragraph 3, why are the .university graduates confused when they find jobs? (within 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________According to the author, what is the most important in choosing a job? (within 10 words)
__________________________________________________________________________
Up to 90% of school leavers in major Asian cities are suffering from myopia ---short-sightedness, a study suggests. Researchers say the "extraordinary rise" in the problem is being caused by students working very hard in school and missing out on outdoor light.
Eye experts say that you are short-sighted if your vision is blurred(模糊的) beyond 2m. It is often caused by an elongation（拉伸） of the eyeball that happens when people are young. According to the research, the problem is being caused by a combination of factors - a commitment to education and lack of outdoor light.
Professor Morgan who led this study argues that many children in South East Asia spend long hours studying at school and doing their homework. This in itself puts pressure on the eyes, but exposure to between two and three hours of daylight helps maintain healthy eyes.
Cultural factors also seem to play a part. Across many parts of South East Asia, children often have a lunchtime nap. According to Professor Morgan they are missing out on natural light to prevent short-sightedness.
A big concern is the numbers of the students suffering from “high” myopia. One in five of these students could experience severe visual impairment(障碍) and even blindness. These people are at considerable risk—sometimes people are not told about it and are just given more powerful glasses—they need to be warned about the risk and given some self-testing measures so they can get to an ophthalmologist and get some help.
For decades, researchers believed there was a strong genetic component to the condition. But this study strongly suggests an alternative view. “Any type of simple genetic explanation just doesn’t fit with that speed of change; gene pools just don’t change in two generations. Whether it’s a purely environmental effect or an environmental effect playing a sensitive genome, it really doesn’t matter, the thing that’s changed is not the gene pool---it’s the environment.”As is mentioned above, which factor mainly results in students’ myopia in South East Asia?
| A．Genetic faults of the people. | B．Elongation of the eyeball. |
| C．The shortage of outdoor light. | D．Lack of research into the problem. |
Which of the following statements do you think agrees with Professor Morgan?
| A．A lunchtime nap is helpful in reducing myopia. |
| B．Glasses keep myopia from getting even worse. |
| C．It’s necessary to treat myopia with an operation. |
| D．It’s of vital importance to reduce educational pressure. |
What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．Gene remains the main cause of the long-standing problem. |
| B．The environment is to blame for the extraordinary rise in myopia. |
| C．Short-sightedness has nothing to do with changes in gene pools. |
| D．An environmental effect playing a sensitive genome counts. |
What’s the best way to take care of your eyes according to the passage?
| A．Equip the classroom with better lights. |
| B．Look at the sun from time to time. |
| C．Do eyes exercise regularly. |
| D．Spend more time in the open air. |
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