Consumer electronics once again topped the list of the most wanted gifts this holiday season．“Seventy-six percent of consumers who plan to buy holiday gifts say that they will spend money buying at least one technology product; definitely a solid vote of confidence for technology．” Steve Koenig is with the Consumer Electronics Association． He says the group’s latest research also shows that Americans this year are spending more on technology products．
“Here in 2012，$252 on average–the technology spend for consumers this year．” From tablet computers to smart phones， American shoppers have been lining up to get the newest and coolest electronic devices on the market． There are more choices today than ever before．“It’s kind of hard to make a decision．”
Tablet computers are one of the best-selling products this year． Brian Tong is Senior Editor of CNET． com． The website reports on tech news and examines the latest electronic products． He says the Apple iPad Mini is one of the most popular tablets． Its starting price is $329．One of Apple’s biggest competitors is the Google Nexus 7．It starts at $199．
“The hardware inside is more powerful than what’s in the iPad Mini， but also it offers you a lot of things like maps that work better than Apple’s maps．” Brian Tong says there is one reason why people may like the iPad Mini more than the Nexus 7．“If you just want to read books and surf the Internet， you don’t really need to get an iPad Mini， but if you want the largest group of apps that’s where the iPad and Apple’s ecosystem shines the most．”
Elman Chacon is with the electronics store Best Buy．He says another hot product this season is smart cameras． They connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi． This makes it easy for users to email or upload photographs directly from the camera． “You can literally take a picture， upload it into your Facebook in a matter of seconds． These things are pretty cool because they do a lot of things．”
Streaming media boxes also connect to the Internet．People are able to watch web content such as movies and YouTube videos on their televisions．Another popular item is wireless speaker systems．The newest ones work with any device that has Bluetooth technology，including smart phones，laptops and tablets．
With the growing popularity of Internet shopping，many consumers will visit a store first to look at a product，and then go online to find it at a lower price．Stores like Best Buy understand that and they want to stay competitive．
“We have something called the perfect match promise which means if you buy a certain device and you find it cheaper within 30 days we’ll go ahead and price match that for you．” Elman Chacon said．
According to Brain Tong，________．
| A．the Apple’s iPad Mini is more suitable for enthusiastic readers |
| B．the hardware in iPad Mini is more advanced than that in Nexus 7 |
| C．iPad Mini is more eco-friendly |
| D．Nexus 7 has fewer apps than iPad Mini |
If you’ve discovered that a certain device you bought at Best Buy is more expensive than one at another store，________．
| A．you are sure to get double the amount you paid |
| B．the store will return the price differences |
| C．you can return the device and get your money back |
| D．the store will lower the price within 30 days |
Which of the following would be the best gift for a cab driver？
| A．Smart cameras． |
| B．Streaming media boxes． |
| C．Tablet computers． |
| D．Wireless speaker systems． |
What is true about the smart cameras？
| A．To show the varieties of products |
| B．The smart cameras are more powerful |
| C．It can make the users upload their photographs easily |
| D．The smart cameras makes it more convenient to go on Internet |
From the passage ，we can infer _______．
| A．Electronics have become one of the biggest consumer industries in the US． |
| B．There are many electronics in the United States． |
| C．The US becomes the Number One electronics consumers． |
| D．We can buy much cheaper products in US． |
Many of the world's famous cities are known by some special names. Paris is known as the "City of Light". Hong Kong is the "Wall Street of Asia". One small city in Pennsylvania may be the sweetest place on Earth. That is town of Hershey, which is known as the "Chocolate Town". It is named after Milton Hershey, the founder of the largest chocolate factory in the world.
Milton Hershey built his first candy factory in the early 1900s. At the time, Hershey was developing a technique for milk chocolate. Eventually he succeeded. Hershey was also the first to produce individually wrapped chocolate bars. His factory grew and produced more and more types of chocolate. To this day, Hershey's chocolate factory is the largest in the world. Hershey used his success to give back to the community. He built a town around the factory for his employees. He gave streets fun names like Chocolate Avenue. He built schools, parks and shops. This generous man gave millions of dollars to charity. He built an amusement park with rides, trains for children and a swimming pool. Over the years, the town grew. People from near and far came to visit this special town, whose beauty and fame continue to attract lots of tourists. Every year close to three million tourists visit the Chocolate Town.
Today visitors to the city can enjoy a variety of attractions and activities. The Hershey chocolate factory offers tours. Visitors can learn all about chocolate and how it is made. A gift shop sells all kinds of chocolate and toys made to look like chocolate. Even if you don't buy a souvenir, there is one thing that is impossible to forget: the wonderful aroma of fresh chocolate everywhere. In this special place even the streetlights are shaped like chocolate.
Another attraction is the Hershey Hotel. It has an unusual mineral spring where guests can enjoy a variety of special treatments. The treatments all have one thing in common: chocolate.What's the best title for the passage?
| A．Milton Hershey |
| B．World's Famous Cities |
| C．The Chocolate Town |
| D．Pennsylvania Chocolates |
What was Milton Hershey developing when he built his first factory?
| A．Public structure. |
| B．An amusement park. |
| C．Attractions for the community. |
| D．A technique for milk chocolate. |
The underlined word "aroma" in Paragraph 3 probably means "_________".
| A．smell | B．attraction |
| C．type | D．fame |
What can we know about Milton Hershey?
| A．He disliked to cook. |
| B．He cared about his employees. |
| C．He wanted to be famous. |
| D．He didn't pay his employees very well. |
List of winners of 71st Golden Globe Awards
| FLIM Best Drama: "12 Years a Slave" Best Comedy : "American Hustle" Best Actor, Drama: Matthew McConaughey, "Dallas Buyers Club" Best Actress, Drama: Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine" Best Actor, Comedy : Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Wolf of Wall Street" Best Actress, Comedy : Amy Adams, "American Hustle" Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club" Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, "American Hustle" Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, "Gravity" Best Foreign Language Film: "The Great Beauty," Italy Best Original Song: "Ordinary Love," "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" |
TELEVISION Best Drama Series: "Breaking Bad," AMC Best Comedy Series: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," FOX Best Actor, Drama: Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad" Best Actress, Drama: Robin Wright, "House of Cards" Best Actor, Comedy: Andy Samberg, "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" Best Actress, Comedy: Amy Poehler, "Parks and Recreation" Best TV Film : "Behind the Candelabra," HBO Best Actor,Television Movie: Michael Douglas, "Behind the Candelabra" Best Actress, Television Movie: Elisabeth Moss, "Top of the Lake" Best Supporting Actor, Television Movie: Jon Voight, "Ray Donovan" Best Supporting Actress, Television Movie: Jacqueline Bisset, "Dancing on the Edge" |
Who wins the best film comedy actor title at the 71st Golden Globe Awards?
| A．Matthew McConaughey | B．Leonardo DiCaprio |
| C．Amy Adams | D．Jared Leto |
If you want to see your favorite star Elisabeth Moss, you should watch________.
| A．Blue Jasmine | B．Breaking Bad |
| C．House of Cards | D．Top of the Lake |
Which of the following is the best TV film at the 71st Golden Globe Awards?
| A．The Great Beauty |
| B．Mandela：Long Walk to Freedom |
| C．Behind the Candelabra |
| D．Dancing on the Edge |
In today’s world of cellphones，mini laptops and MP3 players, most people have at least one time-telling tool with them. Since these devices are so common，is time running out for the 500yearold watch？According to some consumers，yes. New Jersey teenager Charlie Wollman says a watch is “an extra piece of equipment with no necessary function”．Many young adults agree—and use their cellphones to tell time. Louis Galie, a senior vice president at Timex，said that fewer young people wear watches today than five years ago. As a result, some people claim that the watch industry is at a crossroads.
However, watchmakers optimistically say that watches regain popularity when consumers reach their 20s and 30s.By then，they are willing to spend money on a quality timepiece that doesn’t just keep good time. Fifty years ago，watchmakers boasted about their products’ accuracy. But in recent years, the watch industry has transformed itself into an accessory business. And for many today, the image a watch communicates has become more important than the time it tells.
“Complications”—features that go beyond simple timekeeping—are an important part of a watch’s image. Today’s watches offer a lot of features that suit almost any personality. These features include altitude trackers, compasses，lunar calendars, USB drives, and even devices that measure the effectiveness of golf swings!
Creativity is also a key element in today’s watches. For example，Japanese watchmaker Tokyoflash makes watches that don’t even look like watches. The company’s popular Shinshoku model uses different color lights to tell time. It looks more like a futuristic(未来主义的)bracelet than a watch. Another Japanese watchmaker, EleeNo, makes a “handless” watch. Using a ring of circles to keep time, this watch makes an excellent conversation piece.
Whether a watch communicates fashion sense, creative talent or a love of sports, consumers want their timepieces to stand out. Nowadays，everyone has the same kind of gadget (小玩意儿)in their bags，so people want to make a statement with what’s on their wrists. Will this interesting wrist fashion last？Only time will tell!
Why aren’t watches popular with young people as before?
| A．Because watches cannot keep good time as cellphones, mini laptops and MP3 players. |
| B．Because watches are featured by the disadvantages of simple function. |
| C．Because watches are too expensive to afford. |
| D．Because watches don’t have beautiful appearance as other modern timetelling tools. |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．Watchmaking is facing a survival crisis challenge. |
| B．Watchmaking is faced with the developing opportunity. |
| C．Watchmaking becomes the sunrise industry. |
| D．Watchmaking has a specific development target. |
It can be implied that ________.
| A．people will gradually lose interest in watches as they grow older |
| B．watchmakers scarcely change the development strategy for watches |
| C．today’s watches are better than those in the past in quality |
| D．customers used to be more concerned with the quality of a watch than with its image |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Watches and Teenagers | B．The History of Watches |
| C．The Accuracy of Watches | D．Watches Tell More than Time |
As an American artist and writer of children’s books, Tasha Tudor’s art and nineteenth-century
lifestyle have fascinated adults and children for decades. She received many awards and honors for her contributions to children’s literature. When people talk about her creativity in artwork, she said, “I do it to support my dogs and my four children.” Her great publishing record, the number of magazine stories that have been written about her over the years, and her admirers have no effects on her at all.
Much of Tasha’s artwork and her reading are done in the wintertime. “I love winter. It’s delightful,” she says. “I don’t have to go anywhere because I work at home. If I’m snowed in, I can stay this way for months.” She hopes for early, deep snow to protect her garden from the hardship of the New England winter, and when it comes she puts on snowshoes when she needs to get down the mile-long dirt path that leads to the road.
Given her enjoyment of winter and her fantasy(梦幻)way of life, it’s not surprising that Tasha’s Christmas is a storybook holiday. She hangs flowers over the front door. Her tree comes from the woods, and it goes up on Christmas Eve, lit by homemade candles and decorated with her great- grandmother’s collection that dates from 1850. In a place of honor on the tree are large cookies cut into the shapes of her animals.
The grandchildren and friends get presents from Tasha’s old dolls; so do the animals and they have their own Christmas tree. “Of course, it’s a known fact that all the animals talk on Christmas Eve,” she has written. Small, handmade gifts fill a big wooden box.
At the end of each year, Tasha can look back and know that her life is perfect, that she has again ignored the twentieth century, and that the magic continues. And for the rest of us，here’s a bit of advice, Tasha style: “Nowadays, people are so restless. If they took some tea and spent more time rocking on the porch(门廊) in the evening listening to light music, they might enjoy life more.”Tasha loved winter because it allowed her to ________.
| A．read stories to her grandchildren |
| B．show her DIY snowshoes to kids |
| C．stay indoors working during reading |
| D．enjoy bicycle tiding along the path |
From the passage, we can learn that Tasha’s life is ________.
| A．modern and fashionable |
| B．simple and fantastic |
| C．lonely and hard |
| D．adventurous and inspiring |
Which of the following is TRUE about Tasha?
| A．She cared little about fame. |
| B．She created an animal fund. |
| C．She wrote many stories for magazines. |
| D．She bought presents for her relatives. |
In which section of a paper can you probably read the article?
| A．Travel. | B．Sports. | C．Economy. | D．People. |
Girls who play with Barbie dolls tend to see fewer career options available to them, compared with the options available to boys, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University and the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz.
The study’s authors, psychology professors, Aurora Sherman of Oregon State University and Eileen Zurbriggen at UC Santa Cruz, describe their findings as significant. “This is one of the first studies to investigate how playing with sexualized dolls affects young girls, and also one of the first to look at the impact of such play on achievement or career aspirations (愿望), rather than body image,” said Zurbriggen. Sherman suggests that Barbie and similar dolls are part of the burden of early and inappropriate sexuality placed on girls.
Sherman and Zurbriggen used girls’ doll play to study the impact of fender role socialization, a process through which children learn to follow cultural norms and which encourages gender stereotypical(约定俗成的) behavior.
Thirty-seven girls from the age of four to seven from an Oregon college town were randomly arranged to play for five minutes with either a sexualized Doctor Barbie or Fashion Barbie doll, or with a more neutral (中性的) Mrs. Potato Head doll. The girls were then shown photographs of ten occupations and asked how many they themselves or boys could do in the future.
The girls who played with a Barbie doll saw themselves in fewer occupations, compared with boys. Those girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head reported nearly as many career options available for themselves as for boys.
The two Barbie dolls were the same except for clothing, with unrealistic bodies, extremely youthful and attractive faces, and long full hair. The researchers believe that the doll itself has more of an effect on girls than the role or career aspirations suggested by its costume.
“It’s significant that a few minutes of play with a Barbie doll had an immediate impact on the number of careers that girls saw as possible for themselves,” Zurbriggen said. “And it didn’t matter whether the Barbie doll was dressed as a model or as a doctor, suggesting that the doll’s sexualized shape and appearance might have more of an effect than whatever accessories (装饰品) are packaged with her.”Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Playing with dolls affects the academic performance of young children. |
| B．Body image has a big influence on girls’ career options. |
| C．Researchers used doll play to study the impact of gender role socialization on girls. |
| D．Boys who played with a Fashion Barbie doll found more career options than girls. |
What is stressed in the second paragraph?
| A．The method adopted by the study. |
| B．The significance of the study. |
| C．The purpose of the study. |
| D．The process of the study. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Why Barbie dolls are the world’s best-selling dolls. |
| B．That playing with Barbie dolls could limit girls’ career choices. |
| C．What negative effects Barbie dolls have on young girls in the long term. |
| D．That Barbie dolls make girls want to be thin. |
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