Chinese consumers' crazy appetite for luxury goods and services appears unstoppable, with just 2 percent of the Chinese population responsible for one-third of the world's luxury items.
As China's economic miracle develops, the market opportunities for all sorts of luxury goods and services are increasing. Luxury consumption in China now extends way beyond well - known car. Clothing and jewelry brands. For example, the luxury jet market in China is the fastest - growing in the world, even outstripping that of the United States, with a market share of 25 percent. This trend appears to continue, with 20 to 30 percent growth expected in China, compared with only 2 to 3 percent in the US. But more important, China's luxury jet market growth represents a major development in the private consumption of luxury items.
China's high - quality red wine market also provides evidence of the growth in private consumption of luxury goods. In 2013, China became the largest market for red wine in the world, even overtaking the French, with 1. 86 billion bottles consumed in China last year. Over the past five years, China's red wine consumption has grown 136 percent.
According to my ongoing consumer research in this area while working at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, public consumption of such expensive global luxury brands such as Prada and Armani is easily explained by the desire to "gain face" and publicly display social climbing through material possesses. On the other hand, it is "self-reward" that lies behind consumer motivation in this area. Chinese consumer, who have experienced rapid financial and economic gains appear particularly prone to the need to reward themselves for their success. But this has little to do with "gaining face" and impressing others and much more to do with the need for personal contentment.
Finally, the growth in private luxury consumption in China is set to continue in part due to the maturity of the Chinese consumer and advancement of Chinese consumer culture generally.
1.What do you think the author would most probably be?
A. A news reporter, B. An accountant.
C. A professor. D. A conductor.
2.The underlined word "outstripping" in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. falling far behind of B. going hand in hand
C. going far ahead of D. keeping pace with
3.What can we learn from paragraph 2 and 3 ?
A. China's luxury jet market growth is only 2 to 3%.
B. French was once the largest market for red wine in the world before 2013.
C. The luxury jet market in the US shares 25% of the jet consumption in the world.
D. China's red wine consumption has increased to 1. 86 billion bottles since 2013.
4.What can be the best title for the passage?
A. Future Private Luxury Consumption in China
B. Chinese Appetite for Luxury Goods and Services
C. The Potential Luxury Jet Market in China
D. The Maturity of the Chinese Consumers
Florence Nightingale was born in a rich family. When she was young she took lessons in music and drawing, and read great books. She also traveled a great deal with her mother and father.
As a child she felt that visiting sick people was both a duty and a pleasure. She enjoyed helping them.
At last mind was made up. “I’m going to be a nurse,” she decided.
“Nursing isn’t the right work for a lady,” her father told her.
“Then I will make it so”, she smiled. And she went to learn nursing in Germany and France.
When she returned to England, Florence started a nursing home. During the Crimean War in 1854 she went with a group of thirty eight nurses to the front hospitals. What they saw there was terrible. Dirt and death were everywhere to be seen — and smelled. The officer there did not want any woman to tell him how to run a hospital, either. But the brave nurse went to work.
Florence used her own money and some from friends to buy clothes, beds, medicine and food for the men. Her only pay was in smiles from the lips of dying soldiers. But they were more than enough for this kind woman.
After she returned to England, she was honored for her services by Queen Victoria. But Florence said that her work had just begun. She raised money to build the Nightingale Home for Nurses in London. She also wrote a book on public health, which was printed in several countries.
Florence Nightingale died at the age of ninety, still trying to serve others through her work as a nurse. Indeed, it is because of her that we honor nurses today.
1.When she was a child, Florence _______.
A. loved to travel very much
B. knew what her duty in life was
C. loved to help the sick people
D. want to learn music and drawing in the future
2.During the Crimean War in 1854, Florence served in the front hospital where _______.
A. she earned a little money
B. work was very difficult
C. few soldiers died because of her work
D. she didn’t have enough food or clothes
3.Why was Florence honored by Queen Victoria?
A. She built the Nightingale Home for Nurses.
B. She wrote a book on public health.
C. She worked as a nurse all her life.
D. She did a great deal of work during the Crimean War.
4.The passage can best be described as _______.
A. the life story of a famous woman
B. a description of the nursing work
C. an example of successful education
D. the history of nursing in England
读者王彬写信给某杂志“开心”栏目记者Mary，询问怎么才会感到幸福，请根据提示给他写一封回信，主题为How to Be Happy。
提示：1. 幸福是人生最宝贵的东西；
2. 凭良心做事，善待他人；
3. 注重健康；
4. 遇到挫折时要保持乐观。
注意：1. 词数：150左右；
2. 根据提示适当发挥，开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Wang Bin,
I’m glad to receive your letter, in which you asked me about how to be happy.
A hobby is an activity we can do in our free time, so that we can keep ourselves busy with something that makes us happy. Different people pursue (追求) different kinds of hobbies, according to their personal likes and dislikes. Hobbies are activities we choose to do, but not activities we have to do. There is a lot of difference between wanting to do something and having to do it. We only want to do those things we like to do, and things that give us pleasure and peace of mind.
Hobbies hold a very important place in our lives. For example, they are a means of connecting us with our inner self. The time devoted to taking up a hobby is our own time. This is the time when we can connect and communicate with ourselves. During this personal time, we can do whatever we like. Doing things according to our own wishes gives us a sense of inner satisfaction, and also helps develop self-confidence.
Hobbies also help discover talents. There is a possibility that we are interested in a certain activity, but have never had a chance to actually try it. If we develop our interest as our hobbies, it’s obvious that we’ll do it with great interest. So, even if we have never tried a certain thing before, we can still learn to do it. Thus, the hobbyists’ hidden talents can be discovered, and this can make them feel extremely proud and satisfied.
It’s human nature to try to know more about the things we like. The moment we pursue some activities as our favorite hobbies, we tend to gain more knowledge about the same hobby. Whether it’s gardening, cooking, painting or collecting stamps, we always try to get a deeper understanding of what we’re doing, so that we can do it more correctly. What’s more, we also happen to meet people with similar tastes and sometimes, possessing (拥有) rich knowledge about their hobbies. Thus, besides gaining knowledge, hobbies also provide us with a chance to meet people who share similar likes and dislikes with us.
Whatever our hobbies are, they can be developed at any age, as a child or as an adult. However, if we begin at a young age, we can get more time to experience the joys of our favorite pursuit. The hobby tends to grow with us, and someday, may also take us to great heights.
Why to take up a hobby | ||
Paragraph outline | Supporting details | |
Meanings | ·Hobbies are activities we do in our free time and can make us 1. . ·Our hobbies are based on our likes. ·Hobbies are those activities people are 2. to do. | |
3. | Helping connect With the inner self | ·The time 4. on the hobby is our personal time when we can be free to do anything we like. ·We’ll feel5. and become more confident. |
Helping discover talents | ·We can learn a lot by trying some activities with great6. ·We’ll be able to find our 7. talents. | |
Helping gain knowledge | ·When pursuing a hobby, we tend to try our best to8. it well, and them we gain a lot of knowledge. ·We can also9. some learned people and learn a lot from them. | |
10. | Though all hobbies can be developed at any age, yet it’s better to develop one when we are young. | |
Baby girls make their way to dolls as son as they can crawl(爬), and boys will head for the toy cars, a study has shown. The findings-the first t o show consistent differences in very young babies-suggest there is a biological basis for their preferences.
Psychologists Dr Brenda Todd carried out an experiment involving 90 babies aged 9 months to 36 months. They were allowed to choose from 7 toys. Some were boys’ toys-a car, a digger, a ball and a blue teddy. The rest were girls’ toys; a pink teddy, a doll and a cooking set. They were placed a meter away from the toys, and could pick whichever toy they liked. Their choice and amount of time they spent playing with each toy were recorded.
Of the youngest children (9 to 14 months), girls spent much longer time playing with the doll than boys, and boys spent much more time with the car and the ball than the girls did. Among the two and three-year-olds, girls spent 50 percent of the time playing with the doll while only two boys briefly touched it. The boys spent almost 90 percent of their time playing with cars, which the girls barely touched. There was no link between the parents’ views on which toys were more appropriate for boys or girls, and the children’s choices.
Dr Brenda Todd said, “Children of this age are already exposed to much socialization. Boys may be given ‘toys that go’ while girls get toys they can care for, which may help shape their preferences. But these findings are consistent with the former idea that children show intrinsic(内在的) interest in particular kinds of toys. There could be a biological basis for their choices. Males through evolution have been adapted to moving objects, probably through hunting instincts (本能), while girls prefer warmer colors such as pink, the color of a newborn baby.”
1.Baby boys and girls have different toy preferences probably because .
A. baby boys are much more active
B. baby girls like bright colors better
C. their parents treat them differently
D. there is a biological difference between them
2.What can we infer from Paragraph 3?
A. Nine-month-old baby boys don’t play with dolls at all.
B. Two-year-old baby girls sometimes play with cars and balls
C. The older the babies are, the more obvious their preference is.
D. Parents should teach baby boys and girls to share each other’s toys.
3.What conclusion did Dr Brenda Todd draw from the results of the study?
A. Adults purposely influence the preference of babies.
B. Babies’ preference isn’t affected by social surroundings.(环境)
C. Baby boys preferring moving toys will be good at hunting.
D. Baby girls preferring warmer colors will be warmhearted.
4.Which column of a newspaper does the passage probably appear in?
A. Science. B. Health.
C. Education. D. Entertainment.
I walked down the hall heading to see my 88-year-old grandma who had been in hospital. Each member of the family was taking turns sitting with her because of her dementia (痴呆). As I did I looked very carefully at some of the rooms on this wing of the hospital, and it seemed that almost every bed held an elderly person. Some appeared to be confused, and some just looked lonely. I couldn’t help but notice that there was no family there, no one to care them, and no one to reduce the ache of loneliness. My heart broke inside me.
They are aging, with withered (萎缩的) skin on their faces and hands, their eyes look tried, and yet no one notices them. Could it be that we are far too busy to slow down and give a moment of our time to anyone that may swerve (使突然转向) us off the course we are traveling on? Are we afraid of those who have come before us to pave the way, afraid that they carry some awful disease that if we get too close we might catch it?
Whatever the case may be, one day we will be those same people that we long to avoid. We pay thousands of dollars for staying young, and we may turn up the music to forget the thoughts of getting older. But, try as we might, time and age will catch up with us.
We seem to have come to detest (嫌恶) the elderly. While we once held them in high regard and honor, always enjoying their stories of history, we now see them as a pain, always in our way. Isn’t it time we wake up?
So, next time you see a withered hand extended in need, or peer into the eyes of a lonely aging face, don’t run or look away. Remember, it might just be you in that place one day.
1.What made the author deeply sad?
A. The poor food for the patients.
B. The sight he saw in the hospital.
C. The hopeless patients in the hospital.
D. The bad service of the hospital.
2.What’s people’s excuse for not visiting the old?
A. They are too busy.
B. They can’t afford it.
C. They live too far away.
D. They usually travel abroad.
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Time will tell the truth.
B. People are afraid of being old.
C. A doctor is important to old people.
D. Respecting elderly people is a good tradition.
4.What does the author advise us to do in the last paragraph?
A. Respect the old.
B. Get along well with the old.
C. Help and pay attention to the old.
D. Spend more time with our parents.
