Bright Side did some research on many places throughout the world where you can buy a house for 1 dollar or for free!
Roubaix, France
If you like France, Roubaix located in the north of France is just for you. The local authorities want it to be populated and attractive. You can buy a small house in the industrial district for just $1. The buyer is supposed to live in this house for 3 years.
Buffalo. USA
Buffalo offers whoever qualifies to buy a house for $1. All you need is to be a lawful citizen of the city and invest amount of money into its decoration. Doing this, the authorities are hoping to make the city beautiful again without spending money.
Liverpool, Great Britain
In Liverpool, most of houses were abandoned (遗弃）by the working class during the years of unemployment. The government is trying to sell the houses for just $1. If you want to buy such a house, it has to be your first deal on buying property（房产）.
Candela, Italy
If you still have any doubts about spending $1 on a house, you should know: the government will pay you some money, if you move to Candela. In order to be paid, you need to become a permanent（永久的）citizen and have an income of $7500 per year. If moving alone, you will get $800, and if you are going with your family, the pay can be four times as much as only one person.
For more information of other cities, please Click Here.
1.Why do the authorities of Buffalo provide a house for people with 1$?
A.To improve the lives of poor people.
B.To make the city attractive at no cost.
C.To solve the problems of employment.
D.To attract people to the industrial areas.
2.What is required to buy a house for 1 dollar in Liverpool?
A.You need to be an unemployed citizen.
B.You should live in the house for 3 years.
C.It must be your first house purchase.
D.You have to repair and decorate the house.
3.How much money can you get if moving to Candela with a whole family?
A.$3200 B.$9600
C.$800 D.$7500
假设你是红星中学高三（1）班李华，你校将在下周五举办“校园文化节（Campus Culture Festival）”系列活动。请给你班留学生Jim写封邮件，邀请他参加，邮件的内容包括：
1.介绍你选择的活动内容； 2.说明参加该活动的理由； 3.询问是否愿意参加该活动；
注意：1.词数不少于50；2.邮件的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
At many Thanksgiving dinners, everyone around the table shares something they are thankful for. As we know, most can do this easily. 1.
Be positive. No matter what happens, it’s best to remember the good things. Find the bright side in bad situations, and push back against negative opinions. Also, do your best not to compare yourself to others. But when you’re around others, give expression to what you like about them. 2.
Accept the negative. At the same time, we can’t pay no attention to bad things that have happened. We should learn from mistakes. 3.Before we know it, we’re thankful for negative things, too. Our mistakes can also make us humble（谦逊的）, which is not all bad. Humble people have better relationship and see life’s blessing much more clearly!
Acts of kindness. Thankful people know that it’s much better to give than to receive. When you’re thankful, you feel it’s your duty to show love to others. Some people volunteer to help people in need.4.
5.By spending time with others, you show them how much they mean to you. But being thankful is also better realized by spending time alone. When you’re alone, you can think about the best parts of your day. You can list them out and think them over. You can find your way to make thanksgiving a part of your life. How wonderful it is! Just enjoy it every day!
A. Use of time.
B. It makes us become strong.
C. Helping others will cost you lots of time.
D. Studies show that volunteers might feel happier and healthier.
E. It’s more important to know how to be thankful people all the time.
F. By keeping good in mind, you’ll give thanks for it even more than before.
G. So you have the stories to get your family talking at the Thanksgiving table.
My doorbell rings. On the step, I find the elderly Chinese lady, small and slight, holding the hand of a little boy. In her other hand, she holds a paper carrier bag.
I know this lady. It is not her first visit. She is the boy’s grandmother, and her daughter bought the house next door last October.
Her daughter, Nicole, speaks fluent English. But she is now in Shanghai, and her parents are here with the little boy. Nicole has obviously told her mother that I am having heart surgery soon, so her mother has decided I need more nutrients.
I know what is inside the bag—a thermos with hot soup and a stainless-steel container with rice, vegetables and either chicken, meat or shrimp, sometimes with a kind of pancake. This has become an almost-daily practice.
Communication between us is somewhat affected by the fact that she doesn’t speak English and all I can say in Chinese is hello. Once, she brought an iPad as well as the food. She pointed to the screen, which displayed a message from her daughter telling me that her mother wanted to know if the food was all right and whether it was too salty. I am not used to iPads, so she indicated I should go with her to her house. Then, she handed the iPad to her husband and almost immediately I found myself looking at Nicole in Shanghai and discussing her mother’s cooking and salt intake. Instantly, tears welled in my eyes.
“Your mother just can’t be bringing me meals like this all the time,” I insisted. “I can hardly do dishes in return.”
“Oh, no, Lucy.” Nicole said. “Mum doesn’t like western food. Don’t worry about it; she has to cook for the three of them anyway, and she wants to do it.”
The doorbell keeps ringing and there is the familiar brown paper carrier bag, handed smilingly to me.
I am now working on some more Chinese words—it’s the least I can do after such display of kindness.
“Thank you” is, of course, the first one. Somehow, it seems inadequate.
1.The elderly Chinese lady visits Lucy regularly because ________.
A.Lucy pays her to deliver food
B.Lucy likes cooking Chinese food
C.she cares about Lucy’s state of health
D.she wants to make friends with Lucy
2.Nicole’s mum took an iPad to Lucy’s home for ________.
A.displaying B.communicating
C.cooking D.chatting
3.In this passage Lucy mainly expresses her ________.
A.preference for the Chinese food
B.gratitude to the Chinese family
C.love of the advanced technology
D.affection for the Chinese language
In business, there’s a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive strategy and how fast the company actually moves. The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.
How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value). Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference. But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
In our study, higher-companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed time to look back and learn. By contrast, performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiently, stuck to tested methods, didn’t develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking about changes.
Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals. That kind of strategy must come from the top.
1.What does the underlined part “gain an edge” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A.Get an advantage. B.Increase the speed.
C.Reach the limit. D.Set a goal.
2.What can we learn from the text?
A.How fast a firm moves depends on how big it is.
B.How competitive a firm is depends on what if produces.
C.Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes.
D.Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit.
3.According to the author, what is the key to deciding strategic speed?
A.Pausing at key moments. B.The size of company.
C.The boss. D.The quality of the products.
4.Which could be the best title for the text?
A.Improve Quality? Serve Better. B.Deliver Value? Plough ahead.
C.Reduce Time? Move Faster. D.Need Speed? Slow Down.
Around the world, there are about 7,000 National Parks. Most of them cover huge areas of land where nobody lives. However, the National Parks in England include places where people live and work, as well as wild areas where there are few human activities.
The National Parks in England are called “England’s Breathing Spaces” because they are places where people can go to be in the open air, away from the dirt and noise of cities. They provide wonderful scenes of mountains, woods, grasslands and wetlands. And there are plenty of activities to do in all of the National Parks in England. Visitors can walk or ride bikes for fun. Many of the parks put on activities for families.
Every year there are about 110 million visitors to the parks, bringing many benefits（益处）to the areas. At the same time, it creates problems too. First, life can be difficult for local people. Car parks and roads are too crowded. Gift shops and cafes take the place of many everyday shops. Even house prices in some areas can become too high. Besides, country roads can be damaged, for too many people walk, cycle or ride horses on them. Roads can be rebuilt, but then they look less natural. Another big problem to the National Parks is litter. In the parks it is a danger to wild animals. Broken glass can also cause fires by focusing the rays of the sun. Such fires in wild places can be out of control.
? All National Parks in England are making more rules, which tell people how to take good care of their environment. If these rules are followed, the National Parks will be well kept and continue to give pleasure to many people for a very long time.
1.Visitors to the National Parks in England can .
A.give food to wild animals B.drive cars on the grasslands
C.enjoy fresh air and peaceful time D.have fun farming with local people
2.The third paragraph mainly tells us .
A.the problems of the National Parks B.the pollution caused by visitors
C.the development of the National Parks D.the benefits brought by visitors
3.Which of the following is the best sentence to fill the blank in Paragraph 4?
A.What can people get B.How can people help
C.What are the National Parks like D.How are the National Parks set up
4.The passage is probably taken from the part of a magazine.
A.transport B.wildlife
C.history D.geography
