Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smartphone as a room key. The boutique hotel brand from Starwood to Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to offer this feature at two hotels, in the Harle neighborhood and in Cupertino, Calif, before the end of the quarter.
Starwood officials are hoping this will be one of the biggest technological changes in the industry since free Wi-Fi. "We believe this will become the new standard for how people will want to enter a hotel." says Frits van Passchen, Starwood's CEO. "It may be a novelty at first,but we think it will become table stakes for managing a hotel.
Not everyone is so sure. Past attempts to use technology to streamline the check-in process have had mixed results. Robert Habeeb, president of the First Hospitality Group, which is the owner of 55 hotels in the U.S, says he pulled out check-in kiosks at two of his Holiday Inn hotels after finding that most guests ignored them. He found that many travelers will sacrifice speed or ease to talk with a staff member and ensure their room has the right view or location, or to try for an upgrade. Other guests may still want to be greeted when they arrive.
Hotels have never been known for being in the forefront of technology. The industry is often a delay, in part because many hotels are owned and managed by separate companies, making investments in technology more complicated. Nevertheless, many hotel operators have been searching for ways to remove the bottlenecks that can form at a hotel's front desk. The delays are the bane(祸根)of many a road warrior's travel experience. “Everybody has to check in, but we are all doing it pretty much the same way we were 100 years ago, ”says Christopher Nassetta, chief executive officer for Hilton Worldwide holdings Inc.“It' s something we are seriously addressing.
Yet it is still not clear that virtual keys will do better than previous attempts to beat traditional check-ins. An effort several years ago to allow guests to enter rooms with the magnetic strip on their credit cards never became popular . Guests worried about security and were unwilling to give their kids credit cards instead of room keys.
1.According to the first two paragraphs, which of the following is NOT true?
A.Aloft of Hotel in Manhattan will allow guests to use a smartphone as a room key
B.Hotel officials hope the new room key will be a great change in hotel industry.
C.All Starwood Hotels plan to offer the new room key before the end of the quarter.
D.The new room key may become a new standard of choosing a hotel
2.The word streamline(Para. 3) is closest in meaning to _____________.
A.strengthen B.simplify
C.change D.unify
3.Christopher Nassetta would most likely agree that _____________.
A.it's a good idea to cancel check-in
B.the management of hotel needs to be improved
C.the way of check-in needs to be changed
D.it's time to make use of technology in hotel industry
4.From the text we can see that the writer thinks the future of the new room key is __________.
A.optimistic B.uncertain
C.bright D.Negative
As her son Cameron sits at his laptop completing a task for his math degree course. Alison Thompson, a full-time mum is busy helping her daughter Emma (two years younger than Cameron) get dressed. While help has always been available for Emma, Alison and her husband also have to fight to get Cameron the support he needs. “People could see that Emma has special needs but because Cameron was doing so well at school, his teachers never thought there was a problem with him,” says Alison.
It took Alison and her husband a while to realize their son was different. Cameron’s ability didn’t become clear until he began primary school. Once he even corrected the teacher when she told the class that zero was the lowest number. Cameron told her she was wrong because there were negative numbers. He was four at the time. Now 14-year-old Cameron is at secondary school, studying for a distance learning math degree with the Open University, having sailed through his GCSE at 11 and his A-level at 12, achieving top grades.
Bethany, another daughter of Alison, is bright too, but not gifted. She is the one who will remind absent-minded Cameron to put on his coat. She also helps him out in social situations.
Emma attends a specialist school and the family is quick to celebrate her success too.
“The other day she did up the buttons on her coat, which was real progress,” Alison says.
Late last year the Thompsons took part in a television documentary to prove that not all gifted children are the result of extremely ambitious parents. Gifted children need support too, but their lives don’t have to be that different. Cameron is an example.
1.Which can be the best title for the passage?
A. Ambitious Parents B. Thompson’s Children
C. Special Gifts D. Different Lives
2.What does paragraph 1 indicate?
A. Both Cameron and Emma need parental support.
B. Teachers at school ignored Emma’s problems.
C. Cameron helps Emma with her math tasks.
D. The couple often have fights because of Cameron.
3.There are at least _______________ people in Mrs. Thompson’s family.
A. three B. four C. five D. six
4.What can be known from the passage?
A. Emma has learned to take good care of herself.
B. Cameron showed his gift before primary school.
C. The children of the family are bright and gifted.
D. Gifted kids are not so different as people expect.
Harlequino: Onto Freedom
Date:Nov.19-20 7:30 p.m.
Venue:Beijing Comedy Theater
Price:80-680 yuan
The drama discusses the true essence(本质) of are with the humor of Italian improvisational(即兴的 ) comedy. The performers discuss the purpose of art, reflect on how history is written and survey what is funny and what needs to be liberated.
Plastic Fantastic--Minirichi in Shanghai
Date:Nov.17 7:30 p.m.
Venue:Shanghai Dancing Theater
Price:100-380 yuan
Four Ukrainian “kidult” comedians decide to throw a wild party using plastic of all shapes and colors. Plastic Fantastic delivers a series of short comic stories that mix improvisation, mime, clown art and sound to draw you into their crazy world.
The Collection of American Modern Dance from Paul Taylor
Date:Nov.19 7:30 p.m.
Venue:National Center for the Performing Arts
Price:100-480 yuan
Paul Taylor, one of the most accomplished artists this nation has ever produced, has continued to shape America’s homegrown art of modern dance since he became a professional dancer and pioneering choreographer in 1954. Taylor first presented his choreography with five other dancers in Manhattan on May 30,1954. That modest performance marked the beginning of a half-century of unmatched creativity,and in the decades that followed, Mr.Taylor became a cultural symbol and one of the history’s most famous artists .
The little Singers of Paris in Suzhou
Date:Nov.30 7:30 p.m
Venue: Zhangjiagang Poly Theater
Price: 30-480 yuan
The boys’choir Les Petits Chanteurs a la Croix de Bois was created in 1907 and is now famous worldwide. Each world tour is a huge success. The choristers are between 9 and 15 years old and are proud of their choir’s long history of over 100 years and are still fulfilling childhood dreams. They have to leave their families in order to be part of this extraordinary adventure: traveling, sharing their passion for singing and enabling others to discover the joy of music.
1.Tourists are likely to appreciate American modern dance in ________.
A. Beijing Comedy Theater B. Shanghai Dancing Theater
C. Zhangjiagang Poly Theater D. National Center for the Performing Arts
2.Which of the following may appeal to those who are crazy about short comic stories?
A. Les Petits Chanteurs a la Croix de Bois B. Italian improvisational comedy
C. Plastic Fantastic D. Harlequino: Onto Freedom
3.With the cheapest admission ticket, tourists can have access to the performance____.
A. on Nov.30 B. on Nov.20
C. on Nov.19 D. on Nov.17
假定你是李华,上周六你参加了在市歌剧院举办的“京剧演唱会”。你的外教Miss Smart是京剧爱好者。请给她写封信,介绍演唱会的情况。内容包括:
1.演员:京剧名家;
2.观众:热情激动;
3.你的感受:爱上京剧。
参考词汇:草剧Beijing Opera
注意:1.词数100左右;
2.可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
Dear Miss Smart,
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文,请你修改你同桌写的以下作文,文中共有10处语言错误,每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加:在缺词处加一个漏词符号(∧),并在其下面写出该加的同。
删除:把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改:在错的词下面划一横线,并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意:1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2.只允许修改10处,多者(从第11处起)不计分。
I didn’t always study in my present school. A year ago I study in a country school, where lies in the north of the city. Although very busy with my study, but I went back to my old school last weekend. I saw so wonderful changes there that I was great surprised. It is not what I described in past at all. There is a big football playground among two new teaching building. And beside the playground, there is a little lake with much green plants around it. There is also a nice library next to the lake. If you are interested, going to visit it.
阅读下面短文,在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
Our science teacher asked us to tell our ideas for scientific experiments we would like to do in space 1. Monday. To our surprise, hundreds of us sent in brilliant ideas. Yesterday, our teacher invited two students, Wang Wei and Li Tao, to explain their space2. (experiment) to us.
Wang Wei was interested in carrying out a small experiment about ants in space. How interesting! You know, ants like 3. (dig) holes. But he couldn't really think of 4. good reason for doing that. Maybe he could learn about gravity. And that’s what he thought. But then Li Tao had a better idea. He likes silkworms very much. One day, 5. he was feeding them and watching them eat, he6.(sudden) wondered what would happen if they 7.(live) in space. How long would they live? Could they still make silk? What kind of silk would they make? He thought that was a great idea too, so he decided to do that.
Silkworms are of high8.(valuable) in China. We think it is very meaningful to find out more about them. Maybe they will produce9.(good) silk in space.
After we had heard 10.(they) ideas, we all couldn’t wait to share our ideas for space experiments.