It’s funny how readily we “take the advice of complete strangers” when shopping online. More than 80 percent of Americans say they read online reviews at least some of the time. But on sites such as Amazon and Yelp, businesses have learnt to “making the most of the rating system to the seller’s or the platform’s advantage”, eventually “making the star-rating scale useless”. Even in the case of confirmed reviews, it can be hard to know what the stars mean.
Amazon has stepped up the effort to provide transparency said Louise Matsakis in Wired.com. Its “Vine voices” program sends free products for testing to an invite-only community of “trusted reviewers”. Amazon has also started ranking its Top 10,000 Contributors on a daily leaderboard not “just by the number of reviews a person has but also by how many customers found their feedback to be helpful”. The current No.1 reviewer, a 45-year-old from North Dakota who has posted nearly 2,500 comments since 2002, has owned a bakery in Oregon, worked for a small newspaper, and had a 10-year stretch in the Navy as a nuclear welding inspector. Now he spends his time testing everything from fryers to popcorn makers, though he exceeded its weight limit by 70 pounds.
But sellers are still finding ways to deceive prospective buyers, said a reviewer. He said, “I identified more than 150 private Facebook groups where sellers openly exchange free products for five-star reviews. I joined four of them and was annoyed with a flurry of private messages from sellers. One offered to pay me $10 for a splendid review of what was already ‘one of the highest-ranked iPhone chargers’, with 3,971 five-star reviews and a trusted ‘Amazon choice’ label. When it arrived, the charger broke within minutes. I reached out to Amazon and those thousands of five-star reviews for the charger disappeared.”
The product now has 11 reviews and holds a rating of 2.5 stars. But before all those five-star reviews disappeared, how many shoppers spotted this $ 13.99 charger pack on Amazon’s first-page results and fell for the trick?
1.What action has Amazon taken to make the star-rating scale useful?
A.Provide effectively checked comments for consumers.
B.Give priority to the advantage of customers.
C.Decide on contributors’ rank by the quantity of reviews.
D.Get reliable reviewers to test products before their release.
2.What does the underlined word “deceive” in the third paragraph most probably mean?
A.Persuade. B.Instruct.
C.Interest. D.Cheat.
3.What do we know about the charger seller in the last two paragraphs?
A.He convinced buyers to obtain free products.
B.He attempted to obtain excellent reviews by purchase.
C.He was in hot water and deleted all untrusted reviews.
D.He tricked buyers and disappeared from Amazon.
4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A.The Efforts of Amazon
B.The Application of Rating System
C.Not Every Star Shines So Bright
D.Don’t Fall for the Trick of Sellers
I was 11 years old when I asked my mom for piano lessons in 2010. We were in the economic decline. She said a polite “no”.
That didn’t stop me. I Googled the measurements for a keyboard, drew the keys on a piece of paper and stuck it on my desk. I would click notes on an online keyboard and “play” them back on my paper one-keeping the sound they made on the computer in my head. I spent six months playing without touching a real piano. Once my mom saw that I was serious, she borrowed money and bought me 10 lessons.
I still remember the first one. I was struck by how real the sound of the piano was. I sat my grade one after eight lessons. Once I started secondary school, we couldn’t afford lessons again. I passed grade three, then grade five, practicing only on my piece of paper.
One evening, when I was about 13, my mom said she had a surprise for me; it was an electronic keyboard, bought with more borrowed money. It was the first time I’d played for her. She was in shock.
My school didn’t offer music A-level. I found the Purcell School for young musicians. But I had to pass a difficult test. Some of the questions involved an evaluation of the composer or when some piece was written. I felt overwhelmed. To my amazement, I was offered a place.
At Purcell, I spent two years working as hard as I could. I performed to raise money and saved enough to buy my first piano.
When I left Purcell, I was awarded the senior piano prize and senior academic music prize. I am now at the Guildhall School in London. I feel proud: it’s been 10 years since I drew my paper piano, and I’m at one of the world’s leading music schools.
The irony is that I continue to do a lot of my practice away from the piano-what we call mental practice. The paper piano helped arouse my curiosity about how music works, the building blocks that form the pieces.
1.Why did the author’s mom buy him lessons at last?
A.She was shocked by his first performance.
B.She had no doubt of his talent for piano.
C.She realized he meant what he said.
D.She suddenly made a fortune.
2.Which of the following can best describe the author?
A.Honest. B.Determined.
C.Humorous. D.Optimistic.
3.The underlined word “irony” in the last paragraph shows that the author felt .
A.surprised B.proud
C.satisfied D.disappointed
4.What’s the author’s main purpose of writing this article?
A.To introduce the method of mental practice.
B.To share how he convinced his mom to buy a piano.
C.To describe how costly it is to learn an instrument.
D.To encourage people to stick to their dreams.
If you're not one of the record 1. 9 million British holiday makers who went on a cruise (海上航游) last year, isn't it high time you walked up the gangway?
We've rounded up all of the best packages you need to know about, as well as picking out some of our top favourite late deals.
US Transatlantic From £629 per-person: Sail 13 nights with stops including Boston, New York. Price is on a full-board basis and includes accommodation as well as on board entertainment and activities. Based on an interior cabin(船舱) but upgrade to Ocean View for an extra £ 177per-person.
Cuba from £400 per-person: Sail five nights on board Majesty of the Seas with stops in Havana» Cuba and Mexico. Price is on a full-board basis and includes accommodation as well as onboard entertainment and activities.
Portugal, Spain and Italy from £479 per-person：Sail seven nights with stops including Madeira, and Malaga on a full-board basis. Price includes meals, afternoon tea, late-night snacks, luxury en-suite accommodation, all onboard activities and entertainment.
European cities from £579 per-person: Sail on board MSC Meraviglia from Barcelona to visit Marseille, Genoa, Civitavecchia, Palermo and Valetta, and make the most of MSC's all-inclusive drinks package including coffees, cocktails, wine, beer, spirits and soft drinks for over 18s. Price is on a cruise only basis with two people sharing a cabin.
While there are plenty of great late deals available to customers, the cruise industry often has some of its best deals months in advance. Going forward, cruise lines are looking to change the way the booking system works so the prices go up closer to the departure.
1.Who is the passage written for?
A.sailor. B.A holiday designer.
C.An advertiser. D.A potential tourist.
2.How much should a couple pay for US Transatlantic Ocean View cabin?
A.£1612. B.£1258.
C.£806. D.£629.
3.Whose price doesn't include entertainment?
A.Cuba. B.Portugal, Spain and Italy.
C.European cities. D.US Transatlantic.
某国际动物关爱协会面向全球中学生招募“动物代言人”，希望申请者选择一种自己喜欢的动物，为之代言（speak for），唤起人们的动物保护意识。假设你是南海育才中学的学生李华，有意参与该活动。请写一封电子邮件申请参加。
内容包括：
1. 你个人的基本情况（姓名、性别、年龄）；
2. 申请陈述内容；
3. 希望获准。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Sir or Madam,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（﹨）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，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。
During the National Day holiday, my parents and I paid a visit my grandparents by train. There was a large number of people and the train was crowded, but everyone helped those who had lots of baggages and behaved politely. Along the way, we enjoyed beautifully views. At the first, we saw one hill after another. Then what came into view were fields with green crops. After a six-hour trip, they arrived at our grandparents’ house. Exhausted although I felt, I was happy to see my grandparents, which I hadn’t seen for a long time. It’s really an excited trip because it was the first time that I had taken so a long-distance train.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。
The goal of early calculating machines was to 1.(simple) difficult sums. But with the help of new technology, electronic chips replaced tubes and a revolution of artificial intelligence has arisen. From then on, 2.appearance of computers totally changed our lives. They can not only download information from the net when 3.(connect) by the network or mobile phone signals, but also solve different 4.(type) of logical problems. With operators as their coaches, they can even control rockets 5.(explore) the moon and instruct androids with the human race’s characters to mop floors and watch over your naughty niece. Anyhow, computers are so helpful 6.they do bring happiness.
However, computers are 7.(easy) attacked by viruses. This reality 8.(become) a hard-to-deal with-problem. As a result, computers are dangerous 9.a way. So, personally, I worry about 10.(they) universal applications in some fields, such as finance.
