A bargain is something offered at a low and advantageous price. A more recent definition is: a bargain is a dirty trick to force money out of the pockets of silly and innocent people.
The cost of producing a new-for example - toothpaste would make 80p the proper price for it, so we will market it at £1.20. It is not a bad toothpaste, and as people like to try new things it will sell well to start with; but the attraction of novelty soon fades, so sales will fall. When that happens we will reduce the price to £1.15. And we will turn it into a bargain by printing 5p OFF all over it.
Sometimes it is not 5p OFF but 1p OFF. What breathtaking rudeness to advertise 1p OFF your soap or washing powder or whatever! Even the poorest old-age pensioner ought to regard this as an insult(侮辱), but he doesn't. A bargain must not be missed. People say one has to have washing powder (or whatever) and one might as well buy it a penny cheaper.
The real danger starts when unnecessary things become ‘bargains’. Many people just cannot resist bargains. Provided they think they are getting a bargain they will buy clothes they will never wear or furniture they have no space for. Once I heard of a man who bought an electric saw as a bargain and cut off two of his fingers the next day. But he had no regrets: the saw had been truly cheap.
Quite a few people actually believe that they make money on such bargains. A lady once told me: “I’ve had a lucky day today. I bought a dress for £120, reduced from £400; and l bought a beautiful Persian carpet for £600, reduced from £900.” It will never occur to her that she has actually wasted £720. She feels as though she had made £580. She also feels, I am sure, that if she had more time for shopping, she could make a living out of it.
Some people buy in large quantities because it is cheaper. Once a couple bought enough sugar for their lifetime and the lifetime of their children and grandchildren. They thought it a bargain not to be missed. When the sugar arrived they didn't know where to store it - until they realized that their toilet was a very spacious one. So that was where they piled up their sugar. Not only did their guests feel rather strange whenever they were offered sugar to put into their coffee, but the toilet became extremely sticky.
To offer bargains is a commercial trick to make the poor poorer. When greedy fools fall for this trick, it serves them right.
1.Which word best describes the language style of the passage?
A.Polite. B.Foolish.
C.Humorous. D.Serious.
2.What does the underlined word “novelty” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A.Good quality. B.Low price.
C.Curiosity. D.Newness.
3.How does the author feel about 1p OFF a product?
A.It’s a gift for poor people.
B.It’s an offense to shoppers.
C.It’s a bargain worth trying.
D.It’s a real reduction in price.
4.Which statement will the author probably agree with?
A.Bargains are things people don’t really need.
B.Bargains are often real cheap products.
C.Bargains help people make a living.
D.Bargains play tricks on people.
Canada---The True North"'
In 1867 when Canada was created, a towering Silver Maple tree standing in front of Alexander Muir's house in Toronto gave him an idea. He would write a poem and a song about the great tree, so common in Canada and so symbolic, to celebrate Canada's Confederation(联邦).
His song was called The Maple Leaf Forever and it has been the unofficial Canadian anthem(国歌) to this day.
Last July during a major storm, the tree was knocked down. It fell across a house and a street. But because it was an important historic tree, most of the wood was saved rather than being destroyed.
Recently woodworkers at The Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, a community projects centre, cut the wood into logs and other usable pieces. The pieces were given to artists to create about 150 different projects.
One artist took a piece of tree. On it, he'll carve (雕刻) a series of historical Canadian scenes. Another wood carver is making beautiful round wooden bowls. Yet another made an interesting candlestick from the tree's branches.
Other woodworkers are making wood wig stands(假发架)for cancer patients who lose their hair. Still others are taking small pieces of wood and making them into pens. And some of the wood was made into gavels (小木槌)to be used by Toronto' s city councilors(市议员).
Some of the projects will be on public show while some will be personally owned.
The people in Toronto who lived near the tree for years and tried to protect it from harm were very sad to see the old tree go. But they are glad to see that their maple tree will live forever in the hearts and homes of many people.
1.Why did Alexander write The Maple Leaf Forever？
A.To celebrate the birth of Canada.
B.To express his love for the maple tree.
C.To go with his poem.
D.To memorize the maple tree.
2.Why was the wood of the tree kept by many people?
A.The tree has practical value.
B.They used it to honour Alexander Muir.
C.They thought the tree was publicly owned.
D.The tree was closely tied to Canadian history.
3.What is the best title for the text?
A.Maple Tree in Toronto B.Projects of Maple Tree
C.Maple Tree Will Live Forever D.A Fallen Maple Tree was saved
It’s 2035. You have a job, a family and you're about 40 years old! Welcome to your future life.
Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror.
“Turn red,” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronics( 智能电子元件)are rear-ranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror you find it hard to believe you’re 40. You look much younger.
With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You’re not even middle-aged! As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that.” from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code( 电子源码)on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible foods appears on the counter as the kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space?” you ask your son and daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel. “ Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots(防疫针)are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the berries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
It’s time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office. Autopilot! “ you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your e-newspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video films rather than read it.
1.What changes the color of your shirt?
A.The mirror B.The medicine C.The counter D.The shirt itself
2.How do the shoes know that you shouldn’t eat the breakfast cereal?
A.By pouring the breakfast into a bowl
B.By checking the nutrition details of the food
C.By testing the food supplies in the kitchen
D.By listening to the doctor's advice
3.The strawberries the children eat serve as _____.
A.vaccines B.lunch C.breakfast D.nutrition
4.How is the text organized?
A.In order of preference
B.In order of appearance
C.In order of time
D.In order of importance
假设你是红星中学高二学生李华。英国友好校教师Mr. Smith下个月将来你校进行友好访问。访问期间，Mr. Smith将要做有关英国的讲座，现就具体内容征求你校学生的意见。请你给Mr. Smith写一封邮件，内容包括:
1.你感兴趣的一个讲座话题(如英国的历史、音乐、文学、建筑……等);
2.你对该话题感兴趣的原因;
3.你期望从讲座中得到的收获。
注意: 1.词数不少于50;
2.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Mr. Smith,
I 'm Li Hua, a student at Hongxing High School.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your time.
Yours,
Li Hua
根据短文内容，回答问题，并将答案写在相应位置。
Somewhere around puberty (青春期)，a change in the body clock makes it hard for teens to fall asleep as early as they used to.
This shift is natural for teens. But staying up very late can push a teen's body clock out of synchronization (同步) with the natural cycle of light and darkness. It can also make it hard for teens to get out of bed in the morning and bring other problems, too. Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher, says that too little sleep can affect a teen's mood and ability to think or learn.
But just like an alarm clock, the body's biological clock can be reset. In fact, it automatically resets itself every day. How? -by using the blue light entering our eyes-the color of the morning sky. Exposure to morning sunlight is the best to synchronize the body's clock with the Earth's natural 24-hour cycle.
The problem is, teens may have limited exposure to the morning light. Often, they are on a bus or in class during the peak morning hours. So to get morning light, researchers suggest, students should have a morning break-sometime around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. to go outdoors. Also, they should try to spend a few minutes outside before going to school.
However, for the same reason that blue light is helpful in the morning, it can be disruptive (扰乱性的) to the body clock when eyes meet it at night. Computer screens, TVs and other electronic devices all send some blue light. So their use at night could unknowingly push tired students to stay up even later.
But there is also a simple solution: wearing orange goggles (护目镜). They may look stupid, but they'll block out blue light. Worn in the evening, blue-blocker goggles can protect students from getting the signal that it's daytime when in fact the body should be winding down for sleep.
1.What happens to teens at puberty?
2.What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?
3.According to researchers, how can teens adjust to the natural time cycle in the morning?
4.Why are orange goggles advised to use in the evening?
5.What is the writer's main purpose of writing the passage?
Kids need to move in school
Many years ago, when my girls were in primary school, they were crazy about the dance breaks they would occasionally have during the school day. Their teachers would put on a video, which encouraged the kids to get up and dance, and then they' d get back to work.1. Many teachers are including some form of movement into the school day.
A recent research, published in the journal Pediatrics, involved more than 10,000 children between the ages of 4 and 13. 2. Susan Kamin, leader of the research, said, “Activity breaks during the school day also lead to fewer behavioral issues, not to mention cutting down on stress and anxiety."
Breakthrough Magnet School, Connecticut, is in its third year working with the National Association of Physical Literacy. Principal Julie Goldstein said her third-and fourth-graders who are actively engaged in the physical programme are the highest-scoring students in math and reading in the district.3. For this school year, not one student from this group has been referred to her office for a conversation. Before the programme, she might have had one or two office coversations with some of them every month.
4. “I know lots of teachers who say, 'Yeah, I wish I had more time to do this,'” Kamin said, “Even in schools that can find the time, there is still some opposition (反对)because it's a departure from the way things used to be. It's a big change for some of the teachers.5.Yet the schools that have made the change see tremendous results. So how do you move the needle?"
A.My kids' teachers are certainly not alone.
B.They're not sure whether to make that leap.
C.The challenge, though, is persuading more schools to take action.
D.Teach children the basics of movement so that they can stay active for life.
E.Beyond the academical (学业的) benefits, there are benefits outside the classroom.
F.It shows that kids who get extra physical activity in school do better in cognitive(认知的) performance.
