1. TrueCar.com
Top dealers compete for your business by offering lower prices. TrueCar spends a lot of money and resources on making sure the entire car renting experience is simple and straightforward. If you’re in the market for a new car, give this site a try first.
TrueCar’s network checks many of the prices in your area and gets you the best price for the car you’re looking for.
2. Carvoy.com
It offers more control by allowing you to “build your car” and select your rental plan. The “build your car” option is one of the better options for those looking to add on features to their car. If you’re looking for cars with options like a sunroof or navigation (导航), it’s Carvoy that makes it very easy to get started with the process.
3. CarsDirect.com
They have a large collection of new and used cars, and also provide resources for car comparisons. In the business for many years, they are one of the first online car outlets. They have a staff that can usually help you if you give them a call. Their phone support is very good and they are mostly located in the United States.
4. CarRent.com
It delivers your rental car to the door, which is actually a huge selling point. Many people don’t like to go to a dealership or even drive somewhere to pick up a car. Imagine renting a car and having it delivered right to your doorstep, no driving necessary!
5. CostcoAuto.com
It offers member-only savings, many car selections and an easy sign-up process. The deals through Costco are great and unique. Many times they have deals with General Motors cars like Chevrolet. There are a lot of deals to be done, but the one thing that Costco does not do is negotiate the price.
1.What’s the selling point of TrueCar.com?
A. Its most reasonable prices for cars.
B. The diversity of its used cars.
C. Its delivery service to your door.
D. The special offers to its members.
2.What is the special service that Carvoy.com provides?
A. You can have other functions added to your car.
B. You can rent a car more easily than elsewhere.
C. You can design the whole car by yourself.
D. You can have better operation over your car.
3.If you are a good bargainer, it’s wise to avoid dealing with _______.
A. CarsDirect.com B. Carvoy.com
C. CarRent.com D. CostcoAuto.com
Some universities have reportedly canceled the men' s 5,000-meter race and the women' s 3,000-meter race in their sports meetings due to worries that the students couldn't cope with the race. Students' physical conditions are worrying in the nation.
In ancient China, Confucian culture stressed the values of knowledge and morality and considered people with physical strength uncivilized. Having a strong body was the most obvious distinction between manual workers and civilized intellectuals.
In today's China, knowledge, which is regarded as the source of productivity, is more highly valued than physical strength. Parents and teachers value clever heads over strong bodies.
The physical condition of Chinese people has improved a lot since China's reform and opening-up policy in the early 1980s,as nutrition and food are no longer a problem for most people.
Chinese people should develop the habit of sports exercise starting from childhood. The government and education authorities must create more conditions for the people, especially for students, to do sports regularly.
A healthy and strong body is a basic guarantee for a healthy life. The health of the whole nation will also have an impact on China's future development.
（写作内容）
1.用约30个单词概述上述信息的主要内容；
2.用约120个单词阐述你对加强体育锻炼的看法。内容包括：
①目前中国大部分学生的身体状况与精神状态；
②建议学生多参加体育锻炼，如跑步、跳绳、打篮球等；
③加强体育锻炼的意义（不少于两点）。
（写作要求）
1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3.不必写标题。
（评分标准）
内容规范，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卷上相应题号的横线上。
Nowadays, reading for pleasure is declining among primary-age pupils, and increasing numbers of “time poor” parents are dropping the practice of sharing bedtime stories with their children once they start school.
Research found that while parents read to preschoolers, by the final year of primary school only around 2% read to their children every day. Once children can read skillfully, parents tend to step back, and this usually happens at the age of seven or eight. The research also found that most teachers blame the government’s “target-driven” education policies for the fact that fewer children are reading for pleasure.
They believe that a straitjacket (束缚) of strictly organized schooling is containing young people’s ability to read more widely. Two-thirds of teachers surveyed said they lacked time in the school day to introduce a variety of books and that this was a “major obstacle to being able to develop a level of reading”. Teachers also cited as main factors the reduction in the number of school librarians, who could put interesting books before children, and the rise in “screen time”, switching children from reading to playing games.
The majority of teachers said the curriculum’s “emphasis on reading as a skill to be mastered” was increasing the pressure, which also came from parents who saw reading as a focus of learning, a skill critical to career advancement in a competitive world.
There was a real love of reading among teachers, and a strong desire to encourage more children to read for pleasure. However, the teachers also had an overpowering sense of frustration with their situation. “Touch-screen phone and computers are naturally attractive to children,” the survey said, and predicted a period of awkwardness as everyone else adapts. By 2021, children’s television will have adopted the presence of this second screen, and it will be strange not to have children, at home drawing along on computers and then having these appearing live in the show.
The hope is that user-friendly screens could, if material is adapted and downloaded easily, present an opportunity for more ambitious publishing — for example, books children like to read or digital books with moving pictures instead of photos to clarify factual and scientific points. Parental controls that are easy to use would be key. And they should be allowed to shut off access to children in the home.
The 1. situation | The change in the number of primary-age pupils who read for pleasure is 2.to that in the number of parents who fail to tell bedtime stories to their children. | |
The reasons | The government | Its “target-driven” education policies are to 3.for the fact that fewer children are reading for pleasure. |
Schools | ●The strictly organized schooling plays a 4. role for the children to read more widely. ●The number of school librarians is 5. ●The curriculum 6.reading skills too much, which burdens the children. | |
Most teachers | They can do nothing to introduce various books because they are 7. in time in the school day. | |
Parents | They 8.to reading as a focus of learning and a critical skill to career advancement in a competitive world. | |
Children | They 9. their attention from reading to the second screen. | |
The hopes | ●Publish books children like to read or 10. books. ●Allow parents to shut off access to children in the home. |
I remember the thrill of first seeing you at law school orientation. You looked happy in a sea of dour, nervous faces. And you swept me off my feet immediately and I was eager to know everything about you. It quickly became clear that you were kind, down-to-earth, engaging and loyal to family and friends. By graduation, we were inseparable. We took the bar exam and were married. The future looked bright-two freshly minted lawyers with supportive families and a dream of starting a family of our own some day.
I started my career with the exhausting hours and high stress that are traditionally visited on young lawyers. You were unexpectedly ambivalent (矛盾情绪的） about finding a good job-or any job. After gentle pressure from me, and more from the student loan payments, you puttered around in some non-legal positions more suited for someone with half your education and intelligence, which offered low pay.
Pregnancy-something we both wanted-gave you the most important job in the world. After a few years, we were blessed with a second child. You have never returned to work, although both kids have been at school full-time for years, and our firstborn is heading to college soon.
I've climbed the professional ladder reasonably well. We have the trappings of middle-class success-a nice house in a safe, quiet neighborhood; annual holidays; happy, healthy children; money saved for their college years. But it has come at enormous personal cost to me. My stress level has increased dramatically with added responsibilities at work and my health has become worse. People who haven't seen me for years flinch (退缩） when we meet again and I've attended more than one event at which I have overheard someone remarking on how much I've aged.
I don't think I can do this for another 25 years. I often dream of leaving my firm for a less demanding position, with you making up any financial deficit with a job-even a modest one-of your own. I've asked, and sometimes pleaded, for years with you to get a job, any job. Many of my free hours are spent helping with the housework and the kids, and I recognize that traditional gender roles are often oppressive, but that cuts both ways. I would feel less used and alone if you pitched in financially, even a little. That's not going to happen. It has become clear that you are OK with my working myself to death at a high-stress career that I increasingly hate, as long as you don't have to return to the workforce.
You keep busy volunteering, exercising and pursuing a variety of hobbies. You socialize with similarly situated women who also choose to remain outside the paid workforce. You always say you are not satisfied with the family income, but never once consider that you could relieve the stress on both our budgets and your burnt-out husband by earning some money yourself.
Our family is grateful for all that we enjoy and we know that we're far more fortunate than millions who work far harder than I ever have, or will. And I know all too well that work can be unpleasant. But I don't want you to work so I can buy a Jaguar or a holiday home. I want you to work so I can get a different position and we can still maintain a similar standard of living.
I want you to get a job so I don't wake up in the middle of the night worrying that my career is the only one between us and financial ruin. I want you to work so our marriage can feel more like a partnership and I can feel less like your financial beast of burden. I want our daughter to see you in the workforce and I want her to pursue a career so she is never as dependent on a man as you are on me, no matter how much he loves her(and he will).But mostly I want you to get a job because I want to feel loved.
1.What can we know about the author?
A.He has a family of five.
B.He got married before graduation.
C.He dreams of being a successful lawyer.
D.He fell for his wife at first sight.
2.What does the author think is the most important job to his wife?
A.Choosing a like-minded life partner.
B.The mother's having a baby inside her body.
C.The woman's being able to support her family.
D.Applying for a high-paid job once again.
3.What message is delivered in the fourth paragraph?
A.The author is not so good at socializing.
B.The author is a person of wealth and power.
C.Great responsibility comes with great power.
D.The heavy work pressure has aged the author.
4.What does the underlined sentence imply?
A.The author's wife won't take high-pressure jobs.
B.The author's wife is not satisfied with his work.
C.The author's wife will not go to work.
D.The author's wife can't keep the work-life balance.
5.We can infer from Paragraph 6 that the author's wife_
A.complains about financial pressure
B.usually volunteers with nearby women
C.always thinks of her husband's feelings
D.determines to earn some money herself
6.Why does the author want his wife to get a job?
A.To raise their standard of living.
B.To improve her ability to be independent.
C.To assist him in buying a nice holiday home.
D.To set a good example to their daughter.
Chinese restaurants began to open in America in the mid-19th century, mainly on the west coast where the first immigrants landed. They mostly served an Americanized version of Cantonese cuisine, chop suey, egg fu yung and the like. In that century and much of the 20th,the immigrants largely came from China's south-east, mainly Guangdong province.
After the immigration reforms of 1965, Chinese migrants from other regions started to arrive. Restaurants began calling their food "Hunan” and “Sichuan". Though their food rarely resembled what was actually eaten in those regions, it was more diverse and boldly spiced than the sweet, fried stuff that defined the earliest Chinese menus. By the 1990s adventurous diners in cities with sizeable Chinese populations could choose from a variety of regional cuisines. A particular favorite was Sichuan food, with its addictively numbing fire due to peppercorn.
Yet over the decades, as Chinese food became universal, it also came to be standardized. There are almost three times as many Chinese restaurants in America (41,000)as McDonald's. Virtually every small town has one. And generally the menus are consistent: pork dumplings （steamed or fried);the same two soups(hot and sour, wonton);stir-fries listed by main ingredient, with a pepper icon or star indicating a slight trace of chilli-flakes. Dishes over$10 are grouped under "chef's specials".
Until recently, the prices varied as little as the menus and they were low. Eddie Huang, a Taiwanese-American restaurateur, recalls how his newly-arrived father kept his prices down because" immigrants can't sell anything full-price in America."
Americans have traditionally been willing to pay through the nose at French or Italian joints （where, in fact, Latinos often do most of the cooking).And every city has its pricey sushi bars and expensive tapas restaurants(tapas, as one joke goes, is Spanish for"$96 and still hungry").
Mr. Huang is right that Americans have long expected Chinese food to be cheap and filling. One step up from the urban takeaway, with its fluorescent lighting, is the Chinese restaurant with its red doors and fake lions standing guard, exotic enough to be special, but still affordable enough for a family to visit once a week when nobody feels like cooking. Even the superior outlets were cheap for what they served.
But now things are changing. Mr. Huang sells delicious stuffed buns in New York and Los Angeles for$5.50 each and encourages other immigrants not to undervalue their work.
Meanwhile, although racism persists, the previous discrimination of earlier ages has been fading. Since the Chinese-American population is six times what was 40 years ago, Americans overall are much more familiar with Chinese people and their cooking, all of which means that the new fancy breed of Chinese restaurants draws a heartening mix of Chinese and non-Chinese diners.
1.We can learn from the first three paragraphs that_
A.Cantonese cuisine was well received by Americans in the 19th century
B.Those so-called Hunan or Sichuan food in America tasted just as what was actually eaten in those regions
C.Nowadays Chinese restaurants are almost twice more than McDonald's in America
D.Americans prefer Hunan food because they have been addicted to peppercorn
2.Why was Chinese food sold at a lower price?
A.Americans have long expected Chinese food to be cheap and filling.
B.Earlier immigrants couldn't sell anything full-price in America.
C.Americans prefer French and Italian food.
D.Chinese restaurants face fierce price competition from other restaurants.
3.In what order did the author write the passage?
A.In order of importance.
B.In order of place.
C.In order of time.
D.In order of position.
4.What is the best title of this passage?
A.Immigration on a plate.
B.Americans' favourite cuisine.
C.Prejudice against Chinese immigrants.
D.Route to success.
The number of snow geese arriving in the Arctic each spring to breed has skyrocketed over the past few decades. At first, wildlife biologists saw this as an environmental crisis, pointing to marshes (湿地） where plants were eaten by thousands of hungry birds. In response, the federal government loosened restrictions on snow goose hunting to protect the ecosystem.
But how do the Inuit, in whose backyard this is taking place, view the situation? A recent initiative is giving Inuit wildlife experts the opportunity to lend their knowledge to managing the species. The snow goose study, which is supported in part by Polar Knowledge Board(an Inuit organization that manages hunting, trapping and fishing in central Nunavut),asked the experts to share their generations of knowledge about snow geese and their views on what should be done.
＂The community had concerns about controlling the population," says Ron, a community officer for the Inuit Association," and Inuit snow goose knowledge had never been recorded. People wanted to pass on what they knew."
Inuit wildlife experts disagreed with that, considering it wasteful and unnecessary. They felt hunting more snow geese in an organized way, such as paying local hunters a minimal amount of money and distributing the birds to disadvantaged families or operating a limited commercial hunt by employing local people, would be appropriate.
Inuit wildlife experts will meet scientists this fall to search for common ground. They say that while there may be too many snow geese in some areas, it's not a crisis. Biologists now generally agree that there seem to be plenty of undamaged marshes available and newer research shows that some damaged areas can recover.
Conservation planners for the three migratory bird protection zones in the area will use the study's recommendations-an example of how native knowledge can strengthen wildlife management." It is providing people who the decisions affect with a real, practical way to make recommendations and influence what happens," says Vicky Johnston, a biologist and manager with the Canadian Wildlife Service involved in the project.
＂Now that we have recorded and documented Inuit knowledge of snow geese," says Ron, ＂when facing the crisis, other people will be able to use the information to help manage the species, which is fundamental to dealing with it effectively."
1.Which of the following might Inuit wildlife experts agree with?
A.Organizing large commercial hunts.
B.Using snow goose hunting to man's best advantage.
C.Regarding too many snow geese as a crisis.
D.Hunting as many snow geese as possible.
2.What might biologists think about the marshes' future now?
A.It's unpredictable.
B.It's a bit promising.
C.It's too discouraging.
D.It's hard to get better.
3.What does the underlined word "it" in the last paragraph refer to?
A.The crisis.
B.Inuit knowledge.
C.The species.
D.Inuit research.
