What is Bay? The simple answer is that it is a global trading platform where nearly anyone can trade practically anything. People can sell and buy all kinds of products and goods. Including cars, movies and DVDs, sporting goods, travel tickets, musical instruments, clothes and shoes- the list goes on and on
The idea came from Peter Omidyar, who was born in Paris and moved to Washington when he was still a child, At high school, be became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tuft University in 1988, He worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started Bay as a kind of hobby, at first offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the website that he had to upgrade（升级） and he began charging a fee to members. Joined by a friend, Peter Skill. and in 1998 by his capable CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. Even in the great. com crashes of the late 1990s,abay has gone from strength to strength. It is now one of the ten most visited online shopping websites on the Internet
eBay sells connections, not goods, putting buyer and seller into contact with each other. All you have to do is lake an e-photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you are in business: the world is your market place. Of course for each item （商品）sold eBay gets a percentage and that is great deal of money. Every day there are more than sixteen million items listed on eBay and eighty percent of the items are sold.
1.We learn from the text that eBay provides people with__
A.a way of buying and selling goods
B.a website for them to upgrade
C.a place to exhibit their own photos
D.a chance to buy things at low prices
2.Why did Peter create eBay after graduating from university?
A.For fun
B.To make money
C.For gathering the engineers
D.To fulfill a task of his company
3.From “he has never looked back “in Paragraph 2 we learn that peter_
A.did not feel lonely
B.was always hopeful
C.did not think about the past
D.became more and more successful
4.How does eBay make money from its website7?
A.By bringing callers together.
B.By charging for each sale
C.By listing items online
D.By making e-photos.
Once upon a time, there lived a rich man. He had a servant (仆人). He and the servant loved wine and good food very much. Each time the rich man left his home, the servant would drink the wine and eat up all the nice food in the house. The rich man knew what his servant did, but he had never caught his servant doing that.
One morning, when he left home, he said to the servant, “Here are two bottles of poison (毒药) and some nice food in the house. You must take care of them.” With these words, he went out.
But the servant knew that the rich man had said was untrue. After the rich man was away from his home, he enjoyed a nice meal. Because he drank too much, he was drunk and fell to the ground. When the rich man came back, he couldn’t find his food and his wine. He became very angry. He woke the servant up. But the servant told his story very well. He said a cat had eaten up everything. He was afraid to be punished(惩罚), so he drank the poison to kill himself.
1.In the story, _______ liked wine and good food very much.
A.the rich man B.the servant
C.both A and B D.neither A and B
2.The rich told the servant that there was poison in the two bottles, because ________.
A.he wanted to kill the cat
B.he wanted to kill the servant
C.there was in fact poison in the bottles
D.did not want the servant to drink his wine
3.In fact, _______ ate all the nice food and drank the wine.
A.nobody B.the servant C.the rich man D.cat
A student is learning to speak British English. He wonders (想知道): Can I communicate with Americans? Can they understand me? Learners of English often ask: What are the differences between British and American English? How important are these differences? Certainly! there are some differences between British and American English. „There are a few differences in grammar. For example, speakers of British English say “in hospital” and “Have you a pen?” Americans say “in the hospital!” and “Do you have a pen?”. Pronunciation is sometimes different. Americans usually sound theirs in words like “bird” and “hurt”. Speakers of British English do not sound theirs in these words. There are differences between British and American English in spelling and vocabulary. For example, “colour” and “honour” are British, “color” and honor” are American. These differences in grammar, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary are not important, however. For the most part, British and American English are the same language.
1.American English and British English are different in ___ _____.
A.spelling B.pronunciation
C.grammar D.all of the above
2.What is not mentioned (提及) in the passage?
A.Whether there are differences between British English and American English.
B.Whether British English and American English are one language or two.
C.How the differences between British English and American English came about.
D.How important the differences are.
3.Most _____ say “Do you have a watch?”
A.British people B.Americans
C.children D.teachers
4.According to this passage, British people and Americans have _______ difficulty in understanding each other.
A.little B.much C.some D.great
语法填空
Last Christmas, I wanted to give the woman 1. cleans my apartment a nice gift in 2. (appreciate). Since I know she doesn’t have much money, I decided 3. (write) her a generous check so she could use it however she wanted. I put it in an attractive card with a photo of a cat and a dog on 4. (it) cover because she loves animals.
The card came with a nice message, and I also added a personal message in which I thanked her 5. her good services, wishing her the best for the coming year and for her dreams coming true.
6. (tear) of gratitude rolled down her face when she saw my message, before she even saw the check! She said, “You took the time to write me a personal message; now I feel really 7. (love). I’m going to save this card for 8. rest of my life!”
This reminds me that what people really want is to be acknowledged and appreciated, and to know that they matter. This is what’s really important when 9. (give) a gift. In this case it 10. (obvious) was not about the money, but about making a sincere heart connection.
Every Friday and Saturday night I deliver food for a local food delivery company. I need this second job to pay off the _______ that resulted from an accident a few years ago.
Last night I got a(n) _______ in which the restaurant and the customer's house were pretty far away from each other. This was actually a _______ thing. The customer got charged a higher delivery fee, which would be paid to me.
I _______ the customer's food and drove to his house. Though I used Google Maps, I still had problems_______ his house. I called the customer and he told me that the address on the order was _______. When I knew this, I became very _______. By this time I had already _______ half an hour on this order. What's more, I had_______ another order which got reassigned (再分配) to another person during the time.
Another 30 minutes later I got to the customer's door. I ________ him to be in a bad mood because his delivery had taken so long. ________ I was greeted by a very pleasant customer. He________ to me that his wife's eyesight was not that great so she had put in the wrong address in the order ________, so the whole thing was their ________
Knowing the________, I didn't complain to the customer. I________ my anger towards the couple. But he said he felt so ________ for me and decided to give me an additional ＄30 cash for my ________. I knew I needed money, but I also knew forgiving was a virtue. So I ________
Later the company ________ me for what I had done and I was given an extra amount of money as a reward. You can't imagine how happy I was!
1.A.debt B.ticket C.product D.tax
2.A.form B.reply C.order D.position
3.A.clear B.difficult C.dull D.good
4.A.picked up B.cut up C.paid for D.waited for
5.A.fixing B.finding C.designing D.judging
6.A.common B.strange C.wrong D.secret
7.A.worried B.relieved C.nervous D.angry
8.A.got B.saved C.enjoyed D.wasted
9.A.lost B.finished C.signed D.forgotten
10.A.needed B.wanted C.expected D.proved
11.A.Anyhow B.Besides C.Therefore D.However
12.A.admitted B.explained C.complained D.suggested
13.A.in return B.with pleasure C.by accident D.on purpose
14.A.excuse B.fault C.choice D.request
15.A.truth B.goal C.decision D.opinion
16.A.understood B.regretted C.expressed D.canceled
17.A.anxious B.ashamed C.sorry D.afraid
18.A.trouble B.courage C.progress D.patience
19.A.changed B.refused C.accepted D.agreed
20.A.employed B.fired C.charged D.praised
How to support your friends when they are down
One of the greatest things about having friends is that they can be there for you when you’re feeling down. 1. Here’s how to be a good friend when you’re needed.
2. Therefore, you’ll be able to tell what your friend is upset about, and thus avoid awkwardly sitting with no idea what is going on or what to say. It will also give you an advantage because it’ll make it easier for you to know what are the right and wrong statements to make.
Be an active listener. When your friends pause and look to you for a response, repeat what they just said. 3.
Give your friend a hug, whether he or she shared anything with you or not. 4. You could also pat (轻拍) him or her gently on the shoulder or back.
Don’t use this as an opportunity to talk about yourself and your own problems. 5. There is nothing worse than one person adding to the woes (悲痛) by trying to outcompete with the other’s own woes. Drop it and be empathetic (同情的) in more constructive ways.
A.This is about your friend!
B.They can cheer you up, or even help you in a way.
C.Know the situation before you attempt to help your friend.
D.Don’t make your friend do anything he or she doesn’t want to.
E.Then tell them about some problems that have made you sad or angry.
F.But do it in your own words to show that you are really listening to him or her.
G.Sometimes, a friend just needs another friend’s touch to make him/her feel better.
