1 .        In business, there’s a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive (竞争的) strategy (策略) and how fast the company actually moves. The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
       In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What's more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.
       How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than Competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value). Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference. But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
       In our study, higher-performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed time to look back and learn. By contrast (相比而言), performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn’t develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking about changes.
       Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals. That kind of strategy must come from the top.
1. What does the underlined part “gain an edge” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Increase the speed.	B．Get an advantage.
C．Reach the limit.	D．Set a goal.

2. The underlined part “the laws of business physics” in Paragraph 3 means   ________.

A．spending more time and performing worse

B．spending more time and performing better

C．spending less time and performing worse

D．spending less time and performing better

3. What can we learn from the text?

A．How fast a firm moves depends on how big it is.

B．How competitive a firm is depends on what it produces.

C．Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes.

D．Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit.

4. Which could be the best title for the text?

A．Improve quality? Serve better.

B．Deliver value? Plough ahead.

C．Reduce time? Move faster.

D．Need speed? Slow down.

2 . Mrs. Blake teaches English in a large school in the inner area of a big city on the west coast. Even since she was a young girl, she has wanted to become a teacher. She has taught eight years now and hasn’t changed her mind. After she graduated from high school, she went on to college.

Four years later, she received her bachelor’s degree (BA) in English and her teaching certificate. Then she went to teach in the secondary schools of her state. In the summers, Mrs. Blake takes more classes; she hopes to get a master’s degree (MA). With an MA, she will receive a higher salary and if possible, she hopes to get a doctor’s degree as well.

The school day at Mrs. Blake’s high school, like that in many high schools in the United States, is divided into one hour each. Mrs. Blake must teach five of these periods. During her free period, which for her is from 2 to 3 P.M, Mrs. Blake must meet with parents, make our examinations, check assignments at all, Mrs. Blake works continuously from the time she arrives at school in the morning till the time she leaves for home late in the afternoon.

1. How long is it since Mrs. Blake graduated from high school?

A．Four years.

B．Eight years.

C．Twenty years.

D．Twelve years.

2. According to the article, which is the right order of the degrees a person can receive after going to university?

A．a bachelor’s degree – a master’s degree – a doctor’s degree

B．a doctor’s degree – a bachelor’s degree – a master’s degree

C．a master’s degree – a bachelor’s degree – a doctor’s degree

D．a bachelor’s degree – a doctor’s degree – a master’s degree

3. How many degrees has Mrs. Blake achieved so far?

A．Four.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．One.

4. Which of the following sentences is not true?

A．Mrs. Blake has turned her wish of becoming a teacher into reality.

B．Mrs. Blake teaches in the inner area of big city on the east of the United States.

C．Mrs. Blake is still studying in her holidays in order to get higher degrees.

D．The working hours in the school where Mrs. Blake works are similar to those of many other high schools in the states.

3 . Part-time jobs for 15 and 16 years olds

Waiter / Waitress A job as a waiter or waitress is a good choice for 16-year-olds. Not only can one earn $9-$12 an hour, but they can also get the tips (小费). Most people that visit a restaurant don’t just have good food. They come here to relax and have a good time. Besides serving food quickly, a young waiter who talks to them politely with a smile on his face will make the diners enjoy their time at the restaurant.

Work in a library If one is fond of books, working in a library is another suitable choice. Besides the pay is good, it offers a lot of free time when students can actually sit down and finish their homework. So on returning home, they would have time to hang around with friends or just relax. So working in a library is an excellent part-time job for teens, especially for school students.

Internet jobs There are many ways of making money through online jobs like clicking on advertisements, visiting sites and signing up with them. However, such online jobs don’t pay well. A better Internet job for teens is to complete online surveys. These are quite simple surveys that usually ask one about his/ her opinions and ideas. Many companies use these ideas to make products designed for teenagers.

1. A student who is busy with his research paper will probably choose to work ______.

A．in a restaurant	B．in a library
C．on the Internet	D．in an IT company

2. The writer wrote this text to ______.

A．tell us the importance of doing part-time jobs

B．advise teenagers how to choose a part-time job

C．teach young people how to make lots of money

D．introduce his/her experience of doing part-time jobs

3. Why do some companies ask the teens to do surveys?

A．The teens have more free time.

B．They can pay less to the teens.

C．They need advice to make products for teens.

D．The teens usually express their true opinions.

4 . Casablanca, Sep. 24

A flood swept across the coastal plain about 100 miles southwest of here, killing hundreds of Moroccans in a market place yesterday morning.

Reports from the area said 218 bodies had been counted, and many of the people were missing.

The flood followed heavy rains, which filled the coastal plain and dry river beds and caused them to overflow. The flood, several feet high, hit the village of Khemis Nagua at midmorning yesterday as farmers from the surrounding area joined town people in an open market place. The roaring waters swept the villager’s living places, the market sheds (棚子), shoppers, cattle and farm tools for miles across the plain.

The flood was over almost as soon as it started, the reports said, as the water swept out to sea. Rescue workers quickly moved into the area from Safi, about 25 miles further south.

1. You can learn from the text that ________.

A．hundreds of people died in the flood

B．the flood lasted for several days

C．heavy rains followed the flood

D．the flood hit the village at midnight

2. The report mainly tells the public about__________.

A．how the flood swept the coastal plain

B．the flood in fall

C．why the terrible flood took place

D．a rescue attempt

3. According to the text, which of the following maps may be correct?
( KN="Khemis" Nagua, C=Casablanca S= Safi)

A．	B．
C．	D．

5 . Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are determined to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.

Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference.

Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.

“Dollars buy status, and status makes people feel better,” conclude some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways-scientists or actors, for example-may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.

In a research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desires-not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health-rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap (差距). Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the only measures of income,” says Michalos.

Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad. “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen.

In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotions questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people, but negative emotions much less often. Why are old people happier? Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their goals, only setting ones that they know they can achieve. But Carstensen thinks that with time running out, older people have learned to focus on things that make hem happy and let go of those that don’t.

“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”

1. According to the passage, the feeling of happiness ________

A．is determined partly by genes	B．increases gradually with age
C．has little to do with wealth	D．is measured by desires

2. Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs ______.

A．make them feel much better	B．provide chances to make friends
C．improve their social position	D．satisfy their professional interests

3. Aged people are more likely to feel happy because they are more__________.

A．optimistic

B．successful

C．practical

D．emotional

4. Professor Alex Michalos found that people feel less happy if__________.

A．the gap between reality and desire is bigger

B．they have a stronger desire for friendship

C．their income is below their expectation

D．the hope for good health is greater

6 . Some years ago, a Miami woman walking through an office building noticed two men standing together. Several minutes after her leaving, the men murdered a person working in the building. The police determined that the woman was the only witness and could possibly describe them. However, her memory of the men proved disappointingly unclear. Several days later, psychologist Ronald Fisher was brought in to obtain a more complete account from the woman. His interview produced a breakthrough—the woman reported a clear picture of one of the suspects. The important information enabled the police to arrest the suspect and close the case.
The police asked Fisher for help because of his rich knowledge in cognitive (认知) interview, a kind of memory-rebuilding process. Memory researchers have found that people trying to remember a past event often only recall part of the relevant information. Human memory is selective and it is often distorted by stress. But a person’s accurate recall of an event or understanding of a question can be improved using specific interviewing techniques. The “cognitive interview” was developed in the late 1990s. It encourages the witness to take an active role in recalling information rather than giving answers only to someone else’s questions. The witness first describes what happened in his or her own words, with no interviewer interruptions. The interviewer then goes further with specific techniques, such as having the witness tell the details of what happened from different perspectives(角度).
The cognitive interview focuses on guiding witnesses through four general recalling techniques: thinking about physical surroundings and personal feelings that existed at the time of past events; reporting everything that comes to mind about those events, no matter how broken it is retelling events in a variety of time orders, such as from beginning to end, end to beginning, forward or backward; and adopting different perspectives while recalling events.
Experiments with police detectives trained in this demanding interview method find that they obtain nearly 50% more information from witnesses than before training, while error rates remain about the same. It is proved that cognitive interviews are quite important tools in improving the accuracy and completeness of witness testimony (证词).
1. The purpose of the passage is to _____.

A．give an account of a murder case

B．introduce an idea of cognitive interview

C．prove Fisher was an expert in cognitive interview

D．help a witness to recall information in a cognitive interview

2. What is required to recall in a cognitive interview for a witness?

A．The exact time at which a murder took place．

B．The information about the event in the time order．

C．The important things that come to his or her mind．

D．The surroundings and feelings at the time of the event．

3. The key point in a cognitive interview is that

A．the witness is encouraged to take part in recalling information

B．the interviewer should interrupt the witness from time to time

C．the interview should take place outside the police station

D．the witness should recall details at the scene of the event

4. The underlined word "distorted" in the passage probably means " ____

A．arranged

B．balanced

C．changed

D．examined

7 . Louis Armstrong had two famous nicknames (绰号). Some people called him Bagamo. They said his mouth looked like a large bag. Musicians often called him Pops, as a sign of respect for his influence on the world of music.
Born in 1901 in New Orleans, he grew up poor, but lived among great musicians. Jazz was invented in the city a few years before his birth. Armstrong often said, “Jazz and I grew up together.”
Armstrong showed a great talent for music when he was taught to play the cornet (短号) at a boy’s home. In his late teens, Armstrong began to live the life of a musician. He played in parades, clubs, and on the steamboats that traveled on the Mississippi River. At that time, New Orleans was famous for the new music of jazz and was home to many great musicians. Armstrong learned from the older musicians and soon became respected as their equal. In 1922 he went to Chicago. There, the tale of Louis Armstrong begins. From then until the end of his life, Armstrong was celebrated and loved wherever he went. Armstrong had no equal when it came to playing the American popular song.
His cornet playing had a deep humanity (仁爱) and warmth that caused many listeners to say, “Listening to Pops just makes you feel good all over.” He was the father of the jazz style and also one of the best-known and most admired people in the world. His death, on July 6, 1971, was headline news around the world.
1. Armstrong was called Pops because he         .

A．looked like a musician

B．was a musician of much influence

C．showed an interest in music

D．traveled to play modern music

2. The third paragraph is developed           .

A．by space	B．by examples
C．by time	D．by comparison

3. Which statement about Armstrong is true?

A．His tale begins in New Orleans.

B．He was born before jazz was invented.

C．His music was popular with his listeners.

D．He learned popular music at a boy’s home.

4. Which would be the best title for the text?

A．The Invention of the Jazz Music

B．The Father of the Jazz Style

C．The Making of a Musician

D．The Spread of Popular Music

8 . Influenced by their families and society, many youths are infatuated with expensive famous brands. But not every youth is as rich as a millionaire and people are getting worried about this.

According to a recent survey, one out of five pupils wears clothes of well-known brands, including a belt worth 560 Yuan, more than an ordinary worker’s salary. Among the 100 middle school students surveyed, as many as 70 own famous-brand clothes, 60 have famous-brand watches and 45 possess famous-brand bicycles. Two of them even wear over 1500 Yuan worth of suits.

Most young people who come from ordinary families will try to steal money to have better food and clothing if their parents don’t satisfy their needs. A boy named Chen even killed another boy simply for 500 Yuan and was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment.

People wonder how these teenagers can be independent in the future, while parents are calling for help from schools, governments and the society.

1. Which of the following is not true according to the passage?

A．More than 50 percent of the students surveyed possess things of famous brands.

B．An ordinary worker owns less than 560 Yuan each month.

C．Suits may cost as much as 1500 Yuan.

D．Young people now are as rich as millionaires.

2. What does “be infatuated with” mean according to the context?

A．be anxious about

B．be filled with a strong unreasonable feeling of love for

C．have a strange and unusual way of

D．be low in spirits; sad for

3. As a result, the boy mentioned in the passage will____.

A．steal money for better food and clothing

B．kill another boy for 500 Yuan

C．stay in prison for nine years

D．ask his parents to satisfy his needs

4. The best title for the passage would be____.

A．Youths Run After Famous Brands.

B．Youths Should Own More Money

C．Youths As Rich As Millionaires

D．Youths Must Be Taken Good Care of