1 . How much did Sue pay for the shirt?

A．£30.

B．£35.

C．£40.

2 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. How many days is the man going to stay in the city?

A．More than a week.

B．A week.

C．Less than a week.

2. What vehicles does the 7-day pass allow people to take?

A．The taxis.

B．The subway and buses.

C．The airport express train.

3. Where are the speakers?

A．At a hotel.

B．At the airport.

C．At home.

3 . WeChat, one of the world’s most popular mobile apps and social networks, brought home iF Gold Award for its smart retail innovation, Scan & Go. It is the first ever Chinese product to win4 gold in the iF Service Design category.

Established in 1953, the German-based iF Design Award has always been known for its “Independent, Rigorous(细致的) and Reliable” standards.

Scan & Go enables shoppers at retail stores to turn their mobile phone into a virtual checkout counter. When shopping, customers use their mobile phones to scan product barcodes(条形码), view product information, get discounts, complete self-checkout, and pay directly within the app via WeChat Pay. There is no queuing up at the cash register.

According to statistics, sales during peak hours in traditional supermarkets account for 60% of total turnover, and on average customers spend three to five minutes on queueing and payment during peak hours. With Scan & Go, customers no longer have to queue, and the payment time is shortened to one minute.

In order to realize queue-less purchasing, the WeChat team greatly optimizes retailers’ in-store customer handling efficiency during peak hours, and enables overall management of the consumer traffic flow. By introducing dedicated lanes for Scan & Go, supermarkets have achieved over a five-fold increase in converting(转变) digital members within two months.

In addition to improving retailers’ checkout efficiency and providing customers with a better shopping experience, Scan & Go also combines promotion and marketing modes through Mini Programs, to help increase sales. It helps retailers(零售商) to link the online and offline aspects of their business, and has become the standard tool in China for merchants to realize digital transformation. Scan & Go is now widely used by retailers in China.

1. What does the third paragraph mainly tell us?

A．The convenience of Scan & Go.

B．The use of a virtual checkout counter.

C．Ways to get discounts from retailers.

D．Methods of scanning product barcodes.

2. One of the advantages of Scan & Go is that customers

A．can buy more items

B．can save a lot of money

C．don’t have to pay for what they buy

D．spend less time to pay for what they buy

3. What can retailers do by combining promotion and marketing modes?

A．They can sell more goods.

B．They can reduce the discounts.

C．They can create more Mini Programs.

D．They can make their goods more standard.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward Scan & Go?

A．Doubtful.	B．Positive.
C．Subjective.	D．Negative.

6 . 假定你是李津，你在某英文网上论坛看到大家在讨论人们使用非现金支付越来越普遍的现象，你打算在论坛里跟帖讨论，内容包括：
（1）非现金支付的好处；
（2）非现金支付的弊端；
（3）你的观点。
注意：
（1）字数100左右；
（2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
（3）开头与结尾已给出，不计入字数。

With fewer and fewer people using cash, Non-cash payments are becoming increasingly popular, especially in China.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Posted by Li Jin

9 . AI, 5G, cloud computing and other digital technologies are not only changing our lives but shaping the economy as well.

China’s six major commercial banks are stepping up digital wallet efforts to provide new drive for the e-CNY (数字人民币) trials in the country, as reported by Shanghai Securities News on March 23.

“The functions and properties of the-CNY are exactly the same as those of the paper currency, except that the form is digital,” said Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s Digital Currency Research Institute.

Many people are puzzled by e-CNY and electronic payments. “Digital currency has the characteristics of both paper money and electronic payment,” said Wu Qianhong, a professor at the School Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University. “In theory, digital currency can replace paper money, Alipay and WeChat payments.”

Compared with Alipay and WeChat payments, e-CNY features anonymity (匿名性) and security. E-commerce platforms that accept payments via e-CNY will not have access to user’s personal information. E-CNY users can open an anonymous digital wallet by registering a mobile phone number, and telecom operators cannot disclose (泄露) customer information to the central bank or any third-party institutions. Mu noted that e-CNY user’s privacy protection is at the highest level among all the existing payment tools.

Similar to Alipay and WeChat payments, using e-CNY requires an account. After obtaining the other party’s account number, users can enter the amount of digital money to transfer (转钱) and then enter the payment password to complete the transaction (交易). However, the process behind these transfers are different. For electronic payments, the transfer has to go through a third party, and the receivers will get the transferred money only when they withdraw money from banks. But e-CNY transfers only need a payer and a receiver to complete a transaction. Therefore, it guarantees risk-free payments, according to Wu.

In simple terms, e-CNY can be considered “money”, while electronic payments are like “wallets”.

1. What can we know about e-CNY?

A．It is issued by six major commercial banks.

B．It combines paper money and electronic payment.

C．It is designed to replace Alipay and WeChat payments.

D．It has exactly the same function as other payment tools.

2. How does e-CNY protect user’s privacy?

A．By limiting access to personal information.

B．By storing personal data in the central bank.

C．By opening a unique digital wallet for each user.

D．By linking telecom operators to a mobile phone number.

3. What can be concluded from Paragraph 6?

A．E-NCY transfers require to go through a third party.

B．E-NCY is more convenient than other electronic payments.

C．E-NCY can be transferred without the receiver’s information.

D．E-NCY and electronic payments ensure security in the same way.

4. What’s the main purpose of the text?

A．To promote the use of e-NCY.

B．To inform readers of digital RMB.

C．To compare different types of payments.

D．To describe the impact of digital technologies.

10 . Just wanting a hamburger, Hembert Figueroa was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhanttan.

Figueroa, an ironworker, had to stand to the side, holding his hamburger, until a cashier helped him find another customer willing to pay for his meal with a card in exchange for cash. “I had money but I couldn’t pay,” he said.

Cash-free stores are causing a backlash among some activists who say the practice looks down upon people like Figueroa, who either lack bank accounts or rely on cash for many transactions(交易).

Supporters for banning cashless stores worry technology is moving too fast for the 6.5% of American households—8.4 million—that do not have a bank account.

Business owners who go cashless say they are following the lead of majority of customers who are abandoning cash payments. Retailers(零售商)are under pressure to satisfy customers with higher expectations for fast and convenient service, driven by companies like Amazon and Uber.

Leo Kremer, co-worker of Dos Toros, said the amount of cash transactions at his stores fell from about 50% a decade ago to 15% last year. Cash transactions made handling cash especially troublesome. Before going cashless, Dos Toros locations were robbed twice.

Financial experts who work with low-income people caution against making assumptions about the shopping preferences or buying power of those who rely on cash. Justine Zinkin, CEO of Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners, said the greater urgency in the digital time is finding ways to better include low-income people in the banking system, such as urging banks to offer no-fee starter accounts and encouraging banks to open branches in underserved areas.

1. What trouble was Hembert Figueroa faced with at Dos Toros Taqueria?

A．He couldn’t make a deal with cash.

B．He failed to find a cashier for help.

C．He took no money or a card with him.

D．He was caught carrying false bank notes.

2. What does the underlined word “backlash” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Heated debate.	B．Warm welcome.
C．Strong disagreement.	D．High expectation.

3. What did Justine Zinkin suggest according to the text?

A．Making regulations to ban cashless stores.

B．Raising the buying power of low-income people.

C．Finding ways for banks to adapt with the digital time.

D．Making banks more accessible to low-income people.

4. What’s the best title of this passage?

A．Cashless stores—a production of new technology

B．Should cashless stores be banned?

C．Cashless stores, a new form of transaction

D．Are cashless stores preferred by low-income people?