1 . 
The idea of using radio or wireless to broadcast to audiences was formed in 1916 by a president of the American Marconi Company, David Sarnoff. His superiors were doubtful about his idea to “make radio a household cause, so that by purchase of a ‘radio music box’, the audience could enjoy lectures, music performance, etc.”
Four years later the American engineer Frank Conrad, an employee at W E Corp, attracted considerable attention when a local newspaper reported on the growing audience listening on crystal radio sets to his evening and weekend amateur broadcasts. A local music store had provided records to play on the Victoria, and Conrad and his family served as disc jockeys(唱片音乐播音员). Westinghouse vice president Harry Davis asked Conrad to build a more powerful transmitter(发射台)in time to announce the outcome of the next US presidential election. Conrad completed his assignment, and on November 2, 1920, station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, broadcast the announcement that Warren G. Harding had been elected president. About 1000 people heard this first news broadcast.
Radio communicated news much faster than did newspapers, and because crystal sets were easy to build and inexpensive, radio expanded rapidly in the following years. To stimulate the sale of radio sets, equipment manufactures provided transmitting facilities. Singers, comedians, and entire orchestras volunteered their services for publicity. The eventual financial basis of the new industry, however, was still unclear. One group in New York City tried to seek contributions from listeners while others urged that private foundations support radio stations as a public service. In August 1922 the first commercial radio advertisement was broadcast on WEAF (now WNBC) in New York City. In 1926, when about 5 million homes had radios, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in cooperation with the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, established the first commercial radio network. In the 1920s radio was established as a new mass medium had a practicable industry, and it became a national forum(论坛)for news and popular culture.
1. The passage is mainly concerned with _______.| A．the contribution of radio to popular culture |
| B．the invention and uses of radio |
| C．early radio programs for a mass audience |
| D．the history of radio broadcasting |
| A．Frank Conrad | B．David Sarnoff | C．Harry Davis | D．Warren Harding |
| A．people could easily get it in stores | B．it was cheaper than newspapers |
| C．it had advantages over newspapers | D．people were interested in anything new |
| A．the private foundations were unwilling to support the stations |
| B．the stations were not sure yet where to get the operational money |
| C．advertising and commercial programs could not raise enough money |
| D．the listeners would not pay for the broadcasting stations |
2 . 
I used to think ants knew what they were doing. The ones marching across my kitchen counter looked so confident; I just figured they had a plan, knew where they were going and what needed to be done. How else could ants organize highways, build elaborate nests, launch impressive attacks, and do all the other things ants do?
Turns out I was wrong. Ants aren’t clever little engineers, architects, or soldiers after all --- at least not as individuals. When it comes to deciding what to do next, most ants don’t have a clue. “If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you’ll be impressed by how awkward it is,” says Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University.
“Ants aren’t smart,” Gordon says. “Ant colonies are.” A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, assigning workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. They do it with something called collective intelligence.
Where this intelligence comes from raises an essential question in nature: How do the simple actions of individual ants add up to the complex behavior of a group? How do hundreds of honey-bees make a critical decision about their hive (蜂巢)if many of them disagree? The collective abilities of such animals --- one of which grasps the big picture, but each of which contributes to the group’s success --- seem miraculous even to the biologists who know them best. Yet during the past few decades, researchers have come up with fascinating insights.
1. The author’s former false impression about ants is that he thought them to be _______.| A．smart | B．awkward | C．elaborate | D．creative |
| A．Ants will function as a single body once a decision is made by the commander. |
| B．Ants are the only species which developed collective intelligence. |
| C．The ant queen plays a role in managing ant workers besides laying eggs. |
| D．An individual ant can’t comprehend the whole process of a big movement. |
| A．where we can observe such fantastic behavior of ants |
| B．which is the leading ant in charge of the action |
| C．how the collective intelligence works |
| D．what inspiration can be drawn from the collective abilities |
3 . There have always been a lot of commonly believed but false ideas about being fat and doing exercise. Some people believe that they can’t help putting on weight as they get older, while others hold that if they stop exercising, their muscles will turn into fat. Here are some more myths:
I’ll never lose weight--I come from a fat family
Wrong! While we can't change the body type we are born with, we can't blame our genes for making us fat. There's plenty of evidence that fatness runs in families, and the main reason is that they share the same habit of eating too much and exercise too little.
I am fat because I burn calories slowly
Wrong! Fatness is not caused by a slow metabolism(新陈代谢).In fact, although fat people consume more energy than slim people, they also fail to realize how much they eat! Keeping a diary can help you work out your daily food intake mom accurately.
Exercise is boring
Wrong! Anything will become boring if you do it repetitively. The key is to develop a balanced and varied program that's fun as well as progressive. If you enjoy a Sunday walk, take a different mute. If you do yoga, try a Tai chi class. If you like swiping, set yourself a distance or time challenge.
No pain, no gain
Wrong! Exercise is not meant to hurt. Indeed, pain is you body telling you something's wrong, and continuing to exercise could lead to serious injury. You may experience mild discomfort as you begin to exercise regularly, but this is your body adapting to the positive changes in your lifestyle and the aches should disappear relatively quickly. If they don't, rest and seek medical advice.
1. What does the author think about being fat?| A．It is the family genes that make people fat. |
| B．People are fat because they consume too little energy. |
| C．A diary of exercise can prevent people from becoming fat. |
| D．It is the consequence of people's unbalanced lifestyle. |
| A．By taking varied exercise. | B．By choosing simple exercise. |
| C．By doing regular exercise. | D．By sticking to outdoor exercise. |
| A．Keeping lit is essentially a painful experience. |
| B．Exercise should be stopped if continuous pain is felt. |
| C．Pain in exercise is a precondition for reaching your goal. |
| D．Getting used to pain leads to positive changes in your body. |
| A．To declare the importance of keeping lit. |
| B．To clarify some misconceptions about fatness and exercise. |
| C．To confirm what has long been believed about keeping fit. |
| D．To explain some medical facts about being fat and doing exercise. |
These operations have the same general pattern. The franchisor, the parent company, first establishes a successful retail business. As it expands, it sees a profit potential in offering others the right to open similar business under its name. The parent company’s methods and means of identification with consumers are included in this right. The parent company supplies skill, and may build and rent stores to franchisees. For these advantages the franchisee pays the franchisor a considerable fee. However, some of the advantages and disadvantages are different.
By extending a “proven” marketing method, a parent can profit in several ways. First, the franchisee’s purchase price gives the parent an immediate return on the plan. Then the sale of supplies to the franchisee provides a continuing source of profits. As new businesses are added and the company’s reputation spreads, the values of the franchise increases and sales of franchises become easier. The snowballing effect can be dramatic. Such growth, too, bring into play the economies of scale. Regional or national advertising that might be financially impossible for a franchisor with 20 franchises could be profitable for one with 40.
The parent, then, finds immediate gains from the opportunity to expand markets on the basis of reputation alone, without having to put up capital or take the risk of owning retail stores. Added to this advantage is a less obvious but material one, Skilled, responsible retail managers are rare. People who invest their capital in franchises, though, probably come closer to the ideal than do paid managers. In fact, the franchisee is an independent store operator working for the franchisor, but without an independent’s freedom to drop supplies at will. Of course the factory’s costs of selling supplies are less. But also certainly the franchisee buying goods that have had broad consumer acceptance will not casually change supplies, even when the contract permits. If the hamburger is not what the customer expected, they may not return. Having paid for the goodwill, the franchisee won’t thoughtlessly destroy it.
1. Franchising refers to a business operation in which a successful parent company .
| A．sells name-brand goods to a private investor |
| B．rents proven ideas and techniques for investment |
| C．sells the right, the guidance to a business under its name |
| D．takes no advertising responsibility for individual investors |
| A．an immediate investment return |
| B．the profit from the sale of supplies |
| C．the ownership of additional retail stores |
| D．the possibility of profitable advertising |
| A．the advantages and disadvantages of franchising |
| B．the benefits of franchising to the franchisor |
| C．the unmatched economic growth in the 1960’s |
| D．some regional and national business operation |
| A．More advantages of franchising. |
| B．Negative aspects related to franchising. |
| C．The standard of consumer acceptance. |
| D．Risks of investment besides franchising |
