1 . A study involving 8,500 teenagers from all social backgrounds found that most of them are ignorant when it comes to money. The findings, the first in a series of reports from NatWest that has started a five-year researeh project into teenagers and money, are particularly worrying as this generation of young people is likely to be burdened with greater debts man any before.
University tuition fees (学费) are currently capped at £3,000 annually, but this will be reviewed next year and the Government is under enormous pressure to raise the ceiling.
In the researeh, the teenagers were presented with die terms of four different loans but 76 per cent failed to identify the cheapest. The young people also predicted that they would be earning on average £ 31.000 by the age of 25, although the average salary for those aged 22 to 29 is just £ 17,815. The teenagers expected to be in debt when they finished university or training, although half said that they assumed the debts would be less than £ 10.000. Average debts for graduates are £ 12，363.
Stephen Moir, head of community investment at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group which owns NatWest, said. "The more exposed young people are to financial issues, and the younger they become aware of them, the more likely they are to become responsible, forward-planning adults who manage their finances confidently and effectively."
Ministers are deeply concerned about the financial pressures on teenagers and young people because of student loans and rising housing costs. They have just introduced new lessons in how to manage debts. Nikki Fairweathcr. aged 15. from St Helens, said that she had benefited from lessons on personal finance, but admitted that she still had a lot to learn about money.
1. Which of the following can be found from the five-year researeh project?

A．Students understand personal finances differently.

B．University tuition fees in England have been rising.

C．Teenagers tend to overestimate their future earnings.

D．The students' payback ability has become a major issue.

2. The phrase "to raise the ceiling" in paragraph 2 probably means "______".

A．to raise the student loans	B．to improve the school facilities
C．to increase the upper limit of the tuition	D．to lift the school building roofs

3. According to Stephen Moir, students_______.

A．are too young 10 be exposed 10 financial issues

B．should learn 10 manage their finances wellC- should maintain a positive attitude when facing loans

C．benefit a lot from lessons on personal finance

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Many British teenagers do not know money matters well

B．Teenagers in Britain are heavily burdened with debts.

C．Financial planning is a required course at college.

D．Young people should become responsible adults.

2 .

The Pillow

At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer(拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.

We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house — something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.

On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, “What do you want for your new room?” Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were surprised when Josh responded, “I just want a bed.”

The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.

When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.

That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.

As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, “What is that?”

“A pillow,” he replied.

“What do you do with it?” Eric continued to ask.

“When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to our eyes as she handed Eric the pillow.

“Oh . . . that’s soft,” he said, hugging it tightly.

Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my Dad gently asks, “Do you have a pillow?”

We know exactly what he means.

1. The writer’s first volunteer project was ________.

A．working on a poor trailer	B．helping a poor family
C．donating beds and bedding	D．dealing with a housing problem

2. On bearing Josh’s answer, the writer was shocked because ________.

A．the family lived in a trailer	B．he expected to get some toys
C．he didn’t know what a bed was	D．the boys had no bed to sleep in

3. From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen before ________.

A．a trailer

B．a truck

C．a pillow

D．a house

4. By sayg “Do you have a pillow?”, the writer’s father means that ________.

A．what they want to get may be unnecessary

B．they should not waste money on small things

C．they should do more volunteer work for the poor

D．what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow

3 . 根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中的两项为多余选项。UrbanizationUntil relatively recently, the vast majority of human being lived and died without ever seeing a city. The first city was probably founded no more than 5,500 years ago.    1    In fact, nearly everyone lived on farms or in tiny rural (乡村的) villages. It was not until the 20th century that Great Britain became the first urban society in history—a society in which the majority of people live in cities and do not farm for a living.Britain was only the beginning.    2    The process of urbanization—the migration (迁徙) of people from the countryside to the city—was the result of modernization, which has rapidly transformed how people live and where they live.In 1900, fewer than 40% of Americans lived in urban areas. Today, over 82% of Americans live in cities. Only about 2% live on farms.    3    Large cities were impossible until agriculture became industrialized. Even in advanced agricultural societies, it took about ninety­five people on farms to feed five people in cities.    4    Until modern times, those living in cities were mainly the ruling elite (精英) and the servants, laborers and professionals who served them. Cities survived by taxing farmers and were limited in size by the amount of surplus（过剩）food that the rural population produced and by the ability to move this surplus from farm to city.Over the past two centuries, the Industrial Revolution has broken this balance between the city and the country.    5    Today, instead of needing ninety­five farmers to feed five city people, one American farmer is able to feed more than a hundred non­farmers.

A．That kept cities very small.

B．The rest live in small towns.

C．The effects of urban living on people should be considered.

D．Soon many other industrial nations became urban societies.

E．But even 200 years ago, only a few people could live in cities.

F．Modernization drew people to the cities and made farmers more productive.

G．Modern cities have destroyed social relations and the health of human beings.