1 . If you’re feeling in the mood for grilled food but don’t have a barbecue, then deciding what product to purchase can be a bit difficult. So to help you get a better understanding of just some of the choices available, here’s our guide to buying a new BBQ.
Charcoal vs Gas
The first decision is how your BBQ is going to be powered. There are essentially two main choices: the traditional way with charcoal, or the quick and convenient way with gas. For those who get frustrated with the process of lighting coals and waiting for them to reach the desired temperature, then gas is the easy option. It’s clean and gets up to temperature in an instant. But for many, the main fun of a barbecue lies in the back-to-basics cooking that hot coal brings natural barbecue fire. You’ll also find a far greater range of charcoal barbecues.
Size
For anyone who likes to throw a garden party with a busy barbecue at the centre of the action, there are some vast grills (烤架) available. But unless you’re regularly feeding the masses, then these BBQ beasts can be impractical. Smaller meals are better suited to smaller equipment, so be realistic about the size that best suits you.
Open grill or lid
While facing the barbecue selection of your nearest retailer, you’ll notice that some of them have lids. These will usually be round and will make you pay more than the lidless options. But if you want the benefit of being able to cook larger items over a longer period of time, such as a whole chicken, then a lid will be essential.
1. Which BBQ is suitable for Jack, who likes back-to-basics cooking and often invites friends to the garden party?| A．Gas barbecue in small size. | B．Gas barbecue in big size. |
| C．Charcoal barbecue with big grills. | D．Charcoal barbecue with small grills. |
| A．The open grill costs more. | B．The open grill looks superior. |
| C．The open grill is more reliable. | D．The open grill is less suitable for larger items. |
| A．Lifestyle. | B．Business. | C．Culture. | D．Sports. |
2 . “Fast fashion” has been mentioned so often in the past two years. It refers to low-cost, quickly-made clothing that copies the latest high-quality fashions. Unlike the traditional clothing industry where designers plan their new lines every season, fast fashions are made and sold whenever new fashions appear. They are put in shops and online quickly to create a high demand.
However, environmentalists are getting more worried about the effects of fast fashion on the environment. More than 100 billion items of such clothing are made every year. This is expected to grow by 60 percent by 2030. The fast fashion business model is having adverse effects on the environment. Many of the clothes end up in landfills and are not recycled. The chemicals used to make the clothes are bad for the environment. These cause health problems for people working in clothes factories. There are reports that even children make many of these clothes.
The way people are buying clothes is adding to the problem of clothing waste. Many years ago, people went to stores and tried clothes on. People took more time and thought more carefully before they bought clothes. They also wore them for longer. Today, people order cheap clothes on the Internet so often and if they don’t like them, they send them back or throw them away. Some people say this is causing throwaway society. Some people buy clothes and never even wear them. The German media company Deutsche Welle wrote: “Every year in Europe, four million tons of clothing ends up in the trash. Less than one percent of this is recycled.” It seems that the fashion industry is wasting much.
1. Which of the following is a feature of fast fashions?| A．They are of high quality. |
| B．They are not seasonal. |
| C．They are difficult to make. |
| D．They are sold only in online shops. |
| A．Harmful. | B．Positive. | C．Obvious. | D．Little. |
| A．By providing examples. | B．By listing data. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By raising questions. |
| A．The Meaning of Fast Fashion |
| B．Problems with Fast Fashion |
| C．Effects of Fast Fashion on the Environment |
| D．Clothing Waste in Fast Fashion |
| A．At home | B．At a gym. | C．At a store. |
4 . Outdoor cameras are the modern version of hiring a guard for your home. Below is a list of some quality outdoor security cameras available in the market.
Ring Floodlight Camera
The camera itself records in HD and you have plenty of support via the app. Through the app, you can talk to people through the camera.
The camera itself has no night vision. This is a problem in the event that the bulbs(电灯泡)burn out, which will happen eventually.
Campark Camera
Since this outdoor security camera is built for hunting, it is wireless and completely waterproof(防水的). Furthermore, its sensors are sharp and will naturally have night vision.
That said, there are a few downsides. Because of the higher sensitivity, this camera takes a lot of unnecessary pictures and videos. Furthermore, you'll need to supply an SD card to store videos and pictures.
Zumimall Camera
The security camera itself is 100% wireless, connects through Wi-Fi, and is battery-operated. It also has night vision and handles cold, heat, and rain very well.
The only point of criticism is the storage. The cloud storage offered is limited. For free, you can store your videos and pictures for up to seven days before the old pictures and videos are replaced.
ZOSI Security Camera System
It's a system including several security cameras, which pack a lot of qualities. They offer 80 feet of night vision, are weatherproof, and raise the alarm when they spot motion, etc.
The downside of this system is that these cameras need to be wired to a center. And the wiring can be disorganized and untidy.
Buy these cameras here.
1. What is a selling point of Ring Floodlight Camera?| A．Long battery life. | B．Night vision. |
| C．High sensitivity. | D．Support through the app. |
| A．need to protect it from cold |
| B．will have unlimited cloud storage space |
| C．can connect it to the Internet without wires |
| D．can freely store the videos and pictures for a month |
| A．They need an SD card. | B．They are built for hunting. |
| C．They require a wire center. | D．They can stand up to water. |
| A．$90. | B．$162. | C．$180. |
6 . Let’s say you want to purchase a camera, and you’re comparing two different advertisements. In one, the pictures, colors, and instructions make the information easy to read. The other has an unclear style that takes more time for you to understand. If you decide to purchase the second camera with the more confusing advertisement, new research out of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows that, over time, you’ll likely be happier with your choice.
In a paper co-authored by Gaurav Jain, an assistant professor of marketing in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer, researchers found that nonstop stimuli (刺激), or the difficulty for an individual to process a message, increases people’s attitudes toward that message after a time delay.
“This research has a real-life impact,” Jain said. “Most of the time, marketing communicators try to make their message clear. What we learned, however, is that there are certain times, especially when people need to make choices, when we should actually use nonstop stimuli so that whatever people are choosing, they will like it once time has passed.”
Using primary data collection designed by Jain of about 500 diverse individuals, researchers also found that consumers judge the time spent in the decision-making process wrongly. Rather than recognizing that the lengthy decision came from trying to understand the information, when looking back on the process, consumers instead believe they spent the time on making the decision. This leads the consumer to believe the decision they made was informed and worthy.
These findings are meaningful for marketing communications in many fields.
“When people are making decisions,” Jain said, “like choosing insurance products, retirement funds, or even when choosing an elected official, marketers and designers need to remember that if we can make an individual spend some time in that choosing process, it’s more likely people will stick with the option they chose over time.”
Jain says that when consumers’ attitudes about a product increase, the impact on post-purchase decisions like returns and reviews of the product will be more favorable to the brand.
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．By listing figures. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By using others’ words. | D．By showing people’s reviews. |
| A．Make their message short. |
| B．Make their message attractive. |
| C．Make their message easy to understand. |
| D．Make their message hard to understand. |
| A．Writing a paper. | B．Selling a product. |
| C．Choosing a camera. | D．Designing a new brand. |
| A．Time Delay: What is it |
| B．Suggestions to the Marketers |
| C．How to Make Consumers Happy |
| D．Difficult Decision, Satisfactory Choice |
7 . When asked why he or she wears clothes, some people will probably answer “to keep warm and to cover my body”. These are the basic reasons why clothes are worn, but people also want to look attractive and appear successful to others.
If people only wore clothes for warmth and to cover their bodies, most clothes would be simple and cheap. In most Western countries, however, clothes are sometimes very expensive. The main reason for this is not the cost of the cloth or the cost of making the clothes. The clothes are expensive because of fashion.
Successful businessmen, for example, often wear very expensive suits, shirts and ties. Sometimes they pay thousands of dollars for a suit and hundreds of dollars for a tie. It’s just a suit and a tie but they pay these prices because of the famous name of the designer. A suit costing much less would be just as warm and would cover the wearer’s body just as well.
Fashion is always changing, which means those who want to be fashionable have to buy new clothes every few months, even if last month's clothes have only been worn once or twice. Some people have wardrobes full of clothes that have hardly been worn but are no longer in fashion. Being fashionable, therefore, can be a very expensive pastime!
1. What do people basically wear clothes for?| A．Keeping warm and covering bodies. | B．Following the fashion. |
| C．Looking attractive to others. | D．Appearing successful to others. |
| A．fashion is not always changing | B．fashion is an expensive pastime. |
| C．fashion designers like expensive clothes | D．expensive clothes are warmer |
| A．Fashionable clothes shops. | B．Cupboards for storing clothes. |
| C．The clothes that some people have. | D．Shelves used for keeping books. |
| A．Clothes and fashion. | B．Suits and ties. |
| C．Cost and pastime. | D．Beauty and success. |
1. What ticket will the woman take?
| A．Second class on the overnight train. |
| B．First class on the express train. |
| C．First class on the overnight train. |
| A．7：00p. m. | B．9：00 a. m. | C．9：00p. m. |
| A．Meals. | B．Fruits. | C．Coffee. |
| A．15. | B．$30. | C．850. |
10 . Buyer beware: There’s a reason why online ticket sellers hit you with last-second fees. A massive experiment by Berkeley professsor Tadelis with the online ticket marketplace StubHub concluded that “drip pricing”, where additional fees are only disclosed when customers are ready to confirm their purchases, resulted in people spending more. “Websites incorporating ‘hidden fees’ are making more money than they would if they chose to honestly display all fees upfront,” Tadelis said.
The study set out to find out how “drip pricing” affects both the quantity and types of ticket purchases through a large-scale, real-world randomized experiment. For the experiment, StubHub randomly assigned half of all the users to an experimental hidden-fee structure where buyers saw only the ticket list price as they shopped, and extra fees were only displayed on the checkout page, which generally amounted to 15% of the ticket price including shipping. The other half of StubHub users continued to see the all-inclusive prices. This setup allowed Tadelis and his colleagues to compare the choices made by the two groups, such as purchases and clicks towards checkout.
Overall, users who weren’t shown the additional fees upfront spent about 21% more on tickets and were 14% more likely to complete a purchase compared with those who saw all-inclusive prices from the start. Among all those who made purchases, customers in the hidden-fee group bought tickets that were about 5% more expensive than those in the upfront fee group, buying more tickets for seats located closer to the field or the event stage.
The findings raise questions for whether the misinformed consumers have a right to full price disclosure upfront. Professor Tadelis noted that some governments have considered regulating this behavior to increase transparency—Canada, for example, has banned the use of drip pricing for ticket sales. “I can’t think of a good reason to allow this practice in any country as the harm to consumers is clear from our study,” Tadelis said.
1. Online ticket sellers reveal the extra fees only at the last moment to________.| A．offer cheaper tickets | B．increase the selling transparency |
| C．make more profits | D．allow buyers more time to consider |
| A．Participants were divided into halfs at their will. |
| B．All users could see the additional fees in advance. |
| C．Shipping fees amount to 15% of the ticket price. |
| D．Researchers compared the two groups’ choices. |
| A．It made 14% more customers buy tickets. |
| B．It helped to increase ticket profits by 5%. |
| C．It has been regulated by the governments. |
| D．It caused customers to spend more money. |
| A．It is practical and deserves promoting. | B．It is harmful and should be banned. |
| C．It is costly but can be accepted. | D．It is beneficial but needs regulating. |
