1 . The Best Eco-Friendly Gifts
For the eco-conscious, we’ve rounded up our favorite eco-friendly gifts to send to your love.
Reusable Produce Bags (Price: $ 33)
Website: Sears. com
This pack of seven teusable bags are plastic free and made from 100 percent biodegradable cotton. The set includes one cotton net bag, three produce bags, and three food bag. Double stitching and durable seams mean these bags are built to last, and they’re machine washable for easy cleaning.
Wood Bookmarks with Tassels (Price; $ 25)
Website: Etsy. com
Teachers often like to hand out small gifts to students at the end of the year, and this set of wooden bookmarks is a sustainable, affordable way to let students know you care. (Plus, they’re a great reminder to read over holiday breaks!) The bookmarks come with colorful tassels as well, making it easy to mark your place while reading.
Personalized Notebook (Price: $ 13)
Website: Journal. com
This customizable journal is a great gift to jot down notes, used as a daily thought journal, or as a place to keep travel memories or even grocery lists. The cover is made from eco-friendly heavy cotton paper. The pages are recycled cartridge paper that’s perfect for fountain pens and ink as well as other media.
Greener Bamboo Cutting Board (Price: $ 90)
Website: Amazon. com
This bamboo cutting board is naturally bacteria resistant and made from 100 percent Moso bamboo that’s grown in organic soil. One side of the board has a deep juice-catching groove that’s perfect for capturing juices as you cut. After cutting, simply flip the board to the other side for a beautiful presentation large enough for veggie arrangements, watermelon, and more.
1. What can remind you to read?| A．Reusable Produce Bags. | B．Personalized Notebook. |
| C．Wood Bookmarks with Tassels. | D．Greener Bamboo Cutting Board. |
| A．Etsy. com. | B．Sears. com. | C．Journal. com. | D．Amazon. com. |
| A．They all are expensive. | B．They are popular with students. |
| C．They are made of cotton paper. | D．They are sustainable and eco-friendly. |
1. How large is the woman’s dress now?
| A．Size 8. | B．Size 9. | C．Size 10. |
| A．By eating less food. |
| B．By doing some running. |
| C．By using body cream. |
| A．Some of the items. | B．All the items. | C．Only the carpet. |
1. What did George buy for his mother?
| A．A pair of earrings. | B．A hat. | C．A ring. |
| A．It is man-made. | B．It is purple. | C．It is not real. |
1. Where does the conversation probably take place?
| A．At home. | B．In a bookstore. | C．In a supermarket. |
| A．$0.99. | B．$1.99. | C．$3.99. |
1. Where does the conversation probably take place?
| A．At home. | B．In a bookstore. | C．In a supermarket. |
| A．$0.99. | B．S1.99. | C．$3.99. |
7 . In order to save money on groceries, you can try the following ways which will help you cut $100 out of grocery bill every month without too much effort.
Know what to buy in large amount. Shopping at warehouse (批发店) is a great way to save money. However, not every item is worth buying in large amounts.
Skip the meat. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average cost of beef is $4.13 per pound this March.
Know what to buy in season. Fruits and vegetables are a great addition to your daily diet, but they can add a significant amount to your grocery bill, especially when you buy items out of season. As produce items go out of season, they become more expensive as the supply decreases.
| A．Store pre-made items. |
| B．Skip the prepared items. |
| C．Shopping for groceries can be an expensive attempt. |
| D．Beef has seen a significant increase in price over the past few years. |
| E．The cost can add up quickly if you’re eating beef three or four times per week. |
| F．Certain items make sense to buy in large quantities because they typically have a longer shelf life. |
| G．If your favorite items are getting ready to go out of season, considering buying a little extra and freezing them. |
8 . 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 |
9 . Black Friday is celebrated on the fourth Friday of November. It has long been a popular day for consumers to start shopping for Christmas. Over the last 20 years big retailers have started to offer discounts and bargains on this day.
Many of us love to get a bargain, but some feel that events like Black Friday encourage people to buy things that they don’t really need and can’t afford. Many people seem to completely lose control of both their spending and their tempers. It is easy to find video online of customers physically fighting each other over bargains.
Instead of taking the opportunity to buy as much as possible on Black Friday, you could do the opposite and buy absolutely nothing. Since 1992, Buy Nothing Day has been held on the same day as Black Friday. The rules are simple.
| A．They have made good profit by doing so. |
| B．Just don’t buy anything at all for 24 hours. |
| C．Avoid shopping and go for a walk in nature. |
| D．It is also argued that Black Friday is bad for small shopkeepers. |
| E．People have formed the habit to look for bargains on Black Friday. |
| F．Buy Nothing Day aims to raise awareness of how to be a wiser consumer. |
| G．These decisions can help protect the environment as well as saving money. |
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. |
| A．Heated debate. | B．Warm welcome. |
| C．Strong disagreement. | D．High expectation. |
| 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. |
| 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? |
