1 . Last week the electricity in my flat went out.    1     My typical evening is spent watching TV and scrolling (滚动) through social media. Tonight this wasn’t possible. My roommate and I weren’t prepared with candles and matches. We just rely on electricity.

So for me it was an early night,     2     That night, losing our electricity felt like losing a basic necessity, as basic as running water. But really, electricity is a luxury that we’ve grown to take for granted. I use electricity all the time, even when it’s not really necessary.

    3     And as I’m writing this, I have my lights on, even in the middle of the day when I don’t really need them.

    4    It contributes to global warming. It is harming our environment and we need to do what we can to stop it. Not only that, but if we continue to use the same large amount of energy, we will soon run out of it.

How would we survive in a world without electricity? Our daily lives go around it. We wouldn’t be able to function.     5    So, shouldn’t we start preparing for it now? Cutting down on our use of electricity would save energy resources so that they could last for longer. And if everyone does it, we can make a big difference.

A．Yet we know one day we will run out of it.

B．Our over-use of electricity is a big problem.

C．This left me in complete darkness the whole night.

D．It is a real problem to cut down on the use of electricity.

E．I know for sure I could cut down on my use of electricity.

F．I couldn’t help but think, do we rely too much on electricity?

G．I turn on the TV in the background even when Tm not watching it.

2 . Mobile phones are one of the most useful inventions of the last 50 years, but not everything that is said about them is good. Mobiles are frequently blamed for a number of things, from thumb injuries and headaches to house fires.     1    

The theory is that the bees navigation (导航) systems are damaged by the radiation that is given off by mobile phones. Bees have a built-in system a bit like GPS and this helps them find their way back to their hive. But recently, thousands of bees have failed to find their way home.     2    

The problem was first noticed by beekeepers in America and is a lot more complicated than it at first seems. The important thing about bees is that most of the crops in many countries of the world are pollinated (授粉) by them.     3     Many beekeepers in America and Europe have reported losing between 50 and 70 percent of their bees. Jim Piper, a London beekeeper, was recently asked how the problem was affecting him. “My business has been ruined by this,” he explained, “twenty-nine of my forty hives are now empty.”

    4     However, the fact that bees are disappearing in very large numbers is real. And we can’t manage without them. Einstein said that if all our bees disappeared, man would only live for four more years!     5     If the mobile phone theory is correct, we need to do something about it immediately—before it’s too late.

A．Bees are losing their way.

B．Nobody has proved the theory is true.

C．More evidence is provided to support the theory.

D．It is believed they are dying far from their hives.

E．Without bees, the crops can’t continue to grow.

F．The situation needs to be evaluated by the world’s best scientists.

G．One theory even blames mobile phones for the disappearance of bees.

3 . Everyone in business has been told that success is all about attracting and retaining (留住) customers. It sounds simple and achievable. But,_______, words of wisdom are soon forgotten. Once companies have attracted customers they often_______the second half of the story. In the excitement of beating off the competition, negotiating prices, securing orders, and delivering the product, managers tend to become carried away. They forget what they regard as the boring side of business—_______that the customer remains a customer._______to concentrate on retaining as well as attracting customers costs business huge amounts of money annually. It has been estimated that the average company loses between 10 and 30 per cent of its customers every years. In constantly changing_______, this is not surprising. What is surprising is the fact that few companies have any idea how many customers they have lost.

Only now are organizations beginning to wake up to those lost opportunities and calculate the_______implications. Cutting down the number of customers a company loses can make a big_______in its performance. Research in the US found that a five per cent decrease in the number of defecting (流失的) customers led to_______increases of between 25 and 85 per cent.

In the US, Domino’s Pizza estimates that a regular customer is worth more than $5,000 over ten years. A customer who receives a poor quality product or service on their first visit and_______never returns, is losing the company thousands of dollars in__________profits (more if you consider how many people they are likely to tell about their bad experience).

The logic behind cultivating customer__________is impossible to deny. “In practice most companies’ marketing effort is focused on getting customers, with little attention paid to__________them”, says Adrian Payne of Cornfield University’ School of Management. “Research suggests that there is a close relationship between retaining customers and making profits.__________customers tend to buy more, are predictable and usually cost less to service than new customers. Furthermore, they tend to be less price__________, and may provide free word-of-mouth advertising. Retaining customers also makes it__________for competitors to enter a market or increase their share of a market.

1.

A．in particular

B．in reality

C．at least

D．first of all

2.

A．emphasize

B．doubt

C．overlook

D．believe

3.

A．denying

B．ensuring

C．arguing

D．proving

4.

A．Moving

B．Hoping

C．Starting

D．Failing

5.

A．markets

B．tastes

C．prices

D．expenses

6.

A．culture

B．social

C．financial

D．economical

7.

A．promise

B．plan

C．mistake

D．difference

8.

A．cost

B．opportunity

C．profit

D．budget

9.

A．as a result

B．on the whole

C．in conclusion

D．on the contrary

10.

A．huge

B．potential

C．extra

D．reasonable

11.

A．beliefs

B．loyalty

C．habits

D．interest

12.

A．altering

B．understanding

C．keeping

D．attracting

13.

A．Assumed

B．Respected

C．Established

D．Unexpected

14.

A．agreeable

B．flexible

C．friendly

D．sensitive

15.

A．unfair

B．difficult

C．essential

D．convenient

4 . Many people write to newspaper and magazines to express their opinions. Letters to the editor must carry the writer’s full name, address and telephone number, although the information is not necessary for publication. This requirement to provide personal particulars is a clear indication that writers are held responsible for what they say. When a writer wants his voice heard, he needs to claim ownership of his voice. Responsibility is the name of the game.

“People today prefer living together to putting their signatures on a marriage certificate because they refuse to accept responsibility for the relationship,” said social worker Ken Yip, “and this is what is causing a lot of family problems.” When we sign a paper, for example, a business contract or a bank document, the signature is a seal of consent, an agreement to take the matter seriously. Most governments and many organizations will not process written complaints if they do not bear the writer’s signature. The absence of a signature, they explain, tells us that the writer cannot be too serious and therefore does not deserve a reply.

There are people who wish to remain anonymous (匿名的) for various reasons. Multi-billionaire Mr. King donates generously to charity several times a year. He gives simply because he wants to help but not for the publicity his donations may bring, and he does not want his good deeds to make news. In other cases, people insist on anonymity because they are afraid of the consequences of revealing their identity. Crime witnesses may be willing to assist the police, but most are unwilling to give their names when reporting a crime.

Name or no name? The answer is very personal and lies in how much we want to get involved. We all have a name. It is a matter of responsibility to use it when we make a statement, a claim or an accusation. We all want to honor our own name, and it is only by stamping our expression of an opinion with our own name that we honor what we say.

1. What does the writer mean by saying “Responsibility is the name of the game”?

A．Writers need to provide their personal information in the game.

B．Publication must bear the writer’s full name, address and phone number.

C．Writers should be responsible for their names.

D．Names are required to indicate writers’ responsibility for what they say.

2. The second paragraph suggests that a paper without a signature may _______.

A．not get a reply

B．help to end a relationship

C．be accepted all the same

D．become a family problem

3. Some people don’t want their names known because they are ________.

A．hesitant to make a donation

B．unwilling to draw public attention

C．afraid of an accusation

D．ready for involvement

4. The passage is mainly about _______.

A．honor and writers

B．identity and signature

C．signature and responsibility

D．anonymity and signature

5 . Parents are fighting for their child’s right to rest across the country. Twenty-three elementary schools in Orange County, Florida, have been cutting back on rest, and even canceling it to increase class time.

In a recent Orange County School Board meeting, parents demanded that rest time be carried out in all local schools for all students. Angela Browning, a parent in the area, said that schools’ rest is ranging from zero to 30 minutes per day. “Five-year-olds not getting rest means abuse,” said Browning, whose twins in the second grade benefit from taking a break and learn better.

“The main reason for reducing the rest time is Common Core exams including math, language arts and literacy, where the students’ performance often controls teachers’ pay and sometimes teachers may lose their jobs. Many teachers are using that extra 20 minutes that would have been spent on the schools’ scores, everybody is stressful,” said Diana Moore, president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association.

The decision of whether reducing rest takes place, and for how long is up to each school’s rule. “Florida law requires that districts provide 900 teaching hours during the school year,” Florida’s Department of Education press secretary Cheryl Etters said in a statement. “Whether test is part of the school day is a decision made by the school board.”

Reducing test also can take away an opportunity for children to learn social skills, according to many experts. “In society, who cares if you have straight A’s and you get a scholarship to Harvard if you lack social skills?” said Mallet, a mother of two children.

1. What will Angela Browning agree with?

A．Kids of five years old had better get more break time.

B．Proper rest time improves children’s learning efficiency.

C．The more rest children have, the higher grades they will get.

D．Elementary schools should limit kids’ rest time to 30 minutes.

2. What drives so many teachers to reduce students’ rest time?

A．Parents’ demand.

B．Students’ lack of social skills.

C．Students’ bad behavior.

D．The link between their pay and school’s scores.

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Social skills are more important than high scores.

B．Whether students get A’s in school is very important.

C．Graduates from Harvard can’t find good jobs.

D．Rest time has nothing to do with students’ social skills

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．The government is to order schools to increase rest time.

B．Students expect to get more time to play in school.

C．Parents struggle for the rest right for their kids in school.

D．Teachers’ pay is related to their performance in teaching.

6 . Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not bring so much material home in the first place.

The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.

Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.

But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.

There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary material we are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.

1. What does the underlined word “over-consumption” refer to?

A．Using too much packaging.

B．Recycling too much waste.

C．Making more products than necessary.

D．Having more material than is needed.

2. The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show ________.

A．the tendency of cutting household waste

B．the increase of packaging recycling

C．the rapid growth of supermarkets

D．the fact of packaging overuse

3. What can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

A．Unpackaged products are of bad quality.

B．Supermarkets care more about packaging.

C．It is improper to judge quality by packaging.

D．Other products are better packaged than food.

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Fighting wastefulness is difficult.

B．Needless material is mostly recycled.

C．People like collecting recyclable waste.

D．The author is proud of his consumer culture.