1 . When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuse, he came right out and said he was leaving “to pursue my goal of running a company.” Broadcasting his ambition was “very much my decision,” McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kinds of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn’t alone. In recent weeks the No. 2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don’t get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.
As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn Ferry, senior partner Dennis Carey: “I can’t think of a single search I’ve done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first.”
Those who jumped without a job haven’t always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana when the business became part of PepsiCo (PEP) a decade ago, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willemstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. “The traditional rule was it’s safer to stay where you are, but that’s been fundamentally inverted,” says one headhunter. “The people who’ve been hurt the worst are those who’ve stayed too long.”
1. When McGee announced his departure, his manner can best be described as being _______.| A．arrogant. | B．frank. | C．self-centered. | D．impulsive. |
| A．their expectation of better financial status | B．their need to reflect on their private life |
| C．their strained relations with the boards | D．their pursuit of new career goals |
| A．top performers used to cling to their posts |
| B．loyalty of top performers is getting out-dated |
| C．top performers care more about reputations |
| D．it’s safer to stick to the traditional rules |
| A．CEOs; Where to Go? | B．CEOs: All the Way Up? |
| C．Top Managers Jump without a Net | D．The Only Way Out for Top Performers |
2 . Criticism of Big Tech is intensifying. At Congressional hearings last week, politicians from across the aisle gave a rough ride to executives of some of the world's most valuable companies. Amid the hubbub(喧哗), the resignation of Google's Meredith Whittaker was less noticed, but significant. Ms Whittaker, a Google artificial intelligence researcher, was a leader of protests insider the company last year. In an internal note to fellow employees, she warned that developers have a “short window in which to act" to stop increasingly dangerous uses of artificial intelligence.
Ms Whittaker' s resignation reflects a growing tendency for tech companies' own staff to try to serve as the moral compass and conscience of their businesses. In companies whose value relies so much on human and intellectual capital ---and in being able to attract the sharpest minds ---employees have considerable potential impact, especially collectively.
The Google Walkouts of which Ms Whittaker was a leader began in response to the search group's treatment of sexual harassment complaints. They snowballed to include broader issues around the company’s technologies. Ms Whittaker’s decision now to resign suggests many Big Tech companies are still not doing enough to attend to employees' concerns over corporate culture. Yet responding to internal calls to action should be an obvious choice. Threats of strikes or resignations by the talented staff who build systems risk undermining technology companies' competitiveness. Employee action can act to strengthen measures by regulators who are increasingly proactive in dealing with the excesses of Big Tech.
The rise of collective action for social good is encouraging. Traditional labour focuses ----such as workers' rights around pay and hours ----- remain important in a sector which still also makes heavy uses of cheap and poorly-skilled workers. Attempts to pressure companies into behaving ethically have more often been driven by single employees. Avenues are needed to ensure that workers can discuss potentially unethical practices without risking revenge.
Ms Whittaker’s proposal for unionisation is part of a broader chorus demanding greater employee oversight. Alphabet, Google’s parent, has already faced calls from union-sponsored pension funds to add a non-executive employee representative to its board. While not successful this year, the move showed that stakeholders such as investors are pressing for culture change within Big Tech companies.
Workers outside the tech sector, too, are forcing companies to try to solve international problems. A global climate strike is planned for September，encouraging workers to join the thousands of school students who have protested over the past year. In the advertising industry, workers at over 20 agencies refused to work on fossil fuel briefs in solidarity, inspired by the Extinction Rebellion protests. Big Tech, facing ever more open criticism should see the message is clear. To regain trust, it will have to engage not just with regulators, but with its own employees and stakeholders.
1. We can learn from the first paragraph that Ms Whittaker _________| A．drew much criticism from politicians. |
| B．opposed Google's risky uses of AL. |
| C．disagreed with her colleagues on the future of AI. |
| D．resigned because her talent in AI was not recognized. |
| A．can serve as the moral models for traditional labour. |
| B．should keep sharpening their minds. |
| C．can pressure companies into behaving ethically. |
| D．should improve internal collaboration. |
| A．damage a company's reputation. |
| B．threaten a company's competitiveness. |
| C．impair a company' s corporate culture. |
| D．strengthen a company 's management system. |
| A．Employees Can Help to Make Big Tech Moral |
| B．Big Tech Staff Are Different from Traditional Labour |
| C．The Tech Sector Is Facing Ever More Criticism |
| D．The Tech Sector Is in a Wave of Resignations |
3 . With so many investments required of us to succeed - time, resources, talents, responsibilities, even finances for our retirement - it’s easy to lose sight of the most difficult investment of all to commit to : ourselves.
Getting to the point where you’re ready to start upgrading to you 2.0 isn’t easy. But it doesn’t mean dropping the ball everywhere else. It’s not about omissions, but admissions. Come clean with yourself to kick-start your personal growth.
Unstuck starts with “u”
No one purposely chooses to stop learning and growing again, it just kind of happens in a lot of daily responsibilities and life. And if it were easy to just kick it into gear（ 档 位 ）again, you would have already done it. But the truth is inescapable. If you want to get off that place to higher ground, it’s up to you and only you. No one will just hand you a steady stream of opportunities for growth.
You’ve been working in your life, not on it
Activity is often confused with acceleration（忙碌）. I was guilty of this for years in working place - staying always busy but not admitting I was bored. I was lost in activity and not steeping back to take time to question what I wanted my life to be. Once I began working on my life - quitting corporate, becoming an entrepreneur, restructuring to my life - I started growing once again. And I’ve never been happier.
Things aren’t happening to you, they’re happening for you
A victim mentality（心态）is the enemy of personal growth. Lamenting over everything that has gone wrong in your life only wastes energy from working to make more things go right. If you want to kick-start growth, you must view setbacks as having a purpose, and then put them in their place. The past shouldn’t run or define you - only fuel you.
The perfect time to start doesn’t exist
I had so many things that had to be just right before I could make my long-planned leap from corporate. I’d tell myself, “I’d love to go for it right now, but practically speaking.” Well, guess what? Practicality is poison. It’s the convenient excuse stopping you from what you’re meant to become.
It’s time to unplug others’ opinions
Grow where you want to grow. Learn what you want to learn. Wherever you are on the scale of hat you want to learn next - be it beginner or near - expert own it, be proud of it. Pretenses are for pretenders. You’re just trying to become a better version of your genuine self.
1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?| A．If you want to succeed, you have to invest yourself first. |
| B．Upgrading yourself is hard, but you still need to continue. |
| C．Giving up upgrading yourself is just like dropping the ball. |
| D．It’s a kind of responsibility to go on learning though it’s hard. |
| A．to express sadness and feeling sorry about something |
| B．to repeat what happens to you in the past of your life |
| C．to show some regretful feeling or thought for our past |
| D．to recognize something that has gone wrong in the past |
| A．the busier you are, the happier and better you will be |
| B．what happened shouldn’t prevent you, but protect you |
| C．whoever you are, just grow where you want to grow |
| D．how well you grow is actually decided by yourself |
| A．3 | B．7 | C．5 | D．6 |
4 . All I had to do for the two dollars was clean her house for a few hours after school. It was a beautiful house, too, with a plastic-covered sofa and chairs, wall-to-wall blue-and-white carpeting, a white enamel stove, a washing machine and a dryer—things that were common in her neighborhood, absent in mine. In the middle of the war, she had butter, sugar, steaks, and seam-up-the-back stockings.
I knew how to scrub floors on my knees and how to wash clothes in our zinc tub, but I had never seen a Hoover vacuum cleaner or an iron that wasn't heated by fire.
Part of my pride in working for her was earning money I could squander (浪费)：on movies, candy, paddleballs, jacks, ice-cream cones. But a larger part of my pride was based on the fact that I gave half my wages to my mother, which meant that some of my earnings were used for real things—an insurance-policy payment or what was owed to the milkman or the iceman. The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed, nuisances to be corrected, problems so severe that they were abandoned to the forest. I had a status that doing routine chores in my house did not provide—and it earned me a slow smile, an approving nod from an adult. Confirmations that I was adultlike, not childlike.
In those days, the forties, children were not just loved or liked; they were needed. They could earn money; they could care for children younger than themselves; they could work the farm, take care of the herd, run errands（差事）, and much more. I suspect that children aren't needed in that way now. They are loved, doted on, protected, and helped. Fine, and yet...
Little by little, I got better at cleaning her house—good enough to be given more to do, much more. I was ordered to carry bookcases upstairs and, once, to move a piano from one side of a room to the other. I fell carrying the bookcases. And after pushing the piano my arms and legs hurt so badly. I wanted to refuse, or at least to complain, but I was afraid she would fire me, and I would lose the freedom the dollar gave me, as well as the standing I had at home—although both were slowly being eroded. She began to offer me her clothes, for a price. Impressed by these worn things, which looked simply gorgeous to a little girl who had only two dresses to wear to school, I bought a few. Until my mother asked me if I really wanted to work for castoffs. So I learned to say "No, thank you" to a faded sweater offered for a quarter of a week5s pay.
Still, I had trouble summoning （鼓起）the courage to discuss or object to the increasing demands she made. And I knew that if I told my mother how unhappy I was she would tell me to quit. Then one day, alone in the kitchen with my father, I let drop a few whines about the job. I gave him details, examples of what troubled me, yet although he listened intently, I saw no sympathy in his eyes. No "Oh, you poor little thing. " Perhaps he understood that what I wanted was a solution to the job, not an escape from it. In any case, he put down his cup of coffee and said, 44Listen. You don't live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home. ”
That was what he said. This was what I heard:
Whatever the work is, do it well—not for the boss but for yourself.
You make the job; it doesn't make you.
Your real life is with us, your family.
You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.
I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and morons, quick-witted and dull, big-hearted and narrow. I've had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the value of home.
1. What is the "pleasure" of the author from the sentence "The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. （paragraph 3） " ?| A．She was proud as she could earn money for her mother. |
| B．Her own value of being needed. |
| C．She is distinctive from those children in folktales. |
| D．She enjoyed a status of being an adult in her family. |
| A．Children become needed, loved and liked when they are at forty. |
| B．Children in modern times are less likely to be spoiled by parents. |
| C．Children in 1940s are capable as they can handle various daily routine. |
| D．Children in modern times aren' t needed to do daily works any more. |
| A．Don't escape from difficulties at work. |
| B．Whatever decision she made, her father would support her. |
| C．Convey her dissatisfaction with her work. |
| D．Make a distinction between work and life. |
| A．Don't regard work achievement as a criterion for evaluating oneself. |
| B．Hard work is a struggle for a better future in your limited life. |
| C．Parents are the best teachers of children. |
| D．Job security is less valuable when compared with family. |
5 . Occupational Licenses with the Biggest Bang for Buck
Some 1.8 million American were laid off or discharged from their jobs each month on average in 2019, according to data from the U. S. Bureau of Labor statistics. People who lose their jobs often confront a difficult choice: should they take a new job that pays less, or should they make a costly investment in gaining new skills so that they can compete for another similar job or an even better one?
If they do decide on retraining ,which programs and occupational licenses are worth their while? In general, the highest-paying jobs tend to have the most difficult education/ training and experience requirements. But that is not always the case. The following are five occupational licenses with the biggest bang for your buck.
Drone Pilots: If you want to become a drone pilot, all you need to do is be above 16 years old, pass the Federal Aviation Administration's Remote Pilot Certificate exam (which requires about 15 to 20 hours of studying), and pay a $ 150 licensing fee. Pay for drone pilots averages $ 56,426 per year, and jobs are growing rapidly across a range of industries. For example, companies like UPS are making substantial investments in drone delivery and will need to hire thousands of drone pilots in the coming years.
Home Inspectors: If you need a job that makes about $ 60K per year, you might want to consider becoming a Home Inspector. Both Home Inspectors and HVAC Contractors earn about $ 61K per year, on average, but getting a state HVAC Contractor license typically requires about 4,000 hours of training and experience (those systems are becoming even more complex), whereas a Home Inspector license only requires 360 hours of training and experience, and much of the training can be gained free of charge on the job.
Massage Therapists: On average, Manicurists/Pedicurists are required to complete more hours of training than Massage Therapists (700 hours versus 500 hours), but Massage Therapists earn almost twice as much, on average ($54,639 versus $ 32,509).
Radiologic Technologists: Licensing requirements for cosmetologists（美容师）have become so onerous that candidates now need 2,700 hours of training and experience on average. That's not much less than the requirement for becoming a Radiologic or MRI Technologist (3,300 hours), a job which is growing considerably faster than average, is more recession - proof, and pays twice as much ($ 56,162 versus $ 28,608).
Dental Hygienists: Among jobs that require a two-year associate's degree granted by a college or university, some pay substantially more than others. The average state licensing fee for becoming a Dental Hygienist is a hefty $ 1,600, but the pay bump you'll receive will likely make up for it ten times over in the first year.
1. The underlined expression "the biggest bang for your buck" in Paragraph 2 probably means ________.| A．the job loss for your hesitation to invest |
| B．a good income resulting from your skills |
| C．a good return for the money you have spent |
| D．the great efforts you'd make to change your life. |
| A．Among the drone operators, those who work for delivery services can earn the most. |
| B．Compared to a home inspector, being an HVAC Contractor is more cost-effective. |
| C．As an MRI technologist, you'd be less likely to be jobless during an economic crisis. |
| D．Higher education isn't a compulsory requirement if you want to be a dental hygienist. |
| A．① Radiologic Technologist; ② Cosmetologist; ③General Contractor |
| B．① Drone Pilot; ② General Contractor; ③ Dental Hygienists |
| C．① Message Therapist; ② Radiologic Technologist; ③ Cosmetologist |
| D．① Drone Piolt; ② Cosmetologist; ③ Radiologic Technologist |
6 . A person seeking a new career opportunity might consider looking in a museum. Museums provide jobs in fields such as research, management, graphic arts, public relations, education, preserving, cataloging, fund-raising, and construction. A museum may have one employee or thousands.
Many museum workers do not work directly with the objects in the museum; for example, the staff of a finance department prepares budgets and financial reports. Accountant and bookkeeper are typical positions. Staffers in the development department, meanwhile, work to increase museum membership and donations and to plan fund-raisers, such as dances or auctions. Publications department personnel may write newsletters, brochures, or books.
Some museums have an education department responsible for planning talks, teaching workshops, directing tours, or training tour guides.
People who prefer to work directly with a museum's collection have many career options. A person who pays attention to detail may enjoy being a registrar, the person who keeps track of the objects in a museum. Registrars keep records of objects, noting what they are, when and how they were obtained, and whether they are on loan to another museum or on display.
Curators are the people responsible for a museum's collection. One of their duties is to choose items for exhibits; then they work closely with designers who plan the best way to arrange exhibits. Other specialists do things such as arrange lighting or build display cases. Expert craftspeople can also find jobs re-creating historic buildings, such as the Pilgrim village at Plimoth Plantation.
A museum also often employs conservators to repair and take care of its collection. Many conservators are specialists who care for one kind of item, such as books or paintings. The Henry Ford Museum employs many conservators, including some who are experts in caring for antique cars.
Some historic homes, such as George Washington's home in Mount Vernon, have gardens, farms, and woods, as well as buildings. Gardeners are employed to care for the grounds and livestock handlers to care for farm animals.
Museums offer many other career opportunities too. They may have gift shops where sales assistants sell books, postcards, and other items or. restaurants where meals are prepared and served. Depending on one's interests, a museum could be a great place to look for a job.
1. A museum's education department might _____.| A．plan fund-raisers | B．prepare financial reports |
| C．write brochures | D．conduct workshops |
| A．work directly with museum collections |
| B．choose museum collections |
| C．prepare financial reports |
| D．choose items for exhibits |
| A．teachers | B．writers | C．craftspeople | D．bookkeepers |
| A．Curators work closely with designers in the arrangement of museum exhibits. |
| B．There are many kinds of museums in such fields as history, art, and science. |
| C．Museums, although they vary in purpose and size, offer a wide range of career opportunities. |
| D．Museums serve as an ideal workplace for those only interested in museum collections. |
7 . A knight (骑士) was a mounted warrior of medieval Europe who served a king or other feudal superior, usually in return for land. Knighthood was taken quite seriously and had to be earned.
At about the age of eight, a boy would begin training in preparation for knighthood. This young trainee, known as a page (学习骑士),would train with mentors to learn about horses, armor, and weapons. Pages practiced fighting with a sword against a wooden stake and learned to skillfully use a bow and arrow. The lady of the castle taught a young page about manners and social graces, as well as how to sing, play instruments, and dance. A priest might give a page religious training and teach him to read and write. By the age of fourteen, the page would become a squire (骑士的随从). A squire was responsible for dressing a knight for battles and tournaments and taking care of the knight armor and weapons. He would even follow his master on the battlefield to protect him if the knight fell.
A squire had to gain skill in using a lance (长矛), spear, or sword, so he would practice against a wooden dummy called a quintain(矛靶). The quintain and a shield were hung on a wooden pole, and when hit, the whole structure would spin. The squire would learn to ride up and hit the shield’s center, but then quickly move out of the way without getting hit and knocked off his horse by the quintain.
At about age twenty, a squire was finally prepared to be called a knight, which involved an extended ceremony. On the evening before becoming a knight the squire confessed his sins to a priest, was given a symbolic bath, and then fasted in order to cleanse his soul. The squire would dress all in white and stay in a chapel all night praying and watching over his weapons and armor.
In the morning, the squire would dress in symbolically-colored clothing: red for his blood, white for purity, and brown for his return to the earth after death. At this ceremony, the knight wore a code of chivalry, which required him always to be brave, loyal, courteous, and to protect the defenseless. Knighthood was granted by the overlord (领主) and the new knight was tapped on the shoulders or neck with the flat side of the sword.
If this new knight ever broke his promise or acted dishonorably, he would be stripped of his knighthood in another ceremony, in which he was 14 buried. In the Middle Ages, a knight without honor was considered as good as dead.
1. What were the responsibilities of a squire?| A．Practicing fighting with a sword and using a bow and arrow skillfully. |
| B．Looking after weapons and learning manners from the Lady of the castle. |
| C．Confessing his sin and praying for his mentors. |
| D．Dressing a knight for fighting and protecting him. |
| A．The noble spirit a knight possesses. | B．The tough task a knight has to finish. |
| C．The high goal a knight must achieve. | D．The military discipline a knight should obey. |
| A．He would be sentenced to death. | B．He would be robbed of his title. |
| C．He would be forced to leave Court. | D．His land would be returned to the King. |
| A．Why people wanted to be knights. | B．How one became a knight. |
| C．When knighthood started. | D．Who knights had to serve. |
8 . When an editor called to ask if I could photograph a story about fireflies in Mexico, I didn’t check my schedule before I said yes. I’d seen these insects light up the forests in Tlaxcala once before, and I jumped at the chance to go back.
I had three nights to capture the magical scene in the forest. Camera stand in hand, I hiked with my colleagues into the foggy forest at dusk. According to our guides, visitors are usually not allowed to photograph the fireflies because the presence of artificial light from electronics can affect their habits. As I started shooting, I adjusted my exposures constantly to account for the fading light. In order to get the composition that I wanted, I placed my camera stand on a steep, rocky path and had to steady it during the long exposures. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but the fireflies were very interested in the camera and, by extension, in me. I stood completely still while they crawled all over me—my arms, my hair, my face—and tickled (呵痒) my nose and cheeks. From what I observed, peak firefly presence happens for only about 20 minutes each night, so I had time for just a few tries.
On the last night everything came together. The weather cooperated. I had improved my method for focusing and composing in the dark with quick flashes from a powerful flashlight—and I’d grown accustomed to insects on my face. I was rewarded with the image you see here. Each spot of light is one of several bursts that a firefly makes as it travels in a 30-second exposure. You can trace the insects’ paths: Some make small circles, like those in the bottom center of the frame, while others move steadily in one direction or another.
The first time I visited the fireflies, I didn’t have the pressure of trying to capture and convey this astonishing scene. That will always be my favorite experience with these shining creatures.
1. According to the passage, the author most probably is a(n) ______.| A．field biologist | B．insect observer |
| C．expert photographer | D．mountain hiker |
| A．make up for the dying light | B．keep away from the annoying fireflies |
| C．obtain an ideal image | D．catch peak firefly presence |
| A．was accused of capturing wild fireflies |
| B．endured physically to get first-hand firefly shots |
| C．was tired of the exposure to dark forests |
| D．got his most satisfying image on the second night |
| A．Fascinating. | B．Passionate. |
| C．Surprising. | D．Miserable. |
9 . Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62 - 74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated well-off and the unskilled poor. Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individuals and society, are profound (深刻的).
The world is facing an astonishing rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600 million to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth, while the swelling (扩大的) ranks of pensioners (领养老金者) will create government budget problems.
But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle (不工作的) old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.
Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated. Technological change may well reinforce (加强) that shift: the skills that complement (补充) computers, from management to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.
1. What is happening in the workforce in rich countries?| A．Younger people are replacing the elderly. | B．Well-educated people tend to work longer. |
| C．Unemployment rates are rising year after year. | D．People with no college degree do not easily find work. |
| A．Longer life expectancies. | B．Rapid technological advance. |
| C．Profound changes in the workforce. | D．A growing number of the well-educated. |
| A．Unskilled workers may choose to retire early. |
| B．More people have to receive in-service training. |
| C．Even wealthy people must work longer to live comfortably in retirement. |
| D．People may be able to enjoy generous defined-benefits from pension plans. |
| A．Computers will do more complicated work. |
| B．More responsibility will be taken by the educated young. |
| C．Most jobs to be done will be the creative ones. |
| D．Skills are highly valued regardless of age. |
10 . A young man has just returned from a terrific first date. He wants to send flowers to let his date know he enjoyed being with her, but he's not sure what to send. A dozen red roses? No, too formal for a first date. A bouquet of wild flowers, perhaps? Still not sure, he picks up the phone and calls a florist for advice. The next day his date calls, thanking him for the beautiful yellow roses.
Florists enjoy helping people express themselves with flowers. Flowers can help, people share all sorts of feelings. For instance, flowers help people say "Congratulations!" to a friend who gets promoted. Flowers can also express feelings hard to put into words. They help say "I'm sorry" to the wife whose husband forgot her birthday. From birth to death, and the holidays in between, flowers add color and meaning to life. That's why florists' services are always in demand.
In the past, florists just sold flowers to customers, who arranged them on their own. But today's florists are skilled designers, arranging flowers in ways that best express their customers' feelings.
Formerly, florists learned on the job. Today, however, many florists earn diplomas in floral design in as few as 75 hours of classes. They gain a knowledge of flower varieties and develop an artist's touch. These skills help florists make arrangements that fit customers' tastes and meet their budgets.
Compared to most start-up businesses, opening a flower shop takes little money. As a result, many florists open up their own shops soon after earning their diplomas.
One of their first priorities is establishing good customer service. Their customers have come to expect same-day delivery. So florists must be able to work quickly, especially during holiday rushes. But florists don't mind. For them, the more arrangements they make, the more people they touch-with flowers.
1. Compared with florists today, florists in the past___________.| A．arranged flowers as customers requested |
| B．didn't just sell flowers to customers |
| C．didn't necessarily have diplomas in floral design |
| D．had a better knowledge of flower varieties |
| A．Congratulations. | B．Apology. |
| C．Deep love. | D．Good impression. |
| A．A florist delivers flowers within the same day of ordering. |
| B．A florist arranges flowers with an artistic touch. |
| C．A florist understands customers' needs and fits their tastes. |
| D．A florist helps customers express their feelings through flower language. |
