Over three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll (民意調(diào)查) has found. Overcrowding and long queues in shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle (煩擾) of Christmas shopping becomes too much.
The number of people turning their backs on the high street is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to the poll by YouGov. Last Christmas 2.4 million shoppers did not do any of their shopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4 million, equal to around 7 percent of the adult population.
Over a third of people said that the main turn-off about shopping on the high street is 0ver-crow-ding. Meanwhile almost a quarter said that long queues at the cheek-out are the worst thing about it.
Of the 2.065 people pored, even those who are stir taking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas. Around 31 percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high street will spend less than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using the rest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percent of people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of their shopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year to 39 percent this year. Just 2 percent of people said that they are looking forward to dealing wi.th store staff this festival season.
Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at Casio Business Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, said that despite the fall in people visiting the high street,humans are "social creatures" who actually like spending time together.
"Although the high street is facing a big challenge Christmas, retailers (零售商) should see this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience, rather than the nail in the coffin. We are social creatures, and the desire to spend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to go away," said Mr. Boxall.
【小題1】According to the poll, in this year's Christmas       

A．a(chǎn)bout 7 % of the population will do both online and actual shopping

B．a(chǎn)bout 31% of shoppers will do half of their shopping in actual shops

C．a(chǎn)bout 39% of shoppers will do more than half of their shopping in actual shops

D．over three million shoppers will quit actual shopping just because of the long queues

【小題2】What's the meaning of "turn-off" in Para.5?

A．Something that makes people lose heart

B．Something that makes people lose face

C．Something that makes people lose interest

D．Something that makes people lose courage

【小題3】It can be inferred from Mr. Boxall's words that                                                                                                   

A．retailers should reduce their in-store goods.

B．retailers wiR be pessimistic about the result of this research.

C．retailers should focus on the advantage of in-store shopping.

D．retailers will make more profits this Christmas than last Christmas

【小題4】Wheat's the writer's attitude towards Christmas online shopping?

A．Concerned.

B．Doubtful.

C．Approving.

D．Objective.

Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will "obey" spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word "obey" is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.

     Any attempt to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly expressive as delight, pain, friendliness, and so on. But sincethese can't be said to show the baby's intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation leads on to deliberate (有意的) imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.

     It is a problem we need to get out. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world.Thus the use at seven months of"mama" as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself, I doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.

1.Before children start speaking, _____. 

A. they need equal amount of listening

B. they need different amounts of listening

C. they are all eager to cooperate with the adults by obeying spoken instructions

D. they can't understand and obey the adult's oral instructions

2.Children who start speaking late _____.

A. may have problems with their listening

B. probably do not hear enough language spoken around them

C. usually pay close attention to what they hear

D. often take a long time in learning to listen properly

3.A baby's first noises are _____.

A. an expression of his moods and feelings

B. an early form of language

C. a sign that he means to tell you something

D. an imitation of the speech of adults 

4.The problem of deciding at what point a baby's imitations can be considered as speech _____.

A. is important because words have different meanings for different people

B. is one that should be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age

C. is not especially important because the changeover takes place gradually

D. is one that should be completely ignored (忽略) because children's use of words is often meaningless

5.The author implies _____.

A. parents can never hope to teach their children new sounds

B. even after they have learnt to speak, children still enjoy imitating

C. children no longer imitate people after they begin to speak

D. children who are good at imitating learn new words more quickly

 

Rooster Morris is an author, entertainer, storyteller, musician, and composer. He has performed for over 4.5 million students in elementary schools, public libraries and museums. Rooster shares with the audience some of the stories in children’s books. Kids walk away from his performances, believing they can write, draw, perform, sing, or play a musical instrument. Most importantly, students walk away, believing reading will open the doors to every opportunity in life.
Everyone knows authors write books, but how many students actually have the opportunity to watch a published author read from their books? When a student has the advantage of meeting an author and has the opportunity to ask questions, they realize authors are people from far-away places. Rooster points out these misunderstandings and explains how he started writing.
Rooster talks of habits being one of the most important things in a person’s life. If people develop good habits, they will achieve their goals and be ready for anything. Rooster talks about how he wanted to play the fiddle（小提琴）when he was a young boy. He learns to make a habit of practicing the fundamentals. Rooster shows the kids the pay-off — he plays a song in front of the audience and brings the excitement to a new level.
Rooster will educate and entertain the audience. Many students begin writing after having seen Rooster’s program. When children hear someone they admire say, “You can do anything if you want to do it,” it motivates them into action.
Laid-Back West, Inc. has been booking authors for schools for over 13 years. We know the value of a successful author visit and can invite Rooster and other authors to visit your school.
【小題1】After attending Rooster Morris’ performances, kids _____.

A．a(chǎn)re asked to write an article

B．a(chǎn)re able to play an instrument

C．a(chǎn)re well prepared to start school

D．become more confident about themselves

【小題2】What does Rooster Morris do during his performances?
① Read books.
② Play an instrument.
③ Give out books.
④ Teach the audience how to draw.
⑤ Perform a play.

A．①②

B．①③

C．③④

D．②⑤

【小題3】Rooster talks about how he learnt to play the fiddle in order to prove that _________．

A．writing needs creativity

B．forming good habits is important

C．learning to play an instrument is not easy

D．people should take action to achieve their goals

【小題4】The main purpose of the passage is to            .

A．sell Rooster Morris’ children’s books

B．persuade kids to attend Rooster Morris’ school

C．encourage children to write

D．a(chǎn)ttract customers for Laid-Back West, Inc.

With the rapid progress of technology, the English language is changing fast. All the people have to face a choice: either ignore the development of the language and spend the rest of our lives wishing Shakespeare were alive, or keep pace with the Internet age, welcoming the new English which someone has once called Weblish. “you can’t avoid it for the simple reason that wherever a new language comes along, it surely impacts (影響) the language as a whole,” says Dr David Crystal, a famous language professor at the University of Wales.
However, there is great trouble with keeping up with the new English because there are so many new words and the old ones no longer mean what we thought they did. In the past if someone said they didn’t have “Windows”, you would have to suppose they lived in a cave without windows. But now, it is probably because they use a Mac, which is a computer. Spam, which once meant a not-so-good-kind of canned meat, now stands for unwanted “junk (垃圾)” email.
Spelling is changing too. Weblish loves to see nouns happily become verbs ( for example, “Please bookmark this site”), and verbs become nouns (“Send me the download”).Verbs and prepositions are regularly thrown together to become new nouns or adjectives(for example, dial-up, logon, print-out, pull-down, upload), while others are created from a simple pairing of nouns: cyberspace, ethernet, Internet, hyperlink, metatag and netspeak.
【小題1】 We can infer from the first paragraph that _____ .

A．English has completely become Weblish

B．some people wish Shakespeare were still alive

C．people may have different attitudes towards Weblish

D．people who know English have to learn a new language

【小題2】 What is the main idea of the second paragraph?

A．Now English has many new words.

B．English words have changed a lot.

C．Old English words are no longer used at all.

D．People have difficulty in understanding some new words related to computers and the Internet.

【小題3】 The best title for this passage would be “_____”.

A．Technology and English

B．Keep Up with the Latest Weblish

C．Don’t Forget English

D．The Advantage and Disadvantages of Weblish

Recently, we went on a vacation for a week that involved visiting four different ports in the sunny and warm climate of the Caribbean. There were         of laughter, fun and great food. It’s a        thing when you go away that each day of the vacation also        to the end and a return to work.

It was twelve years since we went on a vacation, so this vacation was viewed with         of a great break away from my daily routine. And we weren’t        .

But there was something very different about this vacation compared to those when we worked in a corporative environment. The main       was that when we returned, when the vacation was rapidly drawing to a close, we didn’t have the same feeling of      stress, anxiety and fear.

In this recent vacation, it wasn’t that we        enjoyed the various fun and new activities, the break away from routine, the pleasure of touring different countries and cultures, the         to do what we wanted when we wanted or the leisurely       of each day that was significant. What was significant was that we didn’t       fear the last day of vacation. You see, we know that we were        what we love to do not what we had to do.

The feelings experienced in the last couple of days of vacation were viewed with the same joy as the very first days. In the previous times, the last days of vacation were terrible. We experience an increasing        of stress       we knew that a return to our field of employment was “work” and not        that we loved and thoroughly enjoyed.

The        is this: If you do what you love, it doesn’t matter        that a vacation has to end. If you love what you do you will not         yourself wishing for even a few more days of vacation, or wishing that you could       enjoying this vacation for much, much longer. A love of what you do        you back like a magnet.

1.A. moments            B. possibilities           C. situations               D. ways

2.A. discouraging      B. bitter                               C. wonderful             D. funny

3.A. come up             B. count down                     C. give out                  D. die away

4.A. expectation                B. attempt                           C. opinion                  D. demand

5.A. satisfied                        B. tired                                  C. disappointed         D. optimistic

6.A. advantage           B. problem                          C. difference              D. drawback

7.A. approaching                B. relieving                          C. bearing                  D. overcoming

8.A. necessarily                  B. thoroughly                      C. relaxingly                D. smoothly

9.A. opportunity                B. desire                     C. possibility              D. right

10.A. pattern                      B. pace                                  C. lifestyle                   D. atmosphere

11.A. yet                               B. still                                    C. also                         D. even

12.A. returning to              B. submitting to                  C. turning to              D. heading for

13.A. number            B. knowledge                       C. sense                      D. awareness

14.A. although                    B. and                                   C. because               D. if

15.A. anything                    B. everything                      C. nothing                  D. something

16.A. lesson                        B. idea                                  C. point                        D. solution

17.A. in the least                B. for a moment                 C. after all                  D. at the moment

18.A. let                     B. find                                  C. make                      D. catch

19.A. maintain                    B. risk                                   C. keep                       D. stop

20.A. draws                         B. holds                                C. pushes                   D. welcomes