Never go into a supermarket hungry! This is a good piece of advice. If you go shopping for food before lunchtime, you’ll probably buy more than you plan to. Unfortunately, however, just this advice isn’t enough for consumers these days. Modern shoppers need an education in how and how not to buy things at the store. First, you check the weekly newspaper ads. Find out the items that are on sale and decide if you really need these things. In other words, don’t buy anything just because it’s cheaper than usual! “New and Improved!” or “All Natural” on the front of a package influence you. Instead, read the list of ingredients(contents) on the back. Third, compare prices: that is, you should examine the prices of both different brands and different sizes of the same brand.

Another suggestion for consumers is to buy ordinary items instead of famous brands. Ordinary items in supermarkets come in plain packages. These products are cheaper because producers don’t spend much money on packing or advertising. The quality, however, is usually as good as the quality of well-known name brands. In the same way, in buying clothes, you can often find high quality and low prices in brands that are not famous. Shopping in discount clothing stores can help you save a lot of money. Although these stores aren’t very attractive, and they usually do not have individual dressing rooms, not only are the prices low, but you can often find the same famous brands that you find in high-priced department stores.

Wise consumers read magazine ads and watch TV commercials, but they do this with one advantage: knowledge of the psychology behind the ads. In other words, well-informed consumers watch for information and check for misinformation. They ask themselves questions: Is the advertiser hiding something in small print at the bottom of the page? Is there any real information in the commercial, or is the advertiser simply showing an attractive image? With the answers to these questions, consumers can make a wise choice.

1.All the following statements are true about the phrase “ordinary items” in Paragraph 2 EXCEPT __________.

A. ordinary items never say “New and Improved” or “All Natural”

B. ordinary products are usually cheaper than famous brands

C. producers spend less money on packaging of ordinary items

D. the quality of ordinary items is usually as good as that of famous brands

2.What does the writer think about ads? __________

A. They are believable.            B. They are attractive.

C. They are full of misinformation.       D. They are helpful to consumers.

3.One of the author’s suggestions to consumers is __________.

A. to make use of ads             

B. not to buy items with words like “New and Improved” or “All Natural”

C. to buy high quality items such as famous brands after lunch

D. to buy any ordinary items instead of famous brands

4.The author implies that __________.

A. going into the supermarket hungry, you may buy more than you plan to

B. the quality of ordinary items is usually high and the prices are relatively low

C. discount clothing stores are good places to go to      

D. ads sometimes don’t tell the truth

 

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，從短文后的選項(xiàng)中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。選項(xiàng)中有兩項(xiàng)為多余選項(xiàng)。
____【小題1】____. He had more money than he could ever spend,　and　he was admired and looked up to by his community._____【小題2】_____ .He was not happy. All his life he had been pursuing happiness and struggling for happiness, but he had never been able to find it.
Then one day he heard about a hidden temple in Nepal that had a special room that contained the secret of happiness.____【小題3】___ .After many years searching and countless hardships he arrived there. He was tired and penniless, but he knew that none of that mattered now because he had found the temple. He asked a wise, smiling monk(和尚)if he could enter the special room. The monk agreed and showed him to the stairs leading to the room.____【小題4】__ .He stared into the room with sunlight streaming through the window and saw what he had come so far to find. There hanging on the wall was the secret of happiness. The man looked at his reflection in the mirror and laughed.
_【小題5】___ .Happiness is a choice that we can make. Don’t spend the rest of your life searching the world for happiness then. Just look at the mirror and laugh. Let the happiness flow from your heart, mind, and soul until it fills your life and the lives of all around you.

A．He immediately sold all that he owned and set out to find this hidden temple.

B．The man found the secret of happiness at last.

C．But he knew that something was missing in his life.

D．He climbed them with legs shaking with expectation and slowly opened the door.

E. There was once a very wealthy and successful man.
F. It is time we all realized that we were the secret of our own happiness.
G. It was difficult to find the temple in Nepal.

Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality (理性), but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any reasonable student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, many famous professors and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that's not what I did.

I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn't even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my job. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by communicating with people who weren't studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a wise choice. They told me I was wise and grown-up beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.

　I headed off to the college and sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn't care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical expert and excellent humanist all in one.

　Now I'm not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideas crashed into reality, as all noble ideas finally do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.

　The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don't mix as easily as I supposed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.

1.Why did the author choose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university?

A．He intended to become an engineer and humanist.

B．He intended to be a reasonable student with noble ideals.

C．He wanted to be an example of practicality and rationality.

D．He wanted to communicate with liberal-arts students.

2.According to the author, by communicating with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ___________.

A．become noble idealists

B．broaden their knowledge

C．find a better job in the future

D．balance engineering and liberal arts

3. Which word below can replace the underlined word “reconcile”?

A．confuse

B．compare

C．combine

D．compete

4.The underlined sentence in 1st paragraph means ___________.

A．he has failed to achieve his ideal aims

B．he is not a practical and rational student

C．his choice of attending to a small liberal-arts university is reasonable

D．his idea of combining engineering with liberal - arts is noble and wise

5. The author suggests in this passage that ___________.

A．liberal-arts students are supported to take engineering courses

B．technical experts with a wide vision are expected in the society

C．successful engineering students are more welcomed in the society

D．engineering universities with liberal-arts courses are needed

 

—Time flies! The wonderful party is over. We’ll have to part.

—No need to feel blue ________.

A. A still tongue makes a wise head.

B. A single flower does not make a spring.

C. All good things come to an end.

D. All that glitters is not gold.

Why does night fall but never break and day break but never fall?

Why are people who ride motorcycles called bikers and people who ride bikes called cyclists?

In what other language do people drive in a parkway and park in a driveway?

In what other language do they call the third hand on the clock the second hand?

Let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes (探討它的矛盾), we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths in them.

And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese — so one moose, two meese?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of human beings. That’s why, when stars are out, they are visible; but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

1. According to the passage ______.

A．sweet-meats and sweetbreads are different things

B．there should be egg in an eggplant

C．pineapples are the apples on the pine tree

D．boxing rings should be round

2.Which of the following includes two items which have the similar meaning?

A．A wise man and a wise guy.

B．Overlook and oversee.

C．Quite a lot and quite a few.

D．Hot as hell and cold as hell.

3.The underlined words “wind up” in the last paragraph probably mean “______”.

A．blow

B．roll up

C．get hurt

D．finish

4. Through the many paradoxes in the English language, the writer wants to show that human beings are ______.