Shopping for clothes is not the same experience for a man as it is for a woman. A man goes shopping because he needs something. His purpose is settled and decided in advance. He knows what he wants, and his objective is to find it and buy it; the price is a secondary consideration. All men simply walk into a shop and ask the assistant for what they want. If the shop has it in stock, the salesman promptly produces it, and the business of trying it on goes forward at once. All being well, the deal can be and often is completed in less than five minutes, with hardly any chat and to everyone's satisfaction. For a man, slight problems may begin when the shop does not have what he wants, or does not have exactly what he wants. In that case the salesman, as the name implies, tries to sell the customer something else, he offers the nearest he can to the article required. No good salesman brings out such a substitute without least consideration; he does so with skill and polish(完美): “I know this jacket is not the style you want, sir, but would you like to try it for size. It happens to be the color you mentioned." Few men have patience with this treatment, and the usual response is: “This is the right color and may be the right size but I should be wasting my time and yours by trying it on.

Now how does a woman go about buying clothes? In almost every respect she does so in the opposite way. Her shopping is not often based on need. She has never fully made up her mind what she wants, and she is only “having a look round". She is always open to persuasion: indeed she sets great store by what the saleswoman tells her, even by what companions tell her. She will try on any number of things. Uppermost in her mind is the thought of finding something that everyone thinks suits her. Contrary to a lot of jokes, most women have an excellent sense of value when they buy clothes. They are always on the lookout for the unexpected bargain. Faced with a roomful of dresses, a woman may easily spend an hour going from one rail to another, to and fro often retracing her steps, before selecting the dresses she wants to try on. It is a tiresome process, but apparently an enjoyable one. Most dress shops provide chairs for the waiting husbands.

1.According to the passage, a man’s shopping is based on _______.

A. his money B. his hobbies

C. his need D. his friends

2.Why does a lady welcome suggestions from anyone while buying a dress?

A. Because she wants to buy a dress that every one thinks suits her.

B. Because she doesn’t know how to buy a dress.

C. Because she doesn’t know whether to buy it or not.

D. Because she wants to show herself off in public.

3.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Most men have patience with trying it on while buying a jacket.

B. Most women have a poor sense of value when buying a dress.

C. A woman’s shopping is based on her need.

D. A man doesn’t pay much attention to the price of the clothes he wants to buy.

4.The passage mainly talks about the ______ between men shoppers and women shoppers for clothes.

A. similarities B. differences

C. varieties D. Intentions

A lot of people say math is not their strong suit. One New Jersey parent wants to help change that. Laura Overdeck grew up with numbers. She always helped measure ingredients when her mother baked, and she learned about angles from her father. She went on to major in astrophysics in college. Overdeck knew she wanted her own children to be good at math, too.

“And when our first child was about two, we just started giving her a math problem every night,” Overdeck said. The problem was usually a story, involving animals, cars or candies that let the kid count. “Our third child started, at age two, yelling that he wanted his own math problem because he saw his brother and sister doing it. And we thought, ‘Wow, we have a household where math is the popular thing at bedtime,’” Overdeck said.

In February, Overdeck launched Bedtime Math, an Internet website where she posts daily puzzles for children. Overdeck is particularly keen to hook children on numbers before they go to school. So why introduce little ones to math so early?

Sain Beilock, an expert on performance anxiety, says the more fun and familiar math is early on, the less likely children will feel nervous when they start to learn math in school. “My lab has shown recently that kids as early as first grade report feeling anxious about doing math,” Beilock said.

“You can hear totally educated adults say, ‘You know I’m just not that good at math.’ or ‘I’m kind of afraid of math.’ And that’s a totally acceptable thing for a well-educated person to say, but you never hear them say, ‘Well, you know, I’m just not that good at reading,’” Overdeck said. She wants children and their parents to become as fluent in numbers as they are in Harry Potter.

1.Overdeck majored in astrophysics because she _______.

A. was really fond of mathematics

B. hoped to change math education in the US

C. had an interest in physics

D. would like her children to be good at math

2.What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?

A. Toys can be used to encourage kids in solving math problems.

B. Math will become more popular in every household.

C. Math is enjoyable in Overdeck’s family.

D. The third child is cleverer than his brother and sister.

3.Beilock’s attitude towards Overdeck’s idea is _______.

A. agreeable B. puzzled

C. anxious D. critical

4.The unfavorable situation of the US in math ability is shown by _______.

A. the popularity of Bedtime Math

B. children’s performance anxiety in school

C. people’s response to math

D. adults’ great fondness for Harry Potter

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