题目内容
If other men spoke to his wife intimately (亲密地) he was immediately j________.
My daughter recently asked me what a Travel Agency does. There is one located on our street and it has just been completely rebuilt. I told her that they helped people book their trips and vacations. “Why haven’t we ever been in there?” she wanted to know. “Because we do everything ourselves online these days” I explained. “But why do it yourself if other people want to do it for you?” she wondered out loud.
The answer is that the travel agency makes a little bit of money on each ticket you book through them. If you book your ticket yourself, online, you save that money. Saving money sounds great except that when you think about it you typically spend three evenings comparing prices to end up saving $30 on a $300 trip. All those $30 discounts add up of course so I guess we should be happy with that.
Still, how bad is it really to pay someone $30 and trust them to buy you something decent? Wouldn’t you say your free evenings are worth more than $10 a piece?
Consider books for a moment. Buying your book at Amazon saves you maybe 30% to 40% on each book. Add to that the convenience of shopping from home and getting the package delivered to your home address. So far so good.
Unfortunately that does mean you spend way too much time browsing Amazon. com while you could do something fun instead. Like maybe reading an actual book?
Then the package arrives and you aren’t home and end up having to pick it up at the local post- office. All in all I wonder how much time I end up investing in the whole process.
Time sounds free, but to most of us, it is more valuable than money.
The Internet Economy promised to get rid of the middle-men and we loved it. Somehow, I’m starting to get the feeling that we ourselves ended up doing the work of that middle-men we were so eager to get rid of.
In any project you can always pick two of these: fast, cheap or good. We seem to have focused a lot on ‘cheap’ and ‘good’ but the extra time we need to invest to keep it ‘fast’ comes out of our own pockets.
You can always make more money but you can never make more time.
【小题1】What is the purpose of the first paragraph?
| A．It mainly shows the curiosity of the author’s daughter. |
| B．It indicates that the Internet has influenced our daily life. |
| C．It tells us the importance of a travel agency. |
| D．It shows why people need a travel agency. |
| A．The author thinks online shopping saves time and is a convenient way to buy products. |
| B．The author worries about sending personal information over the internet. |
| C．The author doesn’t think online shopping is satisfactory in every way. |
| D．The author likes the convenience but is concerned about the e-commerce environment. |
| A．The convenience of the Internet Economy. |
| B．How to save money in the Internet Economy. |
| C．The hidden cost of the Internet Economy. |
| D．How to save time in the Internet Economy. |
Norah had a cottage on a cliff（悬崖）above a big bay. In winter it could be very unpleasant because of strong winds and sea waves. In fact, when a gale was blowing, Norah and her husband got used to sleeping in a small room downstairs, because their bedroom upstairs, which faced the gales, had a very big window, and they were afraid that an extra violent wind might break it and blow pieces of broken glass over them.
Also, the salt wave from the sea put an end to many of the colorful plants Norah planted in her garden. She tried putting up a fence to protect them, but the wind just hit it, went up over the top and then down the other side, so in the end she filled the garden with trees and bushes that liked salt.
But most of the summer Norah enjoyed her cottage and garden very much. At weekends she could sit out-of-doors in the sun, looking at the beautiful view, with interesting ships and boats passing by, and she could very easily cycle down to the sea for a swim.
Now, Norah and her husband had plenty of friends and relations. In the summer lots of them used to come to enjoy the beautiful place, and in the end it really became quite annoying for the couple. When they were at home, they found friends and relations arriving, expecting to be given unlimited drinks and meals, and to sit in the sun for hours, talking as if Norah and her husband had nothing else to do but entertain and listen to them.
This went on for several years. Norah didn’t wish to appear rude by refusing to let her friends and relations in, but on the other hand, she was getting tired every summer.
Then one day Norah was complaining about this to her hairdresser while she was doing her hair. “You’re disturbed by too many uninvited guests, are you?” said the hairdresser. “Why don’t you try my way of escaping?”
“What’s that?” asked Norah.
“Well,” the hairdresser answered, “when the bell rings, I put on my coat and take my shopping bag. If it’s someone I don’t want to see, I say innocently, ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go out.’ But…”
【小题1】The underlined word “gale” can be replaced by _____.
| A．wind | B．ship | C．sea | D．animal |
| A．lots of friends cam to visit them in winter |
| B．few friends came to visit them in winter |
| C．friends came to visit them only for drinks and meals |
| D．Norah was a good cook |
| A．She went there by ship. | B．She walked there. |
| C．She swam there. | D．She went there by bicycle. |
| A．if I’m tired, I say ‘Sorry, can you come next time?’ |
| B．if it’s someone I like to see, I say ‘How lucky! I’ve just come in!’ |
| C．if it is fine that day, I say, ‘I’m tired of this, but I’ll show you around the place.’ |
| D．if it’s someone I like to see, I say, ‘How happy to see you! But I was going shopping now .’ |
| A．A Good Place of Enjoying the Sea | B．A Visit to Norah |
| C．A clever Way of Escaping | D．A Warm-hearted Couple |