What is time? Is it a thing to be saved or spent or wasted, like money? Or is it something we have no control over, like the weather? Is time the same all over the world?

That's an easy question, you say. Wherever you go, a minute is 60 seconds, an hour is 60 minutes, a day is 24 hours, and so forth. But in America, time is more than that. Americans see time as a valuable resource. Maybe that's why they are fond of the expression, "Time is money."

Because Americans believe time is a limited resource, they try to conserve and manage it. People in the U.S. often attend seminars or read books on time management. It seems they all want to organize their time better. Professionals carry around pocket planners -- some in electronic form -- to keep track of appointments and deadlines. People do all they can to squeeze more time out of their time. The early American hero Benjamin Franklin expressed this view best: "Do you love life? Then do not waste time, for that is the stuff life is made of."

To Americans, punctuality is a way of showing respect for other people's time. Being more than 10 minutes late to an appointment usually calls for an apology and an explanation. People who are running late often call ahead to let others know of the delay. Of course, the less formal the situation is, the less important it is to be exactly on time. At informal get-togethers, for example, people often arrive as much as 30 minutes past the appointed time.

To outsiders, Americans seem tied to the clock. People in other cultures value relationships more than schedules. In these societies, people don't try to control time, but to experience it. Even Americans would admit that no one can master time. Time -- like money -- slips all too easily through our fingers. And time -- like the weather-- is very hard to predict. Nevertheless, time is one of life's most precious gifts. And unwrapping it is half the fun.

What’s the main topic of this passage?

       A. What is time?

       B. How to control time?

       C. Make good use of time.

       D. Time among Americans.

What’s the meaning of the underlined word “conserve”?

       A. protect                            B. develop                    C. produce                    D. assist

The sentence “Americans seem tied to the clock” probably means __________.

       A. Americans often carry a clock with them.

       B. Americans can not predict the time.

       C. Americans can take control over time.

       D. Americans often make full use of time.

We can safely draw a conclusion from this passage that _________________.

       A. Americans have more time than others.

       B. by using pocket planners, people can have more time.

       C. for informal meeting, Americans often arrive 30 minutes earlier.

       D. Americans often attend seminars, because they want to use time better.

阅读下列应用文及相关信息,并按照要求匹配信息。请在答题卡上将对应题号的相应选项字母涂黑。
A
Beijing Highlights
Luxury : 4 Days       $269 Up
Standard : 4 Days      $249 Up
Super Deluxe : 4 Days   $519 Up
Budget : 5 Days        $189 Up
Beijing boasting a history of over a thousand years is rich in cultural relics.Our four-day itinerary will take you to the most popular sites around the city.You will see the magnificent Great Wall; sacred Tiananmmen Square; majestic Forbidden City as well as the verdant gardens of the Summer Palace.
B
Beijing Hutong Tour
Luxury & Standard : 5 Days  $299 Up
Super Deluxe : 5 Days      $669 Up
Budget : 6 Days           $239 Up
Beijing, one of the six ancient capital cities of China still has a rich history, and a diverse and colorful culture.Take a special rickshaw ride through an old Hutong neighborhood to experience the different life styles of Beijing residents.A visit to the Lama Temple will expose you to the local people’s religious beliefs.
C
Short Beijing Travel
Luxury & Standard : 3 Days   $159 Up
Are you annoyed by your tight time schedule but interested in visiting Beijing? Here we provide an elaborately(精心地) designed 3-day Beijing tour itinerary taking you to explore the highlights of Beijing.Hence, you can make full use of your time to visit the most aspects of Beijing.
D
Beijing Group Tour
Luxury : 5 Days    $279 Up
Explore the highlights of Beijing on a tight budget, why not join our Beijing group tour with only 6-18 people to each group, you will not only make new friends from different countries but also experience all of the comfort and flexibility at a lower price.
E
Beijing Essence Tour
Luxury : 2 Days    $75 Up
To guide you to catch all the highlight sites of Beijing in short time schedule, we carefully design these two 2-day refined Beijing tours.Take the tour and make full use of your precious time to see as much as possible of Beijing.
F                                   
Beijing One-Day Tours - 17 options here for you!
Luxury : 1 Day   $29 Up
Beijing is such a large city with numerous places of interest to visit.17 one-day package tours offered here are all made up of the essence of Beijing.You can choose any of your preferred according to your interest.
【小题1】Dick is a newcomer to Beijing where he is going to stay for 5 days.Since he has to attend a very important conference on the third day, he has very limited time to spare.But he wishes to spend two days visiting a few of the scenic spots in Beijing so that he could have some basic idea of what Beijing is like.
【小题2】Coming from Los Angeles, as an exchange student, John is eager to know about Beijing which he believes is a great city with a lot of things to explore.So he plans to go around on Sundays.Since he is not familiar with the city, he decides to join one of the local tour agencies.But he prefers things to be different every week.
【小题3】Mary is a mother with a 9-year-old daughter.She wants to travel around Beijing this summer holiday with her daughter.She would like her daughter to make some friends while opening her eyes during the trip.
【小题4】Li Xue has a very long holiday this year.She wants to go on a guided tour round the most popular sites of Beijing.She does not believe in those so called “cheap and good” offer, so she does not care much about money.So long as the tour is comfortable and enjoyable, she will not hesitate to join in.
【小题5】Professor Zhou is interested more in culture and the way of life of the local people than simply taking a city sightseeing tour.Instead of going to museums and popular sites, he likes to explore how the local people lived in the old times.

 

Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant (不相关的). A half century ago in the United States, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear.

The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of  time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?

These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years — but unless we meet the truant officer (学监), we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes (构成) “overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight-saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law — as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.

1.By saying “Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be”, the writer means that      .

A. work time is equal to rest time

B. many people have a day off on Monday

C. it is hard for people to decide when to rest

D. the line between work time and rest time is unclear

2.The author raises the questions in Paragraph 2 to introduce the fact that people

A. fail to make full use of their time          B. enjoy working overtime for extra pay

C. are unaware of the law of time               D. welcome flexible working hours

3.According to the passage, most children tend to believe that they go to school because they ______.

A. need to acquire knowledge                B. have to obey their parents

C. need to find companions                  D. have to observe .the law

4.What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Our life is governed by the law of time.

B. How to organize time is not worth debating.

C. New ways of using time change our society.

D. Our time schedule is decided by social customs.

 

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