题目内容
10. My elder sister had a (疼痛的) cut on her thumb.
10. painful
The poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. Economists study the causes of poverty in order to find solutions to the problem.
As the general standard of living in the country rises,the poverty line does,too. There?fore,even with today's relatively high standard of living, about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. However, if these people had stable jobs,they could have an acceptable standard of living. Economists suggest several reasons why poor people do not have jobs.
For one thing，more than half of the poor people in the United States are not qualified to work. Over 40 percent of the poor people are children. By law,children less than 16 years old cannot work in many industries. A large number of poor people are old. Many companies do not hire people over 65 years old,the normal retirement age.
Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons：they are sick，they do not have any motivation，they have family problems，or they do not believe that they can find a job.
Other poor people look for a job but cannot find one. Many poor adults never went to high school. Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer.
At the present time,the government thinks it can reduce poverty in the country in the fol?lowing ways.
First, if the national economy grows,businesses and industries hire more workers. Some of the poor who are qualified to look for jobs may find employment. Then they will no longer be below the poverty line.
Second, if society invests in the poor,the poor will become more productive. If the gov?eminent spends money on social programs，education，and training for poor people，the poor will have the skills to offer. Then it is more likely that they can find jobs.
Finally, if the government distributes society's income differently, it raises some poor people above the poverty line. The government collects taxes from the non-poor and gives money to the poor. These payments to the poor are called welfare. In 1975 over 18 million people in the United States received welfare.
Some economists are looking for better solutions to the poverty problem. However, at the present time,many people depend on welfare for a minimally acceptable standard of living.
( ) 1.The author's main purpose to write this article is .
A.to define what the poverty line is
B.to explain why some people live below the poverty line
C.to find solutions to the problem of poverty
D.to show sympathy for those poor people
( ) 2. Which of the following is NOT true?
A.Ten percent of the Americans live a poor life.
B.Poor people are those who live below the poverty line.
C.The poverty line rises as the general standard of living rises.
D.The poverty line tends to be at the same level.
( ) 3. More than 40 percent of the poor people are children. This is mainly because .
A.they do not have enough motivation
B.they are so young that they don't have the right to work
C.they fail to get enough education
D.they are very poor in health
( ) 4. Most of the American poor people are not qualified for employment because .
A.they do not have any motivation to work
B.they are not self-confident enough
C.they are too young or too old to work
( ) 5. We may conclude from the passage that .
A.better solutions to the poverty problem are not yet found
B.welfare will enable them to be rich
C.poor people are sure to go out of the poverty line if they have chances to do busi?ness
D.employment is the best solution to the poverty problem
When I lived in Spain，some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Be?fore they left,they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at " bed and breakfast" houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice but they came back with some funny stories.
"We didn't stay at 'bed and breakfast' houses," they said. "Because we found that most families were away on holiday.”
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English and they thought "vacancies" meant "holidays"，because the Spanish word for "holi?days" is " vacaciones". So they did not go to the house where the sign outside said " Vacan?cies"，which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to the house where the sign said "No Vacancies"，because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels！
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Span?ish,the word "diversion" means "fun". In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word "diversion" on a road sign,they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris when someone offered me some more coffee, I said "Thank you" in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise, the coffee pot was taken away!Later I found out that "Thank you" in French means "No,thank you.”
( ) 1. My Spanish friends wanted advice about .
A.learning English
B.finding places to stay in England
C.driving their car on English roads
D.going to England by car
( ) 2. Why didn't the author's friends follow his advice to stay in "bed and breakfast" hou?ses?
A.Because most house owners were away on holiday.
B.Because it was more expensive than expected.
C.Because they confused the two expressions " vacancies" and "vacaciones".
D.Because they confused the two expressions "Vacancies" and "No Vacancies".
( ) 3. If you see a road sign that says "Diversion" in England, you will .
A.fall into a hole
B.have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself
C.find that the road is blocked by crowds of people
D.have to take a different road
( ) 4. I was surprised when the coffee pot was taken away because I .
A.hadn't finished drinking my coffee
B.was expecting another cup of coffee
C.meant that I didn't want any more
D.was never misunderstood
2. I always get a bit (anxiety) if my daughter doesn’t come back home from school on time.
4.这食物真是太美味了。
The food .
5. is a great advantage for international communication, (gift)
有语言天分对于国际交往是一个巨大的优势。
5. He succeeded in business and was very w .
5.Some students (迷恋于) computer games.
2. After he (come) ，please tell me at once.
