In Britain today, is it possible to tell a person’s class just by looking at him? Physical details alone tell us about health, diet and the type of work a person does. A hundred years ago the working class often looked unhealthy, small and they were either too thin or too fat. The upper classes were often tall, sporting types who were used to a good diet and looked healthy. Today living and working conditions have improved, and such descriptions are no longer true. People are taller now than a hundred years ago. Everyone in Britain today is able to have free medicine, a good diet, acceptable working conditions and enough rest and leisure. WWW.K**S*858$$U.COM

       The clothes people choose to wear, however, do provide information about their backgrounds. Expensive clothes look expensive and show their wearer is rich. Clothes can provide other clues as well. The upper classes appear to be less interested in fashion and wear good quality clothes in non-bright colours, made of natural material like wool, leather and cotton. Lower working-class people often choose clothes in bright colours, made of man-made materials. A sociological explanation for this would be that colour and interest are missing from their lives, and therefore any opportunity to produce this is taken.

       Clothes are available at a price within most people’s reach. New clothes make the wearer feel good and show some degree of wealth to the outside world. Today it is the younger people who spend most money on clothes. Fashion is no longer for the upper classes and the rich. Young people from all social classes spend a lot of money on clothes. Some new fashions are started by working-class people who want to look different and feel important. They want people WWW.K**S*858$$U.COMto look at them.

In the past, a person’s appearance could not tell other people about his ________.

      A. health              B. diet                C. occupation (职业)    D. habits

The clothes people choose to wear tell us about their ________.

      A. education             B. richness              C. backgrounds             D. hobby

A working-class person may start a new fashion because ________.

      A. she wants to draw the attention of other people

       B. she wants to look different and healthy

       C. she wants to show their wealth

       D. she wants to show their taste

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

      A. Expensive clothes look expensive and show the wearer is rich.

       B. Working-class people prefer clothes in bright colours because they lack colour in their lives.

       C. Today, it is still the upper class people who spend most money on clothes.

       D. Today, fashion is no longer for the upper classes and the rich.

Some people believe that international sport creates goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together, they will learn to live together. Others say that the opposite is true: international competitions encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred. There is probably some truth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic Games have done little to support the view that sport encourages international brotherhood. Not only was there the tragic incident including the murder of athletes, but the Games were also ruined by incidents caused mainly by smaller national contests.

One country received its second-place medals with visible anger after the hockey final. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, the losers objecting to the final decisions. They were sure that one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents’ victory was unfair. Their manager was in great anger when he said, “This wasn’t hockey. Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished.” The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in the suspension(停赛)of the team for at least three years.

Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sport is played competitively rather than for the love of the game. The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals, or in non-national teams, might be too much to hope for. But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that encourages  aggressive patriotism(爱国主义).

1.According to the author, recently the Olympic Games have ______.

A.created goodwill between the nations

B.brought about only false national pride

C.hardly showed any international friendship

D.put an end to misunderstanding and hatred

2.The underlined word “disallowed”(in Paragraph 2) means “______”.

A.permitted to pass

B.considered as reasonable

C.won by the other side

D.refused to accept

3.What did the manager mean by saying, “Hockey and the International Hockey Federation 

are finished"?

A.His team would no longer take part in international games.

B.Hockey and the Federation are both ruined by the unfair decisions.

C.There should be no more Hockey matches organized by the Federation.

D.The Federation should break up.

4.The author gives the example in paragraph 2 to show ______.

A.how false national pride led to undesirable incidents in international games

B.that sportsmen are often against the final decisions

C.that competitiveness in the games discourages international friendship

D.that unfair decisions are common in the Olympic Games

5.What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?

A.The organization of the Olympic Games must be improved.

B.Athletes should compete as individuals in the Olympic Games.

C.A game should be played competitively rather than for the love of the game.

D.More and more athletes will compete for their own honor.

 

Compulsive(强迫的)shoppers may have a new psychological excuse to blame for their wild shopping. Psychologists at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand are studying the “shop-till-you-drop” habit as a behavioral disorder similar to compulsive eating. Compulsive shoppers frequently buy more than they can afford or more than they need, and it causes them distress(苦恼).

“It becomes a problem when you are out of control,” psychology lecturer Neville Blampied said. “When you are feeling bad and blue, what do you do? Some people eat chocolate cake and ice cream. Some people take the credit card and go out to the shop.” Bank managers understand the problem because they have to deal with people who have to be persuaded to stop using their cards drawing money.

Compulsive shopping was first discovered in 1915, although it was then known as monomania. Few studies have been done on the problem.

An advertisement in a Christchurch paper, calling for people to take part in an experimental treatment program designed by Mr. Wilson, attracted 10 replies. But the problem, said Mr. Wilson, is “clearly not rare”. He thinks that compulsive shopping should be treated with drugs. “As psychologists we are interested in non-drug treatments for behavioral difficulties,” Mr. Wilson said.

Compulsive eaters or shoppers get a kick from their habit. “Both activities provide an immediate kind of kick and you feel a bit better,” he said. “You have long-term problems, but human beings are extremely good at not seeing long-term problems and are very sensitive to short-term benefits,” he said.

The aim of the treatment was to help people find better ways of managing their emotions. The program, consisting of 10 one-hour weekly lessons and two follow-up treatments, is loosely based on teaching stress management.

“You often have to start to get people to correctly recognize their emotions. Not being able to know what you really feel weakens your ability to solve the problems connected with what’s making you feel that way,” Mr. Wilson said.

1.The compulsive shoppers will go shopping when ______.

A.they have lots of money

B.they are taking drugs

C.they are feeling sad

D.they win a prize

2.The underlined word “it” in the first paragraph most probably refers to __________.

A.compulsive eating

B.a new psychological excuse

C.the study done by Blampied

D.the behavior of wild shopping

3.Which of the following is considered important in treating compulsive shoppers?

A.Teaching them to manage their money better.

B.Teaching them to understand their emotions.

C.Persuading them not to draw money from the bank.

D.Treating them with right drugs.

4.When the writer says that compulsive shoppers get a kick from their habit, he means that they __________.

A.feel distressed after their wild shopping

B.feel better after treatment from psychologists

C.are better able to deal with stress problems

D.have a feeling of excitement after shopping

 

Students who work during term time to support themselves at university are far more likely to graduate with a poor degree, according to a government-funded study published yesterday.

Undergraduates with part-time jobs are a third less likely to get a first or upper second-class degree than other students, harming their career chances. Students from the poorest backgrounds were most likely to take jobs during term because they could not depend on help from their parents.

The report, commissioned (委托) by the Department for Education and Skills, also found a clear relation between fear of debt and employment in non-graduate jobs. Students from poorer backgrounds are known to he more unwilling to be in debt than those from middle class families.

The study of 8,600 people who graduated in 1999 was made by Peter Elias, of Warwick University, and Kate Purcell, from Bristol Business School. They found that twice as many first-class degrees were awarded to students who did not work during term compared with those who did. Between 35 and 38 percent who worked during term achieved a lower second, compared with about 28 percent of those who did not.

Professor Elias said that the increase in school fees next year to £3,000 would have to be monitored (监控) carefully for its effect on poorer students. "Higher education is going to be a harder struggle for those who do not come with all the advantages," he said.

He suggested that universities could get in touch with employers to provide work experience on good salaries to choose students during holidays, so that they did not have to work during term.

1.What's the main idea of the passage?

A. Students at university like to take part-time jobs to support themselves,

B. Term-time jobs at university lead to poorer examination results.

C. The school fees are becoming higher and higher at university.

D. Students at university have much difficulty getting first-class degrees.

2.Why did lots of students take term-jobs at university?

A. No one would lend them money to continue their study.

B. They wanted to improve themselves by taking part-time jobs,

C. Their families were poor and couldn't afford the high expense.

D. They thought earning money was more important than studying.

3.Students who took term-jobs at university ____.

A. had no possibility to study better than those who didn't

B. couldn't graduate from school normally in the future

C. might have trouble in finding a job in the future

D. were more independent than those who didn't in the future

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

A. Poor students can't take part-time jobs all the time at university.

B. Employers have the duty to help poor students solve the money problem.

C. First class degrees couldn't be given to the students whose families were poor.

D. High school fees are one of the important reasons why students have to take term-jobs.

 

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