题目内容
—What if you ________ ?
—I won't be discouraged whether I ________.
[ ]
I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照), maybe occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, “Can I have one of those?”? He looked perturbed (不安). “Do you want to try it first?” he said. It didn’t quite sound like a question. “Do I need to?” I replied ,“There is nothing wrong with it？” This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. “No, no. But you should try it,” he said encouragingly. “Compare it with the others. ”
I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.
But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out of my chosen camera from cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers… and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.
Why do we think that new options still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.
【小题1】The shop assistant insisted that the writer should________.
| A．try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it. |
| B．compare the camera he had chosen with the others. |
| C．get more information about different companies. |
| D．trust him and stop asking questions. |
| A．He should get a 50% discount. |
| B．The price of the camera was unreasonably high. |
| C．The quality of the camera was not good. |
| D．The camera would soon fall in value. |
| A．knew very little about it. |
| B．didn’t trust the shop assistant |
| C．wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best. |
| D．had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers. |
| A．people waste too much money on cameras |
| B．cameras have become an important part of our daily life |
| C．we don’t actually need so many choices when buying a product |
| D．famous companies care more about profit than quality |
The rising costs of health care have become a problem for man y countries in the world. To deal with this problem, it is recommended that a big part of the state health budget be used for health education and disease prevention instead of treatment. Actually, many kinds of diseases are preventable in many ways and preventing a disease is usually much cheaper than treating it. For example, people could avoid catching a cold if they dressed warmly when the weather starts getting cold. But many people get sick because they fail to do so, and have to spend money seeing a doctor.
Daily habits like eating more healthy food would have kept millions of families from becoming bankruptif the patients had taken ways for early prevention. For example, keeping a balanced diet, such as not consuming too much animal fat and trying to have enough vegetables and fruits, seems to be quite important.
One very effective and costless way of prevention is regular exercise, which is necessary for a healthy mind and body. Regular exercise, such as running, walking, and playing sports is a good way to make people feel better or reduce stress.
In addition, health education plays a key role in improving people’s health. By giving people more information about health, countries could help people understand the importance of disease prevention and ways to achieve it. For example, knowing one’s family medical history is an effective way to help keep healthy. Information about health problems among close relatives will make them aware of what they should do to prevent certain diseases through lifestyle changes, which will work before it is too late.
However, paying more attention to disease prevention does not mean medical treatment is unimportant. After all, prevention and treatment are just two different means toward the same effect. In conclusion, we could save money on health care and treat patients more successfully if our country spends more money on health prevention and education.
【小题1】What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Prevention or Education? | B．Exercise or Illness? |
| C．Health or Illness? | D．Prevention or Treatment? |
| A．Unable to be cured. | B．Unable to pay one’s debts. |
| C．Stronger than ever before. | D．More successful than ever before. |
| A．dressing warmly can prevent diseases. |
| B．a balanced diet is cheaper than regular exercise. |
| C．the more health education, the better. |
| D．the government’s health budget should be increased. |
