题目内容

As goods and services improved, people were persuaded to spend their money on changing from old to new, and found the change worth the expense. When an airline equipped itself with jets, for example, its costs (and therefore air fare) would go up, but the new planes meant such an improvement that the higher cost was justified. A new car (or wireless, washing machine, electric kettle) made life so much more comfortable than the old one that the high cost of replacement was fully repaid. Manufacturers still cry their goods as persuasively as ever, but are the improvements really worth paying for? In many fields, things have now reached such a high standard of performance that further progress is very limited and very, very expensive. Airlines, for example, go to enormous expense in buying the latest prestige jets, in which vast research costs have been spent on relatively small improvements. If we abandon these vast costs we might lose the chance of cutting minutes away from flying times; but wouldn’t it be better to see airfares drop dramatically, as capital costs become relatively insignificant? Again, in the context of a 70 m. p. h. Limit, with lines of cars traveling so close as to control each other’s speeds, improvements in performance are actually irrelevant; improvements in handling are unnecessary, as most production cars grip(抓牢) the road perfectly, and comfort has now reached a very high level. Small improvements here are unlikely to be worth the thousands that anybody replacing an ordinary family car every two years may have spent on them. Let us instead have cars — or wireless, electric kettles, washing machines, television sets — which are made to last, and not to be replaced. Significant progress is obviously a good thing, but the insignificant progression from model-change to model-change is not.

  1. 1.

    The author is obviously challenging the social norm (社会规范) that ________________.

    1. A.
      it is important to improve goods and services
    2. B.
      development of technology makes our life more comfortable
    3. C.
      it is reasonable that prices are going up all the time
    4. D.
      slightly improved new products are worth buying
  2. 2.

    According to this passage, airfares may rise because ______________.

    1. A.
      the airplane has been improved
    2. B.
      people tend to travel by new airplanes
    3. C.
      the change is found to be reasonable
    4. D.
      the service on the airplane is better than before
  3. 3.

    According to the author, passengers would be happier if they ____________.

    1. A.
      could fly in the latest model of good planes
    2. B.
      could get tickets at much lower prices
    3. C.
      see the airlines make vital changes in their services
    4. D.
      could spend less time flying in the air
  4. 4.

    When manufactures have improved the performance of their products to a certain level, then it would be ___________.

    1. A.
      justified for them to cut the price
    2. B.
      unnecessary for them to make any new changes
    3. C.
      difficult and costly to further better them
    4. D.
      insignificant for them to cut down the research costs
  5. 5.

    In the case of cars, the author advises that we _____________.

    1. A.
      cancel the speed limit                      
    2. B.
      further improve their performance
    3. C.
      change models every two years         
    4. D.
      improve their durability (耐久性)
练习册系列答案
相关题目

In the United States you will find yourself being urged from every page of every newspaper and every television station to buy all kinds of goods.

Not only is there a wide range of prices for goods in America, there is also a wide range in the quality of goods offered for sale. Unlike some countries, Americans generally pay the price of a product without question, instead of trying to get a lower price by bargaining. However, there are many “sales” in the United States, during which time stores will lower their normal prices. This may all be very confusing to visitors. How are you going to know how to “get your money’s worth” when you shop? Perhaps the best advice is: Don’t hurry. Visit various stores and determine the quality of goods. Read the advertisements so that you can compare prices.

There is a great variety of shops in the United States, ranging from very large stores called “department stores” to very small shops. There are “discount houses” offering goods at low prices, and “dime stores” specializing in a wide range of inexpensive items.

Most department stores in large cities carry better quality products at higher prices. However, they offer the shoppers great convenience since they contain such a wide variety of products.

If convenience isn’t as important to you as price, you may want to shop in discount houses. These stores have nearly as great a variety of goods as department stores, but offer lower prices. They can do so for several reasons. They don’t offer the same services to buyers that department stores do; there may be fewer sales people; and the store probably doesn’t deliver purchases.

Another popular shop is the “dime store”. No longer selling many things for five or ten cents, these stores got their name in the last century when it was decided that a small profit on a great quantity of goods would be better than a large profit on fewer sales. Dime stores specialize in a wide variety of inexpensive items and today, prices range from a quarter or 50 cents up to several dollars.

1.Where can we most probably read this passage?

A. In a research paper.       B. In a science report.

C. In a geography book.      D. In a travel magazine.

2.Why can discount houses offer goods at lower prices compared with department stores?

a. They have fewer employees.

b. They have larger quantities of goods.

c. They offer fewer services.

d. They don’t provide delivery service.

A. a b c    B. a b d   C. a c d    D. b c d

3.What’s special about dime stores?

A. They sell lots of goods at a small profit.

B. They make big profits by selling some goods.

C. They provide goods with a price lower than 50 cents.

D. They provide goods ranging from bargains to expensive ones.

 

Feeling blue about world ? “Cheer up.” Says science writer Matt Ridley.”The world has never been a better place to live in, and it will keep on getting better both for humans and got nature.”

Ridley calls himself a tat ional optimist—tactical .because he’s carefully weighed the evidence optimistic .because that   offence shows human progress to be both unavoidable and good .And this is what he’s set out to prone from unique point of view in his most recent book. The Rant anal Opting  .He views mankind as grand enterprise that .on the whole .has done little but progress for 100.000 years. He backed his finding with hard gathered though years of research.

Here’s how he explains his views.

Shopping fuels invention

It is reported that there are more than ten billion different producers for sale in London alone. Even allowing for the many people who still live in poverty .our own generation has access to more nutritious food .more convenient transport .bigger houses, better ears .and of course, more pounds and dollars than any who lived before us .This will continue as long as we there things to make other things, This more we specialize and exchange, the better off we’ll be.

2) Brilliant advances

 One reason we are richer, healthier, taller, cleverer, longer-lived and freer than ener before is that the four most basie human needs -food, clothing, fuel and shelter- have grown a lot cheaper. Take one example. In 1800 a candle providing one hour’s light cost six hours’ work. In the 1880s the same light from an oil lamp took 15 minutes’ work to pay for. In 1950 it was eight seconds. Today it’s half second.

3) Let’s not kill ourselves for climate change

Mitigating(减轻) climate change could prove just as damaging to human welface as climate change itself. A child that dies from indoor smoke in a village, where the use of fassil-fuel(化石燃料) electrieity is forhidden by well meaming members of green polucal movements trying to save the world, is just as great a tragedy as a child that mes in a flood caused by climate change. If chmaic change proves to be xxxx, but cutting carbon canses realparn, we may well find that we have stopped a nose bleed by putting a tournquet(止血带) around our necks.

1.What is the theme of Ridley’s most recent book?

A. Weakness of human nature.

B. Concern about climate change.

C. Importance of practical thinking.

D. Optimism about human progress.

2.How does Ridley look at shopping?

   A. It encourages the creation of things.

   B. It results in shortage of goods.

   C. It demands more fossil fuels.

   D. It causes a poverry problem.

3.The candle and lamp example is used to show that     .

   A. oil lamps give off more light than candles

   B. shortening working time brings about a happier life.

   C. advanced technology helps to produce better candles.

   D. increased production rate leads to lower cost of goods.

4.What does the last sentence of the passage imply?

   A. Cutting carbon is necessary in spite of the huge cost.

   B. Overreaction to cliamate change may be dangerous.

   C. People’s health is closely related to climate change.

   D. Careless medical treatment may cause great pain.

 

Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services. People use money to buy food, furniture, books, bicycles and hundreds of other things we need or want. When they work, they usually get paid in money.

Lots of the money today is made of paper. But people used to use all kinds of things as money. One of the first kinds of money was shells. Shells were not the only things used as money.

In China, cloth and knives were used. In the Philippine Islands, rice was used as money for  a long time. Some Africans once used elephant tusks, monkey tails, and salt as money.

The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the center. Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money. Later, countries began to make coins of gold and silver.

But even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive. Again the Chinese thought of a way to improve money. They began to use paper money. The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than the paper money used today.

Money has had an interesting history, from the days of shell money until today.

1. In the Philippines Islands ______ was once used as money.

A.rice

B.knife

C.cloth

D.wheat

2.What was first used as money? ______.

A.Elephants tusks

B.Cloth

C.Salt

D.Shells

3.The first metal coins looked like ______.

A.square-shaped with some designs on them

B.square-shaped with a round hole in the center

C.round-shaped with a square hole in the middle

D.round-shaped with a round hole in the middle

4.The first paper money ______.

A.was passed from west Asia to China

B.looked like a note used today

C.was first used in Europe

D.looked like a piece of fur

5.We can infer from the passage that ______.

A.paper money isn’t difficult to make

B.money must be suited to carry

C.people need money to exchange goods with each other

D.people prefer metal coins to paper notes

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网