My daughter recently asked me what a Travel Agency does. There is one located on our street and it has just been completely rebuilt. I told her that they helped people book their trips and vacations. “Why haven’t we ever been in there?” she wanted to know. “Because we do everything ourselves online these days” I explained. “But why do it yourself if other people want to do it for you?” she wondered out loud.
The answer is that the travel agency makes a little bit of money on each ticket you book through them. If you book your ticket yourself, online, you save that money. Saving money sounds great except that when you think about it you typically spend three evenings comparing prices to end up saving $30 on a $300 trip. All those $30 discounts add up of course so I guess we should be happy with that.
Still, how bad is it really to pay someone $30 and trust them to buy you something decent? Wouldn’t you say your free evenings are worth more than $10 a piece?
Consider books for a moment. Buying your book at Amazon saves you maybe 30% to 40% on each book. Add to that the convenience of shopping from home and getting the package delivered to your home address. So far so good.
Unfortunately that does mean you spend way too much time browsing Amazon. com while you could do something fun instead. Like maybe reading an actual book?
Then the package arrives and you aren’t home and end up having to pick it up at the local post- office. All in all I wonder how much time I end up investing in the whole process.
Time sounds free, but to most of us, it is more valuable than money.
The Internet Economy promised to get rid of the middle-men and we loved it. Somehow, I’m starting to get the feeling that we ourselves ended up doing the work of that middle-men we were so eager to get rid of.
In any project you can always pick two of these: fast, cheap or good. We seem to have focused a lot on ‘cheap’ and ‘good’ but the extra time we need to invest to keep it ‘fast’ comes out of our own pockets.
You can always make more money but you can never make more time.
【小题1】What is the purpose of the first paragraph?

A.It mainly shows the curiosity of the author’s daughter.
B.It indicates that the Internet has influenced our daily life.
C.It tells us the importance of a travel agency.
D.It shows why people need a travel agency.
【小题2】What’s the author’s attitude towards the Internet Economy?
A.The author thinks online shopping saves time and is a convenient way to buy products.
B.The author worries about sending personal information over the internet.
C.The author doesn’t think online shopping is satisfactory in every way.
D.The author likes the convenience but is concerned about the e-commerce environment.
【小题3】What’s the best title for the passage?
A.The convenience of the Internet Economy.
B.How to save money in the Internet Economy.
C.The hidden cost of the Internet Economy.
D.How to save time in the Internet Economy.


第II卷(非选择题,共35分)
第一节:短文改错(共10小题,每小题1分)
此题要求改正所给短文中的错误。对标有题号的每一行作出判断。如无错误,在该行右边横线上划一个勾(√);如有错误(每行只有一个错误),则按下列情况改正:
该行多一个词:把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉,在该行右边横线上写出该词,并也用斜线划掉。
该行缺一个词:在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧),在该行右边横线上写出改正后的词。
注意:原行没有错的不要改。
Now I’d like to tell you something about my part-time
job this summer vacation, in which I worked      76. __________
like a guide in a travel agency. The work was interesting    77. __________
but tired. I think it was helpful to work this holiday. It was 78. __________
the first time that I have earned money on my own. I’ve    79. __________
come to understand how hard my parents work to support for   80. __________
The family. I used to keep on ask them for money. But now
I’ll never waste money and learn to share worry with my   81. __________
parent. I’ve learned how to get along well with others. What’s
worse, I’ve gained some working and social experience and I    82. __________
83. __________
have learnt something can’t be learnt from textbooks. All 84. __________
these will be good for my future. In a word, I had the 85. __________
wonderful and valuable summer vacation.  

When you’re lying on the white sands of the Mexican Rivera, the stresses (压力) of the world seem a million miles away. Hey, stop! This is no vacation—you have to finish something.

Here lies the problem for travel writer and food critic (评论家) Edie Jarolim. “I always loved traveling and always liked to eat, but it never occurred to me that I could make money doing both of those things,” Jarolim said. Now you can read her travel advice everywhere--- in Arts and Antiques, in Brides, or in one of her three books, The Complete Idiot Travel Guide to Mexican Beach Resorts.

Her job in travel writing began some eight years ago. After getting a PhD in English in Canada, she took a test for Frommer’s travel guides, passed it, and got the job. After working at Frommer’s, Jarolim worked for a while at Rough Guides in London, then Fodor’s where she fell so in love with a description of the Southwest of the U.S. that she moved there.

Now as a travel writer, she spends one-third of her year on the road. The rest of the time is spent completing her tasks and writing reviews of restaurants at home in Tucson, Arizona.

As adventurous as the job sounds, the hard part is fact-checking all the information. Sure, it’s great to write about a tourist attraction, but you’d better get the local museum hours correct or you could really ruin someone’s vacation.

1.What is most difficult for Jarolim?

A.Working in different places to collect information.

B.Checking all the facts to be written in the guides.

C.Finishing her work as soon as possible.

D.Passing a test to write travel guides.

2.What do we know about Jarolim from the text?

A.She is successful in her job.

B.She finds her life full of stresses.

C.She spends half of her time traveling.

D.She is especially interested in museums.

3.What would be the best title for the text?

A.Adventures in Travel Writing

B.Working as a Food Critic

C.Travel Guides on the Market

D.Vacationing for a Living

 

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