Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.
A. Fathers are easier to satisfy on their special date. B. Greeting cards are the most popular gifts for Dads. C. People traced the origin oi Father's Day. D. Fathers have higher expectations for their special date. E. New neckties are popular presents on Father's Day. F. People tend to spend more on Mother's Day than on Father's Day. |
76.__________________________
On Father's Day 2009, which falls on Sunday, June 21, millions of dads across the US will open boxes, peel back tissue paper, and break into a smile as they admire their new necktie 一 still among the most popular Father's Day gifts.
77.__________________________
That smile is almost certainly genuine, according to psychology lecturer Nicole Gilbert Cote at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Her research shows that even though dads get less attention on father's day than moms do on Mother's Day, dads are more likely to be satisfied on their special date. Part of the reason seems to be that moms expect to be relieved of stereotypical chores such as cooking and cleaning up on Mother's Day, but that doesn't always happen. Dads didn't have that role in the family. “The bar is low, and dad is OK with that,” Gilbert Cote said, adding that the way families — even those that espouse egalitarian ideal — celebrate the two holidays reinforces such stereotypes.
78. _________________________
Fathers' low expectation means that shoppers spend less money on them than they do on moms, according to the National Retail Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. The stumbling global economy, however, does mean shoppers are cutting back. In 2008, Father's Day cost individual consumers $94.54, and Mother's Day cost $138.36. But this year, the retail group experts gift givers to spend an average of US$90, on Father's Day. For moms, shoppers shelled out “dad an average of US$123.89. “Dad is a little more laid-back and easier to shop for,” said federation spokesperson Kathy Grannis. “His gifts usually range from a simple tie for work to a new spatula for the grill, all of which can make dad very happy.” Mother's Day gifts tend to be more luxurious — jewels, flowers, a trip to the spa, and dinner at a restaurant, for example.
79. _________________________
The most popular gift for Dads — and often the only one he'll got — is a greeting card. All told, an estimated 110 million cards are sent on Father's Day, according to the greeting card company Hallmark. This makes Father's Day the fourth largest card ——sending holiday in the US, behind Mother's Day (162 million), Valentine's Day (192 million), and Christmas (2.1 billion). Fifty percent of Father's Day cards are purchased for dads and another 20 percent for husbands. The remaining 30 percent fall into a broad “other” category, according to Deidre Mize, a Hallmark spokesperson. “It might be someone who served as a father role. Or it could be a stepdad,” she said. The Father's Day card business, according to the retail federation, will ring up about $780 million this year.
80.__________________________
Despite all the cards given on father's day, hallmark didn't invent the holiday, Mize said. Rather, father's day traced its origins to Spokane, Washington, where Sonora Smart-Dodd was one of six children being raised by a single dad. Inspired by a mother's day sermon she heard at church, she wanted to honor her father. So, she encouraged local churches to institute the first father's day observance in 1909. The idea caught on, and hallmark started printing father's day cards in 1920s, Mize said. In 1972, us president Richard Nixon formally declared father's day as the third Sunday in June.
Although one might not think so from some of the criticism of it, advertising is essential to the kind of society in which people in the United Kingdom, and a very __50__ proportion of the world at large, live. Advertising is necessary as a __51__ of communicating with others, of telling them about the goods and services that are offered, and of which most of them would never __52__ to hear at all if it were not for advertising. And advertising helps a great deal to promote a __53__ standard of living.
In talking about advertising, one should not think only __54__ a commercial on television, or an advertisement in the newspapers or periodicals. In its widest __55__ , advertising includes a host of other __56__ such as packaging, shop displays and — in the sense of communication — even the spoken word of the salesman. __57__ , the roots of advertising are to be found in the market place.
For many years it was thought that it was enough to __58__ goods and supply services, h is only more __59__ that it has become increasingly understood that the production of goods is a waste of resources __60__ those goods can be sold at a fair price within a __61__ time span. In the competitive society in which we live, it is essential that we go out and sell what we have to offer, and advertising plays an important role in this respect, whether selling at home or in __62__ markets.
Approximately 2 percent of the UK gross national product is spent on advertising. But it must not be thought that this advertising tries to sell goods to consumers who do not want them. Of course, advertising does try to attract the interest of the __63__ consumer, but if the articles when __64__ does not match up to the standards that the advertising suggests that it will, it is obviously exceedingly unlikely that the article will sell well.
50. | A. | enjoyable | B. | considerable | C. | agreeable | D. | knowledgeable |
51. | A. | data | B. | proportion | C. | means | D. | messages |
52. | A. | get | B. | put | C. | find | D. | avoid |
53. | A. | demanding | B. | raising | C. | creating | D. | rising |
54. | A. | in honor of | B. | in case of | C. | in terms of | D. | in favor of |
55. | A. | sense | B. | sure | C. | level | D. | extent |
56. | A. | conferences | B. | activities | C. | matters | D. | actions |
57. | A. | Of all | B. | And all | C. | Among all | D. | After all |
58. | A. | protest | B. | program | C. | process | D. | produce |
59. | A. | quickly | B. | immediately | C. | recently | D. | totally |
60. | A. | unless | B. | though | C. | until | D. | when |
61. | A. | inevitable | B. | comfortable | C. | reasonable | D. | available |
62. | A. | country | B. | import | C. | jobs | D. | export |
63. | A. | financial | B. | potential | C. | essential | D. | social |
64. | A. | presented | B. | purchased | C. | responded | D. | respected |