In the past ten years, America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) has grown increasingly dependent on the rest of the world to supply players.

    When Michael Jordan and Larry Bird won gold in Barcelona in 1992, the Americans were praised for teaching the world how to play basketball. This season, however, 20 percent of NBA rosters（花名册） will be filled by non-Americans. NBA commissioner David Stem happily embraces the trend. On a visit to Paris in October, Stern outlined his vision for the future, which is likely to see Europe hosting NBA games by 2010.

    The NBA is now planning to take China by storm.

    “Our experience in China has been that it is going to be explosive in its growth,” said Stern. The strategy（战略，策略） in China is television. “We’ve made 14 deals in China with local and national networks on cable and satellite.” The success of Chinese centre Yao Ming has paved the way for the NBA marketing blitz in China. The NBA, which is broadcasted in more than 200 countries in 42 languages, will put that to the test in October 2004 when the Houston Rockets play two pre-season games against the Sacramento Kings in Beijing and Shanghai. The NBA knows that it needs a global market to compensate for tough times on home soil.

“It doesn’t matter where the players come from, all the NBA teams now know that they have to scout（寻找，觅得） internationally,” said Terry Lyons, the NBA’s vice-president of international public relations. “It has increased the level of competition here.” As Frenchman Tony Parker and Argentine Emanuel Ginobili showed in winning championship rings with the San Antonio Spurs last season, many people can earn the respect of their American peers. Others, such as the Houston Rockets’ Chinese centre Yao Ming — number one draft pick in 2002 — and the Detroit Pistons’ 18-year-old Serb Darko Milicic — number two overall in this year’s draft — are icons（偶像）in-waiting. It is the ultimate（最后的，根本的） revolution — the rest of the world teaching the US how to play basketball.

According to the report,                 .

A. Michael Jordan is still playing a very important role in NBA

B. the part played by the foreign players in NBA will be great

C. Yao Ming is to play two pre-season games in NBA

D. European countries will host the 2004 NBA games

The underlined phrase “take China by storm” has the meaning of      _______ ___.

A. NBA intends to make China its “marketing center”

B. NBA is planning to set up some training centers in China

C. there’ll be a big storm when NBA comes to China to play against the Sacramento Kings

D. the NBA’s live basket games will be broadcasted on all the TVs in China

What seems to be the biggest change that is happening to NBA?

A. NBA is expecting more foreign players to join the league.

B. China’s rapid development in sports affects NBA.

C. Yao Ming has taken the place of Michael Jordan.

D. The NBA will stop teaching the world how to play basketball.

When the writer talked of “home soil”, he was referring to        _        _.

A. farms in the States                    B. native Americans 

C. the NBA training center                D. the USA

Which of the following can be used as the best title for the passage?

A. The Non-American Basketball Players      B. NBA Is Coming to China

C. The Foreign Ties That Bind the NBA        D. NBA Is Making Big Progress

Put that money somewhere safe________ it gets stolen.

A. before            B. after             C. when             D. while

Brrriiinnng．The alarm clock announces the start of another busy weekday in the morning．You jump out of bed, rush into the shower, into your clothes and out the door with hardly a moment to think．A stressful journey to work gets your blood pressure climbing．Once at the office, you glance through the newspaper with depressing stories or reports of disasters．In that sort of mood, who can get down to work, particularly some creative, original problem-solving work?
The way most of us spend our mornings is exactly opposite to the conditions that promote flexible, open-minded thinking．Imaginative ideas are most likely to come to us when we’re unfocused．If you are one of those energetic morning people, your most inventive time comes in the early evening when you are relaxed．Sleepy people’s lack of focus leads to an increase in creative problem solving．By not giving yourself time to tune into your wandering mind, you’re missing out on the surprising solutions it may offer．
The trip you take to work doesn’t help, either．The stress slows down the speed with which signals travel between neurons （神经细胞）, making inspirations less likely to occur．And while we all should read a lot about what’s going on in the world, it would not make you feel good for sure, so put that news website or newspaper aside until after the day’s work is done．
So what would our mornings look like if we wanted to start them with a full capacity for creative problem solving? We’d set the alarm a few minutes early and lie awake in bed, following our thoughts where they lead．We’d stand a little longer under the warm water of the shower, stopping thinking about tasks in favor of a few more minutes of relaxation．We’d take some deep breaths on our way to work, instead of complaining about heavy traffic．And once in the office—after we get a cup of coffee—we’d click on links not to the news of the day but to the funniest videos the web has to offer．
【小题1】What is the purpose of the first paragraph?

根据对话内容，从对话后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
W: Hello, may I speak to Mr. Black, please?
M: Speaking.  【小题1】 
W: This is the Town Job Center. We have received your Email  【小题2】 .
M: Can you tell me more about it? What kind of jobs? Where?
W:  【小题3】  It’s the kind of job you would like to do, as we can see from your Email.
M: Yes, I did put that in my Email.
W: Yes. They also want a person who knows how to operate computer,  【小题4】 .
M: What about the pay and the work hours?
W: I am coming to that. The pay they have offered is satisfactory,  【小题5】. Sometime early in the                  morning, sometimes late in the afternoon.
M: Well, I am interested in it, but I need some more details so that I can talk it over with my wife.
W: Why don’t you come over here tomorrow?
M: OK, I’ll do that. See you tomorrow then. Bye!

I got interested in the idea of standing desks about a year ago. The health advantages of standing instead of sitting for eight hours a day are clear, so when the company Ergotron invited me to review their WorkFit C-Mod Dual Desk, I jumped out of my chair---really.

After several hours putting the desk together, I finally got to try it out. The standing desk had a desktop that I could use for writing.

At first I absolutely loved it. Standing during the day instead of sitting was fantastic. Although I felt more tired after all that standing during the day, I knew the health benefits were worth the slight discomfort. However, after the initial novelty (新奇)of the desk wore off, I realized that I could not use it in the long term.

It was just not practical. While using the desk for a month , I could definitely foresee problems arising from using it full time.

I enjoy having a lot of things on my desk. The standing desk just did not have enough room for all of my things.

I can easily foresee awkward situations when I put that desk in an office space. When someone comes into your office, does your guest have to stand as well? If you office is big enough, maybe you have room for two chairs for you and a visitor, which is great. Yet for the ordinary worker in a small office, the standing desk creates a very awkward situation.

Additionally, the amount of money I would have to spend to replace my current workspace with a standing desk was another issue. The desks I have looked at were highly expensive.

Yes, spending the day standing can offset(抵消) many of the negative effects of too much sitting, but we humans are designed for movement. Through activity changes like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, you can easily increase the time you spend on your feet. Best of all, those options are completely free.

1.When the author was asked to try the standing desk out, he was ____.

A．excited           B．surprised          C．unhappy          D．uninterested

2.When first using the standing desk, the author ___.

A．thought it was boring                    B．thought it was wonderful

C．felt less tired than usual                  D．felt quite uncomfortable

3.According to the author, a standing desk ____.

A．takes up too much space                  B．is suitable for long-term use

C．is cheaper than traditional desks            D．is impractical though good for health

4.What does the author mainly tell us in the text?

A．How to use the standing desk.              B．What he does during the workday.

C．His opinion on the standing desk.           D．The advantage of the standing desk.