Searching for love is no longer just a favorite subject for songs. It has also become a huge industry. Researchers say the online dating industry in the US earned 649 million dollars in 2006. They expect this number to increase to more than 9 million dollars by 2011.

Experts say that the industry has grown because traditional social ties have weakened. Many young people leave behind a close community of friends and family to find work in bigger cities. People work longer hours, so they have less time to meet new people.

This helps explain the popularity of online dating. Some estimates say120 thousand marriages a year result from matches made on the Internet.

The dating industry has also been expanding in new ways. Many companies offer personalized services for finding the perfect mate. These companies are answering a large demand by single people. They are willing to invest their time and money to find love with carefully planned methods, instead of leaving love to chance.

AskRomeo is a company in Virginia. It provides single people with advice on how to meet a person for the first time.

Also in Virginia, the company True Life Partners provides a more costly and detailed dating service. The company hires a team of professional persons who help couples meet. But this level of service comes at a high price. Men pay thousands of dollars for the service. But women get to take part at no cost.

There are lots of other costs linked to dating. And we wonder how the economic recession(衰退) has affected dating in the US.

1.What can we infer from the first paragraph?

2.According to the passage, we can know ______.

3.The author took AskRomeo and True Life Partners for examples to ______.

4. What will the author talk about in the following paragraph?

Shopping is not as simple as you may think! There are all sorts of tricks at play each time we reach out for that particular brand of product on the shelf． Colouring, for example, varies according to what the producers are trying to sell．Health foods are packaged （包装） in greens, yellows or browns because we think of these as healthy colours．Ice cream packets are often blue and expensive goods, like chocolates, are gold or silver．

When some kind of pain killer was brought out recently, researchers found that the colours turned the customers off because they made the product look weak and ineffective．

Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package—blue because we think of it as safe, and white as calm． The size of a product can attract a shopper．But quite often a bottle doesn’t contain as much as it appears to．

It is believed that the better-known companies spend, on average, 70 per cent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging!

The most successful producers know that it’s not enough to have a good product．The founder of Pears soap, who for 25 years has used pretty little girls to promote （推销） their goods, came to the conclusion: “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius to sell it．”

1.Which of the following may trick a shopper into buying a product according to the text?

       A．The cost of its package．         B．The price of the product．

       C．The colour of its package．       D．The brand name of the product．

2.The underlined part “the colours turned the customers off”（in Par A．3 ） means that the colours _____．

       A．attracted the customers strongly         B．had weak effects on the customers

       C．tricked the customers into shopping      D．caused the customers to lose interest

3.Which of the following is the key to the success in product sales?

       A．The way to promote goods．               B．The discovery of a genius．

       C．The team to produce a good product．   D．The brand name used by successful producers．

4.Which of the following would be the best title for this text?

       A．Choice of Good Products                     B．Disadvantages of Products

       C．Effect of Packaging on Shopping         D．Brand Names and Shopping Tricks

                                  C

    The world’s first plastic magnet (磁性) to work at room temperature has passed the elementary test of magnetism. Its creators at the University of Durham in the UK have used it to pick iron filings (铁屑) from a laboratory bench.

    In 2001, chemists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln claimed to have created the world’s first plastic magnet, but it only worked below 10 Kelvin (开氏温度). Other researchers have made plastic magnets, but generally they only function at extremely low temperatures, or their magnetism at room temperature is too weak to be business use.

    So the Durham team can claim to have made the first plastic magnet that could be used in everyday products. One of the most likely applications is in the magnetic coating of computer hard discs, which could lead to a new generation of high-capacity discs.

    Jerry Torrance, a material scientist who is an adviser to some of the world’s largest electronics and engineering companies, including IBM, describes the work as “a great scientific breakthrough”. However, he says that practical applications are probably still a long way off.

    At first the new polymer (聚合物) showed little sign of magnetism, and after three months the researchers had reached the point where they felt that trying to induce (诱发) magnetism in this polymer was a waste of time. “Just as we were about to give up and try a different way, we decided to check the samples for a last time,” says Sean Giblin.

    It was a fortunate decision, because over the months the original polymer had developed magnetic characteristics. Further groups of polymer proved its magnetism and ruled out the possibility that the magnetism had been caused by pollution. In addition, X-ray diffraction data (衍射数据) showed an increase in the straight line of the polymer chains over three months, which probably accounts for the increase in magnetism.

    Although the polymer’s magnetism is weak compared with metal magnets, the researchers are confident that they can improve it. And in addition to computer hard discs, the team thinks that plastic magnets could have important medical applications because organic magnetic materials are less likely to be rejected by the body.

64. The plastic magnets made by the chemists from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and other researchers couldn’t be used in everyday products because        .

    A. they didn’t pass the elementary test of magnetism

    B. they couldn’t pick up iron filings from a laboratory bench

    C. they wouldn’t work at room temperature

    D. they could only be used at high temperature

65. The increase in magnetism over the months is probably caused by        .

    A. checking the samples             B. a wise decision

    C. pollution

    D. the increase in the straight line of the polymer chains

66. The plastic magnets could be used        .

    A. to compare with the metal magnets

    B. to coat computer hard discs

    C. to produce medicine

    D. to lower the temperature

67. What would be the best title for the passage?

    A. The Birth of Practical Plastic Magnet

    B. The World’s First Plastic Magnet

    C. A Fortunate Decision

    D. The Applications of Plastic Magnets

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。并将答案写在答题卡指定的位置。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Most drinks stating that they are fruit-flavored (水果味道的) contain no fruit at all, while most of the rest contain only a small quantity of fruit, according to a study carried by the British Food Commission.

“Shoppers need to check the labels (标签) before buying drinks, though sometimes the actual content can be non-existent,” said Food Commission spokesperson Ian Tokelove. “Food production is highly competitive.  1. It will increase profits, and consumers won’t always realize they are being tricked.”

Flavorings(调味品，调料) are focused on the flavors of natural food products such as fruits, meats and vegetables, or creating flavor for food products that do not have the desired flavors. Researchers analyzed the contents of 28 strawberry-flavored products sold in stores.  2. Of the 11 products that did contain strawberries, five of them contained less than one percent real fruit. In addition, each juice box contained nearly eight teaspoons of sugar.

3. Let’s take jam as an example. Some strawberry-flavored jam was labeled as containing no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners, but it contained absolutely no strawberries at all.

4.  Consumers have the rights to know clearly about what they have bought. Under current UK law, food packages do not have to distinguish between natural and artificial flavoring. “Describing a product as strawberry flavor and covering the surface of the packet with pictures of strawberries is misleading.  5.Unfortunately, it is also legal and widespread,” Tokelove said. “It’s time to take measures to protect the consumers’ rights.”

E. Even products advertised as more natural often contained no fruit.

F. Actually the product contains just a tiny percentage of strawberry or even no fruit at all.

G. If companies can cut their costs by using flavoring, they are likely to do so.

In a six-week study, experts found people who played online games designed to improve their cognitive(认知的) skills didn't get any smarter.

More than 8,600 people aged 18 to 60 were asked to play online brain games designed by the researchers to improve their memory, reasoning and other skills for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week. They were compared to more than 2,700 people who didn't play any brain games, but spent a similar amount of time surfing the Internet and answering general knowledge questions. All participants were given a sort of I.Q test before and after the experiment.

Researchers said the people who did the brain training didn't do any better on the test after six weeks than people who had simply been on the Internet. On some sections of the test, the people who surfed the Net scored higher than those playing the games.

"If you're (playing these games) because they're fun, that's absolutely fine," said Adrian Owen, the study's lead author. "But if you're expecting (these games) to improve your I.Q., our data suggests this isn't the case," he said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

One maker of brain games said the company's games have been proven to boost brain power.

"Their conclusion would be like saying, 'I cannot run a mile in under 4 minutes and therefore it is impossible to do so," Aldrich said in a statement.

"There is precious little evidence to suggest the skills used in these games transfer to the real world," said Art Kramer, who was not linked to the study and has no ties to any companies that make brain training games.

Instead of playing brain games, Kramer said people would be better off getting some exercise. He said physical activity can spark(激发) new connections between nerves and produce new brain cells. "Fitness changes the building blocks of the brain's structure," he said.

1.. It can be inferred that the online brain games mentioned in the text are_____________.

A. costly     B. unreliable      C. illegal    D. effective

2.. Which of the following statements is true about the experiment in the second paragraph?

   A. The experiment lasted for a week.

B. Age didn’t affect the result of the research.

C. Every person played online brain games three times a day.

D. People who didn’t play online brain games did better in I.Q test

3.. What can we learn from the text?

   A. Playing games which are fun can improve your I.Q.

B. There is a lot of evidence to suggest skills can transfer to the real world.

   C. Do physical activity can boost your brain power.

D. Playing online games can spark new brain cells

4.The underlined sentence suggests that ___________.

   A. The research was not linked to the study  

B. Those playing the games can score higher in the test

C. playing the games can spark new connections between nerves

D. This isn’t the case that these games can improve your I.Q.