Over three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll (民意调查) has found. Overcrowding and long queues in shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle (烦扰) of Christmas shopping becomes too much.
The number of people turning their backs on the high street is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to the poll by YouGov. Last Christmas 2.4 million shoppers did not do any of their shopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4 million, equal to around 7 percent of the adult population.
Over a third of people said that the main turn-off about shopping on the high street is 0ver-crow-ding. Meanwhile almost a quarter said that long queues at the cheek-out are the worst thing about it.
Of the 2.065 people pored, even those who are stir taking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas. Around 31 percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high street will spend less than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using the rest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percent of people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of their shopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year to 39 percent this year. Just 2 percent of people said that they are looking forward to dealing wi.th store staff this festival season.
Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at Casio Business Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, said that despite the fall in people visiting the high street,humans are "social creatures" who actually like spending time together.
"Although the high street is facing a big challenge Christmas, retailers (零售商) should see this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience, rather than the nail in the coffin. We are social creatures, and the desire to spend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to go away," said Mr. Boxall.
【小题1】According to the poll, in this year's Christmas       

Over three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll (民意调查) has found. Overcrowding and long queues in shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle (烦扰) of Christmas shopping becomes too much.

The number of people turning their backs on the high street is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to the poll by YouGov. Last Christmas 2.4 million shoppers did not do any of their shopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4 million, equal to around 7 percent of the adult population.

Over a third of people said that the main turn-off about shopping on the high street is 0ver-crow-ding. Meanwhile almost a quarter said that long queues at the cheek-out are the worst thing about it.

Of the 2.065 people pored, even those who are stir taking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas. Around 31 percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high street will spend less than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using the rest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percent of people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of their shopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year to 39 percent this year. Just 2 percent of people said that they are looking forward to dealing wi.th store staff this festival season.

Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at Casio Business Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, said that despite the fall in people visiting the high street,humans are "social creatures" who actually like spending time together.

"Although the high street is facing a big challenge Christmas, retailers (零售商) should see this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience, rather than the nail in the coffin. We are social creatures, and the desire to spend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to go away," said Mr. Boxall.

1.According to the poll, in this year's Christmas       

A．about 7 % of the population will do both online and actual shopping

B．about 31% of shoppers will do half of their shopping in actual shops

C．about 39% of shoppers will do more than half of their shopping in actual shops

D．over three million shoppers will quit actual shopping just because of the long queues

2.What's the meaning of "turn-off" in Para.5?

A．Something that makes people lose heart

B．Something that makes people lose face

C．Something that makes people lose interest

D．Something that makes people lose courage

3.It can be inferred from Mr. Boxall's words that                                                                                                   

A．retailers should reduce their in-store goods.

B．retailers wiR be pessimistic about the result of this research.

C．retailers should focus on the advantage of in-store shopping.

D．retailers will make more profits this Christmas than last Christmas

4.Wheat's the writer's attitude towards Christmas online shopping?

A．Concerned.        B．Doubtful.          C．Approving.        D．Objective.

Over three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll (民意调查) has found. Overcrowding and long queues in shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle (烦扰) of Christmas shopping becomes too much.
The number of people turning their backs on the high street is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to the poll by YouGov. Last Christmas 2.4 million shoppers did not do any of their shopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4 million, equal to around 7 percent of the adult population.
Over a third of people said that the main turn-off about shopping on the high street is 0ver-crow-ding. Meanwhile almost a quarter said that long queues at the cheek-out are the worst thing about it.
Of the 2.065 people pored, even those who are stir taking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas. Around 31 percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high street will spend less than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using the rest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percent of people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of their shopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year to 39 percent this year. Just 2 percent of people said that they are looking forward to dealing wi.th store staff this festival season.
Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at Casio Business Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, said that despite the fall in people visiting the high street,humans are "social creatures" who actually like spending time together.
"Although the high street is facing a big challenge Christmas, retailers (零售商) should see this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience, rather than the nail in the coffin. We are social creatures, and the desire to spend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to go away," said Mr. Boxall

1. 1.

   According to the poll, in this year's Christmas ______.
   

   1. A.
      about 7 % of the population will do both online and actual shopping
   2. B.
      about 31% of shoppers will do half of their shopping in actual shops
   3. C.
      about 39% of shoppers will do more than half of their shopping in actual shops
   4. D.
      over three million shoppers will quit actual shopping just because of the long queues
2. 2.

   What's the meaning of "turn-off" in Para.5?

   1. A.
      Something that makes people lose heart
   2. B.
      Something that makes people lose face
   3. C.
      Something that makes people lose interest
   4. D.
      Something that makes people lose courage
3. 3.

   It can be inferred from Mr. Boxall's words that ______.
   

   1. A.
      retailers should reduce their in-store goods
   2. B.
      retailers wiR be pessimistic about the result of this research
   3. C.
      retailers should focus on the advantage of in-store shopping
   4. D.
      retailers will make more profits this Christmas than last Christmas
4. 4.

   Wheat's the writer's attitude towards Christmas online shopping?

   1. A.
      Concerned
   2. B.
      Doubtful
   3. C.
      Approving
   4. D.
      Objective

It has always been said that women are not good drivers, because they simply don't have very good driving ability. On the other hand, most car accidents happen to men; very few happen to women.
From this, we can see that women are much more careful while driving. Another very interesting fact that we should point out is that in the past, women preferred to let their husbands be the only driver in the family rather than have a driving license. Somehow they were prevented from making this step in their lives, but nowadays there are many women that want to pass their driving tests from an early age.
However, we have to admit that men are more skillful drivers than women, but this does not mean that a woman cannot become a good driver by accumulating (积累) experience. So more and more teenagers and women around the age of thirty now want to pass their driving tests. While taking their driving lessons, they also have a number of special lessons with their parents or somebody in the family that has a driving license, this is just to improve their driving abilities and help them to pass the tests more easily.
To conclude, we can say that women are not such bad drivers. They just need more experience than men in order to be able to drive well. And on the other hand, there are a number of women that show better driving skills than the men around them.
67. Compared with the past, nowadays many women___.
A. prefer to have a driving license
B. have more accidents while driving
C. are somehow prevented from driving
D. are the only driver in the family
68.  What advantage do women have over men in driving?
A. They have more skills.
B. They are much more careful
C. They know more traffic rules
D. They have more driving experience
69.  What can we infer from the passage?
A. Teenage girls cannot take driving tests.
B. Men didn't allow women to drive in the past.
C. With enough experience, women can become good drivers.
D. Women can easily pass their tests by taking driving lessons.
70.  The passage mainly talks about___.
A. women and their driving ability.
B. men and their driving ability.
C. why men are better drivers than women.
D. why more women like to have a driving license

All over the world, libraries have begun the Herculean task of making faithful digital copies of the books, images and recordings that preserve the intellectual effort of humankind.  For armchair scholars, the work promises to bring such a wealth of information to the desktop that the present Internet may seem amateurish in retrospect. …
Librarians see three clear benefits to going digital.  First, it helps them preserve rare and fragile objects without denying access to those who wish to study them.  The British Library, for example, holds the only medieval manuscript of Beowulf in London.  Only qualified scholars were allowed to see it until Kevin S. Kiernan of the University of Kentucky scanned the manuscript with three different light sources (revealing detail not normally apparent to the naked eye) and put the images up on the Internet for anyone to peruse (阅览).  Tokyo’s National Diet Library is similarly creating highly detailed digital photographs of 1,236 woodblock prints, scrolls and other materials it considers national treasures so that researchers can scrutinize them without handling the originals.
A second benefit is convenience.  Once books are converted to digital form, patrons can retrieve them in seconds rather than minutes.  Several people can simultaneously read the same book or view the same picture.  Clerks are spared the chore of reshelving.  And libraries could conceivably use the Internet to land their virtual collections to those who are unable to visit in person.
The third advantage of electronic copies is that they occupy millimeters of space on a magnetic disk rather than meters on a shelf.  Expanding library buildings is increasingly costly.  The University of California at Berkeley recently spent $46 million on an underground addition to house 1.5 million books – an average cost of $30 per volume.  The price of disk storage, in contrast, has fallen to about $2 per 300-page publication and continues to drop.
【小题1】The best title for this passage would be __________.