It is not rare in ____ that people in ____fifties are going to university for further education.

  A. 90s, the        B. the 90s, /      

  C. 90s, their       D. the 90s, their

Among rich countries, people in the United States work the longest hours. They work much longer than in Europe. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States as it is in France, Spain and Germany, and it is growing at a similar speed.

In most countries and at most times in history, as people have become richer they have chosen to work less. In other words they have decided to “spend” a part of their extra income on a fuller personal life. Over the last fifty years Europeans have continued this pattern, and hours of work have fallen sharply. But not in the United States. We do not fully know why this is. One reason may be greatly lower taxes in America, which increase the rewards (回报) to work. Another may be more satisfying work, or less satisfying personal lives.

Longer hours do of course increase the GDP (国内生产总值). So the United States has produced more per worker than, say, France. The United Sates also has more of its people at work, while in France many more mothers and older workers have decided to stay at home. The overall result is that American GDP per head is 40% higher than in France, even though productivity per hour worked is the same.

It is not clear which of the two situations is better. As we have seen, work has to be compared with other values like family life, which often get lost in its interest. It is too early to explain the

different trends (趋势) in happiness over time in different countries. But it is a disappointing idea that in the United States happiness has made no progress since 1975, while it has risen in Europe. Could this have anything to do with trends in the work-life balance (平衡)?

56．From the text we know that the author ___________.

       A．believes that longer working hours is better

       B．prefers shorter working hours to longer ones

       C．says nothing certain about which pattern is better

       D．thinks neither of the patterns is good

57．Which of the following countries has more of its people at work?

       A．Spain.                                             B．France.

       C．Germany.                                        D．America.

58．In the last paragraph, the underlined word “which” refers to __________.

       A．family life                                        B．situations

       C．other values                                     D．trends

59．What message can we get from the text?

       A．The GDP of Europe is higher than that of America.

       B．Two possible reasons are given for working longer hours in the US.

       C．People all over the world choose to work less when they are richer.

       D．Americans are happier than Europeans.

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

       A．Americans and Europeans.                B．Staying at Home.

       C．Work and Productivity.                     D．Work and Happiness.

Because of the stress and strains of modern life folks today would rather watch television than get together with neighbors. Their behavior doesn't mirror TV soaps like Coronation Street and East Enders.?

The Street's Ashley Peacock and Toyah Battersby know all their neighbors. But the Royal Mail survey shows that real-life under?35s wouldn't dream of popping next door for a chat or to borrow a cup of sugar.?

Three out of ten say they wouldn't know their neighbors if they saw them in the street. The same proportion would only offer to help neighbors if absolutely necessary, while thirty-one? ?percent? don't want to get to know them better. Twenty-six percent rarely or never speak to the person next door. Thirty-five percent only talk to neighbors occasionally, and six percent actively dislike them. The older generation are still sociable, with seventy percent of over?55s ?taking? time to chat to people next door. The report says: “In the past, the British tradition of village green gossip（闲聊）between neighbors was celebrated worldwide. But there's been a clear shift away from local links by the young generation.” Londoners are least likely to be neighbors, with a third rarely or never chatting over the garden fence. People in the Midlands—where 65 percent often speak to their neighbors are most friendly.?

Sociologist Jane Blakeman said: “People are working longer hours than ever before, and are traveling further to work. It leaves them far less time at home.”?

Almost a third of young people_______.?

A. know their neighbours quite well?

B. have no idea who lives next door to them ?

C. talk to their neighbours when they want to borrow something?

D. spend time chatting with neighbours like their parents?

It can be inferred that Ashley Peacock and Toyah Battersby are both_______.?

A. important roles in a popular TV series

B. famous stars in TV programmes?

C. old soap operas

D. members of royal family?

Gossip among neighbours is still common among_______.?

A. people under 35       B. people between 35 and 55?

C. people over 55     D. people of different ages?

Most mornings, the line begins to form at dawn: scores of silent women with babies on their backs, buckets balanced on their heads, and in each hand a bright-blue plastic jug. On good days, they will wait less than an hour before a water tanker goes across the dirt path that serves as a road in Kesum Purbahari, a slum on the southern edge of New Delhi. On bad days, when there is no electricity for the pumps, the tankers don’t come at all. “That water kills people,” a young mother named Shoba said one recent Saturday morning, pointing to a row of pails filled with thick, caramel (焦糖)-colored liquid. “Whoever drinks it will die.” The water was from a pipe shared by thousands of people in the poor neibourhood. Women often use it to wash clothes and bathe their children, but no­body is desperate enough to drink it.

There is no standard for how much water a person needs each day, but ex­perts usually put the minimum at fifty li­tres. The government of India promises (but rarely provides) forty. Most people drink two or three litres—less than it takes to wash a toilet. The rest is typically used for cooking and bathing. Americans consume between four hundred and six hundred litres of water each day, more than any other people on earth. Most Europeans use less than half that. The women of Kesum Purbahari each hoped to drag away a hundred litres that day—two or three buckets’ worth. Shoba has a husband and five children, and that much water doesn’t go far in a family of seven, particularly when the temperature reaches a hundred and ten degrees before noon. She often makes up the difference with bottled water, which costs more than water delivered any other way. Sometimes she just buys milk; it’s cheaper. Like the poorest people every­where, the people of New Delhi’s slums spend a far greater percentage of their incomes on water than anyone lucky enough to live in a house connected to a system of pipes.

46. The underlined word “slum” most likely means ______.

   A. a village      

B. a small town

C. an area of a town with badly-built, over-crowded buildings

   D. the part of a town that lacks water badly

47. Sometimes the water tanker doesn’t come because ______.

   A. the weather is bad

   B. there is no electricity

   C. there is no water

   D. people don’t want the dirty water

48. A person needs at least ________ litres of water a day.

   A. a hundred          B. four hundred         C. forty          D. fifty

49. Which of the following statements is wrong?

   A. a hundred litres of water a day is enough for Shoba’s family

   B. Americans uses the largest amount of water each day

   C. in Kesum Purbahari milk is cheaper than bottled water

   D. Shoba has a family of seven people

50. The passage mainly tells us ______.

   A. how women in Kesum Purbahari gets their water

   B. how much water a day a person deeds

   C. that India lacks water badly

   D. how India government manages to solve the problem of water

I once had my Chinese MBA students brainstorming on “two-hour business plans”. I separated them into six groups and gave them an example: a restaurant chain. The more original their idea, the better, I said. Finally, five of the six groups presented plans for restaurant chains. The sixth proposed a catering(餐饮) service. Though I admitted the time limit had been difficult, I expressed my disappointment.

My students were middle managers, financial analysts and financiers from state-owned enterprises and global companies. They were not without talent or opinions, but they had been shaped by an educational system that rarely stressed or rewarded critical thinking or inventiveness. The scene I just described came in different forms during my two years’ teaching at the school. Papers were often copied from the Web and the Harvard Business Review. Case study debates were written up and just memorized. Students frequently said that copying is a superior business strategy, better than inventing and creating.

In China, every product you can imagine has been made and sold. But so few well-developed marketing and management minds have been raised that it will be a long time before most people in the world can name a Chinese brand.

With this problem in mind, partnerships with institutions like Yale and MIT have been established. And then there’s the “thousand-talent scheme”: this new government program is intended to improve technological modernization by attracting top foreign-trained scientists to the mainland with big money. But there are worries about China’s research environment. It's hardly known for producing independent thinking and openness, and even big salary offers may not be attractive enough to overcome this.

At last, for China, becoming a major world creator is not just about setting up partnerships with top Western universities. Nor is it about gathering a group of well-educated people and telling them to think creatively. It’s about establishing a rich learning environment for young minds. It’s not that simple.

Why does the author feel disappointed at his students?

A．Because there is one group presenting a catering service.

B．Because the six groups made projects for restaurant chains.

C．Because all the students copied a case for the difficult topic.

D．Because the students’ ideas were lacking in creativeness.

Which of the following scenes is NOT considered as lack of creation?

A．Papers were often downloaded from the Internet.

B．Students often said that copying is a preferable business strategy.

C．Students combine knowledge and critical thoughts to solve a problem.

D．Case study debates were written up as well as recited.

The underlined word “scheme” in the forth paragraph means__________.

A．timetable                B．theme                     C．project                    D．policy

We can infer from the passage that ___________.

A．China can make and sell any product all over the world

B．high pay may not solve the problem of China’s research environment

C．cooperation with institutions has been set up to make a Chinese brand

D．the new government program are aimed at encouraging imagination

Which is the best title of the passage?

A．Look for a New Way of Learning                 B．Reward Creative Thinking

C．How to Become a Creator                            D．Establish a technical Environment