Online shoppers would rather receive an offer for a product or service than make their own offer ₃ according to a study led by a Michigan State University scholar that has implications for the fast-growing e-commerce industry. The findings may come as a surprise given that shopping online is an anonymous(匿名的）process that seemingly can give consumers more confidence to drive a hard bargain_,said Don Conlon ，Professor of Management in MSU’s Broad College of Business.

But the study found that participants who made their own offers were less successful in sealing the deal and ，when they were successful_? worried they overpaid Many shoppers found the process of researching an offer to be a hassle. “ Americans are very busy，and it’s less time-consuming to be the one receiving the offer rather than the one proposing the offer  ” Conlon said. ^u People tend to be happier when they’re in the receiver role. ”

Online spending in the United States is expected to jump 45 percent in the next four years， from $ 226 billion this year to $ 327 billion in 2017，according to Forrester Research Inc. Nevertheless, researches into this prosperous market remain largely focused on the strategies of companies, rather than those o£ shoppers. Conlon^’s study is ，obviously, a rare exception.

Conlon got the idea for the study after considering the difference between two popular sites for hotels and airline flights, priceline.com, which takes bids, and hotwire.com ，which provides offers. Using these two models ，Conlon and his fellow researchers conducted a series of experiments with more than 850 people who were charged with booking a fictional hotel room and acquiring a fictional antique car. Not only did participants prefer to receive bids, Conlon said ，but they also secured more deals in that receiver role. Further ，when they had to make the bids ，they were left more mentally taxed and regretful.

From an industry perspective，putting customers in the receiver role may help fill more hotel rooms and airplane seats. “If you’re a business with a lot of products₃ ” Conlon said，“you may want to be the one making the offers. ” However, when selling single items, such as an antique car， accepting bids may be a better option since that typically drives up the price, he said.

1.What can we learn from Para. 1?

A．The result of the study gives customers more confidence.

B．Scholars aren’t surprised at the findings of the study.

C．Online shoppers don’t bargain as much as expected.

D．E-commerce industry drives more hard bargains.

2.It can be concluded from Conlon’s experiments that______.

A．online shopping is time-consuming

B．given prices help promote online sales

C．online businesses provide a lot of products

D．receiving offers makes online shoppers regretful

3.The underlined word “taxed” in Para. 4 probably means______.

A．burdened         B．numbed           C．relieved          D．challenged

4.The passage is mainly about______.

A．the big advantages of online shopping

B．the rapid development of online shopping

C．online shoppers’ preference for taking offers

D．online companies strategies to improve service

【小题1】I had a very happy day today because we had no school though it is Tuesday today. I played football with my friends on the playground in our school. Then we had a big dinner with a lot of our friends.
【小题2】Today was a special day. After the bell rang for the lesson, we all sat up straight, waiting for our maths teacher. Today in former years we would place something on the top of the door so that when someone entered, it would fall onto that person. But this year, we put nothing on the top of the door. But as our maths teacher was entering, we all shouted “Take care”. The teacher got a surprise and raised his head but saw nothing. We all laughed and said “April fool”.
【小题3】Early this morning I got up and woke up my sister Jane. Together we went from door to door to call on my friends. It was a day for us to play. We gathered on the square of the town with our New Year’s gift. We exchanged our gifts and played all kinds of games on the square. How happy we were!
【小题4】This evening we had a Halloween party in the open. We were all dressed in witch’s outfit and wore masks. We sang and danced happily. We couldn’t figure out who was who though we were all such close friends or neighbors.
【小题5】Today I gave a kiss to the girl I love most in front of all my classmates. I didn’t say anything before. But today I was brave enough to kiss her on the face with my classmates and my history teacher near at hand.

1.I had a very happy day today because we had no school though it is Tuesday today. I played football with my friends on the playground in our school. Then we had a big dinner with a lot of our friends.

2.Today was a special day. After the bell rang for the lesson, we all sat up straight, waiting for our maths teacher. Today in former years we would place something on the top of the door so that when someone entered, it would fall onto that person. But this year, we put nothing on the top of the door. But as our maths teacher was entering, we all shouted “Take care”. The teacher got a surprise and raised his head but saw nothing. We all laughed and said “April fool”.

3.Early this morning I got up and woke up my sister Jane. Together we went from door to door to call on my friends. It was a day for us to play. We gathered on the square of the town with our New Year’s gift. We exchanged our gifts and played all kinds of games on the square. How happy we were!

4.This evening we had a Halloween party in the open. We were all dressed in witch’s outfit and wore masks. We sang and danced happily. We couldn’t figure out who was who though we were all such close friends or neighbors.

5.Today I gave a kiss to the girl I love most in front of all my classmates. I didn’t say anything before. But today I was brave enough to kiss her on the face with my classmates and my history teacher near at hand.

A．Near Year’s Day

It falls on the first day of the year. The year should begin happily, they say, so that it will end happily. And on the first morning of the New Year, children in Scotland, Wales and the English border countries rise early so that they may make the round of their friends and neighbors. “On January 1^st,” writes a 13-year-old Scottish girl, “I always go New Year’s Gifting with my sister and friends, about four of us. I get up about 7 o’clock and call for my friends and go round the houses and farms.”

B．Shrove Tuesday

For centuries Shrove Tuesday has been a day of high festival for apprentices (学徒) and schoolchildren. It has been a day of feasting, and cock fighting, a day for football , and rowdiness (吵闹). And it is pleasing to find that it is still a special day for children in some parts of England, where “Pancake Day (薄煎饼日),” as they call it, is kept as a school holiday.

C．Kissing Friday

A teacher writing to the Yorkshire Post tells how after Ash Wednesday, comes Kissing Friday. A few days ago, when she arrived at a country school and was taking a mixed class of 13-year-old children in country dancing, she saw the leading boy suddenly lean across and kiss his partner, who showed no sign of embarrassment. When, as teacher, she expressed her surprise, the boy said, “It’s all right, Miss. You see, it’s Kissing Friday”. And he explained that on Friday following Shrove Tuesday any boy had the right to kiss any girl without being resisted.

D．April Fool’s Day

The first day of April ranks amongst the most joyous days in the juvenile (青少年) calendar. It is a day when you hoax (愚弄) friends of yours with jokes like sending them to the shop for some pigeon’s milk, or telling them to dig a hole because the dog has died; when they come back and ask where the dead dog is, you say “April fool” and laugh at them.

E. May Day

On the first of May, in country districts, young maidens (少女) rise early and go out into the dawn, as they have done for centuries, to wash their faces in the May dew (露水). In Somerset children call this “kissing the dew”. In most places, the girls do so to ensure that they shall have a beautiful complexion (肤色) for the rest of the year.

F. Halloween

It falls on October 31. Many children attend Halloween parties. “The best thing about the party is that you should go in fancy dress, ” says a girl. The most popular dress is a Witch’s outfit, or something to do with lucky charms. It is said that one of the luckiest things at a Halloween party is for a person to come in with a lump (块) of coal.

Online shoppers would rather receive an offer for a product or service than make their own offer ₃ according to a study led by a Michigan State University scholar that has implications for the fast-growing e-commerce industry. The findings may come as a surprise given that shopping online is an anonymous(匿名的）process that seemingly can give consumers more confidence to drive a hard bargain_,said Don Conlon ，Professor of Management in MSU’s Broad College of Business.
But the study found that participants who made their own offers were less successful in sealing the deal and ，when they were successful_? worried they overpaid Many shoppers found the process of researching an offer to be a hassle. “ Americans are very busy，and it’s less time-consuming to be the one receiving the offer rather than the one proposing the offer  ” Conlon said. ^u People tend to be happier when they’re in the receiver role. ”
Online spending in the United States is expected to jump 45 percent in the next four years， from $ 226 billion this year to $ 327 billion in 2017，according to Forrester Research Inc. Nevertheless, researches into this prosperous market remain largely focused on the strategies of companies, rather than those o£ shoppers. Conlon^’s study is ，obviously, a rare exception.
Conlon got the idea for the study after considering the difference between two popular sites for hotels and airline flights, priceline.com, which takes bids, and hotwire.com ，which provides offers. Using these two models ，Conlon and his fellow researchers conducted a series of experiments with more than 850 people who were charged with booking a fictional hotel room and acquiring a fictional antique car. Not only did participants prefer to receive bids, Conlon said ，but they also secured more deals in that receiver role. Further ，when they had to make the bids ，they were left more mentally taxed and regretful.
From an industry perspective，putting customers in the receiver role may help fill more hotel rooms and airplane seats. “If you’re a business with a lot of products₃ ” Conlon said，“you may want to be the one making the offers. ” However, when selling single items, such as an antique car， accepting bids may be a better option since that typically drives up the price, he said.
【小题1】What can we learn from Para. 1?

I was a single parent of four small children, working at a low-paid job. Money was always tight, but we had a   1     over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs, and if not a lot, always   2    . Not knowing we were poor, my kids(孩子们) just thought I was   3   . I’ve always been glad about that.

It was Christmas time, and although there weren’t   4    for a lot o gifts, we planned to celebrate with a family party. But the big   5   for the kids was the fun of Christmas   6   .

They planned weeks ahead of time, asking   7      what they wanted for Christmas. Fortunately, I had saved ＄120 for    8      to share by all five of us.

The big    9      arrived. I gave each kid a twenty-dollar bill and     10     them to look for gifts of about four dollars each. Then everyone scattered（散开）. We had two hours to shop; then we would    11     back at the “Santa’s Workshop”.

Driving home, everyone was in high Christmas spirits,   12       my younger daughter, Ginger, who was unusually   13      . She had only one small, flat bag with a few candies —fifty-cent candies! I was so angry, but I didn’t say anything   14       we got home. I called her into my bedroom and closed the door,   15       to be angry again. This is what she told me:

“I was looking    16     thinking of what to buy, and I   17      to read the little cards on the ‘Giving Trees.’ One was for a little girl, four years old, and all she   18    for Christmas was a doll (玩具娃娃). So I took the card off the tree and     19     the doll for her. We have so much and she doesn’t have anything.”

I never felt so    20      as I did that day.

1. A. roof                   B. hat                 C. sky                  D. star

2. A. little                  B. less                C. enough             D. more

3. A. busy                 B. serious           C. strict              D. kind

4. A. effort                B. room              C. time               D. money

5. A. improvement       B. problem          C. surprise           D. excitement

6. A. shopping                  B. traveling           C. parties              D. greetings

7. A. the other           B. each other        C. one by one       D. every other one

8. A. toys                         B. clothes                  C. presents                 D. bills

9. A. day                   B. chance           C. cheque            D. tree

10. A. forced                   B. reminded   C. invited              D. begged

11. A. draw               B. stay        C. move               D. meet

12. A. including            B. besides      C. except             D. regarding

13. A. quiet                B. excited      C. happy              D. ashamed

14. A. since              B. after                C. while              D. until

15. A. waiting              B. ready       C. hoping              D. afraid

16. A. out                 B. over        C. forward         D. around

17. A. forgot              B. stopped     C. failed                D. hated

18. A. wanted           B. did          C. got                  D. played

19. A. made               B. searched  C. bought            D. fetched

20. A. angry              B. rich           C. patient              D. bitter