Dear Aunty,

I work at a supermarket, and another girl and I share tasks we must finish before leaving. But she takes half an hour to do something I can do in ten minutes. She always has a story to tell me and stops working when she does. My boss is angry at both of us, but It’s not my fault. I don’t want to rat on her, but what else can I do?

Flustered

Dear Flustered,

Let me propose a better way. Make a log of all the tasks you share, then suggest to your boss that for efficiency your duties could be divided into two separate checklists. If he’s reluctant, go to plan B: the next time this girl starts telling you a story, stop working to listen and call your boss over to hear what a great storyteller she is. I’m sure he’ll take it from here.

Aunty

Dear Aunty,

I’m a college student in the Philippines who wants to be wise with money. I’m not an economics or business major student and I don’t know anything about stocks. But I really want to buy assets and invest. I receive about 15,000 pesos（比索）every school term from my education plan. I don’t have any idea how I should spend it. I don’t want to just buy new clothes, or hang out with my friends because it would not be wise. I want my money to grow. Please enlighten me.

Fastbreakplay

Dear Fastbreakplay,

Being wise with money is the No. 1 thing to learn. Start with a disciplined and systematic savings plan. When your savings reach a sizeable amount, then you may start investing. In the meantime, invest in yourself by reading up on stock markets and capital markets. Follow the news. Before I started investing during my senior high school years, I had already studied stock market data of the past century as I believe markets tend to repeat themselves. If you master this skill, you will master your reading of the markets.

Aunty

1.When Flustered’s boss isn’t willing to separate their work, Flustered can _____.

A．follow the second advice                 B．invite the boss to listen to the girl

C．stop working or do other things             D．report to the boss on time

2.Fastbreakplay writes a letter to Aunty in order to _____.

A．buy some pesos                        B．become an expert on stocks

C．get ways to grow money                  D．study economics as his major

3.In Aunty’s opinion, one should _____ at the beginning to be wise with money.

A．start investing                          B．have a saving plan

C．study stock markets                      D．master market reading

4.From letters above, we know Aunty should be ________.

A．an elder kind woman                    B．a lady in the community

C．a famous singer                         D．a name of a columnist

Bonus（奖金） culture has become the subject of many studies nowadays. Many people have been angered by the way some bankers and high officials seem to have been rewarded for failure. Others find the idea of offering many-million-dollar bonuses morally disgusting.

But few have asked whether performance-related bonuses really do improve performance. The answer seems so obvious that even to ask the question can appear ridiculous. Indeed, in spite of all the complaints about them, financial encouragements continue to be introduced in more and more areas, from healthcare and public services to teaching and universities.

So it may come as a shock to many to learn that paying for results can actually make people perform badly in many circumstances, and that the more you pay, the worse they perform.

No one is arguing that bonuses can help companies and institutions attract and keep the best staff. Nor does anyone argue against the idea that you can encourage people to do specific tasks by linking payments to those tasks. Rather, the point is about how to get the best out of people. Do employees really perform better if you promise to pay them more for getting results?

There are some obvious reasons why such payments can fail. It has been argued, for instance, that cash bonuses contributed to the financial crash, because traders had little enthusiasm to make sure that their companies enjoyed long-term survival.

Most bonus projects are poorly designed, says Professor Malcolm Higgs. He thinks the reason is that organizations try to keep bonus arrangements simple. Nevertheless, he thinks bonus projects can work as long as they link the interests of individual employees with the long-term goals of a business.

Bonuses can also encourage cheating. “Once you start making people’s rewards dependent on outcomes rather than behaviors, the evidence is people will do whatever they can to get those outcomes,” says Professor Edward Deci. “In many cases the high officials simply lied and cheated to make the stock (股票) price go up so they got huge bonuses.”

But the work of Deci and others suggests the problem with bonuses runs far deeper than poor design or cheating. In 1971, he asked students to solve puzzles, with some receiving cash prizes for doing well and others getting nothing. Deci found those offered cash were less likely to keep working on puzzles after they had done enough to get paid.

These studies suggest that offering rewards can stop people doing things for the pure joy of it. This was the basis for a series of books by Kohn in which he argues that rewarding children, students and workers with grades, scholarships and other “bribes” (贿赂) leads to low-quality work in the long run.

Those who believe in the power of bonuses fail to distinguish between inner drive and outside pressure — wanting to do something because you like it for itself in contrast to doing something because you want the reward, Kohn says. “It’s not just that these two are different, it’s often that the more you reward people for doing something, the more their inner drive tends to decline.”

A “do this and get that” approach might improve performance in the short term, but over longer periods it will always fail, Kohn says. People who receive bonus will naturally play safe, become less creative, cooperate less and feel less valued, he adds. What’s more, the studies also suggest that offering rewards can also stop people taking responsibility.

71. The effect of performance-related bonuses has not been well studied because people _______.

A. take the function of bonuses for granted

B. see that bonus offering is done everywhere

C. think financial encouragement is disgusting

D. are shocked by the practice of rewarding for failures

72. According to Malcolm Higgs, designs that _________ are the good ones.

A. drive people to finish short-term tasks

B. help to attract and keep good employees

C. link financial rewards with the quality of the outcomes

D. connect individual interests with long-term business goals

73. If a person plays safe to get a bonus, he is probably being ________.

A. more enthusiastic                   B. more risk-taking

C. less daring                              D. less responsible

74. Which of the following do you think the author would most probably agree with?

A. Companies should make their bonus projects simple.

B. The benefit of bonus helps to get the best out of people.

C. The biggest problem with bonus is it creates cheating.

D. Bonus offering can stop people doing things for pure joy.

75. Which do you think is the best title of the passage?

A. What Is Bonus?                           B. Does Bonus Work?

C. Why Bonus Offered?                   D. How Bonus Works?

Dear Dad,

I was very upset when I received your letter. I knew you  36  not like my results, but I didn’t realize you and Mum were so  37  with me. This has made me  38  very carefully about myself, and now I  39  how silly I have been.

My poor  40  have come from my own  41 . Of course, I want to do my best. I want you and Mum to be proud  42  me, but somehow when I get to school I just can’t keep my   43  on the subject and I stop  44  the teacher. So many other things seem so much more  45 , but I know that I must not  46  the chance you and Mum have given me. If I don’t work very hard  47  the next few months, I am going to get  48  results. So I am going to study hard this summer. And I will show Mum anything  49  I can’t understand so that she can give me help.

I  50  you will allow me to play some basketball. I think I need some exercise,   51 _ I will control the time I   52  on it properly.

If you want me to stop meeting Cindy, I will — but there is  53  serious. We are just good friends, and she often helps me  54  my schoolwork.

Dad, I am really sorry I have made you angry. I’m going to try my best to  55  my study. I promise that I will make you proud of me soon.

    Yours,

    Jimmy

A. will                      B. would        C. need                  D. should

A. angry                    B. upset         C. strict                   D. happy

A. talk                      B. speak          C. think                  D. hear

A. receive                   B. believe         C. insist                  D. realize

A. results                   B. memories     C. parents                 D. friends

A. stubbornness           B. carelessness     C. laziness                D. illness

A. of                   B. with           C. in                    D. for

A. head                      B. mind           C. eyes                 D. heart

A. listening to                B. to listen to      C. hearing              D. to hear

A. boring                  B. dull            C. beautiful            D. interesting

A. find                    B. share           C. waste                D. afford

A. during                  B. at             C. through             D. until

A. better                   B. best          C. poorer              D. poorest

A. which                   B. that          C. whom               D. what

A. wish                    B. advise        C. hope                D. decide

A. and                     B. but            C. so                 D. because

A. spend                   B. take           C. cost                D. pay

A. everything               B. something     C. anything             D. nothing

A. in                      B. on            C. with               D. by

A. develop                 B. improve              C. interest              D. finish

Dear Dad,

I was very upset when I received your letter. I knew you  36  not like my results, but I didn’t realize you and Mum were so  37  with me. This has made me  38  very carefully about myself, and now I  39  how silly I have been.

My poor  40  have come from my own  41 . Of course, I want to do my best. I want you and Mum to be proud  42  me, but somehow when I get to school I just can’t keep my   43  on the subject and I stop  44  the teacher. So many other things seem so much more  45 , but I know that I must not  46  the chance you and Mum have given me. If I don’t work very hard  47  the next few months, I am going to get  48  results. So I am going to study hard this summer. And I will show Mum anything  49  I can’t understand so that she can give me help.

I  50  you will allow me to play some basketball. I think I need some exercise,   51 _ I will control the time I   52  on it properly.

If you want me to stop meeting Cindy, I will — but there is  53  serious. We are just good friends, and she often helps me  54  my schoolwork.

Dad, I am really sorry I have made you angry. I’m going to try my best to  55  my study. I promise that I will make you proud of me soon.

    Yours,

    Jimmy

1.A. will                      B. would        C. need                  D. should

2.A. angry                    B. upset         C. strict                   D. happy

3.A. talk                     B. speak          C. think                  D. hear

4.A. receive                   B. believe         C. insist                  D. realize

5.A. results                   B. memories     C. parents                 D. friends

6.A. stubbornness           B. carelessness     C. laziness                D. illness

7.A. of                   B. with           C. in                     D. for

8.A. head                      B. mind           C. eyes                 D. heart

9.A. listening to                B. to listen to      C. hearing              D. to hear

10.A. boring                  B. dull            C. beautiful            D. interesting

11.A. find                    B. share           C. waste                D. afford

12.A. during                  B. at             C. through             D. until

13.A. better                   B. best          C. poorer              D. poorest

14.A. which                   B. that          C. whom               D. what

15.A. wish                    B. advise        C. hope                D. decide

16.A. and                     B. but            C. so                 D. because

17.A. spend                  B. take           C. cost                D. pay

18.A. everything              B. something     C. anything             D. nothing

19.A. in                     B. on            C. with               D. by

20.A. develop                 B. improve              C. interest              D. finish