It seems that every week someone becomes “the first” or “the youngest” or even “the first married couple” to do something that doesn’t seem to be very useful to the rest of us.
Why do they do it? Don’t they have better things to do with their time and money? And why should I be interested anyway? Human beings have already climbed the highest mountains, sailed across the oceans and flown around the world. Many of these things were done a long, long time ago. There just isn’t anything left to explore nowadays. I suppose there’s still a lot of the universe left, and the bottom of the ocean is still a bit of a mystery, but you need a lot of technology to explore areas like that. So, those people who feel the need for adventure can only do things that have been done before.
In May of this year a British man became the first person to walk alone from Canada to the North Pole. Personally, if I wanted to visit the Arctic, I’d rather go as a tourist on a cruise ship, with a helicopter trip to the North Pole included in the price. But OK, this man decided that he wanted to walk. The problem was that he went in the spring when the ice begins to melt and break up. So he got stuck on a longely piece of ice and a plane had to be sent in to rescue him.
These sorts of rescues are making many Australians angry with these record breakers. People trying to break sailing or rowing records get into trouble in the seas. So the Australian navy has to send ships to save them and this costs the government millions of dollars. I suppose we can’t just leave them to drown but we should give the bill to the people who are rescued.
【小题1】According to the author, the so-called record breakers          .

It was the summer of 1965. DeLuca, then 17, visited Peter Buck, a family friend. Buck asked DeLuca about his plans for the future. “I’m going to college, but I need a way to pay for it,” DeLuca recalls saying. “Buck said, ‘You should open a sandwich shop.’ ”

That afternoon, they agreed to be partners, and they set a goal: to open 32 stores in ten years. After doing some research, Buck wrote a check for $1000. DeLuca rented a storefront(店面) in Connecticut, and when they couldn’t cover their start-up costs, Buck kicked in another $1000.

But business didn’t go smoothly as they expected. DeLuca says, “After six months, we were doing poorly, but we didn’t know how badly, because we didn’t have any financial controls.” All he and Buck knew was that their sales were lower than their costs.

DeLuca was managing the store and going to the University of Bridgeport at the same time. Buck was working at his day job as a nuclear physicist in New York. They’d meet Monday evenings and brainstorm ideas for keeping the business running. “We persuaded ourselves to open a second store. We figured we could tell the public, ‘We are so successful; we are opening a second store.’ ” And they did—in the spring of 1966. Still, it was a lot of learning by trial and error.

But the partners’ learn-as-you-go approach turned out to be their greatest strength. Every Friday, DeLuca would drive around and hand-deliver the checks to pay their suppliers(供应商). “It probably took my two and a half hours and it wasn’t necessary, but as a result, the suppliers got to know me very well, and the personal relationships established really helped out.” DeLuca says.

And having a goal was also important, “There are so many problems that can get you down. You just have to keep working toward your goal,” DeLuca adds.

DeLuca ended up founding Subway Sandwich, the multimillion-dollar restaurant chain.

1.DeLuca opened the first sandwich shop in order to__________.

A．support his family

B．pay for his college education

C．help his partner expand business

D．do some research

2.Which of the following is true of Buck? 

A．He put money into the sandwich business.

B．He was a professor of business administration.

C．He was studying at University of Bridgeport.

D．He rented a storefront for DeLuca.

3.What can we learn about their first shop?

A．It stood at an unfavorable place.

B．It lowered the price to promote the sales.

C．It made no profits.

D．It lacked control over the quality of sandwiches.

4.They decided to open a second store because they_______. 

A．had enough money to do it

B．had succeeded in their business

C．wished to meet the increasing demand of customers

D．wanted to make believe that they were successful

完成句子（每空限填一个词）（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

1.每当我处于困境时，我的朋友们总是毫不犹豫地来帮助我。

Whenever I am in trouble, my friends always come to help me ______ ______.

2.他进来时，所有人的视线都集中在他身上，使得他很尴尬。

All eyes were _______ _______ him when he came in, which made him embarrassed.

3.我们必须降低成本，这样才能将我们产品的价格下调。

We must ____ ____ on the cost so that the price of our product can be brought down.

4.他看报纸很投入,没有注意到有什么人进入教室.

He was so absorbed ______ a newspaper ______he didn’t notice anyone enter the classroom.

5.有时候在与人相处时，我们需要有人指点。

Sometimes we need help to ______ ______ with others.

6.因为她不信守诺言，我们从此情断义绝。

We weren’t going to be friends any more because she couldn’t ______ her ______.

7.他的零钱已经用光了。

His pocket money has been ______ ______.

8.与1800年相比，世界人口已经增长了六倍。

The world’s population has grown by six times what______ ______ in 1800.

9.这所学校每年招收200名学生。

200 students ______ ______ to the school every year.

10.除非必要，你最好不要查字典。

_______ _______, you’d better not refer to the dictionary.

Shopping is not as simple as you may think! There are all sorts of tricks each time we reach out for that particular brand（品牌）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（包装） are often blue and expensive goods, like chocolates, are gold or silver.
When some kind of pain-killer （止痛药） 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 percent 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 year has used pretty little girls to promote（促销）their goods, came to the conclusion: “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius（天才） to sell it.”
【小题1】. Which of the following may trick a shopper into buying a product according to the text? 

At the age of seven, I went to see my grandma in Warwick and spent the summer with her. One day I went to a general store with a   34 full of what Grandma needed.
“Excuse me, I need to   35  these,” I said .
“So ? I’m not your   36 ! You should get yourself a basket and start filling,” Miss Bee, the owner of the store, said   37  without smiling. “If you’re   38  you’ll be home by sunset.” Sunset was five hours away.   39 , the store was a puzzle, and I wasn’t sure if I would make it.
I visited Miss Bee several times a week that   40 . One afternoon when I watched her adding 35 cents instead of 29 for a can of beans, I   41  her immediately. Though being caught overcharging , she didn’t seem   42 , and she just fixed the price.
All summer long I was always tricked by Miss Bee. No sooner had I memorized the soda’s location on the shelf than she rearranged the shelves and made me  43 it all over again. But by summer’s end the   44 trip that had once taken me an hour was done in 15 minutes.
The morning I was to return to Brooklyn, I stepped in to get a bottle of water.
“What did you   45  this summer?” she said.
“That you’re so mean!” I whispered.
To my   46 , Miss Bee laughed. “When you get older, you’ll be glad our paths crossed!”
Glad I met Miss Bee ? No!
Until one day my daughter came to me with homework  47 . “It’s too hard,” she said. “Could you finish it for me?”
“If I do it for you, how will you ever learn to do it yourself?” Suddenly, I was   48  at that general store where Miss Bee had really taught me something all those years ago.