A man once said how useless it was to put advertisements in the newspapers, “Last week,” said he, “my umbrella was stolen from a London church. As it was a present, I spent twice its worth in advertising, but didn't get it back.”

“How did you write your advertisement?” asked one of the listeners, a merchant.

“Here it is,” said the man, taking out of his pocket a slip cut from a newspaper. The man took it and read, “Lost from the City Church last Sunday evening, a black silk umbrella. The gentleman who finds it will receive ten shillings on leaving it at No. 10 Broad Street.”

“Now,” said the merchant, “I often advertise, and find that it pays me well. But the way in which an advertisement is expressed is often very importance. Let us try for your umbrella again. and if it fails, I'll buy you a new one.”

The merchant then took a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote: “If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the City Church last Sunday evening doesn't wish to get into trouble, he will return the umbrella to No. 10 Broad Street. He is well known.”

This appeared in the paper, and on the following morning, the man was astonished when he opened the front door. In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colors that had been thrown in, and his own was among the number. Many of them had notes fastened to them saying that they had been taken by mistake and begging the loser not to say anything about the matter.

The result of the first advertisement was that ______.

　　A. the man got his umbrella back

　  B. the man wasted some money advertising

　　C. nobody found the missing umbrella

　　D. the umbrella was found somewhere near the Church

“If it fails, I’ll buy you a new one .” suggested that____.

　　A. he was quite sure of success

　　B. he was not sure whether he would get the umbrella hack

　　C. he was rich enough to afford a new umbrella

D. he did not know what to do 

This is a story about _____.

　　A. a useless advertisement

　　B. how to make an effective(有效) advertisement

　　C. how the man lost and found his umbrella

D. what the merchant did for the umbrella owner

　There is a story of a country where the rate of inflation（通货膨胀率）is so high that clever people pay for a taxi ride before the trip instead of after. This story may or may not be true. But inflation was almost that serious in Germany from July 1920 until December 1923. Prices went up so fast that by the end of 1923 they were 50 billion percent higher－a rise of almost 25000 / 40 a month.

　　There was so much paper money, and it had so little value, that people carried bags full of money around to pay for things. One woman told the story of standing outside a shop with a basket full of 500 000 mark notes（马克）. She wanted to buy just one piece of meat, and she hoped she had enough money. But when she was looking, a thief robbed（抢夺） her. He didn't take her money, though, he threw it away and took the basket in stead.

　　At first workers demanded to be paid every day. But as the situation be came worse, they had to be paid twice a day. But they had to run out and spend the money at once, or it would lose its value. People bought anything that was for sale, but food was almost impossible to find. Farm workers re fused to take money. They wanted to be paid in potatoes instead.

　　New policies（政策）ended the inflation in 1923, when the government introduced a new money. But about half of the German people lost every thing in those three and a half years.

　　1．People paid for a taxi ride before the trip because they________

　　　　A. did not want to carry so much money with them

　　　　B. had so much paper money that they wanted to spend them quickly

　　　　C. wanted to save money

　　　　D. were afraid of the taxi driver

　　2．According to the passage, in Germany the prices in 1920 were ________.

　　　　A. higher than those in 1923

　　　　B. lower than those in 1923

　　　　C. the highest in history

　　　　D. the lowest in history

　　3．The thief stole the basket instead of the money in it because he thought _________

　　　　A. he couldn't buy a piece of meat with the money

　　　　B. the basket was more valuable than the money

　　　　C. the basket was what he needed most

　　　　D. the money was of no value

　　4．The farm workers demanded to be paid in potatoes because they be lieved that _______

　　　　A. the money could not buy potatoes

　　　　B. the money might lose its value

　　　　C. the potato was too expensive

　　　　D. the potato was valuable

People with bigger brains ftend to score higher on standardized tests of intelligence， according to new study findings.

However， the study author Dr Michael A.McDaniel of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond emphasized that these findings represent a general trend， and people with small heads should not automatically believe they are less intelligent. For instance， Albert Einstein’s brain was “not particularly large”， McDaniel noted. “There’s some relationship between brain size and intelligence on the average， but there’s plenty of room for exceptions，” he said.

Interest in the relationship between brain size and intelligence grew in the1830s，  when German anatomist(解剖学家) Frederich Tiedmann wrote that he believed there was “an unquestionable connection between the size of the brain and the mental energy displayed by the individual man”. Since that statement， scientists have conducted numerous studies to determine if Tiedmann’s  assertion was， in fact， correct. Most studies have looked into the link between head size and intelligence. More recently， however， researchers have published additional studies on brain size and intelligence， measured using MRI scan(核磁共振成像扫描).

For his study， McDaniel analyzed more than 20 studies that looked into the relationship between brain size and intelligence in a total of 1,530 people. The studies showed that on the average， people with larger brain volume tended to be more intelligent. The relationship between brain volume and intelligence was stronger in women than men， and in adults than in children. McDaniel notes in the journal Intelligence.

McDaniel is not sure why the relationship was stronger for adults and women. “Other research has shown that women， on the average， tend to have smaller brains than men， but score just as well—if not higher—in tests of intelligence，” he said.

McDaniel insisted that the relationship between brain size and intelligence is not a “perfect” one. “One can certainly find lots of examples of smaller-sized people who are highly intelligent，” he said， “But， on the average， the relationship holds.”

. What does the text mainly talk about？

A.MRI scans are applied to intelligence.

B. On the average， a bigger brain means higher IQ.

C. Dr McDaniel did well in his intelligence study.

D. Scientists are interested in Tiedmann’s idea.

By mentioning Albert Einstein， the writer wants to show　　　　.

A. Albert Einstein was intelligent

B. the result of intelligence test was false

C. being hard working is more important than intelligence

D. brain size doesn’t necessarily decide the level of intelligence

The underlined word “assertion” in Para. 3 probably means “　　　　”.

A. experiment   B. statement   C proof       D. demand

After Frederich Tiedmann wrote his article， 　　　　.

A. many scientists agreed with him

B. numerous studies have failed to prove his idea

C.MRI scan became popularly used

D. lots of researchers were interested in the connections between head size and intelligence

According to the text， Dr McDaniel’s study　　　　.

A. proves Tiedmann’s idea was completely true

B. shows women are smarter than men

C. involves many studies and a lot of people

D. explains why people with smaller brains are clever

　More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving（旺盛的）. As Skolnich notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline（衰退）in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce（离婚）rate needs to be taken in this pro- marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vast majority of the people in our society.

　　What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty- five years ago, the typical American family consisted of the husband, the wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children, and there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses （配偶）．

　　Thus, one can find every type of tamely arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriages; marriages with “full - time” children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with“full- time”children from the present marriage and“ part- time”children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half- brothers and half - sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.

　By calling Americans a marrying people the writer means that ________.

　　A. Americans are more traditional than Europeans

　　B. Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans

　　C. there are more married couples in the USA than in Europe

　　D. more of Americans, as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age

Divorced Americans ________ .

　　A. prefer the way they live

　　B. will most likely remarry

　　C. have lost interest in marriage

　　D. are the majority of people in the society

Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families？

　　A. Which types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable.

　　B. A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife.

　　C. Americans prefer to have more kids than before.

　　D. There are no nuclear families any more.