Part One: Cloze test.
Complete the blanks with the words or phrases in our textbook.
The City of the Future
What will the city of the future look like? No one knows     1    , and making predictions is a risky business. But one thing is certain --- they are going to get bigger before they get smaller. In the future, care for the environment will become very important     2     earth’s natural resources   3   . We will use lots of recycled materials, such as plastic, aluminium, steel, glass, wood and paper, and we will waste fewer natural resources. We will also have to   4   more
  5   alternative energy, such as solar and wind power. All this seems certain, but there are plenty of things about city life in the future which are not certain.
To find out what young people think about the future of urban life, a teacher at a university in Texas in the United States asked his students to think how they would run a city of 50,000 people in the year 2025. Here are some of the ideas they had:
Garbage ships  To   6   garbage problems, the city will   7   huge spaceships with waste materials and send them towards the sun, preventing landfill and environmental problems.
Batman Nets  Police will arrest criminals by firing nets instead of guns.
Forget smoking  No smoking will be allowed within a future city’s limits. Smoking will be possible only outside cities, and outdoors.
Forget the malls  In the future all shopping will be done online, and catalogues will have voice commands to place orders.
Telephones for life  Everyone will be given a telephone number at birth    8   will never change   9   where they live.
Recreation  All forms of recreation, such as cinemas, bowling, softball, concerts and others will be provided   10  by the city.
Cars  All cars will   11  by electricity, solar energy or wind, and it will be possible to change the colour of cars at the flick of a switch.
Telesurgery  Distance surgery will become common as doctors carry out operations from thousands of miles away, with each city having its own telesurgery outpatient clinic.
Holidays at home  Senior citizens and people with disabilities will be able to go anywhere in the world using high-tech cameras    12   their head.
Space travel  Travelling in space by ordinary citizens will be common. Each city will have its own spaceport.

Like many of my generation, I have a weakness for hero worship. At some point, however, we all begin to question our heroes and our need for them. This leads us to ask: What is a hero?
Despite immense differences in cultures, heroes around the world generally share a number of characteristics that instruct and inspire people.
A hero does something worth talking about. A hero has a story of adventure to tell and community who will listen. But a hero goes beyond mere fame.
Heroes serve powers or principles larger than themselves. Like high-voltage transformers, heroes take the energy of higher powers and step it down so that it can be used by ordinary people.
The hero lives a life worthy of imitation. Those who imitate a genuine hero experience life with new depth, enthusiasm, and meaning. A sure test for would-be heroes is what or whom do they serve? What are they willing to live and die for? If the answer or evidence suggests they serve only their own fame, they may be famous persons but not heroes. Madonna and Michael Jackson are famous, but who would claim that their fans find life more abundant?
Heroes are catalysts (催化剂) for change. They have a vision from the mountaintop. They have the skill and the charm to move the masses. They create new possibilities. Without Gandhi, India might still be part of the British Empire. Without Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., we might still have segregated (隔离的) buses, restaurants, and parks. It may be possible for large-scale change to occur without leaders with magnetic personalities, but the pace of change would be slow, the vision uncertain, and the committee meetings endless.
【小题1】Although heroes may come from different cultures, they __________.

Celebrity endorsements

Despite the fact that companies believe celebrities had a lot of pull with regard to the buying trends of consumers,researches have discovered that this does not seem to be the case．British and Swiss researchers conducted a study showing that advertisements made by celebrities like David Beckham and Scarlett Johansson are not as effective as those by ordinary people．

In a sample of 298 students,researchers presented a magazine advertisement for a digital camera that was endorsed by a fictional student claiming the camera was“hot”and his “preferred choice”．The same advertisement was shown to other students，but with a difference：The camera was endorsed by a famous person in Germany．

While the students said that both advertisements were beneficial,the one made by the student topped the celebrity one if students aimed to impress others with their purchases.More than half of the students，who admitted purchasing products that would impress others，said they were influenced by the student’s advertisement．Only 20％ said the celebrity one would affect their buying decision．

Professor Brett Martin，of the University of Bath’s School of Management，explained that the findings could be used not only in Germany,but in other countries as well．“Our research questions whether celebrities are the best ways to sell products，”said Prof Martin．“Celebrities can be effective but we found that many people were more convinced by an endorsement from a fictional fellow students．This is because many people feel a need to keep up with the Jones when they buy．”

46．Some companies think the celebrities endorsement ____________．

A．is popular with the consumers

B．can pull all the consumers into the shops

C．can affect the consumers’ purchasing

D．is as effective as an endorsement from common people

47．Which of the following ads would be more effective to common consumers, according to the experiment?

A．An ad featuring lovely pandas．            B．An ad made by David Beckham．

C．An ad made by fictional common people．D．An ad with beautiful natural scenery．

48．The underlined words“the Jones”in the last paragragh refer to“____________ ”．

A．someone called Jones                                 B．common people

C．the Jones family                                        D．celebrities

49．We can imply from the passage that ____________．

A．celebrities cheat consumers in advertisement

B．the researchers here are against celebrity endorsement

C．the student’s ads are mole reliable than those made by celebrities

D．company needn’t spend so much money on celebrity endorsement

50．We can probably read the article in____________ ．

A．a local newspaper                         B．a science report

C．an academic journal                     D．a textbook

Celebrity endorsements

Despite the fact that companies believe celebrities had a lot of pull with regard to the buying trends of consumers, researchers have discovered that this does not seem to be the case. British and Swiss researchers carried out a study showing that advertisements made by celebrities like David Beckham and Scarlett Johansson are not as effective as those by ordinary people.

In a sample of 298 students, researchers presented a magazine advertisement for a digital camera that was endorsed (为…做广告宣传) by a fictional student claiming the camera was “hot” and his “preferred choice”. The same advertisement was shown to other students, but with a difference: The camera was endorsed by a famous person in Germany.

While the students said that both advertisements were beneficial, the one made by the student topped the celebrity one if students aimed to impress others with their purchases (购买). More than half of the students, who admitted purchasing products that would impress others, said they were influenced by the student’s advertisement. Only 20％ said the celebrity one would affect their buying decision.

Professor Brett Martin of the University of Bath’s School of Management, explained that the findings could be used not only in Germany, but in other countries as well. “ Our research questions whether celebrities are the best ways to sell products,” said Prof Martin.“Celebrities can be effective but we found that many people were more convinced by an endorsement from a fictional fellow student. This is because many people feel a need to keep up with the Jones when they buy.”

1.Some companies think the celebrities endorsement          ．

A．is popular with the consumers

B．can pull all the consumers into the shops

C．can affect the consumers’ purchasing

D．is as effective as an endorsement from common people

2.Which of the following ads would be more effective to common consumers, according to

the experiment?

An ad featuring lovely pandas.

An ad made by David Beckham.

An ad made by fictional common people.

An ad with beautiful natural scenery.

3.The underlined words “the Jones” in the last paragragh refer to“     ”．

A．someone called Jones                    B．common people

C．the Jones family                         D．celebrities

4.We can infer from the passage that       ．

A．celebrities cheat consumers in advertisement

B．the researchers here are against celebrity endorsement

C．the student’s ads are more reliable than those made by celebrities

D．companies needn’t spend so much money on celebrity endorsement

5.We can probably read the article in       ．

A．a local newspaper                       B．a science report

C．an academic journal                     D．a textbook

阅读下列回函:

Reply letter A

Thank you for your valuable suggestions. We have decided to show the Chinese character along with the Hanyu Pinyin for names of Chinese personages, places and specific things as from the next issue.

Reply letter B

Thank you for your suggestions. Next year will be the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. One of our staff reporters has just returned from Xinjiang and written a long article about her trip. Next year, we will have even more coverage of Xinjiang.

Reply letter C

Other readers have asked us for similar information and we have so far answered them individually. In this issue, we will print an open reply. We discovered after making a survey that there are few books to be found on China printed in English. Most are published by the Foreign Languages Press and China International press, from where it is possible to buy books directly.

Reply letter D

A majority of Chinese tourists travel abroad in order to see different landscapes and various cultures, to appreciate an exotic atmosphere and to get to know local customs. Some Chinese tourists nevertheless go to China towns, because they can eat Chinese food there. For those who don’t know English or the native language of the country they visit, it is convenient to go shopping or find entertainment in a Chinatown.

Reply letter E

We have taken on your suggestions to start a column on personalities. There are kinds of reports, such as movie stars, directors, businessmen, singers and so on. Our reports not only introduce their achievements, but also report their inner world. We hope you will enjoy it.

Reply letter F

Thanks for your appreciation of our magazine. We have mailed your letter and your e-mail address to Tingting. Since both of her two letters were sent by ordinary mail and did not give her e-mail address or telephone number. We could not get in touch with her any other way.

阅读下列信函,然后匹配相关信息:

Letter A

I have just started reading your magazine regularly and enjoy the articles very much. I have one comment to make. Can you include the Chinese characters for the names of people, places, etc that you mention with the Hanyu Pinyin of Romanized phonetic system that you use? For example, what is “Emei” or “Qitaihe”or “Shaoxing” in Chinese? It’s also helpful for those of us who are learning Chinese.

Letter B.

It was interesting to read the magazine. I wonder if you could start a column which introduces the Chinese elites of art, business, sports, politics, especially directors, actors, anchors(主持人)and singers. I believe readers will also appreciate a livelier style.

Letter C

I am a civil servant in Xinjiang, a region relatively underdeveloped in comparison with other provinces. But this does not mean it belong to another world. Xinjiang could benefit from overseas exchanges as well as contact with people living in other regions. Could you include articles about Xinjiang and its people? I suggest magazines report more about the western regions, especially exotic and charming Xinjiang.

Letter D

I am an avid(热衷的)reader of your magazine and it has helped me to introduce China to foreign friends. Thank you for great efforts to bring New China to the world. Next month, I may get the opportunity to go to Nigeria, so I must learn more about China’s history and culture. Could you kindly recommend a suitable book in English?

Letter E

It was interesting to read “Chinese Travelers Step out”. It seems a large percentage of Chinese tourists visit the West. In Indonesia, Chinese New Year is an official holiday. How would you assess the level of interest Chinese tourists have in Indonesia? Would they like to visit Chinatowns or other unique attractions in Indonesia?

信函                                          回函

LetterA                                   A. Reply letter A

LetterB                                   B. Reply letter B

LetterC                                   C. reply letter C

LetterD                                   D. Reply letter D

LetterE                                   E. Reply letter E