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If U．S．software companies don't pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye．Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class software industry．Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the top U．S．quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country．
Already, of the world's 12 software houses that have earned the highest rating in the world, seven are in India．That's largely because they have used new methods rejected by American software specialists．For example, for decades, quality specialists, W．Edwards Deming and J．M．Juran had urged U．S．software companies to change their attitudes to quality．But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the U．S -- but not in Japan．By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was grabbing market share with better, cheaper products．They used Deming's and Juran's ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs．In U．S．factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%．In software, it still is．
Watts S．Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance．But his advice was seldom paid attention to．He retired from IBM in 1986．In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing(evaluating) and improving software quality．It has proved its value time and again．For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60% of total software production costs．It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10%．
Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home．The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India．Let's hope that U．S．lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems．
72．What country has more highest-rating companies in the world than any other country has?
A．India．                 B．The US．            C．Brazil．                 D．Germany．
73．Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?
A．He is now still an IBM employer．B．He has worked for IBM for 37 years．   
C．India honors him highly．
D．The US pays much attention to his quality advice．
74．By what means did Japan grab its large market share by the 1970s and the 1980s?    
A．Its advertising was most successful．
B．Its products were cheaper in price and better in quality．
C．The US hardware industry was lagging behind
D．Japan hired a lot of Indian software specialists．
75． What is the writer worrying about?
A．Many US software specialists are working for Japan．
B．The quality problem has become a worldwide problem．   
C．India and Japan are joining hands to compete with the US．
D．The US will no longer be the first software player in the world

What a sunny weather today! Let's hope it_______ for Saturday's tennis match.

 A. keep up           B. stay up         C. go up        D. hold up

The British aren’t having as many children as they used to. One reason is that people are having children much older than before, meaning they have fewer years in which they can have them. After years at university, they need a few years of work experience before they can get the job they want. They might then get married, but it’s incredibly expensive to buy a house in the UK.
The above explains why young British people now don’t move out of their parents’ home until they are around 30 years old on average. It is not until they are 30 that they can afford their own home. Increasingly, it is not until that age that they can afford to get married and start a new life in a new home. It’s only after this age that many young people start thinking about having a child.
So a British person manages to get a job, get a home and get married. Why isn’t he or she then having at least two children on average? The main reason is that it is quite expensive to bring up a child in the UK. Why is it expensive? Well, these days, both parents need to work just to pay for their home and living expenses. Because both parents are at work, that means they then need to pay someone to look after their child during the day. Paying for this childcare is nearly always expensive.
The recent financial crisis is making things even harder for families, since unemployment is rising and even fewer people can afford to have children. With so much pressure on families, is it any surprise that the divorce rate is so high?
So what is Britain doing to try and save the British family? The government is trying to make it cheaper to have children. For example, there have been increases in money families can claim from the state each month. Also, there are increasing government subsidies for nursery schools, so that parents do not need to pay so much for child care.
The government is also trying to reduce the number of hours British parents have to work to earn enough money to pay their bills. If parents didn’t have to work so many hours, they’d have more time to spend with their children and wouldn’t need to spend so much on childcare. On average, a Briton works 49 hours a week, which is the most in Europe. The state is now considering introducing laws to encourage companies to improve their employees’ work-life balance. Let’s hope they’re not too late to save the British family. Otherwise, the British will always be too tired, and won’t have enough time and money, to have children.
【小题1】Young British people live in their parents’ home until around 30 because         .

At times we all get angry when we are driving. It might be because we are stuck in a traffic jam or stuck behind a very slow driver. It might be because we think another driver has done something very stupid and dangerous. Whatever the reason, it seems that getting angry in a car is something which happens more and more often and there is now a special term for it “road rage”. Some experts even think that road rage is a kind of mental illness! How can we recognize this “illness” of road rage?

There are two kinds of road rage: aggressive driving and aggressive reactions to the way other people are driving. Aggressive driving can take different forms:

●Driving much faster than the speed limit.

●Increasing your speed very quickly.

●Driving very close behind the car in front and sounding the horn or flashing the headlights.

●Changing lanes very suddenly and blocking another car.

●Moving into a parking space where another car is trying to park.

There are also different reactions to the way other people are driving. These include:

●Making rude signs at people.

●Shouting at people and threatening them.

●Deliberately driving into another person’s car.

●Hitting somebody.

●Using a weapon such as a baseball bat, or even a gun or a knife.

Road rage is certainly not a joke. There have been incidents of road rage which have led to serious injuries and even murder.

Experts think that one reason for road rage is that films show a lot of examples of fast and aggressive driving such as car chases where this kind of driving seems to be positive.

Experts also think that the punishments for dangerous driving are not serious enough.

Experience shows that driving problems can be controlled, but it takes a long time. In the UK in the last 30 years, the police have been quite successful in reducing the number of people who drink and drive. They are now working to stop people using mobile phones when they are driving. Let’s hope they can have the same success with the road rage.

1.Which of the following statements does NOT describe aggressive     driving?

2.Road rage happens possibly because______.

3.What’s the tone（语气）of the last paragraph?

There are only 1 2 shopping days until Christmas，and the British public is going present-shopping crazy．But some parents might have left it too late to buy the present their child really wants for Christmas．

    Every year there  seems to  be a  certain  craze  which  sweeps  across  Britain，whether through clever marketing or peer(对等的)pressure，so that practically every child in the country wants the same thing for Christmas．

    Of course，with thousands of parents trying to make their child’s Christmas , it’s quite easy for the most popular presents to get sold out before everyone can buy one．This leads to  parents going to extraordinary lengths to find the desired gift．

In past years,the most favoured toys have included Tracy Island，from the‘Thunder—birds’TV series，and Buzz Lightyear，from the“Toy Story”film．This year’s must—have present is the Nintendo Wii，an indication that British children are becoming more and more techologically savvy(悟性)

Other presents which are expected to top Christmas wish-lists this year are several toys related to TV Programmes，such as popular science—fiction series“Doctor Who，”and pre—school sensation “In the Night Garden”，as well as the main character from the transformcrs’movie.

    As parents esperately search shops and online retailers(零售商)for the gifts their children want，some people are cashing in．Those who predicted the trends bought some of the top  presents earlier in the year，and can now sell them for great profits on online auction websites.

    Special stock-check websites have been set up to alert(警报) parents as soon as a certain  item becomes available anywhere．But with so many people signed up it’11 still   be a race  against time to buy  the toys before they sell out again．  

    Some children will inevitably be disappointed on Cnnstmas mormng，  but let’s hope that the chocolates，Christmas dinner and the many other presents will make up for it.

71．What makes every child want the same thing for Christmas?

  A．their same interest    B．their parents’same interest

  C．the reasonable prices  D．clever marketing or peer pressure

 72．Which of the following statements is not true?

  A．Those who predicted the trends got great proiits．

  B．Some children won’t get Christmas presents on Christmas morning .

  C．It’s not easy for the most popular presents to get sold out.

  D．Many people won’t be able to buy their children presents because they leave it too late   to buy the presents and there are so many people to buy them．

73．Last year the most popular presents included

  A．Buzz Lightyear   B．Nintendo Wii

  C．Doctor Who       D．Night Graden

74．“Dcotor Who”is a__________.

  A．toy             B．fiction film

  C．TV programme    D．main character

7 5．The passage mainly talks about______.

     A．kinds of presents children like most

B．presents parents will buy for their children

C．parents buying presents for their children for Christmas

D．how to celebrate Christmas with children