For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the street or loading a cart in a shopping mall．Soon, that will change．Electronic commerce （trade） is growing fast and will soon bring people more choices．There will, however, be a cost: protecting the consumer from being cheated will be harder．Many governments therefore want to apply street regulations to the electronic world．But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation．
Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything for the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs or their rights to refund when goods are faulty．But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence is on the screen．Even in a country where a clear right to compensation exists, the on-line customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to get a refund for a clothes purchase．
One answer is for government to cooperate more: to recognize each other’s  rules．But that requires years of work and volumes of detailed rules．And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober countries to accept．There is, however, another choice．Let the electronic businesses do the regulation themselves．They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so．
In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset．Governments, too, may compete to be trusted．For instance, customers ordering medicines on-line may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that the FDA’s rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead．
Customers will still need to use their judgment．But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than customers of the normal sort．And the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain when a company lets them down．In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more．

1. 1.

   According to the author, what will be the best policy for electronic commerce?

   1. A.
      Self-regulation by the business．
   2. B.
      Strict consumer protection laws．
   3. C.
      Close international cooperation．
   4. D.
      Government protection．
2. 2.

   In case an electronic shopper bought faulty goods from a foreign country, what could he do?

   1. A.
      Refuse to pay for the purchase．
   2. B.
      Go to the seller and ask for a refund．
   3. C.
      Appeal to consumer protection law．
   4. D.
      Complain about it on the Internet．
3. 3.

   In the author’s view, businesses would place a high emphasis on honest dealing because in the electronic world ______.

   1. A.
      international cooperation would be much more frequent
   2. B.
      consumers could easily seek government protection
   3. C.
      a good reputation is a great advantage in competition
   4. D.
      it would be easy for consumers to complain
4. 4.

   We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is ______.

   1. A.
      very quick
   2. B.
      very cautious
   3. C.
      very slow
   4. D.
      rather careless
5. 5.

   If a customer buys something that does not meet his expectation, what is the advantage of dealing through electronic commerce over the present normal one?

   1. A.
      It will be easier for him to return the goods he is not satisfied with．
   2. B.
      It will be easier for him to attain the refund from the seller．
   3. C.
      It will be easier for him to get his complaints heard by other consumers．
   4. D.
      It will be easier for him to complain about this to the government．

For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the street or loading a cart in a shopping mall. Soon, that will change. Electronic commerce（trade）is growing fast and will soon bring people more choices. There will, however, be a cost: protecting the consumer from being cheated will be harder. Many governments therefore want to apply street regulations to the electronic world. But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation.

Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything for the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs or their rights to refund when goods are faulty. But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence is on the screen. Even in a country where a clear right to compensation exists, the on-line customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to get a refund for a clothes purchase.

One answer is for government to cooperate more: to recognize each other’s rules. But that requires years of work and volumes of detailed rules. And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober countries to accept. There is, however, another choice. Let the electronic businesses do the regulation themselves. They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so.

In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset. Governments, too, may compete to be trusted. For instance, customers ordering medicines on-line may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that the FDA’s rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead.

Customers will still need to use their judgment. But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than customers of the normal sort. And the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain when a company lets them down. In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more.

46. According to the author, what will be the best policy for electronic commerce?

A. Self-regulation by the business.

B. Strict consumer protection laws.

C. Close international cooperation.

D. Government protection.

47. In case an electronic shopper bought faulty goods from a foreign country, what could he do?

A. Refuse to pay for the purchase.             B. Go to the seller and ask for a refund.

C. Appeal to consumer protection law.  D. Complain about it on the Internet.

48. In the author’s view, businesses would place a high emphasis on honest dealing because in the electronic world ________.

A. international cooperation would be much more frequent

B. consumers could easily seek government protection

C. a good reputation is a great advantage in competition

D. it would be easy for consumers to complain

49. We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is ________.

A. very quick            B. very cautious         C. very slow             D. rather careless

50. If a customer buys something that does not meet his expectation, what is the advantage of dealing through electronic commerce over the present normal one?

A. It will be easier for him to return the goods he is not satisfied with.

B. It will be easier for him to attain the refund from the seller.

C. It will be easier for him to get his complaints heard by other consumers.

D. It will be easier for him to complain about this to the government.

When milk arrived on the doorstep
When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr. Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.
Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note----“Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery”----and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically appear.
All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.
There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practical to have a delivery service.
Recently, I saw an old milk box in the countryside. I took it home and planted it on the back porch （门廊）. Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.
【小题1】Mr. Basille gave the boy a quarter out of his coin changer____.

A small town in Tasmania, an island off the south coast of mainland Australia, is making itself an environmental role model by becoming the country's first plastic bag-free town.

Since April 28, Coles Bay's population of 175 and its tourist shoppers have been using reusable paper or cloth bags to carry their shopping.

Ben Keamey, a local businessman who supports the bag ban, said it would cut  the amount of waste and prevent damage to native wildlife that try to eat the plastic.

"Most businesses here come from the tourism and that's all based on the environment, so people were pretty supportive," he said.

Every year Australians use more than six billion plastic bags. More than half of these come from the supermarket. Since it takes years for the bags to biodegrade（生物递减分解）, tens of millions end up polluting the environment. They kill about 100,000 sea-birds and animals, which mistake bags for food, every year.

Only in the past few months have major Australian supermarkets begun cutting on their use of plastic bags. Environmental groups are pushing for a plastic bag fee like that in Ireland. There, since plastic bags cost 10 pence (about 1 yuan) each, their use has been cut by 90 per cent.

Pollution caused by plastic bags is a big headache for countries all over the world. As early as 1999, Beijing said that only plastic bags of certain thickness could be used. This was to encourage them to be used again and again, since an average of six million plastic bags are used there every there every single day.

1.Which might be the best title for this passage?

A．Deadly Plastic Bags                      B．The End of Plastic Bags

C．How to Reuse Plastic Bags                 D．The Present Situation of Plastic Bags

2.Plastic bags will not be used by the native people of Coles Bay because they ______.

A．cause the environmental pollution          B．are not easy to be reused

C．are not as good as cloth bags               D．are not strong enough

3.Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．Plastic bags kill many animals in Australia each year.

B．Most Australian supermarkets have begun cutting on their use of plastic bags.

C．People at Coles Bay think poor environment may affect their tourism.

D．You have to pay for the plastic bags if you go shopping in Ireland.

4.The example of Coles Bay is to show that ______.

A．people take serious actions to deal with the plastic bag problem

B．people begin to realise the harm of using plastic bags

C．Australia is the first country in solving the plastic bag problem

D．Australians are aware of the importance of protecting the small town

5.Which of the following measures on plastic bags is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．To forbid to use them by law.

B．to charge fee for plastic bags.

C．To make them thick enough to be reuseable.

D．To make them environmentally friendly.

阅读理解: 阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

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 convinced 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. “It probably took me 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 the 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 palce.

B. It lowered the prices to promote sales.

C. It made no profits due to poor management

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

5. What contribute most to their success according to the author?

A. Learning by trial and error.

B. Making friends with suppliers.

C. Finding a good partner.

D. Opening chain stores.