Dozens of Chicago teenagers on Monday told a small group of elected officials about their need for summer jobs to save for college, pay for food and, in some cases, avoid homelessness．
This summer, Illinois is facing the loss of 18,000 jobs for teenagers．The loss comes as teen unemployment in the state has reached a record-high rate of 27.5 percent．
Experts say that the slow recovery and the high unemployment rate have forced older workers to take positions for younger workers．
Jim Zeckhauser, the manager of a Chicago social service agency for troubled teens, said he used to be able to place dozens of teens in jobs before the financial crisis．This year, he has been able to place only about seven of the 34 teenagers he guides in summer jobs．“It's a struggle to find firms,” he said．
Brent Weiss, owner of Uncle Dan's, an outdoor-gear retailer with locations in Chicago, Evanston and Highland Park, said he is more selective about the workers that he hires, acknowledging that he is more likely to hire college students than teens, and like many other small business he is doing more with fewer workers．
Chicage-area small business say they are taking a wait-and-see approach to expanding their businesses and hiring more workers．They blame increasing gasoline prices and a lack of consumer confidence．
Nationwide, teens ago 16 to 19 have seenthe biggest drop in employment during the past decade．In 2010, the employment rate for that age group was 26 percent, the lowest since Workld war II, according to a report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University In 2000, employment rate for the same group was 45 percent．
If the trend continues, only one in four teenagers will hold a job this summer, according to the report．Many of the unemployed will likely be black males living in low-income communities．
(1)
According to the passage, why do some Chicago teenagers want to take a job?
[ ]
A．
To know more about the society．
B．
to get some career experience．
C．
To buy some new clothes．
D．
To support their education．
(2)
Teen workers face competition from ________．
[ ]
A．
adult workers and foreign students
B．
older workers and college students
C．
younger workers and college students
D．
foreign workers and high students
(3)
According to the passage, which of the following is not the cause of the low teen employment rate?
[ ]
A．
High gasoline price．
B．
The financial crisis．
C．
A lack of teenager confidence．
D．
The slow economic recovery．
(4)
It can be inferred that workers in Chicago-area small businesses ________．
Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an expensive French restaurant in Denver．The ice cream he was serving fell onto the white dress of a rich and important woman．
Thirty years have passed, but Odland can't get the memory out of his mind, nor the woman's kind reaction．She was shocked, regained calmness and, in a kind voice, told the young Odland,“It's OK．It wasn't your fault．”When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO with a life lesson：You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter．
Odland isn't the only CEO to have made this discovery．Rather, it seems to be one of those few laws of the land that every CEO learns on the way up．It's hard to get a dozen CEO's to agree about anything, but most agree with the Waiter Rule．They say how others treat the CEO says nothing．But how others treat the waiter is like a window into the soul．
Watch out for anyone who pulls out the power card to say something like,“I could but this place and fire you,”or“I know the owner and I could have you fired．”Those who say such things have shown more about their character than about their wealth and power．
The CEO who came up with it, or at least first wrote it down, is Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson．He wrote a best-selling book called Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management．
“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person,”Swanson says．“I will never offer a job to the person who is sweet to the boss but turns rude to someone cleaning the tables．”
(1)
What happened after Odland dropped the ice cream onto the woman's dress?
[ ]
A．
He was fired．
B．
He was blamed．
C．
The woman comforted him．
D．
The woman left the restaurant at once．
(2)
Odland learned one of his life lessons from ________．
[ ]
A．
his experience as a waiter
B．
the advice given by the CEOs
C．
an article in Fortune
D．
an interesting best-selling book
(3)
According to the text, most CEOs have the same opinion about ________．
[ ]
A．
Fortune 500 companies
B．
the Management Rules
C．
Swanson's book
D．
the Waiter Rule
(4)
From the text we can learn that ________．
[ ]
A．
one should be nicer to important people
B．
CEOs often show their power before others
C．
one should respect others no matter who they are
D．
CEOs often have meals in expensive restaurants
阅读理解。
Since earliest times we humans have been thrilled and chilled by things we can not understand－weather, death, the movement of stars and planets, even the darkness of night．
In order to cope with these great terrors, myths and legends were born－dragons and ghosts and winged beings from heavenly realms．
Even today, as we enter the new age, the old fears remain．Instead of dragons and ghosts and lost civilizations like Atlantis, however, modern terrors include UFOs, tropical plagues(瘟疫)and killer asteroids from the far reaches of space．
Anyone who thinks we have outgrown our old fears and fascination for the unknown need only visit a bookstore or tune in to cable television．Many of these popular books and programs deal with angels, ghosts, lost civilizations, UFOs, doomsday comets and other mysteries．
Wouldn't it be wonderful, I used to think deeply, if someone came along and did a book about the mysteries－a kind of no-nonsense summary that gives us a brief but thorough overview of the word's greatest mysteries of science, religion, folklore and history?
Fortunately, such a book has now appeared－E．Randall Floyd's startlingly clear and concise 100 of the World's Greatest Mysteries：Strange Secrets of the Past Revealed．From the Big Bang and rise of man to death-dealing asteroids and spontaneous human destruction by fire, this book covers them all, an amazing range of facts, figures and human drama, all told from a seasoned journalist's perspective．
Mr．Floyd, a former European correspondent for United Press International, professor of history, motion pictures screenwriter and author of more than a dozen-best-selling books, says the idea for the book originated with his nationally syndicated newspaper column, Strange Encounters．He spent five years researching and writing the book．
(1)
Myths and legends came into being because ________．
[ ]
A．
humans were thrilled and chilled by things not easily understood
B．
humanswanted to deal with the great terrors
C．
humanswere creative to make up stories
D．
there were no books to refer to and no TVs to watch in the old days
(2)
Which of the following doesn't belong to modern terrors?
[ ]
A．
UFOs
B．
tropical plagues
C．
killer asteroids
D．
dragons and ghosts
(3)
Which of the following best explains the meaning of the underlined word“outgrown”as it is used in the fourth paragraph?
[ ]
A．
grown too large or too tall for, e．g．one's clothes
B．
grown faster or taller than other people
C．
leave bad habits behind as one grows older
D．
grown too quickly from
(4)
What's the writer's tone of comment on the book?
[ ]
A．
Puzzled．
B．
Critical．
C．
Praising．
D．
Shocked．
(5)
The main purpose of writing this passage is to ________．
Our boat floated on, between walls of forest too thick to allow us a view of the land we were passing through, though we knew from the map that our river must from time to time be passing through chains of hills which crossed the jungle plains．Nowhere did we find a place where we could have landed：where the jungle did not actually spread right down into the river, banks of soft mud prevented us going ashore．In any case, what would we have sailed by landing?The country was full of snakes and other dangerous creatures, and the jungle was so thick that one would be able to advance only slowly, cutting one’s way with knives the whole way．So we stayed in the boat, hoping we reached the sea, a friendly fisherman would pick us up and take us to civilization．
We lived on fish, caught with home-made net of string(we had no hooks), and fruits and nuts we could pick up out of the water．As we had no fire, we had to eat everything, including the fish, raw I had never tasted raw fish before, and I must say I did not much enjoy the experience; perhaps sea fish which do not live in the mud are less tasteless．After eating my raw fish, I lay back and dreamed of such things as fried chicken and rice, and ice-cream．In the never-ending damp heat of the jungle, ice-cream was a particularly frequent dream．
As for water, there was a choice：we could drink the muddy river water, or die of thirst．We drank the water．Men who had just escaped what had appeared to be certain death lose all worries about such small things as diseases caused by dirty water．In fact, none of us suffered from any illness as a result．
One day we passed another village, but fortunately nobody saw us．We did not wish to risk being taken prisoners a second time：we might not be so lucky to escape in a stolen boat again．
(1)
What they could see in the boat was only ________．
[ ]
A．
high wall
B．
villagers from time to time
C．
vast land
D．
heavy woods
(2)
They couldn’t land because ________．
[ ]
A．
the mud on the shore was too soft
B．
the forest was too thick to let them go through
C．
they could not find the mark on the map
D．
they could not find anyone to lead them out of the forest
(3)
The passage infers that the forest was ________．
[ ]
A．
rich of fruits and animals to be served as food
B．
not very thick as they could advance slowly by cutting the branches
C．
full of various dangerous beings
D．
full of ancient trees
(4)
The most proper title for this passage might be ________．
[ ]
A．
Escape
B．
Scenes of a River
C．
How to Survive on a boat
D．
A New Experience
阅读理解：
Our boat floated on, between walls of forest too thick to allow us a view of the land we were passing through, though we knew from the map that our river must from time to time be passing through chains of hills which crossed the jungle plains．Nowhere did we find a place where we could have landed：where the jungle did not actually spread right down into the river, banks of soft mud prevented us going ashore．In any case, what would we have sailed by landing?The country was full of snakes and other dangerous creatures, and the jungle was so thick that one would be able to advance only slowly, cutting one’s way with knives the whole way．So we stayed in the boat, hoping we reached the sea, a friendly fisherman would pick us up and take us to civilization．
We lived on fish, caught with home-made net of string(we had no hooks), and fruits and nuts we could pick up out of the water．As we had no fire, we had to eat everything, including the fish, raw I had never tasted raw fish before, and I must say I did not much enjoy the experience; perhaps sea fish which do not live in the mud are less tasteless．After eating my raw fish, I lay back and dreamed of such things as fried chicken and rice, and ice-cream．In the never-ending damp heat of the jungle, ice-cream was a particularly frequent dream．
As for water, there was a choice：we could drink the muddy river water, or die of thirst．We drank the water．Men who had just escaped what had appeared to be certain death lose all worries about such small things as diseases caused by dirty water．In fact, none of us suffered from any illness as a result．
One day we passed another village, but fortunately nobody saw us．We did not wish to risk being taken prisoners a second time：we might not be so lucky to escape in a stolen boat again．
(1)
What they could see in the boat was only ________．
[ ]
A．
high wall
B．
villagers from time to time
C．
vast land
D．
heavy woods
(2)
They couldn’t land because ________．
[ ]
A．
the mud on the shore was too soft
B．
the forest was too thick to let them go through
C．
they could not find the mark on the map
D．
they could not find anyone to lead them out of the forest．
(3)
The passage infers that the forest was ________．
[ ]
A．
rich of fruits and animals to be served as food
B．
not very thick as they could advance slowly by cutting the branches
C．
full of various dangerous beings
D．
full of ancient trees
(4)
The most proper title for this passage might be ________．
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