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Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.
AVOID BIG EVENTS Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost £169.15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost £l18.15.
If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid-or you’re looking for a big event to pass your time—check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.
STAY AWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.
Don’t be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge’s Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was £95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was £75.75. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just £62.95.
GET ON A BIKE London’s ‘Boris bikes’ have attracted the most attention but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.
Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around £1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or £5 per day).
1.The Brighton Comedy Festival is mentioned mainly to show big events may .
A. help travelers pass time
B. attract lots of travelers to the UK
C. allow travelers to make flexible plans
D. cause travelers to pay more for accommodation
2.“Farringdon” in Paragraph 5 is most probably .
A. the tube line to Covent Garden
B. an ideal holiday destination
C. a hotel away from the train station
D. the name of a travel agency
3.The main purpose of the passage is .
A. to offer visitors some money-saving tips
B. to tell visitors how to book in advance
C. to supply visitors with hotel information
D. to show visitors the importance of self-help
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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As health care costs continue to rise, a growing number of companies are working out programs designed to keep their employees healthy.
Thomas Chapple is the senior vice president. “It’s really important to us because medical costs are going up like crazy, he says. This company spends more than 200 million a year on medical costs for its employees around the country. The best thing we have seen as a way to control the medical cost is individual fitness.”
We have a fitness center, “Shawn Flaherty, director of public relations for Freddie Mac.,” says, “We have a health benefits plan that encourages people to work out three times a week, get cholesterol (胆固醇) checks, as well as ‘not to smoke.’ If they do that, it will cost them less for the health benefits.”
Rachelle Clark works for Freddie Mac. “I feel great. You know the benefit is rewarding. I like to look good and feel healthy. I am just fortunate that I work for the company that provides some type of facility for the employees.”
While on-site fitness centers are popular, some companies pay membership fees at local gyms for employees. The companies also offer classes such as boxing, yoga and dancing. Employees see those health programs as a valuable benefit.
Tom Brook exercises five days a week. As a newspaper reporter he has a tight schedule, although Tom says it’s not that difficult for him to make time for a workout. “It is great. It is right here where we work,” says Tom, “So everybody gets a chance to use it whenever they want to. I have lost weight and never been in better shape.”
The programs may not be a magic cure for rising health costs, but they seem to have a positive impact on both employers and employees.
1.What’s the best way to cut the medical cost according to Shawn Flaherty?
A. To reduce the number of employees around the country.
B. To encourage the employees to work out to keep fit.
C. To set up fitness centers of their own.
D. To pay membership fees at local gyms for the employees.
2.Why does the writer cite (引用) what Rachelle Clark and Tom Brook say?
A. To explain how to use the fitness centers.
B. To show how effective physical exercise is.
C. To show the employees welcome the health programs.
D. To persuade more employers to set up health centers.
3.Which of the following best expresses the meaning of the underlined part?
A. The programs may not solve the health costs problem completely.
B. The programs may keep the health costs rising.
C. The programs may not cost a large amount of money.
D. The programs may cure all kinds of patients like magic.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A. How difficult it is to reduce health care costs
B. Why and how companies encourage their employees to keep fit.
C. . What causes the health care costs to rise year by year.
D. How people keep healthy by doing exercise in their working places.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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As I enter my 40s, I’ve noticed many of my parents’ generation think social networking is something they are simply unable to understand. They fear that, should they try, they will somehow get it wrong; they will say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing or behave in a way that causes embarrassment. But there are some secrets of social media for them to consider.
Here’s the first secret: everyone feels this way. I recently met a young actor who was complaining that her work demands that she join Microblog, but she always feels like she doesn’t have anything smart to say. It’s the same resistance (抵制). I hear from the older generation, who, however, have somehow believed that age is the barrier (障碍), rather than the differences of personal taste.
Here’s the second secret: everybody uses it for more or less the same reasons. Older generations often sign up to stay in touch with children and relatives. We talk about this kind of communication like it’s some old-fashioned activity, but it is exactly why younger people use social media. The truth is that most people use social media to gently keep an eye on one another, to see how those they care about are doing without needing to ring them up on the phone every night.
And this is the last secret: everyone gets to use them in their own way. Newcomers—younger and older—who worry about “getting it right” are thinking that there’s a right way to get them. But actually there isn’t. Personally, I talk a lot on Microblog. And some people post nothing and they use social media every day as readers. Social media companies would rather see people decorating their networks with pictures and posts, but there’s no rule against being a fly on the wall. It’s also a fine way to get involved.
Were quick to forget that the web wasn’t invented by 13-year-olds; it was created by today’s seniors. I’d never try forcing those with no interest in social networks to use Microblog. But don’t let the talk of age divides put you off. There’s nothing to stop the older generation from joining in the network their own generation created.
1.What’s the author’s purpose of writing this passage?
A. To share with us his personal experience using social media.
B. To explain why the old generation don’t use social media.
C. To free the old generation from fearing using social media.
D. To tell us a few secrets of social media that he discovered.
2.The expression “a fly on the wall” in the 4th paragraph refers to .
A. people who prefer reading online books
B. people who cause trouble to others
C. people who post many fancy pictures
D. people who simply observe others’ posts
3.According to the author, which is a reason for old people’s fear using social media?
A. They believe they may be trapped in embarrassing situations.
B. They have no particular interest in social networking.
C. They prefer staying in touch with relatives in real life.
D. They have no idea which contents to post online.
4.Which of the following may best describe the structure of this passage?
A.
B. 
C.
D. 
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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Babies teach their older brothers and sisters empathy (移情), according to a new research. Empathy means understanding and entering others’ feelings. Until now, younger kids have generally been regarded to learn plenty from their older brothers or sisters but don’t give back much. But this study, published in Child Development, confirms that younger siblings (兄弟姐妹) ensure their big brothers and sisters don’t grow into disgusting people—no easy task.
“Although it’s assumed that older siblings and parents are the primary socializing influences on younger siblings’ development but not vice versa, we found that both younger and older siblings positively contributed to each other’s empathy over time,” study co-author Marc Jambon said in a statement. Prior sibling studies have focused on the influence of older brothers and sisters, probably because their impact is most obvious. As one review of literature notes, studies have shown that older siblings influence everything from their younger siblings’ motor development to their risk of smoking later in life. And although separated studies have tried to pin down effects that younger siblings have on their older siblings, the influence of baby brothers and sisters remains unclear.
For this new study, Jambon and his colleagues recruited (招募) a diverse group of 452 Canadian sibling pairs between the ages of 18 months and four years. At the start of the study, individual researchers assessed children’s baseline empathy levels by visiting the kids at home and then pretending to hurt themselves or break a valuable item. Eighteen months later, they found small but significant increases in empathy.
One unexpected exception—older sisters did not appear to experience increased empathy after 18 months living with their little brothers, specifically. The researchers aren’t sure why this exception appeared, and they recommend that future studies dive into more complex phenomena.
1.What has been found in the new research?
A. Young kids could show more sympathy for others.
B. Young siblings know more about empathy than the older.
C. Younger kids can learn a lot from their older brothers or sisters.
D. Younger siblings could contribute to their older ones’ empathy.
2.What does Mare Jambon say about kids’ empathy development?
A. Siblings influence each other in a positive way.
B. Parents play a more important role than teachers.
C. older siblings have far more obvious influences.
D. Younger siblings make much smaller contribution.
3.What does the underlined words “pin down” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. Assess. B. Limit.
C. Confirm. D. Reduce.
4.What can we infer about the research from the last paragraph?
A. It offers no exceptions.
B. It appears to be under control.
C. It needs to be carried out further
D. It is recognized to be scientific
难度: 困难查看答案及解析