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Planning to get away? Think passport firstIf you’re planning to get away from it all this year, you should think passport first. Checking you have a valid passport before you book your trip takes minutes but could save you the trouble and cost of not being able to go.
Renewing (更新) your passport before it runs out
You can renew your passport up to 9 months before it can no longer be legally used. So take the time now and save the tears later.
Applying for a passport for the first time
Our eligibility (资格) checks mean that it takes a minimum of one week to issue (颁发) a passport. So make sure you don’t leave it to the last minute, and apply in plenty of time.
Help with your application is just around the corner
Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents offer a Check and Send service that helps you with your application. It’s convenient and you should receive your passport within 2 weeks.
If you need to apply for or renew a passport, you can either:
Pick up a Passport Application Form at Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents.
Or call the Application Form Request line on 0901 4700 100 or visit www.passport.gov.uk
If your need is urgent, call 0870 521 0410 for an appointment at one of our offices. We can’t guarantee to see customers without an appointment.
From 14th January a guaranteed same day (passport renewals only) or one week service will be available from passport public counters.
*Calls will be charged 60p per minute and the cost per call should not normally be more than 90p.
*Calls are charged at national rates.
1.When applying for a passport for the first time, you need to know that ______.
A. passports can be legally used forever
B. passports are issued at the last minute
C. application checks take at least one week
D. applications are selected by post office branches
2.According to the passage, you can meet your urgent need by ______.
A. going to the offices directly
B. making a call for an appointment
C. visiting www.passport.gov.uk for a guarantee
D. getting in touch with Worldchoice travel agents
3.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Certain types of passports.
B. Different functions of passports.
C. Advantages of holding passports.
D. Instructions on applying for passports.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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We Brits love the idea of a real Christmas tree but not so many of us like the realities of dragging (拖拽) a 7ft Norway Spruce through the house and leaving needles all over the place.
If you count yourself among the reluctant group, then it may be time to go fake (假的) . After all, buying an artificial Christmas tree needn’t mean accepting defeat. There’s a huge range of choices and sizes, including pre-lit trees, which will save you the frustration of trying to string your own lights.
Another big advantage of choosing an artificial Christmas tree is cost: artificial trees can last for decades, so they work out cheaper than paying for a real tree every year. Like now retailers (零售商) are offering great deals at the moment: at Tesco, there’s 25 percent off artificial Christmas trees. Meanwhile, you can take advantage of the current 3 for 2 offer at Argos to fill your house with not one, not two, but three. You may perhaps partner up with friends who are also looking to invest.
Of course, keep your tree for years and years and it will start to pay you back in terms of carbon footprint; however, a “ real” one will always have to be transported, used and dealt with every year.
Are there any downsides? Yes. You might think you’re saving the planet, but a fake tree is actually not an environmentally friendly option. Most are made in factories in Asia, resulting in some serious air miles to reach the UK. They’re made from metal and plastic, and many end their lives in landfill (垃圾填埋).
Another problem with a fake tree is that they don’t look very natural and of course you won’t get that lovely pine smell either. You’ll also need to find space for storage.
1.What does the underlined word “reluctant” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A. Inactive. B. Related. C. Unwilling. D. Supportive.
2.Which is the benefit of buying an artificial Christmas tree?
A. Enough choices. B. The lovely pine smell.
C. Cheaper than a real one. D. Free for transportation.
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Fake Christmas trees are environmentally friendly.
B. British people like to drag a real Christmas tree home.
C. People need to find space to store a fake Christmas tree.
D. People may get 3 more if they buy two fake Christmas trees.
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Different reasons for choosing fake Christmas trees.
B. Valuable suggestions on choosing fake Christmas trees.
C. Efficient ways of saving money on choosing Christmas trees.
D. Advantages and disadvantages of choosing fake Christmas trees.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Times are a little tough at our house right now. Neither of us makes a lot of money, but years of experience have taught us how to walk between the raindrops and make it from one month to the next with a fair amount of grace. I cook a lot at home, more when we’re facing difficult times. When I know that I have to keep us fed on not much money, I fall back on my grandmother’s recipes. She taught me to cook.
When I was a kid, my twin brother and I spent long summer weeks and Christmas vacations with my mother’s parents in the mountains of North Carolina. Rather than go hunting with my grandfather on mornings, I found myself more and more in the kitchen with my grandmother, watching her making a lemon cheese pie with her soft hands.
My great-grandmother died when my grandmother was 11 years old. As the eldest daughter, she was expected to take on all of the housework while attending school. Throughout the Great Depression, she learned how to make a little food go a long way. Vegetables were cheap, so she cooked a lot of them, mostly only using small amounts of meat for seasoning. Roast beef was a twice-a-month luxury, but there was nothing she couldn’t do with a chicken, every part of it. Nothing went to waste.
Now I understand that her food was sacred (神圣的). I feel connected to my grandmother and to hundreds of years of family when I’m in my kitchen making country food. In the delicious smells is a long tale of victory over hard times, of conquering starvation of not just surviving, but finding joy and pleasure in every meal of every day.
From grandmother I learned to take real satisfaction in feeding people. My grandmother would beam with pleasure over a heavily laden table and say: “Do you know what this would cost at the restaurant?” I never knew what restaurant in particular she had in mind, but I knew that the question was totally not fair, because no restaurant anywhere can cook like a grandmother. But now, thanks to her guidance and years of practice, I can.
1.According to the passage, the author cooks a lot at home because _______.
A. she wants to try out her grandmother’s recipes B. she is quite particular about food
C. the food in restaurants is unhealthy D. she and her husband are embarrassed financially
2.According to the passage, the author’s grandmother _______.
A. learnt to cook because of the Great Depression
B. was good at cooking as well as careful in budgeting
C. preferred chicken to beef
D. had to walk a long way to learn cooking in a restaurant
3.It can be inferred from the passage that the author _______.
A. liked to compare her grandmother’s food with that in restaurants
B. learnt something more precious than cooking from her grandmother
C. hasn’t found the joy in cooking though she can cook like her grandmother
D. feels connected to her grandmother when making country food in the kitchen
4.Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A. Cook like my grandmother B. My grandmother’s sacred food
C. My grandmother’s recipe D. Joy and pleasure in cooking
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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For years, there has been a prejudice against science among clinical psychologists (临床心理学家). In a two-year analysis to be published in November in Perspectives on Psychological Science, psychologists charge that many clinical psychologists fail to “provide the treatments which are given the strongest evidence of effectiveness” and “give more weight to their personal experiences than to science.” As a result, patients have no guarantee that their “treatment will be informed by science.” Walter Mischel of Columbia University is even crueler in his judgment. “The disconnect between what clinical psychologists do and what science has discovered is an extreme embarrassment,” he told me, and “there is a widening gap between clinical practice and science.”
The “widening” reflects the great progress that psychological research has made in identifying the most effective treatments. Thanks to strict clinical trials, we now know that teaching patients to think about their thoughts in new, healthier ways and to act on those new ways of thinking are effective against depression, panic disorder and other problems, with multiple trials showing that these treatments the tools of psychology bring more lasting benefits than drugs.
You wouldn’t know this if you sought help from a typical clinical psychologist. Although many treatments are effective, relatively few psychologists learn or practice them.
Why in the world not? For one thing, says Baker from the University of Wisconsin, clinical psychologists are “very doubtful about the role of science” and “lack solid science training”. Also, one third of patients get better no matter what treatment (if any) they have, “and psychologists remember these successes, believing, wrongly, that they are the result of the treatment.”
When faced with evidence that treatments they offer are not supported by science, clinical psychologists argue that they know better than some study that works. A 2008 study of 591 psychologists in private practice(诊所) found that they rely more on their own and colleagues’ experience than on science when deciding how to treat a patient. If they keep on this path despite the fact that insurance companies demand evidence-based medicine, warns Mischel, psychology will “discredit itself.”
1.Many clinical psychologists fail to provide the most effective treatments because ________.
A. they are unfamiliar with their patients B. they believe in science and evidence
C. they rely on their personal experiences D. they depend on their colleagues’ help
2.The widening gap between clinical practice and science is due to _______.
A. the cruel judgment by Walter Mischel
B. the great progress that has been made in psychological research
C. the fact that most patients get better after being treated
D. the fact that patients prefer to take drugs rather than have other treatments
3.How do clinical psychologists respond when accused that their treatments are not supported by science?
A. They feel embarrassed. B. They doubt their treatments.
C. They are disappointed. D. They try to defend themselves.
4.According to the passage, what is Mischel’s attitude towards psychology?
A. Negative. B. Neutral. C. Indifferent. D. Positive.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析