From hitting the mall with your girl fiends on a Saturday afternoon, to holiday

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From hitting the mall with your girl fiends on a Saturday afternoon, to holiday spending on gifts that go under the tree, shopping could be called one of America’s favorite pastimes. For most people, it means some new clothes for work or a small trinket for a friend. For others, however, shopping is much more than an enjoyable pastime, and in some cases, it is a real and destructive addiction that can turn into a financial disaster. Compulsive shopping and spending are defined as inappropriate, excessive过度的, and out of control. Like other addictions, it basically has something to do with impulsiveness and lack of control over one’s impulses冲动. In America, shopping is embedded in our culture; so often, the impulsiveness comes out as excessive shopping. Sometimes this is referred to as “shopholism”. Shopping addiction can damage a person’s life, family, and finances. “No one knows what causes addictive behaviors, like shopping, alcoholism, drug abuse, and gambling”, says a professor of applied health science. Some of the new evidence suggests that some people, maybe 10%-15%, may have a genetic predisposition to an addictive behavior, coupled with an environment in which the particular behavior is triggered引发, but no one really knows why.” Individuals will get some kind of high from an addictive behavior like shopping.
What are the telltale signs that shopping has crossed the line and become and addiction? What should a concerned family member or friend look out for when they think shopping has become a problem? The behaviors can signal a serious problem:
·Shopping or spending money as a result of feeling angry, depressed, anxious, or lonely
·Having arguments with others about one’s shopping habits
·Feeling lost without credit cards — actually going into withdrawal without them
·Buying items on credit, rather than with cash
·Describing a rush or a feeling of euphoria with spending
·Feeling guilty, ashamed, or embarrassed after a spending spree(大买特买)
·Thinking obsessively about money
·Spending a lot time juggling accounts or bills to accommodate spending
“If someone identifies four or more of any of these behaviors, there may be a problem”, experts say. Treating a shopping addiction requires a multifaceted approach. There are no standard treatments for shopping addiction. Medications have been used, but with mixed results. Therapists also focus on cognitive-behavioral treatment programs. There is no quick and easy answer that will immediately cure a shopping addiction, and while treatment is a necessary part of solving the problem, so is behavior change on the part of the addict.
Some basic changes in behavior that will have a big impact on breaking a shopping addiction are recommended:
·Admit that you are a compulsive spender, which is half the battle.
·Get rid of checkbooks and credit cards, which fuel the problem.
·Don’t shop by yourself because most compulsive shoppers shop alone and if you are with someone you are much less likely to append more.
·Find other meaningful ways to spend time.
And keep in mind that while behavior change is clearly important to recovery, so is reaching out for professional help.(509)
1. The best title of this article is _________
A. Should We Shop or Not? B. Shopping Behaviors, Good or Bad?
C. Shopping Spree, or an Addiction? D. The Dangers of Shopholism.
2. You should be carefully think about your shopping behavior if you ________.
A. are angry to go shopping
B. lost your credit card while shopping
C. are overjoyed and overwhelmingly excited to go shopping.
D. count your money while shopping
3. Which of the following statement is not true? ________.
A. Medication will not help to cure a shopping addiction
B. No one really knows why people get addicted to doing something which is no good to them
C. By the word shopholism, we refers to the impulsive and excessive shopping behavior
D. Shopping addiction can turn into a real disaster in one’s life
4. The most important way to get rid of the addiction is ________.
A. use credit card instead of checkbooks
B. change one’s behavior as well as seek professional advice
C. find somebody else to shop for you
D. go to a doctor for a standard treatment

答案

小题1:C
小题2:C
小题3:A
小题4:B

解析

略

举一反三

All things change except barbers, the ways of barbers, and the surroundings of barbers. These never change. What one experiences in a barber’s shop the first time he enters one is what he always experiences in barbers’ shops afterward till the end of his days.
I got shaved this morning as usual. A man approached the door from Jones Street as I approached it from Main--a thing that always happens. I hurried up, but it was of no use; he entered the door one little step ahead of me, and I followed in and saw him take the only empty chair, the one headed by the best barber. It always happens so. I sat down, hoping that I might sit in the chair belonging to the better of the remaining two barbers, for he was a bit ahead. I watched the probabilities with strong interest. When I saw that No. 2 was gaining on No. 1, my interest grew to solicitude (孤单). When No. 1 was gradually losing the race, my solicitude rose to anxiety. When No. 1 caught up again, and both were about to finish and say “Next!” first, my very breath stood still with the suspense. But when I saw that he had lost the race by a single instant, I rose angrily and quitted the shop, to keep from falling into the hands of No. 2; for I have none of that firmness that enables a man to look calmly into the eyes of a waiting barber and tell him he will wait for his fellow-barber’s chair.
I stayed out fifteen minutes, and then went back, hoping for better luck. Unfortunately, all the chairs were occupied now, and four men sat waiting, silent, and looking bored, as men always do who are waiting their turn in a barber’s shop. I sat down and waited.
At last my turn came. A voice said “Next!” and I give in to No. 2, of course. It always happens so. I smiled and said that I was in a hurry, and it affected him as strongly as if he had never heard it.
He explored my hair with his claws and suggested that it needed trimming(修剪). I said I did not want it trimmed. He explored again and said it was pretty long for the present style. I said I had had it cut only a week before. He stopped for a moment, and then asked “who cut it?” I stared at him from the mirror and replied “You did!” Then a dog-fight attracted his attention, and he ran to the window and stayed and watched it…

1. The author left the barber’s shop mainly because_________.
A. he would like to wait for “No. 1” outside
B. he would rather be served by the best barber
C. he lacked the courage to tell “No. 2” his intention
D. he was angry at the slow speed of “No. 1”
2. What is the change of the author’s attitude from the moment he went into the barber’s to the moment he left it?
A. Disappointed---Anxious---Hopeful---Angry.
B. Disappointed --Hopeful---Anxious---Angry.
C. Hopeful--- Sad --- Anxious ---Angry.
D. Hopeful--- Anxious --- Angry --- Sad.
3. The author chose “No. 2” in the end, because________.
A. he had no choice                                  B. he was in a hurry
C. “No. 1” avoided him on purpose            D. he is always one step behind others
4. The underlined word “suspense” in the 2nd paragraph probably means ________.
A. loneliness                                             B. possibility
C. anxiety                                                D. hope
5. What is likely to happen next?
A. The author lost his temper.                    B. “No. 2” ran out of his patience.
C. The author was well-served by “No. 2”.D. The author was treated the same way as usual.

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In our life, we face situations where we are either asked to choose between trust and disbelief. Many of us would say we have to choose trust over disbelief. Actually we are given intellectual(智力的) power to choose what we want, and what we choose certainly need not be the one that sounds pleasing. That is, we can choose both trust and disbelief, but we have to know when to choose between these two.
We should all realize that we are living in a world which is unfortunately mixed with people of various types. We have been given the power of judging who we are working with and who we are partnering with. We cannot give an excuse for believing a scheming(诡计多端的)person, just because he looked or sounded nice, unless we consider ourselves mentally unskillful.
This world was there before us and it does not owe us a single thing. We are asked to take care of ourselves and our belongings. Trust, too, has to be saved for the deserving(值得的) people. When we give trust universally to all, we end up troubled by the undeserving common cheat. People say trust is life. True! But only wisely exercised trust is life.
When we start a conversation with someone, the first things that we usually notice would be their dress, behavior, style and their language. What sometimes we all forget to look at is the person’s intention. Now how to look at a person’s intention is a lesson everybody has to learn for themselves in their own way -- there is no single standard for it. But it is certainly possible to discover the purpose if we seek a little bit more.
Certainly a false offer of friendship or guidance cannot stand undiscovered for long; we are therefore called to exercise disbelief over trust at least momentarily till we find out that we certainly are in agreement with a mutual(相互的)good-willed person.
The world teaches you lots of lessons and if we are willing, we can learn all that we want.
1. In the first paragraph, the author ________.
A. concentrates on the reason why we make different choices
B. focuses on how to choose between trust and disbelief
C. suggests that trust should be wisely exercised
D. implies that people are forced to make the choice
2. The underlined sentence means __________.
A. trust and disbelief go hand in hand with each other.
B. disbelief is necessary if you aren’t wise
C. trust is established if two people know each other
D. doubt may serve as the precondition for trust
3. We can infer from the passage that _________.
A. people who we are working with are in fact those who we are partnering with
B. the first thing we notice tends to mislead our judgment
C. the mentally healthy people will not judge a person by his looks
D. the standards of looking at a person’s intention are various
4. Which of the following can serve as the best title for the passage?
A. Trust or Disbelief?                         B. Trust Is Life.
C. Trust over Disbelief?                    D. When to Choose between Trust and Disbelief?

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Mobile phones should be banned from cars altogether, according to Dr Hole, senior lecturer in psychology, Dr Hole has emphasized the worrying combination of mobile phones and cars in his new book, The Psychology of Driving.
Mobile phones, fatigue(疲劳) , eyesight, drugs and age are among the issues considered by Dr Hole as he examines the factors that influence on driving. The book explores the role of each of these elements in increasing the chances of an accident and was inspired by the author"s conversations with road safety experts across the country.
He says: “The government should have banned mobile phones in cars altogether. It has sent out the wrong message by forbidding hand-held phones because this gives the impression that hands-free phones are safe. The problem with mobile phones is not vehicular(车辆的) control and only having one hand on the wheel, but rather it is taking away attention from what is happening outside the car.”
Myths(荒诞的说法) about older people making worse drivers and claims(说法) about an improved reaction time among younger people are explored in the book. Questions about how drivers decide what to attend to while driving, the role of a driver"s expectations in determining what they see and how they respond to the road are among the areas covered in the book. Satellite navigation systems and new design aimed at transforming cars into a mobile office, are among the modern developments which he says now compete for driver"s attention behind the wheel.
Dr Hole says: “We need to be very careful about how we go about handling modern technology in cars, because we are opening a Pandora"s Box. When anyone is driving there is a lot of information outside the car and if there is too much going on inside, then there is a danger of overloading the driver.”
1. Dr Hole’s strong belief that mobile phones should be banned from cars lies in __________.
A. the inconvenience of having only one hand on the wheel caused by mobile phones
B. the correct message of getting rid of hand-held phones sent out by the government
C. the increase of chances of accidents
D. the advice given by some road safety experts
3. Which of the following is not included in his book?
A. Hand-free phones are safer than hand-held phones.
B. What drivers have to attend to while driving.
C. Whether older age and slower reaction is related.
D. Bad eyesight is one of the factors of causing an accident.
3. Which of the following is true?
A. Older people are better at preventing accidents.
B. Younger drivers’ reaction time is relatively shorter.
C. It is a myth that some old people can still drive.
D. A driver’s expectations are not covered in the book.
4. What can we know from the underlined sentence?
A. What is going on outside is of equal importance to what inside.
B. Modern developments call for drivers’ attention behind the wheel.
C. Satellite navigation systems require more cars as mobile offices.
D. Modern technology is responsible for the distraction (分心) of one’s attention while driving.

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If women are mercilessly exploited year after year, they have only themselves to blame because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion; they are always taken advantage of by the designers and big stores. Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion. Women usually stand in front of a wardrobe full of clothes, announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.
Changing fashions are nothing more than the international creation of waste. Many women spend vast sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn. Women , who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way, waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have. Skirts are lengthened or shortened; neck-lines are lowered or raised, and so on.
No one can claim that fashion industry contributes anything really important to society. Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital thing like warmth, comfort and durability（持久性）. They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact women will put up with any amount of discomfort, as long as they look right. There can hardly be a man who hasn’t at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day, or deliberately picking her way through deep snow in high-heeled shoes.
When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusion to be drawn are obvious. Do the constantly changing fashions of women’s clothes, one wonders, reflect qualities of inconstancy and instability? Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers. Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability? That is for you to decide.
1. Designers and big stores always make money _______.
A. by mercilessly exploiting women workers in the clothing industry.
B. because they are capable of predicting new fashions.
C. by constantly changing the fashions in women’s clothing
D. because they attach great importance to quality in women’s clothing.
2. To the writer, the fact that women put aside their old-fashioned dresses is seen as ________.
A. a waste of money B. a waste of time
C. an expression of taste D. an expression of creativity
3. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
A. New fashions in clothing are created for the commercial exploitation of women.
B. The constant changes in women’s clothing reflect their strength of character.
C. the fashion industry makes an important contribution to society.
D. Fashion designs should not be encouraged since they are only welcomed by women.
4. By saying “the conclusion to be drawn are obvious”, the writer means that________.
A. women’s inconstancy in their choice of clothing is often laughed at.
B. women are better able to put up with discomfort.
C. men are also exploited greatly by fashion designers.
D. men are more reasonable in the matter of fashion.

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IV.阅读理解（共16小题；每小题2分，满分32分）
阅读下列短文，然后从所给四个选项中选出最佳选项，并标在试卷的相应位置。
A holiday is any day when people lay aside their ordinary duties and cares. The word comes from Old English. At first, holidays honored some holy(神的) events or persons. People in Great Britain and other countries speak of holidays as Americans speak of vacations.
Every nation has its special holidays. China observes New Year’s Day(January 1), May Day and National Day as legal(法定的) holidays, as it was on Oct. 1, 1949 that People’s Republic of China was founded. The Chinese have long celebrated the Chinese lunar year. In the United States, congress（国会） has declared(宣告) several as legal days such as New Year"s Day (January1), Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, Washington"s Birthday, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day and so on. Some holidays celebrate special events in the development of a country, such as Greece’s Independence Day, Italy’s Liberation Day and India’s Independence Day.
In the United States, banks and schools usually close on a legal holiday. When such a holiday falls on Sunday, the following Monday is often observed. Schools and organizations often observe days known as traditional holidays, although schools and businesses do not close then. Those holidays include Valentine"s Day and Halloween.
1. Which of the following holidays has nothing to do with a country’s development?
A. China’s National Day            B. Valentine’s Day
C. Italy’s Liberation Day            D. America’s Independence Day
2. From the passage we can infer that _________.
A. Chinese will no longer observe the Spring Festival
B. students don’t have to go to school on any holiday
C. Chinese and Americans share at least one holiday
D. Americans can easily draw money from banks on legal days
3. In the sentence “China observes New Year’s Day(January 1)”, “observes” means_____.
A. praises         B. spends         C. celebrates        D. cares
4. If a legal holiday falls on Sunday, people usually celebrate on_________.
A. Sunday                   B. the following Sunday
C. the following Monday       D. the following Tuesday

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