单项选择题

Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. These now iconic(偶像的)names were all 20-somethings when they started their companies that would throw them, and their enterprises, into some of the biggest successes ever known. Consid er this: many of the truly remarkable innovations of the latest generation—a list that includes Google, Facebook and Twitter—were all founded by people under 30. So what is it about that youthful decade after those awkward teenage years that inspires such shoot-for-the-moon success Does age really have something to do with it It does. Young people bring fresh eyes to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. 20-something entrepreneurs see no boundaries and see no limits. And they can make change happen. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, has another, colder theory that may explain it: Ultimately, it’ s about money. In other words, it’ s the young people who have nothing to lose, with no mortgage and, frankly, with nothing to do on a Friday night except work, who are the ones often willing to take the biggest risks. Sure, they are talented. But it’s their persistence and zeal(激情), the desire to stay up until 6 a.m. chugging Red Bull, that is the difference between being a salaried employee and an entrepreneur. That’s not to say that most 20-somethings are finding success. They’re not. The latest crop of U ber-suc cessful young entrepreneurs, designers and authors are far, far from the norm In truth, unemployment for workers age 16 to 24 is double the national average. One of the biggest challenges facing this next generation—and one that may prevent more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding—is the staggering rise in the level of debt college students have been left with. If Peter Thiel’ s theory is right, it is going to be harder and harder for young people to take big risks because they will be crushed with obligations before they even begin. If you’re over 29 years old and still haven’t made your world-changing mark, don’t despair. Some older people have had big breakthroughs, too. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the phonograph(留声机)until he was 30.All of the following are differences between being salaried employees and entrepreneurs EXCEPT ______.

A.their zeal
B.their talent
C.their persistence
D.their desire to stay up
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问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C1】

答案: 正确答案:J
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C2】

答案: 正确答案:N
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.Some companies actually change the way they do things to reduce waste, while others are just green fakeries.

答案: 正确答案:F
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C3】

答案: 正确答案:G
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C4】

答案: 正确答案:E
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.Cutting down the number of loads of laundry can save a large amount of electricity for the hotels.

答案: 正确答案:B
单项选择题

Bilingual(双语的)education in schools has long been a political hot potato—it was banned in California by a 1998 ballot measure, which the state Senate is now asking voters to repeal. But politics aside, there’s an increasing amount of scientific support for the benefits of knowing at least two languages. Now, a new study published by the Annals of Neurology finds that you don’t even need to learn that second(or third, or fourth)tongue at a very young age: Picking up a new language even a little later in life can have serious cognitive(认知的)benefits for the aging brain. Many recent studies have pointed out that bilingualism seems to be good exercise for the brain and later in life might even help delay the onset of dementia. But what if it’ s a self-selecting crowd What if the people who learned two languages are just smarter to begin with To help rule that factor out, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied 853 people who first took an intelligence test in 1947 when they were about 11 years old as part of a group called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, and retested them again around 2008 to 2010, when they were in their early 70s. A total of 262 of the seventy-year-old reported having learned at least one language other than English enough to communicate in it. Of those, 195 said they learned it before age 18: 65 said they learned it thereafter. The researchers gave the participants a battery of cognitive tests, including tests of their verbal reasoning, their vocabulary and reading abilities, their verbal fluency and their ability to process information quickly. They found that bilingual speakers performed much better than expected from their baseline cognitive ability, particularly in reading and in general intelligence. And those who knew three or more languages performed even better. Learning a language seemed to make as much difference in people’s later-in-life cognitive decline as a gene that’ s been tied to risk of Alzheimer’ s disease and smoking habits. These participants mostly learned their second languages after age 11. The results actually make a very compelling point—you don’t have to be a fluent speaker of a language to get the benefits, and you can start later in life, too.The phrase "hot potato" in Para. 1 is closest in meaning to______.

A.a popular topic
B.a difficult situation
C.a heated discussion
D.a delicious dish
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C5】

答案: 正确答案:D
单项选择题

Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. These now iconic(偶像的)names were all 20-somethings when they started their companies that would throw them, and their enterprises, into some of the biggest successes ever known. Consid er this: many of the truly remarkable innovations of the latest generation—a list that includes Google, Facebook and Twitter—were all founded by people under 30. So what is it about that youthful decade after those awkward teenage years that inspires such shoot-for-the-moon success Does age really have something to do with it It does. Young people bring fresh eyes to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. 20-something entrepreneurs see no boundaries and see no limits. And they can make change happen. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, has another, colder theory that may explain it: Ultimately, it’ s about money. In other words, it’ s the young people who have nothing to lose, with no mortgage and, frankly, with nothing to do on a Friday night except work, who are the ones often willing to take the biggest risks. Sure, they are talented. But it’s their persistence and zeal(激情), the desire to stay up until 6 a.m. chugging Red Bull, that is the difference between being a salaried employee and an entrepreneur. That’s not to say that most 20-somethings are finding success. They’re not. The latest crop of U ber-suc cessful young entrepreneurs, designers and authors are far, far from the norm In truth, unemployment for workers age 16 to 24 is double the national average. One of the biggest challenges facing this next generation—and one that may prevent more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding—is the staggering rise in the level of debt college students have been left with. If Peter Thiel’ s theory is right, it is going to be harder and harder for young people to take big risks because they will be crushed with obligations before they even begin. If you’re over 29 years old and still haven’t made your world-changing mark, don’t despair. Some older people have had big breakthroughs, too. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the phonograph(留声机)until he was 30.The first paragraph is used to show______.

A.various famous men
B.the age of founders
C.the success of enterprises
D.the success of 20-somethings
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.Industry groups tend to emphasize the money hotels can save along with the benefits to the environment.

答案: 正确答案:D
单项选择题

Bilingual(双语的)education in schools has long been a political hot potato—it was banned in California by a 1998 ballot measure, which the state Senate is now asking voters to repeal. But politics aside, there’s an increasing amount of scientific support for the benefits of knowing at least two languages. Now, a new study published by the Annals of Neurology finds that you don’t even need to learn that second(or third, or fourth)tongue at a very young age: Picking up a new language even a little later in life can have serious cognitive(认知的)benefits for the aging brain. Many recent studies have pointed out that bilingualism seems to be good exercise for the brain and later in life might even help delay the onset of dementia. But what if it’ s a self-selecting crowd What if the people who learned two languages are just smarter to begin with To help rule that factor out, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied 853 people who first took an intelligence test in 1947 when they were about 11 years old as part of a group called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, and retested them again around 2008 to 2010, when they were in their early 70s. A total of 262 of the seventy-year-old reported having learned at least one language other than English enough to communicate in it. Of those, 195 said they learned it before age 18: 65 said they learned it thereafter. The researchers gave the participants a battery of cognitive tests, including tests of their verbal reasoning, their vocabulary and reading abilities, their verbal fluency and their ability to process information quickly. They found that bilingual speakers performed much better than expected from their baseline cognitive ability, particularly in reading and in general intelligence. And those who knew three or more languages performed even better. Learning a language seemed to make as much difference in people’s later-in-life cognitive decline as a gene that’ s been tied to risk of Alzheimer’ s disease and smoking habits. These participants mostly learned their second languages after age 11. The results actually make a very compelling point—you don’t have to be a fluent speaker of a language to get the benefits, and you can start later in life, too.According to Para. 2, a new study finds that______.

A.learning a new language can benefit a lot when you grow old
B.you have to learn a new language at a very young age
C.picking up a new language have few benefits later in life
D.picking up a new language can cause serious health problems
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C6】

答案: 正确答案:L
单项选择题

Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. These now iconic(偶像的)names were all 20-somethings when they started their companies that would throw them, and their enterprises, into some of the biggest successes ever known. Consid er this: many of the truly remarkable innovations of the latest generation—a list that includes Google, Facebook and Twitter—were all founded by people under 30. So what is it about that youthful decade after those awkward teenage years that inspires such shoot-for-the-moon success Does age really have something to do with it It does. Young people bring fresh eyes to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. 20-something entrepreneurs see no boundaries and see no limits. And they can make change happen. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, has another, colder theory that may explain it: Ultimately, it’ s about money. In other words, it’ s the young people who have nothing to lose, with no mortgage and, frankly, with nothing to do on a Friday night except work, who are the ones often willing to take the biggest risks. Sure, they are talented. But it’s their persistence and zeal(激情), the desire to stay up until 6 a.m. chugging Red Bull, that is the difference between being a salaried employee and an entrepreneur. That’s not to say that most 20-somethings are finding success. They’re not. The latest crop of U ber-suc cessful young entrepreneurs, designers and authors are far, far from the norm In truth, unemployment for workers age 16 to 24 is double the national average. One of the biggest challenges facing this next generation—and one that may prevent more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding—is the staggering rise in the level of debt college students have been left with. If Peter Thiel’ s theory is right, it is going to be harder and harder for young people to take big risks because they will be crushed with obligations before they even begin. If you’re over 29 years old and still haven’t made your world-changing mark, don’t despair. Some older people have had big breakthroughs, too. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the phonograph(留声机)until he was 30.Which of the following statements cannot explain the underlined sentence in Para. 3

A.20-something entrepreneurs can drive change.
B.20-something entrepreneurs have new perspectives.
C.20-something entrepreneurs do not need to worry about money.
D.20-something entrepreneurs believe there is no obstacle that they can’ t hurdle.
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.Some green fakery companies make its customers do the work, and take benefit themselves.

答案: 正确答案:G
单项选择题

Bilingual(双语的)education in schools has long been a political hot potato—it was banned in California by a 1998 ballot measure, which the state Senate is now asking voters to repeal. But politics aside, there’s an increasing amount of scientific support for the benefits of knowing at least two languages. Now, a new study published by the Annals of Neurology finds that you don’t even need to learn that second(or third, or fourth)tongue at a very young age: Picking up a new language even a little later in life can have serious cognitive(认知的)benefits for the aging brain. Many recent studies have pointed out that bilingualism seems to be good exercise for the brain and later in life might even help delay the onset of dementia. But what if it’ s a self-selecting crowd What if the people who learned two languages are just smarter to begin with To help rule that factor out, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied 853 people who first took an intelligence test in 1947 when they were about 11 years old as part of a group called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, and retested them again around 2008 to 2010, when they were in their early 70s. A total of 262 of the seventy-year-old reported having learned at least one language other than English enough to communicate in it. Of those, 195 said they learned it before age 18: 65 said they learned it thereafter. The researchers gave the participants a battery of cognitive tests, including tests of their verbal reasoning, their vocabulary and reading abilities, their verbal fluency and their ability to process information quickly. They found that bilingual speakers performed much better than expected from their baseline cognitive ability, particularly in reading and in general intelligence. And those who knew three or more languages performed even better. Learning a language seemed to make as much difference in people’s later-in-life cognitive decline as a gene that’ s been tied to risk of Alzheimer’ s disease and smoking habits. These participants mostly learned their second languages after age 11. The results actually make a very compelling point—you don’t have to be a fluent speaker of a language to get the benefits, and you can start later in life, too.Researchers at the University of Edinburgh tested______.

A.a self-selecting crowd
B.the smarter crowd
C.a group of people twice
D.people who once learned two languages
单项选择题

Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. These now iconic(偶像的)names were all 20-somethings when they started their companies that would throw them, and their enterprises, into some of the biggest successes ever known. Consid er this: many of the truly remarkable innovations of the latest generation—a list that includes Google, Facebook and Twitter—were all founded by people under 30. So what is it about that youthful decade after those awkward teenage years that inspires such shoot-for-the-moon success Does age really have something to do with it It does. Young people bring fresh eyes to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. 20-something entrepreneurs see no boundaries and see no limits. And they can make change happen. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, has another, colder theory that may explain it: Ultimately, it’ s about money. In other words, it’ s the young people who have nothing to lose, with no mortgage and, frankly, with nothing to do on a Friday night except work, who are the ones often willing to take the biggest risks. Sure, they are talented. But it’s their persistence and zeal(激情), the desire to stay up until 6 a.m. chugging Red Bull, that is the difference between being a salaried employee and an entrepreneur. That’s not to say that most 20-somethings are finding success. They’re not. The latest crop of U ber-suc cessful young entrepreneurs, designers and authors are far, far from the norm In truth, unemployment for workers age 16 to 24 is double the national average. One of the biggest challenges facing this next generation—and one that may prevent more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding—is the staggering rise in the level of debt college students have been left with. If Peter Thiel’ s theory is right, it is going to be harder and harder for young people to take big risks because they will be crushed with obligations before they even begin. If you’re over 29 years old and still haven’t made your world-changing mark, don’t despair. Some older people have had big breakthroughs, too. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the phonograph(留声机)until he was 30.All of the following are differences between being salaried employees and entrepreneurs EXCEPT ______.

A.their zeal
B.their talent
C.their persistence
D.their desire to stay up
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C7】

答案: 正确答案:M
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.Ad campaigns help companies raise their ranks of green reputation.

答案: 正确答案:I
单项选择题

Bilingual(双语的)education in schools has long been a political hot potato—it was banned in California by a 1998 ballot measure, which the state Senate is now asking voters to repeal. But politics aside, there’s an increasing amount of scientific support for the benefits of knowing at least two languages. Now, a new study published by the Annals of Neurology finds that you don’t even need to learn that second(or third, or fourth)tongue at a very young age: Picking up a new language even a little later in life can have serious cognitive(认知的)benefits for the aging brain. Many recent studies have pointed out that bilingualism seems to be good exercise for the brain and later in life might even help delay the onset of dementia. But what if it’ s a self-selecting crowd What if the people who learned two languages are just smarter to begin with To help rule that factor out, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied 853 people who first took an intelligence test in 1947 when they were about 11 years old as part of a group called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, and retested them again around 2008 to 2010, when they were in their early 70s. A total of 262 of the seventy-year-old reported having learned at least one language other than English enough to communicate in it. Of those, 195 said they learned it before age 18: 65 said they learned it thereafter. The researchers gave the participants a battery of cognitive tests, including tests of their verbal reasoning, their vocabulary and reading abilities, their verbal fluency and their ability to process information quickly. They found that bilingual speakers performed much better than expected from their baseline cognitive ability, particularly in reading and in general intelligence. And those who knew three or more languages performed even better. Learning a language seemed to make as much difference in people’s later-in-life cognitive decline as a gene that’ s been tied to risk of Alzheimer’ s disease and smoking habits. These participants mostly learned their second languages after age 11. The results actually make a very compelling point—you don’t have to be a fluent speaker of a language to get the benefits, and you can start later in life, too.It can be concluded from the study that______.

A.the bilingual speakers perform worse than those who only know one language
B.learning a language may have the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or smoking habits
C.people have to speak a new language fluently in order to gain some benefits
D.people can start to learn a new language later in life and still get the benefits
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C8】

答案: 正确答案:B
单项选择题

Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. These now iconic(偶像的)names were all 20-somethings when they started their companies that would throw them, and their enterprises, into some of the biggest successes ever known. Consid er this: many of the truly remarkable innovations of the latest generation—a list that includes Google, Facebook and Twitter—were all founded by people under 30. So what is it about that youthful decade after those awkward teenage years that inspires such shoot-for-the-moon success Does age really have something to do with it It does. Young people bring fresh eyes to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. 20-something entrepreneurs see no boundaries and see no limits. And they can make change happen. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, has another, colder theory that may explain it: Ultimately, it’ s about money. In other words, it’ s the young people who have nothing to lose, with no mortgage and, frankly, with nothing to do on a Friday night except work, who are the ones often willing to take the biggest risks. Sure, they are talented. But it’s their persistence and zeal(激情), the desire to stay up until 6 a.m. chugging Red Bull, that is the difference between being a salaried employee and an entrepreneur. That’s not to say that most 20-somethings are finding success. They’re not. The latest crop of U ber-suc cessful young entrepreneurs, designers and authors are far, far from the norm In truth, unemployment for workers age 16 to 24 is double the national average. One of the biggest challenges facing this next generation—and one that may prevent more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding—is the staggering rise in the level of debt college students have been left with. If Peter Thiel’ s theory is right, it is going to be harder and harder for young people to take big risks because they will be crushed with obligations before they even begin. If you’re over 29 years old and still haven’t made your world-changing mark, don’t despair. Some older people have had big breakthroughs, too. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the phonograph(留声机)until he was 30.The biggest challenge that may stop more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding is that______.

A.they are confronted with increasing obligations
B.their debts run up alarmingly and very unsteadily
C.they have more mortgage than other college students
D.they have far less wealth than their parents did at the same age
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.In America, it is common for hotels to appeal to customers to recycle towels.

答案: 正确答案:A
单项选择题

Bilingual(双语的)education in schools has long been a political hot potato—it was banned in California by a 1998 ballot measure, which the state Senate is now asking voters to repeal. But politics aside, there’s an increasing amount of scientific support for the benefits of knowing at least two languages. Now, a new study published by the Annals of Neurology finds that you don’t even need to learn that second(or third, or fourth)tongue at a very young age: Picking up a new language even a little later in life can have serious cognitive(认知的)benefits for the aging brain. Many recent studies have pointed out that bilingualism seems to be good exercise for the brain and later in life might even help delay the onset of dementia. But what if it’ s a self-selecting crowd What if the people who learned two languages are just smarter to begin with To help rule that factor out, researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland studied 853 people who first took an intelligence test in 1947 when they were about 11 years old as part of a group called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, and retested them again around 2008 to 2010, when they were in their early 70s. A total of 262 of the seventy-year-old reported having learned at least one language other than English enough to communicate in it. Of those, 195 said they learned it before age 18: 65 said they learned it thereafter. The researchers gave the participants a battery of cognitive tests, including tests of their verbal reasoning, their vocabulary and reading abilities, their verbal fluency and their ability to process information quickly. They found that bilingual speakers performed much better than expected from their baseline cognitive ability, particularly in reading and in general intelligence. And those who knew three or more languages performed even better. Learning a language seemed to make as much difference in people’s later-in-life cognitive decline as a gene that’ s been tied to risk of Alzheimer’ s disease and smoking habits. These participants mostly learned their second languages after age 11. The results actually make a very compelling point—you don’t have to be a fluent speaker of a language to get the benefits, and you can start later in life, too.The text mainly discusses______.

A.bilingual education in schools
B.how to learn a new language
C.the best time to learn a new language
D.advantages of learning a new language
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C9】

答案: 正确答案:I
单项选择题

Bill Gates was 20 years old. Steve Jobs was 21. Warren Buffett was 26. Ralph Lauren was 28. These now iconic(偶像的)names were all 20-somethings when they started their companies that would throw them, and their enterprises, into some of the biggest successes ever known. Consid er this: many of the truly remarkable innovations of the latest generation—a list that includes Google, Facebook and Twitter—were all founded by people under 30. So what is it about that youthful decade after those awkward teenage years that inspires such shoot-for-the-moon success Does age really have something to do with it It does. Young people bring fresh eyes to confronting problems and challenges that others have given up on. 20-something entrepreneurs see no boundaries and see no limits. And they can make change happen. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, has another, colder theory that may explain it: Ultimately, it’ s about money. In other words, it’ s the young people who have nothing to lose, with no mortgage and, frankly, with nothing to do on a Friday night except work, who are the ones often willing to take the biggest risks. Sure, they are talented. But it’s their persistence and zeal(激情), the desire to stay up until 6 a.m. chugging Red Bull, that is the difference between being a salaried employee and an entrepreneur. That’s not to say that most 20-somethings are finding success. They’re not. The latest crop of U ber-suc cessful young entrepreneurs, designers and authors are far, far from the norm In truth, unemployment for workers age 16 to 24 is double the national average. One of the biggest challenges facing this next generation—and one that may prevent more visionary entrepreneurs from succeeding—is the staggering rise in the level of debt college students have been left with. If Peter Thiel’ s theory is right, it is going to be harder and harder for young people to take big risks because they will be crushed with obligations before they even begin. If you’re over 29 years old and still haven’t made your world-changing mark, don’t despair. Some older people have had big breakthroughs, too. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the phonograph(留声机)until he was 30.With regard to 20-somethings’ success, we can learn from the text that______.

A.they succeed because of having money
B.older people can hardly make breakthroughs
C.it is uncommon among most young people
D.it is common in the field of information science and technology
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.It is estimated that seventy percent of the hotel guests are willing to participate in the green program and ask for fewer.

答案: 正确答案:D
问答题

Different things usually stand for different feelings. Red, for example, is the color of fire, heat, blood and life. People say red is an exciting and active color. They【C1】______red with a strong feeling like anger. Red is used for signs of【C2】______, such as STOP signs and fire engines. Orange is the bright, warm color of【C3】______in autumn. People say orange is a【C4】______color. They associate orange with happiness. Yellow is the color of【C5】______. People say it is a cheerful color. They associate yellow too, with happiness. Green is the cool color of grass in【C6】______. People say it is a refreshing color. In general, people talk about two groups of colors: warm colors and cool colors. The warm colors are red, orange and【C7】______. Where there are warm color and a lot of light, people usually want to be【C8】______. Those who like to be with others like red. The cool colors are black and blue. Where are these colors, people are usually worried. Some scientists say that time seems to go by more slowly in a room with warm colors. They suggest that a warm color is a good way for a living room or a【C9】______. People who are having a rest or are eating do not want time to pass quickly.【C10】______colors are better for some offices if the people working there want time to pass quickly.A)cool B)active C)directed D)sunlightE)delightful F)sleepy G)leaves H)hospitalI)restaurant J)associate K)hesitate L)springM)yellow N)danger O)black【C10】

答案: 正确答案:A
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.It does better to set up an ad campaign with eco-friendly slogans to enhance a company’s green reputation than do some actual practices.

答案: 正确答案:H
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.While name the activities as a green campaign, the hotels save money for providing less service to their customers.

答案: 正确答案:C
问答题

It Isn’ t Easy Being Green Green stories of hotelsA)Over the summer, I stayed at four hotels in the United States. They were all owned by different companies, but they had one thing in common: A little card on the bathroom counter telling me that the establishment was very concerned about the environment, and appealing to me to do my part to help them save the earth by hanging up my wet towels and using them again the next day. Two of the hotels also placed a card next to the bed informing me that housekeeping would not change the sheets unless I left the card on the pillow.B)It is true that keeping all those towels clean requires an enormous amount of electricity and water and soap, and that cutting down on the number of loads of laundry would be more eco-friendly than my insisting on a new towel each day. But am I a heartless cynic for doubting that a collective environmental anxiety has seized the hotel industryC)Here is an alternative explanation: All that water, soap, and electricity costs a lot of money and eats into the hotel’s profits. A little card on the counter telling customers that they won’t get new towels because the hotel doesn’t want to pay for laundry wouldn’t go over very well. But by couching it as a green campaign, the hotels actually get credit for providing less service to their customers, while pocketing the difference.D)Industry groups that advise hotels on becoming more environmentally friendly tend to stress the money they’ll save just as much as the benefits to the planet. "Why should hotels be green" asks the Green Hotels Association’s Web site. "Haven’t you heard Being green goes directly to your bottom line." The site explains that by getting guests to recycle towels and sheets, hotels can save 5 percent on utility bills. "Some days, housekeeping workers, who usually clean 15 rooms a day, don’t change a single bed," said one satisfied hotel owner, who estimates that "70 percent of people staying more than one night participate in the program." Another member reports that far fewer guests ask for new towels.E)So let’s review: We give up a nice luxury to save the hotel money: the hotel congratulates itself on being green for peer pressuring us into giving up the luxury under the excuse of environmental consciousness: the hotel keeps the money. Nice work. After all, even if profit is the motive, the net result is a reduction in the hotel’ s "carbon footprint". But here’ s what gets me: the hotels I stayed in this summer didn’t seem all that interested in being green when it came to other things. The lobby of the big resort was air conditioned to meet locker temperatures. All day long, that frosty air rushed out the vast double doors, which were left open in the July heat. The resort also had a fleet of big, gas guzzling(耗油的)vans idling at the curb to transport guests around the grounds. Green stories of companiesF)Hotels are not the only offenders in this kind of green fakery. Some companies have embraced conservation for real. They build headquarters with solar panels and rainwater collection systems: they think of the environmental impact of every aspect of their businesses and actually change the way they do things to reduce waste. But this is labor intensive, often expensive, and takes commitment. Faced with that, many corporations take a different approach: They don’t do much of anything to change the way they do business, but make a big show of their contribution to Mother Earth.G)It’s usually easy to spot these companies: They make their customers do the work, and then take the credit. In the name of saving the planet, my cable TV operator keeps asking for permission to stop sending paper statements in the mail each month. Instead, firms are supposed to check my statement online. The real reason, of course, is that doing so would save them paper, printing and postage. This is a perfectly reasonable reason for them to want me to switch. But when they pretend that it’ s all about the environment, it just makes me hate my cable company even more than I already do.Green stories of ad campaignsH)Sometimes a good ad campaign does a better job of enhancing a company’s green reputation than going through the expense and difficulty of adopting actual environmentally sound practices. Billboards in Washington appeal to me to join the cause. "I will unplug stuff more," reads one. Another says, "I will at least consider buying a hybrid(合成物)." These ads are the work of Chevron, the giant oil company, whose "Will You Join Us" ads try to convince people that saving the planet is at the top of their fist. You might think that if Chevron was really worried about problems like global warming, they would spend some of those dollars lobbying Congress to adopt stricter gas mileage(英里数)requirements for automobiles. They do not do this. Instead, firms are apparently supposed to praise them as environmental heroes because they tell me to unplug my toaster and think about getting a Toyota Prius.I)Yet, ad campaigns like these work. Chevron lands at No. 371 out of 500 companies on Newsweek’ s green ranks. But it claims the No. 62 spot when it comes to green reputation thanks in part to those pretty, polished ads. Green marketing has also helped Wal-Mart appear kinder and gentler in recent years. To be fair, the retailing giant has done more than redesign its logo. The company, which ranks 59th on Newsweek’ s list, has embraced a series of in-house green initiatives and is demanding its suppliers do the same. The result: Wal-Mart scores first place in our reputation survey.J)Given the power of positive marketing, it’s easy to see why those little towel cards are so popular enough so that there are now a lot of companies that market them to hotels, along with all manner of products intended to make customers feel good about themselves while helping the hotels feel good about their bank balances. I suppose it is time that I step up and do my part. On behalf of the planet I will dutifully sleep on day-old sheets. But please, for the love of all that is good and right, keep the towels coming.All day long, frosty air rushed out the vast double doors of the lobby in the July heat.

答案: 正确答案:E
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