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Belgium may appear to outsiders as a good example of ethnic power sharing, but the last time the French-speaking Walloons supplied the country’s Prime Minister was in 1978. So, in Sunday’s national elections, they are itching to smash the Flemish grip on the top job. A victory by the leading French-speaking candidate, Elio Di Rupo, would make history not only because of his language, but as Europe’s first openly gay Prime Minister. As leader of the Socialist Party (PS) in Wallonia— and also the region’s minister-president—Di Rupo, 55, is the heavyweight of Francophone politics. And the fact that his origins are Italian, Belgium’s second-largest immigrant community after Moroccans, adds a third dimension to the identity challenge represented by his candidacy. But the dapper, bow-tied Di Rupo is handicapped by recurrent scandals in his Socialist Party, and has been criticized for his poor command of the Flemish language. His main rival from Wallonia is Didier Reynders, the head of the liberal Reform Movement (MR), a 48-year-old energetic business-oriented conservative who hopes to catch some of the bounce from Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent victory in France. Reynders, who is also Finance Minister, was even in Paris on May 6 to celebrate Sarkozy’s triumph. Both Di Rupo and Reynders believe that Francophones are long overdue a turn at the premiership. Their community accounts for just 40% of the country’s 10.6 million population, but they believe they are in their best position for over a generation to claim the premiership, believing they have overcome negative perceptions of the Walloon community by their Flemish neighbors. Still, even doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting the top job. Pierre Blaise of the Crisp political research center, explains: "Forming a government in Belgium is a two-step process. You have to first hold the election and see the arithmetic of the results. Then you have to negotiate on the coalition, which is not just about the Prime Minister, but all the other ministers and the overall government mandate. If Di Rupo or Reynders do well in the election, we would then have to see if they can negotiate as well." Belgium became independent in 1830 after a Francophone revolt against the country’s Dutch rulers. Cultural and linguistic tensions have been a constant throughout its history, but Belgium’s politicians have been remarkably adept at developing compromise mechanisms to maintain a tenuous balance between Flemish and French-speakers whose famously separate communities have different economic profiles, tastes, influences and habits. Talk of devolution is rife, and last December French state broadcaster RTBF interrupted its regular programming to announce that Flanders had declared independence. Viewers were shocked by the grainy footage of King Albert II and Queen Paola heading for the airport to flee the country. The program was an elaborate hoax, but the outrage it provoked appeared to underline the fragility of the country. Under the circumstances, the election campaign has been comparatively restrained on the issues that divide the two communities. Despite their differences, the evidence suggests that both the Flemish and the Walloons are loath to split: A survey March revealed that both 93% Flemings and 98% Walloons wanted Belgium to continue to exist in some form—although only 40% believed it would 50 years from now. Despite the optimism of Di Rupo and Reynders, the favorites for the Prime Minister’s job remain Flemish: Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme: Socialist Party leader Johan Vande Lanotte; and Flemish Liberal leader and outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Front-runner Leterme, 46, has sparked anger by saying that the Belgian nation is an "accident of history" with "no intrinsic value", and accusing Francophones of "lacking the mental capacity to learn Dutch". But even if he emerges as Prime Minister, French speakers should not be too distraught. As Leterme is the son of a Francophone father, they could even claim he is one of theirs.The election campaign in Belgium is restrained because______.

A．there is fierce competition among candidates
B．doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting premiership
C．the Flemish and French communities have economic and cultural tensions
D．a gay man was elected Prime Minister of the country
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Wal-Mart doesn’t just want you to buy gas and groceries at its superstores these days. Now it wants your entire paycheck. On Wednesday, the nation’s largest retailer unveiled plans to open 1,000 in-store MoneyCenters aimed at serving the 40 million or so people without traditional bank accounts. The main draw at the centers, which will be in about a quarter of all Wal-Mart stores by the end of 2008, is the cashing of government and printed payroll checks for the bargain price of $3 a pop. The retailer is also debuting a reloadable, prepaid Visa debit card that does not require a bank account or proof of US citizenship. This broad rollout of low-priced check-cashing and debit cards marks a milestone for the millions of "unbanked" Americans who have long had to pay rates as high as 10% of the face value of their paychecks in order to cash them and then pay cash for every single purchase they make because they do not qualify for a credit card or checking account. "These are our core customers. We probably have more than others of this underserved customer," says Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart Financial Services, who notes that the average check-cashing customer at Wal-Mart earns $350 per paycheck and has never had a credit card before. It’s also good business. While traditional banks have struggled to attract the unbanked without outrageous charges, check cashers and payday loaners raked in an estimated $11 billion in fees from this $1 trillion economy. Cleveland-based KeyBank, for example, has attracted just 5,500 new customers in the past two years with its own check-cashing business, but has yet to make a profit from it. One problem is that people who have never had a bank account are distrustful of banks as a whole and feel unwelcome in institutions where they could not qualify for a checking account in the first place, because of lack of proper ID or employment history. Even when banks do try to reach out to this population—such as Bank of America’s new credit card that does not require a valid Social Security number—there has been a backlash among opponents of illegal immigration. The new centers leave plenty of room for the Wal-Mart to work with partners to add even more financial services such as mortgages and home equity loans later, something the company has not ruled out and competitors are already bracing for. Although Wal-Mart withdrew its bid earlier this year to become a full-fledged bank, amid opposition from community banks that feared such a move would put them out of business, Wal-Mart’s new Money Centers and MoneyCards are giving them a significant foothold in the financial services industry. The centers currently offer money orders, bill payment and phone cards in a newly designated space painted a bright, "firefly gold" in each store. Because the counters are open from 7 am to 9 pm seven days a week, they are as quick and convenient as anything but 24-hour check cashers. The $3 check-cashing fee is far lower than the average 1% to 3% charged by regular check cashers, and the Visa MoneyCards cost $8.94 plus a $4.94 monthly maintenance fee. As with any Visa card, a PIN number or signature is required for each transaction, and the card can be cancelled immediately if lost or stolen. Check-cashing services have actually been available at Wal-Mart for several years. But until now customers had to wait in long customer service lines instead of having designated counters where they can make these transactions. "They are making this a priority and making it more visible to the consumer. This is something they really care about," says Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit that does research and advocacy work for the unbanked. "It doesn’t matter whether or not they have a bank charter." And as countless small retailers can tell you, when Wal-Mart decides it cares about a business, it usually finds a way to dominate it.The second paragraph of the passage serves to______.

A．introduce a piece of news
B．bring in a debate
C．explain a phenomenon
D．intensify a theme
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Belgium may appear to outsiders as a good example of ethnic power sharing, but the last time the French-speaking Walloons supplied the country’s Prime Minister was in 1978. So, in Sunday’s national elections, they are itching to smash the Flemish grip on the top job. A victory by the leading French-speaking candidate, Elio Di Rupo, would make history not only because of his language, but as Europe’s first openly gay Prime Minister. As leader of the Socialist Party (PS) in Wallonia— and also the region’s minister-president—Di Rupo, 55, is the heavyweight of Francophone politics. And the fact that his origins are Italian, Belgium’s second-largest immigrant community after Moroccans, adds a third dimension to the identity challenge represented by his candidacy. But the dapper, bow-tied Di Rupo is handicapped by recurrent scandals in his Socialist Party, and has been criticized for his poor command of the Flemish language. His main rival from Wallonia is Didier Reynders, the head of the liberal Reform Movement (MR), a 48-year-old energetic business-oriented conservative who hopes to catch some of the bounce from Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent victory in France. Reynders, who is also Finance Minister, was even in Paris on May 6 to celebrate Sarkozy’s triumph. Both Di Rupo and Reynders believe that Francophones are long overdue a turn at the premiership. Their community accounts for just 40% of the country’s 10.6 million population, but they believe they are in their best position for over a generation to claim the premiership, believing they have overcome negative perceptions of the Walloon community by their Flemish neighbors. Still, even doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting the top job. Pierre Blaise of the Crisp political research center, explains: "Forming a government in Belgium is a two-step process. You have to first hold the election and see the arithmetic of the results. Then you have to negotiate on the coalition, which is not just about the Prime Minister, but all the other ministers and the overall government mandate. If Di Rupo or Reynders do well in the election, we would then have to see if they can negotiate as well." Belgium became independent in 1830 after a Francophone revolt against the country’s Dutch rulers. Cultural and linguistic tensions have been a constant throughout its history, but Belgium’s politicians have been remarkably adept at developing compromise mechanisms to maintain a tenuous balance between Flemish and French-speakers whose famously separate communities have different economic profiles, tastes, influences and habits. Talk of devolution is rife, and last December French state broadcaster RTBF interrupted its regular programming to announce that Flanders had declared independence. Viewers were shocked by the grainy footage of King Albert II and Queen Paola heading for the airport to flee the country. The program was an elaborate hoax, but the outrage it provoked appeared to underline the fragility of the country. Under the circumstances, the election campaign has been comparatively restrained on the issues that divide the two communities. Despite their differences, the evidence suggests that both the Flemish and the Walloons are loath to split: A survey March revealed that both 93% Flemings and 98% Walloons wanted Belgium to continue to exist in some form—although only 40% believed it would 50 years from now. Despite the optimism of Di Rupo and Reynders, the favorites for the Prime Minister’s job remain Flemish: Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme: Socialist Party leader Johan Vande Lanotte; and Flemish Liberal leader and outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Front-runner Leterme, 46, has sparked anger by saying that the Belgian nation is an "accident of history" with "no intrinsic value", and accusing Francophones of "lacking the mental capacity to learn Dutch". But even if he emerges as Prime Minister, French speakers should not be too distraught. As Leterme is the son of a Francophone father, they could even claim he is one of theirs.The writing skill mainly used in the passage is______.

A．illustration
B．argumentation
C．narration
D．description
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Recreational cycling appears to have peaked in the US, its popularity cresting sometime during Lance Armstrong’s record runs at the Tour de France. But as the sport has lost enthusiasts overall, a surprising demographic has stuck around and even begun to dominate the trails and bike paths of the US, if not yet the world: retirees and near retirees. People ages 45 to 64 account for 20% of all those over age 7 who rode a bike at least six times last year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. That’s up from 13% a decade ago. Yes, this age bracket is expanding as a percentage of the overall population, but demographics can’t tell the whole story. After all, golf— the quintessential 50-plus sport—is moving in reverse, at least in some respects. Last year, for the first time in 60 years, more golf courses shut down than started up, and the number of frequent golfers declined. The appeal of cycling is most pronounced among the youngest baby boomers (ages 45 to 54), who are also tackling other vigorous leisure activities including hiking and running marathons. Such pursuits embody the active later lifestyle that much of the boomer generation has come to adopt, and which has been embraced as the ad media’s new image of older Americans at leisure. Certainly, semi-seniors wake up the morning after a vigorous outing with more aches and pains than they had in their 20s, but the physical benefits exceed the cost. Regular exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, keeps weight down and improves mental outlook. This is all good news. Yet there is more at work in the biking trend than a desire to stay fit. Armstrong’s string of wins starting in 1999 might have made cycling cool, and health concerns might have made it smart, but technology made it accessible. If you’ve been eager to take up the sport but are put off by the discomfort of a traditional bicycle, take another look. Many of today’s models come with bigger seats and higher handlebars—easing the strain on bottoms and backs—and even automatic gear shifting. Features like these have helped create a whole new line of bikes, known as hybrid or comfort, the latter word particularly appealing to older riders. The very hottest part of the market is road bikes, which also appeal to boomers who may be giving up on yesterday’s phenomenon—less comfortable mountain bikes, a category in which sales have tailed off dramatically. With its grayish skew, could cycling become the new golf A number of things suggest it already is. Stories increasingly surface of businesspeople cutting deals or doctors swapping medical techniques while on a ride, as opposed to the fourth tee. Early this month, at a gathering of the Neurosurgical Society of America in Kohler, Wis., the docs for the first time had the option of skipping an afternoon on the links and instead going for a group ride—and at least 20 signed up. The Kohler outing was put together by Trek Travel which arranges cycling events around the world and is benefiting from the graying of the sport; 85% of its clients are ages 45 to 60. "There’s been a huge upswing in ourroup-travel business," says sales manager Michael Meholic. While plenty of Trek Travel’s trips are for business groups, the majority are still for folks taking up the sport as a means of maintaining or establishing social groups and staying connected with kids and grandkids. Among the top trends in cycling-related travel are programs that include children, says Cari Gray, a spokeswoman for Butterfield & Robinson which arranges cycling trips around the world. Gray says clients value intimacy with the countryside, which you can’t get on a tour bus, as well as the personal time they get with loved ones. But that doesn’t mean boomers aren’t serious cyclers. "People have epiphanies on our trips all the time— climbing a hill they thought they couldn’t or going farther than they thought they could," says Gray. B&R clients are mostly 45-plus, and she says they are far better riders today than the firm’s clients were 10 years ago. "Boomers are different," she says. "They want more from their vacation than a hangover and a tan."The main idea of the passage is that______.

A．recreational cycling is gaining popularity in the US
B．baby boomers are popularizing cycling in the US
C．golf is losing its appeal to cycling in the US
D．more senior population is now engaging in cycling in the US
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These days companies might be keeping a close eye on costs and CEO pay, but execs are increasingly bingeing on corporate travel. Even as the commercial airlines have upgraded first- and business-class cabins and new premium-class-only carriers have emerged to attract business fliers, many executives consider private-jet use preferable to commercial flying because it can be more time-efficient while allowing for a personal touch in business. But as private jets increasingly clog the skies, airline groups and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are demanding that they take on more fiscal responsibility in the booming industry. For every airline aircraft in US skies there are now two corporate aircraft—that’s 18,000 planes, up from 1,800 in 1970. Jeff Roberts, group president of CAE, a billion-dollar aviation simulation and training company, says that the past four years brought a 40% increase in the deliveries of business aircraft worldwide. The FAA forecasts that at least 9,000 new corporate jets will be delivered over the next decade, adding 10% more annual flying time compared with 3% for commercial jets. That provides an estimated $227 billion to corporate jet manufacturers, such as Bombardier, Embraer and Dassault. Roberts adds that the new very light jet category alone could account for up to 4,000 deliveries over the next 10 years. (Honda’s first foray into the business jet market, the twin-engined advanced light jet, is expected to roll out in 2010.) An increased demand for corporate jets has also brought a need for more pilot training. By some estimates up to 20,000 new pilots for both corporate and commercial jets are needed globally each year to account for a disruption in the supply chain that occurred over the last five years. CAE provides training to pilots at 24 training centers worldwide, four of which are devoted exclusively to business-jet training. One such facility, the SimuFlite North East Training Center, opened last week in Whippany, N.J., and has six flight simulators for training on models from the Gulfstream 4 to the Rolls Royce of corporate jets, the Falcon 7X. Due to high demand, CAE plans to add six more simulators to that center, and will open its 25th training facility next year in Bangalore, India. At $15 million a pop, these simulators don’t come cheap. Approved by the FAA (and sometimes also by the Joint Aviation Authorities in Europe), each simulator has digitized versions of the 85 largest airports in the world, runs on the equivalent processing power of 500 Xboxes and does everything the same model aircraft would do. Being able to safely navigate through low visibility and a ceiling of 800 ft. or to land smoothly after a fire in the left wing’s engine prepares pilots for their first experience piloting an actual aircraft, which could be loaded with passengers. But as executive travelers and manufacturers laud the global corporate jet boom, the FAA, airline groups and commercial airlines are less enthused. They contend that not only do corporate jets add to traffic congestion in the airspace, but the six types of taxes that are built into commercial passengers’ ticket prices effectively subsidize the aviation system and facilities used by corporate jets. By one estimate, various fees and taxes paid by commercial passengers have totaled $104 billion over the past decade. Corporate jets, on the other hand, pay only about 6% in taxes and fees for flying and for using the federal Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. "The airlines pay a disproportionate part of the system," says FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. "Business jets are an important part of the general aviation category and under the current structure [they] don’t pay for the financial system." Commercial airlines and their passengers pay about 95% of the taxes but only account for 73% of the costs of the air traffic system, according to FAA administrator Marion Blakey. The idea coming before Congress is to overhaul the current system in favor of satellite GPS technology and aviation-funding strategies that would also include a new user-fee system to bring the amount that corporate fliers contribute in line with their use of the ATC and airports. Some in the industry wonder, however, if this kind of corporate accountability will get off the ground.The passage is mainly about______.

A．corporate CEO’s travels by jets
B．the increasing popularity of jet industry
C．an argument over the booming industry of jet travelling
D．an increasing demand for jet training
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Belgium may appear to outsiders as a good example of ethnic power sharing, but the last time the French-speaking Walloons supplied the country’s Prime Minister was in 1978. So, in Sunday’s national elections, they are itching to smash the Flemish grip on the top job. A victory by the leading French-speaking candidate, Elio Di Rupo, would make history not only because of his language, but as Europe’s first openly gay Prime Minister. As leader of the Socialist Party (PS) in Wallonia— and also the region’s minister-president—Di Rupo, 55, is the heavyweight of Francophone politics. And the fact that his origins are Italian, Belgium’s second-largest immigrant community after Moroccans, adds a third dimension to the identity challenge represented by his candidacy. But the dapper, bow-tied Di Rupo is handicapped by recurrent scandals in his Socialist Party, and has been criticized for his poor command of the Flemish language. His main rival from Wallonia is Didier Reynders, the head of the liberal Reform Movement (MR), a 48-year-old energetic business-oriented conservative who hopes to catch some of the bounce from Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent victory in France. Reynders, who is also Finance Minister, was even in Paris on May 6 to celebrate Sarkozy’s triumph. Both Di Rupo and Reynders believe that Francophones are long overdue a turn at the premiership. Their community accounts for just 40% of the country’s 10.6 million population, but they believe they are in their best position for over a generation to claim the premiership, believing they have overcome negative perceptions of the Walloon community by their Flemish neighbors. Still, even doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting the top job. Pierre Blaise of the Crisp political research center, explains: "Forming a government in Belgium is a two-step process. You have to first hold the election and see the arithmetic of the results. Then you have to negotiate on the coalition, which is not just about the Prime Minister, but all the other ministers and the overall government mandate. If Di Rupo or Reynders do well in the election, we would then have to see if they can negotiate as well." Belgium became independent in 1830 after a Francophone revolt against the country’s Dutch rulers. Cultural and linguistic tensions have been a constant throughout its history, but Belgium’s politicians have been remarkably adept at developing compromise mechanisms to maintain a tenuous balance between Flemish and French-speakers whose famously separate communities have different economic profiles, tastes, influences and habits. Talk of devolution is rife, and last December French state broadcaster RTBF interrupted its regular programming to announce that Flanders had declared independence. Viewers were shocked by the grainy footage of King Albert II and Queen Paola heading for the airport to flee the country. The program was an elaborate hoax, but the outrage it provoked appeared to underline the fragility of the country. Under the circumstances, the election campaign has been comparatively restrained on the issues that divide the two communities. Despite their differences, the evidence suggests that both the Flemish and the Walloons are loath to split: A survey March revealed that both 93% Flemings and 98% Walloons wanted Belgium to continue to exist in some form—although only 40% believed it would 50 years from now. Despite the optimism of Di Rupo and Reynders, the favorites for the Prime Minister’s job remain Flemish: Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme: Socialist Party leader Johan Vande Lanotte; and Flemish Liberal leader and outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Front-runner Leterme, 46, has sparked anger by saying that the Belgian nation is an "accident of history" with "no intrinsic value", and accusing Francophones of "lacking the mental capacity to learn Dutch". But even if he emerges as Prime Minister, French speakers should not be too distraught. As Leterme is the son of a Francophone father, they could even claim he is one of theirs.According to the author, all of the following about Elio Di Rupo are true EXCEPT that______.

A．he does not speak Flemish well
B．he is not of French origin but he speaks French
C．he is handicapped
D．he is publicly known as a gay
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Wal-Mart doesn’t just want you to buy gas and groceries at its superstores these days. Now it wants your entire paycheck. On Wednesday, the nation’s largest retailer unveiled plans to open 1,000 in-store MoneyCenters aimed at serving the 40 million or so people without traditional bank accounts. The main draw at the centers, which will be in about a quarter of all Wal-Mart stores by the end of 2008, is the cashing of government and printed payroll checks for the bargain price of $3 a pop. The retailer is also debuting a reloadable, prepaid Visa debit card that does not require a bank account or proof of US citizenship. This broad rollout of low-priced check-cashing and debit cards marks a milestone for the millions of "unbanked" Americans who have long had to pay rates as high as 10% of the face value of their paychecks in order to cash them and then pay cash for every single purchase they make because they do not qualify for a credit card or checking account. "These are our core customers. We probably have more than others of this underserved customer," says Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart Financial Services, who notes that the average check-cashing customer at Wal-Mart earns $350 per paycheck and has never had a credit card before. It’s also good business. While traditional banks have struggled to attract the unbanked without outrageous charges, check cashers and payday loaners raked in an estimated $11 billion in fees from this $1 trillion economy. Cleveland-based KeyBank, for example, has attracted just 5,500 new customers in the past two years with its own check-cashing business, but has yet to make a profit from it. One problem is that people who have never had a bank account are distrustful of banks as a whole and feel unwelcome in institutions where they could not qualify for a checking account in the first place, because of lack of proper ID or employment history. Even when banks do try to reach out to this population—such as Bank of America’s new credit card that does not require a valid Social Security number—there has been a backlash among opponents of illegal immigration. The new centers leave plenty of room for the Wal-Mart to work with partners to add even more financial services such as mortgages and home equity loans later, something the company has not ruled out and competitors are already bracing for. Although Wal-Mart withdrew its bid earlier this year to become a full-fledged bank, amid opposition from community banks that feared such a move would put them out of business, Wal-Mart’s new Money Centers and MoneyCards are giving them a significant foothold in the financial services industry. The centers currently offer money orders, bill payment and phone cards in a newly designated space painted a bright, "firefly gold" in each store. Because the counters are open from 7 am to 9 pm seven days a week, they are as quick and convenient as anything but 24-hour check cashers. The $3 check-cashing fee is far lower than the average 1% to 3% charged by regular check cashers, and the Visa MoneyCards cost $8.94 plus a $4.94 monthly maintenance fee. As with any Visa card, a PIN number or signature is required for each transaction, and the card can be cancelled immediately if lost or stolen. Check-cashing services have actually been available at Wal-Mart for several years. But until now customers had to wait in long customer service lines instead of having designated counters where they can make these transactions. "They are making this a priority and making it more visible to the consumer. This is something they really care about," says Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit that does research and advocacy work for the unbanked. "It doesn’t matter whether or not they have a bank charter." And as countless small retailers can tell you, when Wal-Mart decides it cares about a business, it usually finds a way to dominate it.All of the following are true about KeyBank’s experience EXCEPT that______.

A．it has lost a large sum of money
B．it struggled to attract "unbanked" customers
C．it has raked in a lot of money
D．unbanked customers may lack trust in it
单项选择题

Recreational cycling appears to have peaked in the US, its popularity cresting sometime during Lance Armstrong’s record runs at the Tour de France. But as the sport has lost enthusiasts overall, a surprising demographic has stuck around and even begun to dominate the trails and bike paths of the US, if not yet the world: retirees and near retirees. People ages 45 to 64 account for 20% of all those over age 7 who rode a bike at least six times last year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. That’s up from 13% a decade ago. Yes, this age bracket is expanding as a percentage of the overall population, but demographics can’t tell the whole story. After all, golf— the quintessential 50-plus sport—is moving in reverse, at least in some respects. Last year, for the first time in 60 years, more golf courses shut down than started up, and the number of frequent golfers declined. The appeal of cycling is most pronounced among the youngest baby boomers (ages 45 to 54), who are also tackling other vigorous leisure activities including hiking and running marathons. Such pursuits embody the active later lifestyle that much of the boomer generation has come to adopt, and which has been embraced as the ad media’s new image of older Americans at leisure. Certainly, semi-seniors wake up the morning after a vigorous outing with more aches and pains than they had in their 20s, but the physical benefits exceed the cost. Regular exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, keeps weight down and improves mental outlook. This is all good news. Yet there is more at work in the biking trend than a desire to stay fit. Armstrong’s string of wins starting in 1999 might have made cycling cool, and health concerns might have made it smart, but technology made it accessible. If you’ve been eager to take up the sport but are put off by the discomfort of a traditional bicycle, take another look. Many of today’s models come with bigger seats and higher handlebars—easing the strain on bottoms and backs—and even automatic gear shifting. Features like these have helped create a whole new line of bikes, known as hybrid or comfort, the latter word particularly appealing to older riders. The very hottest part of the market is road bikes, which also appeal to boomers who may be giving up on yesterday’s phenomenon—less comfortable mountain bikes, a category in which sales have tailed off dramatically. With its grayish skew, could cycling become the new golf A number of things suggest it already is. Stories increasingly surface of businesspeople cutting deals or doctors swapping medical techniques while on a ride, as opposed to the fourth tee. Early this month, at a gathering of the Neurosurgical Society of America in Kohler, Wis., the docs for the first time had the option of skipping an afternoon on the links and instead going for a group ride—and at least 20 signed up. The Kohler outing was put together by Trek Travel which arranges cycling events around the world and is benefiting from the graying of the sport; 85% of its clients are ages 45 to 60. "There’s been a huge upswing in ourroup-travel business," says sales manager Michael Meholic. While plenty of Trek Travel’s trips are for business groups, the majority are still for folks taking up the sport as a means of maintaining or establishing social groups and staying connected with kids and grandkids. Among the top trends in cycling-related travel are programs that include children, says Cari Gray, a spokeswoman for Butterfield & Robinson which arranges cycling trips around the world. Gray says clients value intimacy with the countryside, which you can’t get on a tour bus, as well as the personal time they get with loved ones. But that doesn’t mean boomers aren’t serious cyclers. "People have epiphanies on our trips all the time— climbing a hill they thought they couldn’t or going farther than they thought they could," says Gray. B&R clients are mostly 45-plus, and she says they are far better riders today than the firm’s clients were 10 years ago. "Boomers are different," she says. "They want more from their vacation than a hangover and a tan."It can be learned from the passage that baby boomers______.

A．were born between WWI and WWII
B．love cycling more than anything else
C．now like mountain bikes most
D．are very active at leisure time
单项选择题

These days companies might be keeping a close eye on costs and CEO pay, but execs are increasingly bingeing on corporate travel. Even as the commercial airlines have upgraded first- and business-class cabins and new premium-class-only carriers have emerged to attract business fliers, many executives consider private-jet use preferable to commercial flying because it can be more time-efficient while allowing for a personal touch in business. But as private jets increasingly clog the skies, airline groups and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are demanding that they take on more fiscal responsibility in the booming industry. For every airline aircraft in US skies there are now two corporate aircraft—that’s 18,000 planes, up from 1,800 in 1970. Jeff Roberts, group president of CAE, a billion-dollar aviation simulation and training company, says that the past four years brought a 40% increase in the deliveries of business aircraft worldwide. The FAA forecasts that at least 9,000 new corporate jets will be delivered over the next decade, adding 10% more annual flying time compared with 3% for commercial jets. That provides an estimated $227 billion to corporate jet manufacturers, such as Bombardier, Embraer and Dassault. Roberts adds that the new very light jet category alone could account for up to 4,000 deliveries over the next 10 years. (Honda’s first foray into the business jet market, the twin-engined advanced light jet, is expected to roll out in 2010.) An increased demand for corporate jets has also brought a need for more pilot training. By some estimates up to 20,000 new pilots for both corporate and commercial jets are needed globally each year to account for a disruption in the supply chain that occurred over the last five years. CAE provides training to pilots at 24 training centers worldwide, four of which are devoted exclusively to business-jet training. One such facility, the SimuFlite North East Training Center, opened last week in Whippany, N.J., and has six flight simulators for training on models from the Gulfstream 4 to the Rolls Royce of corporate jets, the Falcon 7X. Due to high demand, CAE plans to add six more simulators to that center, and will open its 25th training facility next year in Bangalore, India. At $15 million a pop, these simulators don’t come cheap. Approved by the FAA (and sometimes also by the Joint Aviation Authorities in Europe), each simulator has digitized versions of the 85 largest airports in the world, runs on the equivalent processing power of 500 Xboxes and does everything the same model aircraft would do. Being able to safely navigate through low visibility and a ceiling of 800 ft. or to land smoothly after a fire in the left wing’s engine prepares pilots for their first experience piloting an actual aircraft, which could be loaded with passengers. But as executive travelers and manufacturers laud the global corporate jet boom, the FAA, airline groups and commercial airlines are less enthused. They contend that not only do corporate jets add to traffic congestion in the airspace, but the six types of taxes that are built into commercial passengers’ ticket prices effectively subsidize the aviation system and facilities used by corporate jets. By one estimate, various fees and taxes paid by commercial passengers have totaled $104 billion over the past decade. Corporate jets, on the other hand, pay only about 6% in taxes and fees for flying and for using the federal Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. "The airlines pay a disproportionate part of the system," says FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. "Business jets are an important part of the general aviation category and under the current structure [they] don’t pay for the financial system." Commercial airlines and their passengers pay about 95% of the taxes but only account for 73% of the costs of the air traffic system, according to FAA administrator Marion Blakey. The idea coming before Congress is to overhaul the current system in favor of satellite GPS technology and aviation-funding strategies that would also include a new user-fee system to bring the amount that corporate fliers contribute in line with their use of the ATC and airports. Some in the industry wonder, however, if this kind of corporate accountability will get off the ground.The SimuFlite North East Training Center is mentioned in the passage to show______.

A．it is one of the largest training centers for pilots
B．how jet pilots are trained
C．booming jet industry facilitates pilot training
D．upgraded facilities are essential to pilot training
单项选择题

Wal-Mart doesn’t just want you to buy gas and groceries at its superstores these days. Now it wants your entire paycheck. On Wednesday, the nation’s largest retailer unveiled plans to open 1,000 in-store MoneyCenters aimed at serving the 40 million or so people without traditional bank accounts. The main draw at the centers, which will be in about a quarter of all Wal-Mart stores by the end of 2008, is the cashing of government and printed payroll checks for the bargain price of $3 a pop. The retailer is also debuting a reloadable, prepaid Visa debit card that does not require a bank account or proof of US citizenship. This broad rollout of low-priced check-cashing and debit cards marks a milestone for the millions of "unbanked" Americans who have long had to pay rates as high as 10% of the face value of their paychecks in order to cash them and then pay cash for every single purchase they make because they do not qualify for a credit card or checking account. "These are our core customers. We probably have more than others of this underserved customer," says Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart Financial Services, who notes that the average check-cashing customer at Wal-Mart earns $350 per paycheck and has never had a credit card before. It’s also good business. While traditional banks have struggled to attract the unbanked without outrageous charges, check cashers and payday loaners raked in an estimated $11 billion in fees from this $1 trillion economy. Cleveland-based KeyBank, for example, has attracted just 5,500 new customers in the past two years with its own check-cashing business, but has yet to make a profit from it. One problem is that people who have never had a bank account are distrustful of banks as a whole and feel unwelcome in institutions where they could not qualify for a checking account in the first place, because of lack of proper ID or employment history. Even when banks do try to reach out to this population—such as Bank of America’s new credit card that does not require a valid Social Security number—there has been a backlash among opponents of illegal immigration. The new centers leave plenty of room for the Wal-Mart to work with partners to add even more financial services such as mortgages and home equity loans later, something the company has not ruled out and competitors are already bracing for. Although Wal-Mart withdrew its bid earlier this year to become a full-fledged bank, amid opposition from community banks that feared such a move would put them out of business, Wal-Mart’s new Money Centers and MoneyCards are giving them a significant foothold in the financial services industry. The centers currently offer money orders, bill payment and phone cards in a newly designated space painted a bright, "firefly gold" in each store. Because the counters are open from 7 am to 9 pm seven days a week, they are as quick and convenient as anything but 24-hour check cashers. The $3 check-cashing fee is far lower than the average 1% to 3% charged by regular check cashers, and the Visa MoneyCards cost $8.94 plus a $4.94 monthly maintenance fee. As with any Visa card, a PIN number or signature is required for each transaction, and the card can be cancelled immediately if lost or stolen. Check-cashing services have actually been available at Wal-Mart for several years. But until now customers had to wait in long customer service lines instead of having designated counters where they can make these transactions. "They are making this a priority and making it more visible to the consumer. This is something they really care about," says Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit that does research and advocacy work for the unbanked. "It doesn’t matter whether or not they have a bank charter." And as countless small retailers can tell you, when Wal-Mart decides it cares about a business, it usually finds a way to dominate it.According to the passage, the "unbanked" consumers______.

A．have credit cards
B．have checking accounts
C．probably welcome Wal-Mart’s new plan
D．trust no banks
单项选择题

Belgium may appear to outsiders as a good example of ethnic power sharing, but the last time the French-speaking Walloons supplied the country’s Prime Minister was in 1978. So, in Sunday’s national elections, they are itching to smash the Flemish grip on the top job. A victory by the leading French-speaking candidate, Elio Di Rupo, would make history not only because of his language, but as Europe’s first openly gay Prime Minister. As leader of the Socialist Party (PS) in Wallonia— and also the region’s minister-president—Di Rupo, 55, is the heavyweight of Francophone politics. And the fact that his origins are Italian, Belgium’s second-largest immigrant community after Moroccans, adds a third dimension to the identity challenge represented by his candidacy. But the dapper, bow-tied Di Rupo is handicapped by recurrent scandals in his Socialist Party, and has been criticized for his poor command of the Flemish language. His main rival from Wallonia is Didier Reynders, the head of the liberal Reform Movement (MR), a 48-year-old energetic business-oriented conservative who hopes to catch some of the bounce from Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent victory in France. Reynders, who is also Finance Minister, was even in Paris on May 6 to celebrate Sarkozy’s triumph. Both Di Rupo and Reynders believe that Francophones are long overdue a turn at the premiership. Their community accounts for just 40% of the country’s 10.6 million population, but they believe they are in their best position for over a generation to claim the premiership, believing they have overcome negative perceptions of the Walloon community by their Flemish neighbors. Still, even doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting the top job. Pierre Blaise of the Crisp political research center, explains: "Forming a government in Belgium is a two-step process. You have to first hold the election and see the arithmetic of the results. Then you have to negotiate on the coalition, which is not just about the Prime Minister, but all the other ministers and the overall government mandate. If Di Rupo or Reynders do well in the election, we would then have to see if they can negotiate as well." Belgium became independent in 1830 after a Francophone revolt against the country’s Dutch rulers. Cultural and linguistic tensions have been a constant throughout its history, but Belgium’s politicians have been remarkably adept at developing compromise mechanisms to maintain a tenuous balance between Flemish and French-speakers whose famously separate communities have different economic profiles, tastes, influences and habits. Talk of devolution is rife, and last December French state broadcaster RTBF interrupted its regular programming to announce that Flanders had declared independence. Viewers were shocked by the grainy footage of King Albert II and Queen Paola heading for the airport to flee the country. The program was an elaborate hoax, but the outrage it provoked appeared to underline the fragility of the country. Under the circumstances, the election campaign has been comparatively restrained on the issues that divide the two communities. Despite their differences, the evidence suggests that both the Flemish and the Walloons are loath to split: A survey March revealed that both 93% Flemings and 98% Walloons wanted Belgium to continue to exist in some form—although only 40% believed it would 50 years from now. Despite the optimism of Di Rupo and Reynders, the favorites for the Prime Minister’s job remain Flemish: Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme: Socialist Party leader Johan Vande Lanotte; and Flemish Liberal leader and outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Front-runner Leterme, 46, has sparked anger by saying that the Belgian nation is an "accident of history" with "no intrinsic value", and accusing Francophones of "lacking the mental capacity to learn Dutch". But even if he emerges as Prime Minister, French speakers should not be too distraught. As Leterme is the son of a Francophone father, they could even claim he is one of theirs.The election campaign in Belgium is restrained because______.

A．there is fierce competition among candidates
B．doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting premiership
C．the Flemish and French communities have economic and cultural tensions
D．a gay man was elected Prime Minister of the country
单项选择题

Recreational cycling appears to have peaked in the US, its popularity cresting sometime during Lance Armstrong’s record runs at the Tour de France. But as the sport has lost enthusiasts overall, a surprising demographic has stuck around and even begun to dominate the trails and bike paths of the US, if not yet the world: retirees and near retirees. People ages 45 to 64 account for 20% of all those over age 7 who rode a bike at least six times last year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. That’s up from 13% a decade ago. Yes, this age bracket is expanding as a percentage of the overall population, but demographics can’t tell the whole story. After all, golf— the quintessential 50-plus sport—is moving in reverse, at least in some respects. Last year, for the first time in 60 years, more golf courses shut down than started up, and the number of frequent golfers declined. The appeal of cycling is most pronounced among the youngest baby boomers (ages 45 to 54), who are also tackling other vigorous leisure activities including hiking and running marathons. Such pursuits embody the active later lifestyle that much of the boomer generation has come to adopt, and which has been embraced as the ad media’s new image of older Americans at leisure. Certainly, semi-seniors wake up the morning after a vigorous outing with more aches and pains than they had in their 20s, but the physical benefits exceed the cost. Regular exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, keeps weight down and improves mental outlook. This is all good news. Yet there is more at work in the biking trend than a desire to stay fit. Armstrong’s string of wins starting in 1999 might have made cycling cool, and health concerns might have made it smart, but technology made it accessible. If you’ve been eager to take up the sport but are put off by the discomfort of a traditional bicycle, take another look. Many of today’s models come with bigger seats and higher handlebars—easing the strain on bottoms and backs—and even automatic gear shifting. Features like these have helped create a whole new line of bikes, known as hybrid or comfort, the latter word particularly appealing to older riders. The very hottest part of the market is road bikes, which also appeal to boomers who may be giving up on yesterday’s phenomenon—less comfortable mountain bikes, a category in which sales have tailed off dramatically. With its grayish skew, could cycling become the new golf A number of things suggest it already is. Stories increasingly surface of businesspeople cutting deals or doctors swapping medical techniques while on a ride, as opposed to the fourth tee. Early this month, at a gathering of the Neurosurgical Society of America in Kohler, Wis., the docs for the first time had the option of skipping an afternoon on the links and instead going for a group ride—and at least 20 signed up. The Kohler outing was put together by Trek Travel which arranges cycling events around the world and is benefiting from the graying of the sport; 85% of its clients are ages 45 to 60. "There’s been a huge upswing in ourroup-travel business," says sales manager Michael Meholic. While plenty of Trek Travel’s trips are for business groups, the majority are still for folks taking up the sport as a means of maintaining or establishing social groups and staying connected with kids and grandkids. Among the top trends in cycling-related travel are programs that include children, says Cari Gray, a spokeswoman for Butterfield & Robinson which arranges cycling trips around the world. Gray says clients value intimacy with the countryside, which you can’t get on a tour bus, as well as the personal time they get with loved ones. But that doesn’t mean boomers aren’t serious cyclers. "People have epiphanies on our trips all the time— climbing a hill they thought they couldn’t or going farther than they thought they could," says Gray. B&R clients are mostly 45-plus, and she says they are far better riders today than the firm’s clients were 10 years ago. "Boomers are different," she says. "They want more from their vacation than a hangover and a tan."Cycling is snowballing in popularity because all of the following EXCEPT (that)______.

A．it’s cheaper than automobiles
B．it looks cool
C．health concerns
D．technological improvements
单项选择题

These days companies might be keeping a close eye on costs and CEO pay, but execs are increasingly bingeing on corporate travel. Even as the commercial airlines have upgraded first- and business-class cabins and new premium-class-only carriers have emerged to attract business fliers, many executives consider private-jet use preferable to commercial flying because it can be more time-efficient while allowing for a personal touch in business. But as private jets increasingly clog the skies, airline groups and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are demanding that they take on more fiscal responsibility in the booming industry. For every airline aircraft in US skies there are now two corporate aircraft—that’s 18,000 planes, up from 1,800 in 1970. Jeff Roberts, group president of CAE, a billion-dollar aviation simulation and training company, says that the past four years brought a 40% increase in the deliveries of business aircraft worldwide. The FAA forecasts that at least 9,000 new corporate jets will be delivered over the next decade, adding 10% more annual flying time compared with 3% for commercial jets. That provides an estimated $227 billion to corporate jet manufacturers, such as Bombardier, Embraer and Dassault. Roberts adds that the new very light jet category alone could account for up to 4,000 deliveries over the next 10 years. (Honda’s first foray into the business jet market, the twin-engined advanced light jet, is expected to roll out in 2010.) An increased demand for corporate jets has also brought a need for more pilot training. By some estimates up to 20,000 new pilots for both corporate and commercial jets are needed globally each year to account for a disruption in the supply chain that occurred over the last five years. CAE provides training to pilots at 24 training centers worldwide, four of which are devoted exclusively to business-jet training. One such facility, the SimuFlite North East Training Center, opened last week in Whippany, N.J., and has six flight simulators for training on models from the Gulfstream 4 to the Rolls Royce of corporate jets, the Falcon 7X. Due to high demand, CAE plans to add six more simulators to that center, and will open its 25th training facility next year in Bangalore, India. At $15 million a pop, these simulators don’t come cheap. Approved by the FAA (and sometimes also by the Joint Aviation Authorities in Europe), each simulator has digitized versions of the 85 largest airports in the world, runs on the equivalent processing power of 500 Xboxes and does everything the same model aircraft would do. Being able to safely navigate through low visibility and a ceiling of 800 ft. or to land smoothly after a fire in the left wing’s engine prepares pilots for their first experience piloting an actual aircraft, which could be loaded with passengers. But as executive travelers and manufacturers laud the global corporate jet boom, the FAA, airline groups and commercial airlines are less enthused. They contend that not only do corporate jets add to traffic congestion in the airspace, but the six types of taxes that are built into commercial passengers’ ticket prices effectively subsidize the aviation system and facilities used by corporate jets. By one estimate, various fees and taxes paid by commercial passengers have totaled $104 billion over the past decade. Corporate jets, on the other hand, pay only about 6% in taxes and fees for flying and for using the federal Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. "The airlines pay a disproportionate part of the system," says FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. "Business jets are an important part of the general aviation category and under the current structure [they] don’t pay for the financial system." Commercial airlines and their passengers pay about 95% of the taxes but only account for 73% of the costs of the air traffic system, according to FAA administrator Marion Blakey. The idea coming before Congress is to overhaul the current system in favor of satellite GPS technology and aviation-funding strategies that would also include a new user-fee system to bring the amount that corporate fliers contribute in line with their use of the ATC and airports. Some in the industry wonder, however, if this kind of corporate accountability will get off the ground.Airline groups and commercial airlines are less enthusiastic about jet-planes mainly because______.

A．they increase corporate expenditure
B．they emit toxic fumes into public air
C．they are not necessarily effective than regular commercial lines
D．business jets do not pay their share for the financial system
单项选择题

Belgium may appear to outsiders as a good example of ethnic power sharing, but the last time the French-speaking Walloons supplied the country’s Prime Minister was in 1978. So, in Sunday’s national elections, they are itching to smash the Flemish grip on the top job. A victory by the leading French-speaking candidate, Elio Di Rupo, would make history not only because of his language, but as Europe’s first openly gay Prime Minister. As leader of the Socialist Party (PS) in Wallonia— and also the region’s minister-president—Di Rupo, 55, is the heavyweight of Francophone politics. And the fact that his origins are Italian, Belgium’s second-largest immigrant community after Moroccans, adds a third dimension to the identity challenge represented by his candidacy. But the dapper, bow-tied Di Rupo is handicapped by recurrent scandals in his Socialist Party, and has been criticized for his poor command of the Flemish language. His main rival from Wallonia is Didier Reynders, the head of the liberal Reform Movement (MR), a 48-year-old energetic business-oriented conservative who hopes to catch some of the bounce from Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent victory in France. Reynders, who is also Finance Minister, was even in Paris on May 6 to celebrate Sarkozy’s triumph. Both Di Rupo and Reynders believe that Francophones are long overdue a turn at the premiership. Their community accounts for just 40% of the country’s 10.6 million population, but they believe they are in their best position for over a generation to claim the premiership, believing they have overcome negative perceptions of the Walloon community by their Flemish neighbors. Still, even doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting the top job. Pierre Blaise of the Crisp political research center, explains: "Forming a government in Belgium is a two-step process. You have to first hold the election and see the arithmetic of the results. Then you have to negotiate on the coalition, which is not just about the Prime Minister, but all the other ministers and the overall government mandate. If Di Rupo or Reynders do well in the election, we would then have to see if they can negotiate as well." Belgium became independent in 1830 after a Francophone revolt against the country’s Dutch rulers. Cultural and linguistic tensions have been a constant throughout its history, but Belgium’s politicians have been remarkably adept at developing compromise mechanisms to maintain a tenuous balance between Flemish and French-speakers whose famously separate communities have different economic profiles, tastes, influences and habits. Talk of devolution is rife, and last December French state broadcaster RTBF interrupted its regular programming to announce that Flanders had declared independence. Viewers were shocked by the grainy footage of King Albert II and Queen Paola heading for the airport to flee the country. The program was an elaborate hoax, but the outrage it provoked appeared to underline the fragility of the country. Under the circumstances, the election campaign has been comparatively restrained on the issues that divide the two communities. Despite their differences, the evidence suggests that both the Flemish and the Walloons are loath to split: A survey March revealed that both 93% Flemings and 98% Walloons wanted Belgium to continue to exist in some form—although only 40% believed it would 50 years from now. Despite the optimism of Di Rupo and Reynders, the favorites for the Prime Minister’s job remain Flemish: Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme: Socialist Party leader Johan Vande Lanotte; and Flemish Liberal leader and outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Front-runner Leterme, 46, has sparked anger by saying that the Belgian nation is an "accident of history" with "no intrinsic value", and accusing Francophones of "lacking the mental capacity to learn Dutch". But even if he emerges as Prime Minister, French speakers should not be too distraught. As Leterme is the son of a Francophone father, they could even claim he is one of theirs.The word "loath" in the sentence "...both the Flemish and the Walloons are loath to split..." (Para. 7) is closest in meaning to______.

A．supportive
B．hesitate
C．indifferent
D．reluctant
单项选择题

Wal-Mart doesn’t just want you to buy gas and groceries at its superstores these days. Now it wants your entire paycheck. On Wednesday, the nation’s largest retailer unveiled plans to open 1,000 in-store MoneyCenters aimed at serving the 40 million or so people without traditional bank accounts. The main draw at the centers, which will be in about a quarter of all Wal-Mart stores by the end of 2008, is the cashing of government and printed payroll checks for the bargain price of $3 a pop. The retailer is also debuting a reloadable, prepaid Visa debit card that does not require a bank account or proof of US citizenship. This broad rollout of low-priced check-cashing and debit cards marks a milestone for the millions of "unbanked" Americans who have long had to pay rates as high as 10% of the face value of their paychecks in order to cash them and then pay cash for every single purchase they make because they do not qualify for a credit card or checking account. "These are our core customers. We probably have more than others of this underserved customer," says Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart Financial Services, who notes that the average check-cashing customer at Wal-Mart earns $350 per paycheck and has never had a credit card before. It’s also good business. While traditional banks have struggled to attract the unbanked without outrageous charges, check cashers and payday loaners raked in an estimated $11 billion in fees from this $1 trillion economy. Cleveland-based KeyBank, for example, has attracted just 5,500 new customers in the past two years with its own check-cashing business, but has yet to make a profit from it. One problem is that people who have never had a bank account are distrustful of banks as a whole and feel unwelcome in institutions where they could not qualify for a checking account in the first place, because of lack of proper ID or employment history. Even when banks do try to reach out to this population—such as Bank of America’s new credit card that does not require a valid Social Security number—there has been a backlash among opponents of illegal immigration. The new centers leave plenty of room for the Wal-Mart to work with partners to add even more financial services such as mortgages and home equity loans later, something the company has not ruled out and competitors are already bracing for. Although Wal-Mart withdrew its bid earlier this year to become a full-fledged bank, amid opposition from community banks that feared such a move would put them out of business, Wal-Mart’s new Money Centers and MoneyCards are giving them a significant foothold in the financial services industry. The centers currently offer money orders, bill payment and phone cards in a newly designated space painted a bright, "firefly gold" in each store. Because the counters are open from 7 am to 9 pm seven days a week, they are as quick and convenient as anything but 24-hour check cashers. The $3 check-cashing fee is far lower than the average 1% to 3% charged by regular check cashers, and the Visa MoneyCards cost $8.94 plus a $4.94 monthly maintenance fee. As with any Visa card, a PIN number or signature is required for each transaction, and the card can be cancelled immediately if lost or stolen. Check-cashing services have actually been available at Wal-Mart for several years. But until now customers had to wait in long customer service lines instead of having designated counters where they can make these transactions. "They are making this a priority and making it more visible to the consumer. This is something they really care about," says Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit that does research and advocacy work for the unbanked. "It doesn’t matter whether or not they have a bank charter." And as countless small retailers can tell you, when Wal-Mart decides it cares about a business, it usually finds a way to dominate it.According to the passage, Wal-Mart does NOT provide the service of______.

A．credit card
B．mortgages
C．check-cashing
D．home equity loans
单项选择题

Recreational cycling appears to have peaked in the US, its popularity cresting sometime during Lance Armstrong’s record runs at the Tour de France. But as the sport has lost enthusiasts overall, a surprising demographic has stuck around and even begun to dominate the trails and bike paths of the US, if not yet the world: retirees and near retirees. People ages 45 to 64 account for 20% of all those over age 7 who rode a bike at least six times last year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. That’s up from 13% a decade ago. Yes, this age bracket is expanding as a percentage of the overall population, but demographics can’t tell the whole story. After all, golf— the quintessential 50-plus sport—is moving in reverse, at least in some respects. Last year, for the first time in 60 years, more golf courses shut down than started up, and the number of frequent golfers declined. The appeal of cycling is most pronounced among the youngest baby boomers (ages 45 to 54), who are also tackling other vigorous leisure activities including hiking and running marathons. Such pursuits embody the active later lifestyle that much of the boomer generation has come to adopt, and which has been embraced as the ad media’s new image of older Americans at leisure. Certainly, semi-seniors wake up the morning after a vigorous outing with more aches and pains than they had in their 20s, but the physical benefits exceed the cost. Regular exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, keeps weight down and improves mental outlook. This is all good news. Yet there is more at work in the biking trend than a desire to stay fit. Armstrong’s string of wins starting in 1999 might have made cycling cool, and health concerns might have made it smart, but technology made it accessible. If you’ve been eager to take up the sport but are put off by the discomfort of a traditional bicycle, take another look. Many of today’s models come with bigger seats and higher handlebars—easing the strain on bottoms and backs—and even automatic gear shifting. Features like these have helped create a whole new line of bikes, known as hybrid or comfort, the latter word particularly appealing to older riders. The very hottest part of the market is road bikes, which also appeal to boomers who may be giving up on yesterday’s phenomenon—less comfortable mountain bikes, a category in which sales have tailed off dramatically. With its grayish skew, could cycling become the new golf A number of things suggest it already is. Stories increasingly surface of businesspeople cutting deals or doctors swapping medical techniques while on a ride, as opposed to the fourth tee. Early this month, at a gathering of the Neurosurgical Society of America in Kohler, Wis., the docs for the first time had the option of skipping an afternoon on the links and instead going for a group ride—and at least 20 signed up. The Kohler outing was put together by Trek Travel which arranges cycling events around the world and is benefiting from the graying of the sport; 85% of its clients are ages 45 to 60. "There’s been a huge upswing in ourroup-travel business," says sales manager Michael Meholic. While plenty of Trek Travel’s trips are for business groups, the majority are still for folks taking up the sport as a means of maintaining or establishing social groups and staying connected with kids and grandkids. Among the top trends in cycling-related travel are programs that include children, says Cari Gray, a spokeswoman for Butterfield & Robinson which arranges cycling trips around the world. Gray says clients value intimacy with the countryside, which you can’t get on a tour bus, as well as the personal time they get with loved ones. But that doesn’t mean boomers aren’t serious cyclers. "People have epiphanies on our trips all the time— climbing a hill they thought they couldn’t or going farther than they thought they could," says Gray. B&R clients are mostly 45-plus, and she says they are far better riders today than the firm’s clients were 10 years ago. "Boomers are different," she says. "They want more from their vacation than a hangover and a tan."The author mentions a gathering at Neurosurgical Society of America in Kohler to______.

A．emphasize how much doctors have been engaged in recreational cycling
B．show that cycling is now most appealing to middle and senior aged people
C．show business people and doctors now prefer cycling to golf
D．illustrate how Trek Travel is thriving in its business
单项选择题

These days companies might be keeping a close eye on costs and CEO pay, but execs are increasingly bingeing on corporate travel. Even as the commercial airlines have upgraded first- and business-class cabins and new premium-class-only carriers have emerged to attract business fliers, many executives consider private-jet use preferable to commercial flying because it can be more time-efficient while allowing for a personal touch in business. But as private jets increasingly clog the skies, airline groups and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are demanding that they take on more fiscal responsibility in the booming industry. For every airline aircraft in US skies there are now two corporate aircraft—that’s 18,000 planes, up from 1,800 in 1970. Jeff Roberts, group president of CAE, a billion-dollar aviation simulation and training company, says that the past four years brought a 40% increase in the deliveries of business aircraft worldwide. The FAA forecasts that at least 9,000 new corporate jets will be delivered over the next decade, adding 10% more annual flying time compared with 3% for commercial jets. That provides an estimated $227 billion to corporate jet manufacturers, such as Bombardier, Embraer and Dassault. Roberts adds that the new very light jet category alone could account for up to 4,000 deliveries over the next 10 years. (Honda’s first foray into the business jet market, the twin-engined advanced light jet, is expected to roll out in 2010.) An increased demand for corporate jets has also brought a need for more pilot training. By some estimates up to 20,000 new pilots for both corporate and commercial jets are needed globally each year to account for a disruption in the supply chain that occurred over the last five years. CAE provides training to pilots at 24 training centers worldwide, four of which are devoted exclusively to business-jet training. One such facility, the SimuFlite North East Training Center, opened last week in Whippany, N.J., and has six flight simulators for training on models from the Gulfstream 4 to the Rolls Royce of corporate jets, the Falcon 7X. Due to high demand, CAE plans to add six more simulators to that center, and will open its 25th training facility next year in Bangalore, India. At $15 million a pop, these simulators don’t come cheap. Approved by the FAA (and sometimes also by the Joint Aviation Authorities in Europe), each simulator has digitized versions of the 85 largest airports in the world, runs on the equivalent processing power of 500 Xboxes and does everything the same model aircraft would do. Being able to safely navigate through low visibility and a ceiling of 800 ft. or to land smoothly after a fire in the left wing’s engine prepares pilots for their first experience piloting an actual aircraft, which could be loaded with passengers. But as executive travelers and manufacturers laud the global corporate jet boom, the FAA, airline groups and commercial airlines are less enthused. They contend that not only do corporate jets add to traffic congestion in the airspace, but the six types of taxes that are built into commercial passengers’ ticket prices effectively subsidize the aviation system and facilities used by corporate jets. By one estimate, various fees and taxes paid by commercial passengers have totaled $104 billion over the past decade. Corporate jets, on the other hand, pay only about 6% in taxes and fees for flying and for using the federal Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. "The airlines pay a disproportionate part of the system," says FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. "Business jets are an important part of the general aviation category and under the current structure [they] don’t pay for the financial system." Commercial airlines and their passengers pay about 95% of the taxes but only account for 73% of the costs of the air traffic system, according to FAA administrator Marion Blakey. The idea coming before Congress is to overhaul the current system in favor of satellite GPS technology and aviation-funding strategies that would also include a new user-fee system to bring the amount that corporate fliers contribute in line with their use of the ATC and airports. Some in the industry wonder, however, if this kind of corporate accountability will get off the ground.The expression "get off the ground" in the last sentence of the last paragraph is closest in meaning to______.

A．take off
B．be taken from the ground
C．be taken into practice
D．be well-grounded
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Belgium may appear to outsiders as a good example of ethnic power sharing, but the last time the French-speaking Walloons supplied the country’s Prime Minister was in 1978. So, in Sunday’s national elections, they are itching to smash the Flemish grip on the top job. A victory by the leading French-speaking candidate, Elio Di Rupo, would make history not only because of his language, but as Europe’s first openly gay Prime Minister. As leader of the Socialist Party (PS) in Wallonia— and also the region’s minister-president—Di Rupo, 55, is the heavyweight of Francophone politics. And the fact that his origins are Italian, Belgium’s second-largest immigrant community after Moroccans, adds a third dimension to the identity challenge represented by his candidacy. But the dapper, bow-tied Di Rupo is handicapped by recurrent scandals in his Socialist Party, and has been criticized for his poor command of the Flemish language. His main rival from Wallonia is Didier Reynders, the head of the liberal Reform Movement (MR), a 48-year-old energetic business-oriented conservative who hopes to catch some of the bounce from Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent victory in France. Reynders, who is also Finance Minister, was even in Paris on May 6 to celebrate Sarkozy’s triumph. Both Di Rupo and Reynders believe that Francophones are long overdue a turn at the premiership. Their community accounts for just 40% of the country’s 10.6 million population, but they believe they are in their best position for over a generation to claim the premiership, believing they have overcome negative perceptions of the Walloon community by their Flemish neighbors. Still, even doing well in the election is no guarantee of getting the top job. Pierre Blaise of the Crisp political research center, explains: "Forming a government in Belgium is a two-step process. You have to first hold the election and see the arithmetic of the results. Then you have to negotiate on the coalition, which is not just about the Prime Minister, but all the other ministers and the overall government mandate. If Di Rupo or Reynders do well in the election, we would then have to see if they can negotiate as well." Belgium became independent in 1830 after a Francophone revolt against the country’s Dutch rulers. Cultural and linguistic tensions have been a constant throughout its history, but Belgium’s politicians have been remarkably adept at developing compromise mechanisms to maintain a tenuous balance between Flemish and French-speakers whose famously separate communities have different economic profiles, tastes, influences and habits. Talk of devolution is rife, and last December French state broadcaster RTBF interrupted its regular programming to announce that Flanders had declared independence. Viewers were shocked by the grainy footage of King Albert II and Queen Paola heading for the airport to flee the country. The program was an elaborate hoax, but the outrage it provoked appeared to underline the fragility of the country. Under the circumstances, the election campaign has been comparatively restrained on the issues that divide the two communities. Despite their differences, the evidence suggests that both the Flemish and the Walloons are loath to split: A survey March revealed that both 93% Flemings and 98% Walloons wanted Belgium to continue to exist in some form—although only 40% believed it would 50 years from now. Despite the optimism of Di Rupo and Reynders, the favorites for the Prime Minister’s job remain Flemish: Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme: Socialist Party leader Johan Vande Lanotte; and Flemish Liberal leader and outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. Front-runner Leterme, 46, has sparked anger by saying that the Belgian nation is an "accident of history" with "no intrinsic value", and accusing Francophones of "lacking the mental capacity to learn Dutch". But even if he emerges as Prime Minister, French speakers should not be too distraught. As Leterme is the son of a Francophone father, they could even claim he is one of theirs.The sentence "...they are itching to smash the Flemish grip on the top job..." in the first paragraph of the passage can be best paraphrased as______.

A．they are fighting against Flemish people for the job
B．they are eager to repeal the Flemish job as Prime Minister
C．they are eager to suspend the Flemish Prime Minister from his position
D．they are anxious to lift the Flemish control over the premiership
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Wal-Mart doesn’t just want you to buy gas and groceries at its superstores these days. Now it wants your entire paycheck. On Wednesday, the nation’s largest retailer unveiled plans to open 1,000 in-store MoneyCenters aimed at serving the 40 million or so people without traditional bank accounts. The main draw at the centers, which will be in about a quarter of all Wal-Mart stores by the end of 2008, is the cashing of government and printed payroll checks for the bargain price of $3 a pop. The retailer is also debuting a reloadable, prepaid Visa debit card that does not require a bank account or proof of US citizenship. This broad rollout of low-priced check-cashing and debit cards marks a milestone for the millions of "unbanked" Americans who have long had to pay rates as high as 10% of the face value of their paychecks in order to cash them and then pay cash for every single purchase they make because they do not qualify for a credit card or checking account. "These are our core customers. We probably have more than others of this underserved customer," says Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart Financial Services, who notes that the average check-cashing customer at Wal-Mart earns $350 per paycheck and has never had a credit card before. It’s also good business. While traditional banks have struggled to attract the unbanked without outrageous charges, check cashers and payday loaners raked in an estimated $11 billion in fees from this $1 trillion economy. Cleveland-based KeyBank, for example, has attracted just 5,500 new customers in the past two years with its own check-cashing business, but has yet to make a profit from it. One problem is that people who have never had a bank account are distrustful of banks as a whole and feel unwelcome in institutions where they could not qualify for a checking account in the first place, because of lack of proper ID or employment history. Even when banks do try to reach out to this population—such as Bank of America’s new credit card that does not require a valid Social Security number—there has been a backlash among opponents of illegal immigration. The new centers leave plenty of room for the Wal-Mart to work with partners to add even more financial services such as mortgages and home equity loans later, something the company has not ruled out and competitors are already bracing for. Although Wal-Mart withdrew its bid earlier this year to become a full-fledged bank, amid opposition from community banks that feared such a move would put them out of business, Wal-Mart’s new Money Centers and MoneyCards are giving them a significant foothold in the financial services industry. The centers currently offer money orders, bill payment and phone cards in a newly designated space painted a bright, "firefly gold" in each store. Because the counters are open from 7 am to 9 pm seven days a week, they are as quick and convenient as anything but 24-hour check cashers. The $3 check-cashing fee is far lower than the average 1% to 3% charged by regular check cashers, and the Visa MoneyCards cost $8.94 plus a $4.94 monthly maintenance fee. As with any Visa card, a PIN number or signature is required for each transaction, and the card can be cancelled immediately if lost or stolen. Check-cashing services have actually been available at Wal-Mart for several years. But until now customers had to wait in long customer service lines instead of having designated counters where they can make these transactions. "They are making this a priority and making it more visible to the consumer. This is something they really care about," says Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit that does research and advocacy work for the unbanked. "It doesn’t matter whether or not they have a bank charter." And as countless small retailers can tell you, when Wal-Mart decides it cares about a business, it usually finds a way to dominate it.The basic tone of the author is______.

A．narrative
B．objective
C．expositive
D．affecting
单项选择题

Recreational cycling appears to have peaked in the US, its popularity cresting sometime during Lance Armstrong’s record runs at the Tour de France. But as the sport has lost enthusiasts overall, a surprising demographic has stuck around and even begun to dominate the trails and bike paths of the US, if not yet the world: retirees and near retirees. People ages 45 to 64 account for 20% of all those over age 7 who rode a bike at least six times last year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. That’s up from 13% a decade ago. Yes, this age bracket is expanding as a percentage of the overall population, but demographics can’t tell the whole story. After all, golf— the quintessential 50-plus sport—is moving in reverse, at least in some respects. Last year, for the first time in 60 years, more golf courses shut down than started up, and the number of frequent golfers declined. The appeal of cycling is most pronounced among the youngest baby boomers (ages 45 to 54), who are also tackling other vigorous leisure activities including hiking and running marathons. Such pursuits embody the active later lifestyle that much of the boomer generation has come to adopt, and which has been embraced as the ad media’s new image of older Americans at leisure. Certainly, semi-seniors wake up the morning after a vigorous outing with more aches and pains than they had in their 20s, but the physical benefits exceed the cost. Regular exercise lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, keeps weight down and improves mental outlook. This is all good news. Yet there is more at work in the biking trend than a desire to stay fit. Armstrong’s string of wins starting in 1999 might have made cycling cool, and health concerns might have made it smart, but technology made it accessible. If you’ve been eager to take up the sport but are put off by the discomfort of a traditional bicycle, take another look. Many of today’s models come with bigger seats and higher handlebars—easing the strain on bottoms and backs—and even automatic gear shifting. Features like these have helped create a whole new line of bikes, known as hybrid or comfort, the latter word particularly appealing to older riders. The very hottest part of the market is road bikes, which also appeal to boomers who may be giving up on yesterday’s phenomenon—less comfortable mountain bikes, a category in which sales have tailed off dramatically. With its grayish skew, could cycling become the new golf A number of things suggest it already is. Stories increasingly surface of businesspeople cutting deals or doctors swapping medical techniques while on a ride, as opposed to the fourth tee. Early this month, at a gathering of the Neurosurgical Society of America in Kohler, Wis., the docs for the first time had the option of skipping an afternoon on the links and instead going for a group ride—and at least 20 signed up. The Kohler outing was put together by Trek Travel which arranges cycling events around the world and is benefiting from the graying of the sport; 85% of its clients are ages 45 to 60. "There’s been a huge upswing in ourroup-travel business," says sales manager Michael Meholic. While plenty of Trek Travel’s trips are for business groups, the majority are still for folks taking up the sport as a means of maintaining or establishing social groups and staying connected with kids and grandkids. Among the top trends in cycling-related travel are programs that include children, says Cari Gray, a spokeswoman for Butterfield & Robinson which arranges cycling trips around the world. Gray says clients value intimacy with the countryside, which you can’t get on a tour bus, as well as the personal time they get with loved ones. But that doesn’t mean boomers aren’t serious cyclers. "People have epiphanies on our trips all the time— climbing a hill they thought they couldn’t or going farther than they thought they could," says Gray. B&R clients are mostly 45-plus, and she says they are far better riders today than the firm’s clients were 10 years ago. "Boomers are different," she says. "They want more from their vacation than a hangover and a tan."The word "epiphanies" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to______.

A．great joy
B．exciting experiences
C．sudden understanding of certain truth
D．fairies
单项选择题

These days companies might be keeping a close eye on costs and CEO pay, but execs are increasingly bingeing on corporate travel. Even as the commercial airlines have upgraded first- and business-class cabins and new premium-class-only carriers have emerged to attract business fliers, many executives consider private-jet use preferable to commercial flying because it can be more time-efficient while allowing for a personal touch in business. But as private jets increasingly clog the skies, airline groups and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are demanding that they take on more fiscal responsibility in the booming industry. For every airline aircraft in US skies there are now two corporate aircraft—that’s 18,000 planes, up from 1,800 in 1970. Jeff Roberts, group president of CAE, a billion-dollar aviation simulation and training company, says that the past four years brought a 40% increase in the deliveries of business aircraft worldwide. The FAA forecasts that at least 9,000 new corporate jets will be delivered over the next decade, adding 10% more annual flying time compared with 3% for commercial jets. That provides an estimated $227 billion to corporate jet manufacturers, such as Bombardier, Embraer and Dassault. Roberts adds that the new very light jet category alone could account for up to 4,000 deliveries over the next 10 years. (Honda’s first foray into the business jet market, the twin-engined advanced light jet, is expected to roll out in 2010.) An increased demand for corporate jets has also brought a need for more pilot training. By some estimates up to 20,000 new pilots for both corporate and commercial jets are needed globally each year to account for a disruption in the supply chain that occurred over the last five years. CAE provides training to pilots at 24 training centers worldwide, four of which are devoted exclusively to business-jet training. One such facility, the SimuFlite North East Training Center, opened last week in Whippany, N.J., and has six flight simulators for training on models from the Gulfstream 4 to the Rolls Royce of corporate jets, the Falcon 7X. Due to high demand, CAE plans to add six more simulators to that center, and will open its 25th training facility next year in Bangalore, India. At $15 million a pop, these simulators don’t come cheap. Approved by the FAA (and sometimes also by the Joint Aviation Authorities in Europe), each simulator has digitized versions of the 85 largest airports in the world, runs on the equivalent processing power of 500 Xboxes and does everything the same model aircraft would do. Being able to safely navigate through low visibility and a ceiling of 800 ft. or to land smoothly after a fire in the left wing’s engine prepares pilots for their first experience piloting an actual aircraft, which could be loaded with passengers. But as executive travelers and manufacturers laud the global corporate jet boom, the FAA, airline groups and commercial airlines are less enthused. They contend that not only do corporate jets add to traffic congestion in the airspace, but the six types of taxes that are built into commercial passengers’ ticket prices effectively subsidize the aviation system and facilities used by corporate jets. By one estimate, various fees and taxes paid by commercial passengers have totaled $104 billion over the past decade. Corporate jets, on the other hand, pay only about 6% in taxes and fees for flying and for using the federal Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. "The airlines pay a disproportionate part of the system," says FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. "Business jets are an important part of the general aviation category and under the current structure [they] don’t pay for the financial system." Commercial airlines and their passengers pay about 95% of the taxes but only account for 73% of the costs of the air traffic system, according to FAA administrator Marion Blakey. The idea coming before Congress is to overhaul the current system in favor of satellite GPS technology and aviation-funding strategies that would also include a new user-fee system to bring the amount that corporate fliers contribute in line with their use of the ATC and airports. Some in the industry wonder, however, if this kind of corporate accountability will get off the ground.According to the passage, the author adopts an attitude that is______.

A．critical
B．indifferent
C．sarcastic
D．objective
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