Is any economist so dull as to criticise Christmas? At first glance,the holiday season in western economies seems a treat for those concerned with such vagaries (奇想）as GDP growth.After all,everyone is spending;in America,retailers make 25% of their yearly sales and 60% of their profits between Thanksgiving and Christmas.Even so,economiwsts find something to worry about in the nature of the purchases being made.
Much of the holiday spending is on gifts for others.At the simplest level,giving gifts involves the giver thinking of something that the recipient would like-he tries to guess her preferences,as economists say-and then buying the gift and delivering it.Yet this guessing of preferences is not easy;indeed,it is often done badly.Every year,ties go unworn and books unread.And even if a gift is enjoyed,it may not be what the recipient would have bought if they had spent the money themselves.
Interested in this mismatch between wants and gifts,in 1993 Joel Waldfogel,then an economist at Yale University,sought to estimate the difference in dollar terms.In a research,he asked students two questions at the end of a holiday season:first,estimate the total amount paid (by the givers) for all the holiday gifts you received;second,apart from the sentimental value of the items,if you did not have them,how much would you be willing to pay to get them? His results were gloomy:on average,a gift was valued by the recipient well below the price paid by the giver.
In addition,recipients may not know their own preferences very well.Some of the best gifts,after all,are unexpected items that you would never have thought of buying,but which turn out to be especially well picked.And preference can change.So by giving a jazz CD,for example,the giver may be encouraging the recipient to enjoy something that was ignored before.This,a desire to build skills,is possibly the hope held by many parents who ignore their children's desires for video games and buy them books instead.
Finally,there are items that a recipient would like to receive but not purchase.If someone else buys them,however,they can be enjoyed guilt-free.This might explain the high volume of chocolate that changes over the holidays.Thus,the lesson for gift-givers is that you should try hard to guess the preference of each person on your list and then choose a gift that will have a high sentimental value.
1.The word “sentimental” in Paragraph 3 is close to “ ”
A.intelligent B.emotional C.social D.practical
2.According to the text,which of the following statements is TRUE?
A.Price is nothing but the factor when you give gifts.
B.Chocolates will be blamed when people receive them as gifts.
C.The receivers often overestimate the values of gifts.
D.Wants do not always correspond to needs in gift-giving.
3.Which of the following statements can be inferred from the text?
A.The gift-giver tries to neglect the actual needs of the receiver.
B.The best gifts are well picked by the givers.
C.In gift-giving,guessing preference is often a failure,so it's the thought that counts.
D.You have to take money into consideration when giving a gift.
4.The text is most likely taken from a .
A.users' handbook B.medical journal
C.travel magazine D.consumer-related report
科目：高中英语 来源：2016-2017学年黑龙江哈尔滨六中高一上期末考英语卷（解析版） 题型：书面表达
一家宾馆新开业，为吸引外国宾客，希望在互联网上进行宣传，请你用英语为其写一篇文字介绍。主要内容应包括：
1．地点：距白山入口处500米；
2．房间及价格：单人间(共20间)，100元／天；双人间(共15间)，150元／天；热水淋浴；
3．餐饮：餐厅(中、西餐)，咖啡厅(茶、咖啡)；
4．游泳池：全天免费开放；
5．欢迎预定。
注意：
1．词数100左右，开头语已为你写好；
2．可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Welcome to Baishan Mountain Hotel.
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科目：高中英语 来源：2017届江西新余市高三上期第二次段考英语试卷（解析版） 题型：阅读理解
A man walked into a small Irish pub and ordered three beers. Bartender was surprised, but he served that man three beers. One hour later the man ordered three beers again. The very next day that man ordered three beers again and drank quietly at a table. This repeated several times and shortly after the people of the town were whispering about the man, who was ordering three beers at once.
A couple of weeks later, the bartender decided to clear this out and inquired: “I do not want to pry, but could you explain, why do you order three beers all the time?” The man replied: “It seems strange, isn’t it? You see, my two brothers live abroad at the moment, one — in France and another — in Italy. We have made an agreement, that every time we go to pub each of us will order extra two beers and it will help keeping up the family bond”.
Soon all the town have heard about the man’s answer and liked it a lot. The man became a local celebrity. Residents of the town were telling this story to newcomers or tourists and even invited them to that pub to look at Three Beer Man.
However, one day the man came to pub and ordered only two beers, not three as usual. The bartender served him with bad feeling. All that evening the man ordered and drank only two beers. The very next day all the town was talking about this news, some people pray for the soul of one of the brothers, others quietly grieve.
When the man came to pub the next time and ordered two beers again, the bartender asked him: “I would like to offer condolences to you, due to the death of your dear brother”. The man considered this for a moment and then replied: “Oh, you may be surprised that I order only two beers now? Well, my two brothers are alive and well. It’s just because of my decision. I promised myself to give up drinking.”
1.The man ordered three beers all the time because ________.
A. he missed his two brothers living abroad very much
B. this would help him become a local celebrity
C. people were fond of drinking beers in this pub
D. it was an agreement with his brothers to keep up the family bond
2.We can infer from the passage that ________.
A. the man’s brothers liked drinking beer very much
B. news traveled fast in the town
C. the man became famous in the town because he was a heavy drinker
D. the man was strong-minded to give up drinking
3.The bartender served the man with bad feeling because ________.
A. the man decided to drink two beer
B. he thought the man should order three beers
C. he would earn less money
D. he thought one of the man’s brothers had passed away
4.The underlined word “condolences” in the last paragraph can be replaced by ________.
A. sympathyB. surpriseC. gratitudeD. appreciation
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科目：高中英语 来源：2017届河北衡水中学高三上期五调12月英语试卷（解析版） 题型：七选五
Every living thing has genes. Genes carry information. 1. They make sure that humans give birth to humans and cows give birth to cows. They also make sure that a dog doesn’t give birth to a frog, or an elephant to a horse. However, genetic engineers take genes from one species-for example, a snake, and transfer them to another-for example, corn. 2. Such new life forms have been described, by some scientists as a real-life Frankenstein(科幻怪人).
Genetic engineers put duck genes into chicken to make the chickens bigger. They put hormones(激素) into cows to make them produce more milk. They put genes from flowers into beans and from fish into tomatoes. 3. It just makes them easier and faster for the farmer to grow.
The effects of genetic engineering on the natural world may be disastrous. The engineers may create strange life beings, or monsters. that we cannot control. 4. They’ll have to find one, fight for one-or kill for one. It may be your land they fight for-or you that they kill. Moreover, the effects of these experiments can often be cruel. In America, pigs were given human genes to make them bigger and less fatty. The experiment failed. The pigs became very ill and began to lose their eyesight. We would all like a better, healthier and longer life, and genetic engineering might give us this. On the other hand, it may be a dangerous experiment with nature. In the story of Frankenstein, the doctor created such a terrible and dangerous monster that he had to destroy it. 5.
A. The information tells us what to do or what not to do
B. We must make sure that this tale remains a story-and no more than that
C. This doesn’t make them cheaper, tastier, or healthier
D. The new life forms have no natural habitat or home
E. Then they feed the tomatoes to the fish
F. In this way a new life form is created
G. They are passed on from generation to generation
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科目：高中英语 来源：2017届河北衡水中学高三上期七调英语试卷（解析版） 题型：翻译
第二节句子翻译,填充短语
1.I’m very grateful that they helped me (度过;挺过）the hard times.
2. (追溯到）1,500 years ago,the old temple comes back to life again.
3.He escaped by (冒充为）as a guard.
4.I have tried very hard to find a solution to the problem,but (徒劳的）.
5.He sat by the window, (陷入沉思).
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科目：高中英语 来源：2017届河北衡水中学高三上期末考试英语试卷（解析版） 题型：短文改错
假定英语课课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Dear Steven,
I’m glad that you coming to Beijing this summer vacation. You asked many question in your letter, and now let me answer them.
To start with , Beijing, the capital of China, is very attractive city with a long history. You can found all kinds of delicious food in Beijing, of that the most famous is the roast Beijing duck. I hope we will enjoy it. Besides, there is a great number of tourist attractions worth visiting, such as the Great Wall, the Summer Palace or the Forbidden City. These scenic spots have attracted millions of tourists in this year. I promise you will have a wonderfully time here in Beijing.
I’m looking forward to hear from you as soon as possible.
Yours,
Liu Chao
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科目：高中英语 来源：2017届河北衡水中学高三上期末考试英语试卷（解析版） 题型：阅读理解
Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored(监控)in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people’s e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
“The ‘if it bleeds’ rule works for mass media,” says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “They want your eyeballs and don’t care how you’re feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don’t want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer.”
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication—e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations—found that it tended to be more positive than negative(消极的), but that didn’t necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times’ website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the “most e-mailed” list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times’ readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused(激发) one way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On.”
1.What do the classic rules mentioned in the text apply to?
A. News reports.
B. Research papers.
C .Private e-mails.
D. Daily conversations．
2.What can we infer about people like Debbie Downer?
A. They’re socially inactive.
B. They’re good at telling stories.
C. They’re inconsiderate of others.
D. They’re careful with their words.
3.Which tended to be the most e-mailed according to Dr. Berger’s research?
A. Sports new.
B. Science articles.
C. Personal accounts.
D. Financial reviews.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. Sad Stories Travel Far and Wide
B. Online News Attracts More People
C. Reading Habits Change with the Times
D. Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks
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科目：高中英语 来源：2017届辽宁实验中学等五校高三上期末联考英语卷（解析版） 题型：阅读理解
When Dawn Bonfield, the former chief executive of the Women's Engineering Society, ran a stand recently at a big military air show, she was in for a shock.
There were around 900 Brownies among the crowd and Ms Bonfield says, "I'm saying to all these girls, 'Do you know about engineering, would you like to be an engineer, have you thought about engineering?' And in the whole day... probably five or six of them said yes. Every other one said no, just straight out no."
What surprised her most, she says, is that it wasn't that these eight and nine-year-old girls didn't know what engineering was. Simply that they had already switched off. They had lost interest in engineering. "So how much work does it take to change that?" asks Ms Bonfield. "I mean it's huge."
There's no shortage of data to back up her estimation of the scale of work required. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that women make up around just 8% of engineers in the UK. And this is at a time when the UK needs to produce thousands more engineers, so much so that the inventor, Sir James Dyson, is planning to open his own instituteto address the skills shortage.
Not enough female role models is well documented as a reason why girls don’t choose engineering.
The attitude of parents was also an important factor in career choices. For girls, perhaps unsurprisingly, mothers were particularly influential.
"My mum was a bit iffy about it at first because she was more like, 'Girls should do this and that and the other,' more like 'keep your posture up and be ladylike'," says middle school student Hannah. "But my dad used to build a lot of stuff and he got me into that. So after my mum saw how me and my dad interacted she said, 'Yeah, go for it' and she's kind of the one who supported me with this."
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A. To show the shortage of girls in engineering.
B. To introduce some famous girl engineers.
C. To promote the social status for engineers.
D. To give girls advice on how to select careers.
2.What does the underlined word “Brownies” in the Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Chocolate cakes. B. Young girls.
C. Girls with brown hair. D. Students in brown.
3.What shocked Dawn Bonfield most?
A. There were so many girls at the show.
B. Many girls had run off before seeing her.
C. Girls didn’t know anything about engineering.
D. Girls paid no attention to engineering.
4. Why did Hannh finally choose engineering?
A. Because she found a woman role model.
B. Because her mother was sure of her future.
C. Because her father had influence on her.
D. Because she wanted to meet the demand of society.
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科目：高中英语 来源：2016-2017学年甘肃省天水市高一上学期期末考试英语试卷（解析版） 题型：短文填空
There are two main sets of Games — the Winter and the Summer Olympics, and both are 1. every four years on a 2. basis.
Only 3. who have reached the agreed standard for their events will be 4. as competitors. They may come from anywhere in the world.
I have even been put into space 5.and sent to 6.. the Moon and Mars. 7. my goal is to provide humans with a life of high quality. I am now truly filled with 8. that I am a devoted friend and helper of the human race.
The flying 9.travelled so fast that next minute they were in Zimbabwe. Daisy turned 10. and found that she was being watched by an elephant.
“ Have you come to take my photo? ” it asked. In 11. Daisy burst into 12.. “ Don’t laugh, ” said the elephant, “we used to be an endangered species. Farmers hunted us without 13..
So the 14.decided to help. They allowed tourists to hunt only a 15. number of animals.
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