（ 共5小题，每小题2分，满分10分 ）

Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A-F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.

A.　Goods for auction (拍卖) sales

　　B.　Definition of bidding

　　C.　Way to sell more goods by auction

　　D.　Auction sales in history

　　E.　Brief introduction to auctions

　　F.　Making a larger profit as an auctioneer

61. ______

Auctions are public sales of goods, conducted by an officially approved auctioneer. He asks the crowd assembled in the auction-room to make offers, or “bids”, for the various items on sale. He encourages buyers to bid higher figures, and finally names the highest bidder as the buyer of the goods. This is called “knocking down” the goods, for the bidding ends when the auctioneer strikes a small hammer on a table at which he stands.

62. ______

The ancient Roman probably invented sales by auction, and the English word comes from the Latin auction, meaning “increasing”. The Romans usually sold in this way the goods taken in war. In England in the eighteenth centuries, goods were often sold “by the candle”: a short candle was lit by the auctioneer, and bids could be made while it stayed alight.

63. ______

Practically all goods whose qualities vary are sold by auction. Among these are coffee, skins, wool, tea, furs, silk and wines. Auction sales are also usual for land and property, furniture, pictures, rare books, old china and similar works of art.

64. ______

An auction is usually advertised beforehand with full particulars of the articles to be sold and where and when they can be viewed by potential buyers. If the advertisement cannot give full details, catalogues are printed, and each group of goods to be sold together, called a “lot”, is usually given a number. The auctioneer need not begin with Lot 1 and continue in the order of numbers: he may wait until he notices the fact that certain buyers are in the room and then produce the lots they are likely to be interested in.

65. ______

The auctioneer’s services are paid for in the form of a percentage of the price the goods are sold for. The auctioneer therefore has a direct interest in pushing up the bidding as high as possible. He will not waste time by starting the bidding too low. He will also play on the opponents among his buyers and succeed in getting a high price by encouraging two business competitors to bid against each other.

A turkey named Courage gave thanks to President Obama for saving his life on the day before Thanksgiving. Honouring a 62-year-old tradition, the President pardoned the bird on Thanksgiving eve.

   The tradition of a turkey pardon at Thanksgiving began with President Truman in 1947. Courage comes from Ellsworth, Iowa. The name Courage was chosen by voters (投票人)who took part in a survey posted on the White House website. The lucky turkey walked on the lawn of the Rose Garden and posed for the cameras at the presidential podium(讲台).

   The dinner that has become known as the First Thanksgiving was actually a harvest festival celebrated in December of 1621. That’s when English settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave thanks for the progress they had made after a hard winter in their new country. As America grew, Thanksgiving customs also spread and got bigger. George Washington declared that the first national Thanksgiving would be on November 26, 1789. In the decades to follow, however, people celebrated Thanksgiving locally, with no official date. President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November 1863 a national day of Thanksgiving. It stayed that way until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it one week earlier. He wanted to lengthen the shopping period before Christmas to encourage gift-buyers and to help businesses. So Congress（议会） ruled that, after 1941, Thanksgiving would be an official federal holiday falling on the fourth Thursday of November.

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, November. Millions of Americans got together to give thanks with friends and family. The lucky turkey, Courage, was one of them. After his pardon, Courage would be sent to Disneyland Resort in California, where he would be the grand assemble of Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

That the turkey Courage was pardoned was decided by ________.

A. George Bush     B. Congress           C. President Truman      D. the public

The first Thanksgiving Day was held to ________.

 A. celebrate the harvest of British settlers

 B. celebrate the progress of Americans

 C. encourage the struggle with British settlers

 D. celebrate the joy of all Americans after a hard winter

In 1939, President Roosevelt put forward the national day of Thanksgiving to ________.

 A. encourage the economy   B. help the poor

 C. please Congress              D. lengthen the summer holidays

We can infer from the passage that ________.

 A. President Obama pardoned a turkey before Thanksgiving because of the economic crisis

B. the turkey named Courage was pardoned by President Roosevelt before Thanksgiving

 C. the pardoned turkey walked on the lawn of the Rose Garden on Thanksgiving eve

 D. the pardoned turkey will appear in a celebrating parade of Thanksgiving Day

EBay will launch an online group gift-buying service today designed to make it easier for several people to chip in, buy and pay for gifts using their social-network and e-mail contacts．

EBay North America Vice President Christopher Payne says it is going to be a major step forward in social commerce, which is the still-small practice of selling products through social networks．Online retail experts aren't as certain, but eBay says the new tool makes it easier for friends and relatives to chip in （凑钱） for gifts because it eliminates the headache of collecting contributions．It can also be used for family members to pitch in to buy, say, an expensive child seat for a mother．

Anything on eBay that's available immediately, rather than up for bid, can be purchased this way starting today at groupgifts．eBay．com．If members of an extended family wanted to buy a gift for one member, one person would choose a gift — or have one recommended by eBay — and invite family members to chip in using Facebook or e-mail．Those who wanted to join in would choose an amount to contribute （or agree to pay a requested amount） and pay using either PayPal or a credit card．They could also add a personal note．

If enough people don't chip in, the organizer can ask people to contribute more or choose a less expensive gift．

"I see myself using this most in cases when I typically might not buy someone what they want because of price," says Nitzan Shaer of Boston, who was part of an online test of the site．

EBay, with its 200 million products, millions of sellers and mobile commerce proficiency, is a logical place to pull together the products, groups of buyers and payment tools, Payne says．

At least 12 sites, such as FrumUs．com and eDivvy．com, facilitate （便于,利于） group purchases but don't sell products．Although a handful of retailers, including Victoria's Secret and 1-800-Flowers, sell products through Facebook, Payne says he expects social commerce will take off as rapidly as shopping using mobile devices．EBay did more than $600 million in sales on mobile devices last year and expects mobile sales to increase to $1．5 billion this year．

Although one in five consumers surveyed said they'd used Facebook for shopping in the past year, 88% said they would not be buying holiday gifts through a social network, mobile phone or smartphone．Of these, 26% were reluctant because of security or privacy concerns, and 20% were unclear about the benefits of using phones or Facebook to shop．

1.What procedure should be followed if your extended family intends to buy your grandpa an 80^th birthday gift?

①Asking family members to contribute more money if enough members don’t chip in

②Choosing a gift at groupgifts．eBay．com

③Paying using PayPal or a credit card

④Contributing or agreeing to pay a requested amount of money via Facebook or e-mail

A．②-①-③-④	B．①-③-②-④
C．②-④-①-③	D．②-③-④-①

2.Where can we most probably read this text?

A．In a research paper	B．In a travel magazine
C．In a microblog	D．On a website

3.What does “it” mean in the 2^nd paragraph?

A．The online group gift-buying service

B．People’s social-network and e-mail contacts

C．A major step forward in social commerce

D．The still-small practice of selling products through social networks

4.It can be inferred from the text that ______．

A．through eBay’s new tool, 200 million products on eBay are available to online shoppers

B．social commerce can eliminate the headache of collecting contributions

C．eBay’s new tool will gain mass adoption by online shoppers

D．with the help of eBay’s new tool, FrumUs．com and eDivvy．com will also sell products

 

A turkey named Courage gave thanks to President Obama for saving his life on the day before Thanksgiving. Honouring a 62-year-old tradition, the President pardoned the bird on Thanksgiving eve.
The tradition of a turkey pardon at Thanksgiving began with President Truman in 1947. Courage comes from Ellsworth, Iowa. The name Courage was chosen by voters (投票人)who took part in a survey posted on the White House website. The lucky turkey walked on the lawn of the Rose Garden and posed for the cameras at the presidential podium(讲台).
The dinner that has become known as the First Thanksgiving was actually a harvest festival celebrated in December of 1621. That’s when English settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave thanks for the progress they had made after a hard winter in their new country. As America grew, Thanksgiving customs also spread and got bigger. George Washington declared that the first national Thanksgiving would be on November 26, 1789. In the decades to follow, however, people celebrated Thanksgiving locally, with no official date. President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November 1863 a national day of Thanksgiving. It stayed that way until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it one week earlier. He wanted to lengthen the shopping period before Christmas to encourage gift-buyers and to help businesses. So Congress（议会） ruled that, after 1941, Thanksgiving would be an official federal holiday falling on the fourth Thursday of November.
This year we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, November. Millions of Americans got together to give thanks with friends and family. The lucky turkey, Courage, was one of them. After his pardon, Courage would be sent to Disneyland Resort in California, where he would be the grand assemble of Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
【小题1】That the turkey Courage was pardoned was decided by ________.

A．George Bush

B．Congress

C．President Truman

D．the public

【小题2】The first Thanksgiving Day was held to ________.

A．celebrate the harvest of British settlers

B．celebrate the progress of Americans

C．encourage the struggle with British settlers

D．celebrate the joy of all Americans after a hard winter

【小题3】In 1939, President Roosevelt put forward the national day of Thanksgiving to ________.

A．encourage the economy	B．help the poor
C．please Congress	D．lengthen the summer holidays

【小题4】We can infer from the passage that ________.

A．President Obama pardoned a turkey before Thanksgiving because of the economic crisis

B．the turkey named Courage was pardoned by President Roosevelt before Thanksgiving

C．the pardoned turkey walked on the lawn of the Rose Garden on Thanksgiving eve

D．the pardoned turkey will appear in a celebrating parade of Thanksgiving Day

The right to pursue happiness is issued to us all with our birth, but no one seems quite sure what it is.
A holy man in India may think that happiness is in himself. It is in needing nothing from outside himself. If wanting nothing, he lacks nothing. We westerners, however, are taught that the more we have from outside ourselves, the happier we will be, and then we are made to want. We are even told it is our duty to want. Advertising, one of our major industries, exists not to satisfy these desires but to create them---and to create them faster than any man’s money in his pocket can satisfy them. Here, obviously someone is trying to buy the dream of happiness and spending millions upon millions every year in the attempt. Clearly the happiness-market is not running out of customers.
I doubt the holy man’s idea of happiness, and I doubt the dreams of the happiness-market, too. Whatever happiness may be, I believe, it is neither in having nothing nor in having more, but in changing --- in changing the world and mankind into pure states.
To change is to make efforts to deal with difficulties. As Yeats, a great Irish poet once put it, happiness we get for a lifetime depends on how high we choose our difficulties.
It is easy to understand. We even demand difficulty for the fun in our games. We demand it because without difficulty there can be no game. And a game is a way of making something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are man-made difficulties. When the player ruins the fun, he always does so by refusing to play by the roles. It is easier to win at chess if you are free, at your pleasure, to cast away all the rules, but the fun is in winning within the rules.
The same is true to happiness. The buyers and sellers at the happiness-market seem to have lost their sense of the pleasure of difficulty. Heaven knows what they are  playing, but it seems a dull game. And the Indian holy man seems dull to us, I suppose, because he seems to be refusing to play anything at all.
The western weakness may be in the dreams that happiness can be bought while eastern weakness may be in the idea that there is such a thing as perfect happiness in man himself. Both of them forget a basic fact: no difficulty, no happiness.
【小题1】Who shares the same idea of happiness with the author?

A．The Indian holy man	B．The great Irish poet Yeats
C．Advertisers	D．The buyers and sellers at the happiness-market

【小题2】What does “happiness-market” mean in the second paragraph?

A．It means a place in which people can buy things happily

B．It means a market which lacks happy customers

C．It means a pure state for the world and mankind

D．It means a market where people try to buy happiness with money.

【小题3】According to the passage, which of the following is Right?

A．The Indian holy man is much happier than westerner.

B．The westerners understand happiness better than the Indian holy man.

C．There is no fun without playing by the rules

D．Both the eastern weakness and western weakness are the same.