Making an advertisement for television often costs more than a move．For example, a two-hour movie costs $ 6 million to make．A TV commercial can cost more than $ 6 000 a second．And that does not include cost of paying for air time(电视节目开始的时间)．Which is more valuable, the program or the ad? In terms of money--and making money is what television is all about the commercial is by far the more important．

    Research, market testing, talent, time and money--all come together to make us want to buy a product．No matter how bad we think a commercial is, it works．The sales of Charm went up once the ads began．TV commercials actually buy their way into our head．We, in turn, buy the product．

    And the ads work because so much time an attention are given them．Here are some rules of commercial ad making．If you want to get the low middle-class buyer, make sure the announcer has a tough, manly voice．Put some people in the ad who work with their hands．If you want to sell to upper-class audience, make sure that the house, the furniture, and the hair style are the types that the group identifies (识别) with．If you want the buyer feel superior to the character selling the product, then make that person so stupid or silly that everyone will feel great about himself or herself

We laugh at commercials．We don't think we pay that much attention them．But evidence shows we are kidding ourselves．The making of a commercial that costs so much money is not kid stuff．It's big, big business．And it's telling us what to think, what we need, and what to buy．To put simply, the TV commercial is a form of brainwashing．

TV commercials are more important than other programs to television because _______．

   A．they bring in great profits (利润)     B．they require a lot of money to make

   C．they are not difficult to produce       D．they attract more viewers than other programs

The purpose of all the efforts made in turning out TV commercials is ________．

   A．to persuade people to buy the product      B．to show how valuable the product is

   C．to test the market value of the product     D．to make them as interesting as TV movies

From the rules set for making commercial ads, we can see that_________．

   A．the lower-middle-class buyer likes to work with his hand

   B．the more stupid the characters, the more buyers of the product

   C．ad designers attract different people with different skills

   D．an upper-class buyer is more interested in houses and furniture than a lower-middle-class buyer

The word “kidding”(line 2, par．4) most probably means _________．

   A．behaving as a child                    B．laughing at

   C．making fun of                             D．not telling the truth to

It is believed by the writer that_________．

   A．few people like to watch TV commercials             

B．TV commercials are a good guide to buyers

   C．TV commercials often make people laugh      

D．people do not think highly of TV commercials

Thanks to the Web, We’re Alone Together and Loving it

There's a professor, Barry Wellman, at the University of Toronto in Canada who has come up with a term to describe the way a lot of us North Americans interact these days. And now a big research study confirms it.

Barry Wellman's term is "networked individualism." It's not the easiest concept to grasp. In fact, the words seem to contradict each other. How can we be individualistic and networked at the same time? You need other people for networks.

Here's what he means. Until the Internet and e-mail came along, our social networks involved flesh-and-blood relatives, friends, neighbors, and colleagues at work. Some of the interaction was by phone, but it was still voice to voice, person to person, in real time.

But the latest study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project confirms that for a lot of people, electronic interaction through the computer has replaced a great deal of social interchange. A lot of folks Pew talked with say that's a good thing, because of concerns that the Internet was turning us into hermits who shut out other people in favor of a make-believe world on flickering computer screens.

To the contrary, the Pew study discovered the Internet has put us in touch with more real people than we'd have ever imagined. Helpful people, too. We're turning to an ever-growing list of cyber friends for advice on careers, medical crises, child-rearing, and choosing a school or college. About 60 million Americans told the Pew that the Internet plays an important or crucial role in helping them deal with major life decisions.

So we networked individuals are pretty tricky: We're keeping more to ourselves, while at the same time reaching out to more people, all with just the click of a computer mouse!

The Pew study was conducted in _____.

A. The United States                  B. Canada

C. The U.S. and Canada               D. Europe

Which of the following has happened since the invention of the Internet and email?

A. People are talking on the phone more than ever.

B. Interaction through the computer has replaced a lot of person to person interaction.

C. Americans are turning into hermits.

D. Sixty million Americans have bought computers.

Which of the following was NOT one of the discoveries of the Pew study?

A. The Internet has put us in touch with more people than expected.

B. People use the Internet to get advice on careers, medical problems, and other questions.

C. For many Americans, the Internet plays an important role in helping them make important decisions.

 D. “Internet addiction” is a growing problem among people who use computers.

What does the bolded words “reach out” in the last paragraph mean?

 A. Connect with.   B. Play a trick.     C. Make a decision.    D. Stay alone.

A small man with a fat stomach got on the train at the last station before the frontier (边境). He carried a paper bag. And four feet ducks could be seen under the cover. The man found an empty seat, put the bag in the middle of the floor, took out a newspaper and began to read. Then a policeman came in. Of course he saw the bag with ducks' legs at once and said, "Whose is that bag?" Nobody answered. The policeman repeated the question, and said, "I'll have to take it away from the owner. Food mustn't be taken out of the country." "Well, then," said the small man with a fat stomach. "Hurry up and take it. We want to go home." The policeman took the bag and went on to the next carriage.

At the next station, when they were safely across the frontier, the small man got up, smiled at the other passengers and said, "I hope they'll enjoy the ducks' feet. The rest of the bag had nothing but rubbish in it." Then he opened his coat and pointed to another bag he was carrying under it. It was tied tightly (紧紧地) over the stomach, which was not really fat. "I have the rest of the two ducks here," he said. With these words, he got off the train. But while he was happily walking to the exit with the bag in his hands, a policeman came up to him, saying, "Hey, man! Foreign food mustn't be brought in."

The small man put the bag in the middle of the floor ___ .

A. so that he could make more room for himself

B. so that the policeman could find it easily

C. because the other passengers didn't like it

D. because there was not an empty seat in the carriage

The first policeman took the paper bag away because ___ .

A. he wanted to find the owner of the bag

B. he enjoyed the ducks feet in the bag

C. the bag was put in a wrong place in the carriage

D. food can't be taken abroad

The bag the policeman took away had nothing in it except ___ .

A. two ducks               B. rubbish

C. the ducks' feet and rubbish  D. the ducks' feet

In the end the small man ___ .

A. failed to take his food home

B. crossed the frontier with two paper bags

C. took the ducks safely home

D. hid his ducks under his coat again

As the economy begins to recover, salary increases should do the same.

    In the past few years, employers have raised workers’ salaries by about 4 percent per year--except for 2009, when the figure dropped to a historically low 2.1 percent, according to a survey of World at Word. About one-third of companies froze raises altogether.

   For 2010, World at Work’s survey projects an average salary increase budget of 2.7 percent, a figure that shows the situation has improved but the job market is still weak. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of companies said they would freeze raises--far fewer than in 2009, but still more than in most years.

  How can you get a raise? Avalos and others offer the following tips:

* Do your job well. This means producing high-quality work, of course, but also keeping the big picture in mind.

“It really comes down to positioning yourself as a high performer, somebody who is aware of business goals and helps the company meet their goals as an organization”, Avalos said

* Be visible. When times are tough, some workers think. “I’m going to hunker down and hope that nobody notices me, because I don’t want to be on a layoff list,” said Richard Phillips, owner of Advantage Career Solutions. This is a mistake, because you’re unlikely to get a raise if no one knows what you have accomplished. “If anything, what you want to do is be more visible.”

 * Make your boss’s life easier. This means everything from having a good attitude to taking on extra tasks. If you don’t know how you can help your boss, ask.

* Ask for a raise. Talk to your boss and present your case: Here’s what I’ve done, here’s how it fits with the company’s goals, and here is why I think it’s worth a salary increase. In some cases, even if your company has an official raise freeze, you can get a raise if you make good case.

  If the answer is no -- or if you’re not ready to ask directly -- Phillips suggests asking, “What would you like to see from me that would put me in line for a raise?”

A question like this can improve your standing. “Just asking the question says to the boss, ‘I’m thinking about where I fit in here, what I can do,” Phillips said, “That in and of itself has value.”

The passage is mostly from a\an________.

A. novel                                                   B. science fiction       

C. magazine                                              D. biography

Employers have raised workers’ salaries by about _______percent in 2007.

A. 4                      B. 2.1                   C. 2.7               D. 10

If you want to get a raise, the most important thing you should keep in your mind is to ______.

A. have your job done well                        B. be visible everywhere as possible as you can

C. ask your boss for a raise directly           D. change your job

All the statements are true except________.

A. the situation has improved but the job market is still weak

B. salary increases should recover as the economy does

C. producing high-quality work will surely help you get a raise

D. that in and off an employee makes no difference

Growing up together in Twin Falls, Idaho, Lisa Fry and Paula Turner never doubted their friendship would last forever. But after Fry married, moved to New York City and had a baby, her letters to Turner suddenly went unanswered. "Do you think I've somehow offended her?" Fry asked her husband.

Turner, meanwhile, had thought she was no longer important to Fry. "She's got a family now," she told herself. "We're just too different to be close like before."

Finally, Fry picked up the courage to call her old friend. At first, the conversation was awkward, yet soon they both admitted that they missed each other. A month later, they got together, laughing and sharing confidences.

   "Thank goodness I finally took action," Fry says. "We both realized we were as important to each other as ever."

There are good reasons to value our friendships. Once a public-opinion research firm, Roper Starch Worldwide, asked 2007 people to identify one or two things that said the most about themselves. Friends far outranked（高于）homes, jobs, clothes and cars.

   “A stable friendship carries a long history of experience and interaction and keeps us connected,” says Donald Pannen, executive officer of the Western Psychological Association. "It is what we should protect." However, says Brant R. Burleson, professor of communication at Purdue University, "The better friends you are, the more likely you'll face conflicts." And even the result can be what you don't want--an end to the relationship.

The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended. Here's what experts suggest:

◆Swallow your pride.

◆Apologize when you're wrong--even if you've also been wronged.

◆See things from your friend's point of view.

◆Accept that friendships change.

Making friends can sometimes seem easy, says Yager. The hard part is keeping the connections strong and long. Her suggestion: Consider friendship an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and develop.

71．The first paragraph is written mainly to_______.

     A．complain something to her husband

     B．show Lisa Fry missed her friend

     C．show family is more important than friendship

     D．introduce the topic to be discussed

72．The underlined word “awkward” in the third paragraph probably means______.

       A．uncomfortable      B．uninteresting      C．convenient        D．relaxed

73．Which of the following statements is TRUE according to this passage?

       A．Once friendship is broken, there is no way to be repaired.

       B．People don’t value friendship over other things

       C．The more and better friends we make, the happier we are.

       D．Lisa Fry and Paula Turner were as important to each other as ever.

74．Experts suggest that_________.

     A．Making friends should be no difficult experience.

     B．We should consider things for our friends first

     C．We should not have to apologize if it is not our fault

     D．Friendship should be one-way process and worth our effort.

75．Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

      A．A Broken Friendship       

       B．Opinions on Friendship and Friends

      C．What Is Good Friendship?   

       D．How to Mend a Broken Friendship