With the price _______ so quickly, I find 1,000 yuan a month can hardly cover the cost of living.

As prices and building costs keep rising, the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) trend in the US continues to grow.

“we needed furniture for our living room,” says John Ross, “and we just didn’t have enough money to buy it. So we decided to try making a few tables and chairs.” John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Rosses took a 2-week course for $280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.

Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe-making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $520. “I was deeply upset about it. Now I have finished a car repair course. I should be able to fix the car by myself.”

John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you want to become a “do-it-youselfer”, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who don’t have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.

We can learn from the text that many newly married people_______.

  A. find it hard to pay for what they need

B. have to learn to make their own furniture

C. take DIY courses run by the government

D. seldom go to a department store to buy things

John and his wife went to evening classes to learn how to ______.

  A. run a DIY shop                 B. make or repair things

C. save time and money              D. improve the quality of life

Jim decided to become a do-it-yourselfer when______

  A. his car repairs cost too much 

B. the car repair class was not helpful

C. he could not possibly do two jobs

D. keeps house and looks after his children

Dear sir,
I read your story (of the 4th February) about the cost of living in the country rather than in the town, and I agree with most of the points that you made. My husband and I lived in the middle of Horlton until two years ago — a seaside town of nearly five hundred thousand people. When my husband stopped working, we moved to our present house in a small village at the foot of Roland Hill, and there is no doubt that our costs are higher now.
I have to do my shopping in small shops, where the food is more expensive than in city supermarkets; it costs more to travel by bus; and because the men who come to mend the television or the washing machine, have to come farther, we have to pay them more.
But it does not cost us much to enjoy what is beautiful in the country; and peace and quiet are cheap. Many people spend a great deal of time and money driving into the country to enjoy the simple things of life; yet we can enjoy them just by going out of the front door. It costs more to live here than it did in Horlton but now life really is worth living.
Yours faithfully.
Edith Randall
【小题1】What do you know about Horlton?

A．The letter is written by an unknown person.

B．This letter is a reply to the questions of 4th February.

C．Living in the country is better than living in the city.

D．The cost of living in the city is lower than that of the country.

As prices and building costs keep rising, the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) trend (趋势) in the U.S. continues to grow.
“We needed furniture(家具) for our living room.” Says John Ross, “and we just didn’t have enough money to afford it. So we decided to try making a few tables and chairs.” John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Rosses took a 2-week course for $ 280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.
Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $ 420. “I was deeply upset about it. Now I’ve finished a car repair course, I should be able to fix the car by myself.”
John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you want to become a “do-it-yourself”, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who don’t have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.
【小题1】We can learn from the text that many newly married people _______.

I wish there would be a way to describe China in simple terms but that’s impossible. For the most part Chinese people are friendly, easy-going and optimistic. They are curious and unusually patient and they are also the hardest-working people I have ever met.

In China, family is everything. In my English classes when the students were asked what they would do if they only had a few hours to live, most students told me how they would spend their last few hours with their families and parents. Many times the subjects in the classes center on families and friends. I teach many students a year, talking to them freely.

The cost of living here is very low compared with that of the US. The city of Xiang Fan I live in isn’t large and I live better. Non-imported(非出口的) foods are very cheap, so are clothing and articles of everyday use. The cost of public transportation is very low, too. Chinese value education. However, it is reported that many children can’t afford the expenses of schooling and are forced to leave school in some poor area in China. But they organized Project Hope many years age. It creates conditions for the poor children to go back to school. In my opinion, Project Hope is of great importance to the development of the rural education.

When we read news of China in the west, rarely, if ever, will we see anything mentioned of the positive changes China has gone through. While it is true that economic miracles have not reached many areas of China, but we also have the same problems.

When I am asked which country I consider better. China or the US, my answer has always been the same, “We are not worse or better than each other, we are only different.”

1.What does the author think of Chinese people?

A. He thinks most Chinese people hardly work.

B. He thinks most Chinese people are proud.

C. He praises most Chinese people a lot.

D. He dislikes most Chinese people.

2.What is the author doing in China?

A. He is visiting the places of interest.

B. He is teaching English in a school.

C. He is studying in a college.

D. He is on business.

3.What are not cheap in China in the author’s opinion?

A. Clothes and shoes made in China.        B. Local foods

C. Public transportation tickets.            D. Imported foods

4.We can infer from the passage that the author thinks________.

A. the westerners have got to know China well

B. China’s economic miracles have appeared everywhere

C. the progress of China is seldom reported in the US

D. the education in rural areas is never cared about in China

5.In the author’s eyes,________.

A. China is different from the US

B. China is better than the US

C. Americans are richer than Chinese

D. China bears great similarities to the US