1、1Text one Caution: Bumpy Road AheadStudents graduating from colleges today are not fully prepared to deal with the “real world.“ It is my belief that college students need to be taught more skills and information to enable them to meet the challenges that face everyone in daily life. The areas in wh
2、ich students need training are playing the credit game, planning their personal financial strategy, and consumer awareness.Learning how to obtain and use credit is probably the most valuable knowledge a young person can have. Credit is a dangerous tool that can be of tremendous help if it is handled
3、 with caution. Having credit can enable people to obtain material necessities before they have the money to purchase them outright. But unfortunately, many, many young people get carried away with their handy plastic credit cards and awakeone day to find they are in serious financial debt. Learning
4、how to use credit properly can be a very difficult and painful lesson indeed.Of equal importance is learning how to plan a personal budget. People have to know how to control money; otherwise, it can control them. Students should leave college knowing how to allocate their money for living expenses,
5、 insurance, savings, and so forth in order to avoid the “Oh, no! Im flat broke and I dont get paid again for two weeks!“ anxiety syndrome.Along with learning about credit and personal financial planning, graduating college students should be trained as consumers. The consumer market today is flooded
6、 width a variety of products and services of varying quality and prices. A young person entering the “real world“ is suddenly faced with difficult decisions about which product to buy or whose services to engage. He is usually unaware of such things as return policies, guarantees, or repair procedur
7、es. Information of this sort is vital knowledge to everyday living.For a newly graduated college student, the “real world“ can be a scary place to be when he or she is faced with such issues as handling credit, planning a budget, or knowing what to look for when making a purchase and whom to purchas
8、e it from. Entering this “real world“ could be made less painful if persons were educated in dealing with these areas of daily life. What better place to accomplish this than in college?Exercises:1. According to the writer, graduating students_A) willfind it hard to get a job with only knowledge gai
9、ned from collegeB) haveinsufficient skills and knowledge and do not deserve a college diplomaC) willnot be able to earn enough money to support themselvesD) donot have the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with the realities of life2. The writer points out that many young people _A) fallinto de
10、bt due to ill-advised use of credit cardsB) haveto depend on credit to purchase some material necessitiesC) donot know the power of credit and easily run into serious financial debtD) startbuying too much on credit before they get a paid job3. Students suffer from an anxiety syndrome because_A) they
11、do not have their parents financial supportB) theyare worried that they dont get paid on timeC) theyrun out of money and cant cover their living expensesD) theycant afford to buy insurance for themselves4. To “train students as consumers“ means to enable them to_A) handletheir credit with cautionB)
12、plantheir spending carefully so that they dont go brokeC) makewise purchasing decisions and be informed about consumer services2D) copewith serious financial problems5. By asking “What better place to accomplish this than in college?“ the writer means that_A) thebest place to train students to deal
13、with personal financial issues is in collegeB) studentsshould be trained to enter the real world after they graduate from collegeC) studentscan best be trained in business and economics in collegeD) studentsshould be taught to cope with the difficult problems they will be facing after graduationText
14、 twoWorking while you grow Kitchen ManagerI had been working at a cafe called Pacific Desserts for two years. One day the kitchen manager left his job. I had worked there the longest. I was given the kitchen managers work, but not the title or the pay.High school kids waited tables at night there. T
15、hey often visited in the morning before the place was open. They came for free coffee. I had been making myself breakfast before the manager got there and I decided to expand. For the last three months of school, I made fried eggs and potato salad using the restaurants eggs, cheese, milk, vegetables
16、, potatoes, and spices. We started a morning coffee club, and charged $1 per plate. Soon the high school students started to bring their friends. One of them even made a signboard in his carpentry class that read “Joes Underground Cafe “. I usually made about $ 8 extra per day. This was the same as
17、an increase in my pay. I was also spending an hour of the companys time for my own profit.Bicycle Messenger KennyBeing a bike messenger in Seattle is hard, but our job was easy. We had to work extremely hard, but at least we got paid by the hour.The company always let us wear shorts, but we had to w
18、ear the company T-shirts. We cut off the sleeves to stay cool. Then, the company wanted to give a better impression of itself because we delivered to big businesses. They made us wear long pants and shirts made of heavy material. This was crazy! Try riding your bicycle fast for ten miles up hills, r
19、eally big hills, with heavy packages while youre wearing long pants! All of the messengers agreed we could not continue like that. We decided that we wouldnt wash our clothes at all. We wore the same clothes every day. You can imagine what it was like when we were in an elevator. Our clothes smelled
20、 terrible and our bodies also smelled bad. Within a month, the company received many complaints. They let us wear shorts again. Exercises:1. Joe took over the work of the kitchen manager and got an increase in his pay2. When Joe said “I decided to expand“, he meant that he decided to make money by m
21、aking breakfast for the students3. According to the passage, Joes “coffee club“ had the approval of his boss4. The bike messengers make good money5. the bike messengers felt that it was a crazy idea to make them wear long pants6. in order to smell bad, all the bike messengers agreed not to wash thei
22、r _.7. the bike messengers were allowed to wear shorts again, after the company had received numerous _.3Text three From Your ValentineConsidering the number of ethnic groups that make up the U.S. population, it is not surprising that Americans have a variety of different holidays. From Thanksgiving
23、 to Cinco de Mayo, from Chanukah to the Chinese New Year, they are seldom at a loss for a reason to celebrate. Some of these holidays are rather unusual. Some examples follow. Groundhog Day, February 2. The groundhog, a small burrowing animal also known as a woodchuck, is supposed to come out of his
24、 hole to look for his shadow on this day. As the legend goes, if he fails to see his shadow it means spring has come; if he sees it he returns to his hole to sleep, for winter will continue for another six weeks. April FoolsDay, April 1.Dont believe anything you hear on this day of tricks and jokes
25、designed to make you an “April Fool“! Halloween, October 31 :After dark, children dressed like ghosts and witches go from house to house shouting, “Trick or treat!“ The people they visit must fill their bags with candy and other treats or else the children will play tricks on them. Sadie Hawkins Day
26、, the first Saturday after November 11:Traditionally, it is the boys who chase the girls, but on Sadie Hawkins Day a girl can keep any boy she can catch.On February 14 Americans celebrate another unusual holiday, St. Valentines Day, a special day for lovers. Valentines are cards - usually red and sh
27、aped like hearts - with messages of love written on them. Lovers send these cards to each other, often anonymously, on St. Valentines Day.The origins of this holiday are uncertain, but according to one legend, it gets its name from a Christian priest named Valentine who lived in Rome during the thir
28、d century after Christ. His job was to perform marriages for Christian couples. Unfortunately, the Emperor of Rome, Claudius II, did not allow Christian marriages, so they had to be per- formed in secret. Eventually Valentine was arrested and put into prison. While in prison he fell in love with the
29、 daughter of the prison guard.After one year, the Emperor offered to release Valentine if he would agree to stop performing these secret marriages. Valentine refused, so the Emperor sentenced him to death. Valentine was executed in 270 A.D. on February 14, the same day the Romans worshiped their god
30、dess of marriage, Juno. Before he was killed, Valentine sent a love letter to the daughter of the prison guard. He signed the letter “from your Valentine.“ That was the first valentine.The next valentine was sent in 1415 A.D. Charles, Duke of Orleans sent the valentine to his wife while he was a pri
31、soner in the Tower ofLondon. His valentine is now on exhibit in theBritishMuseum. The first commercially printed valentines did not appear until 1809. Some of these valentines were not messages of love. Comic valentines,or “penny dreadfuls“ as they were called, were often funny and sometimes insulti
32、ng. The “Golden Age“ of valentines began in the 1840s when valentine makers started making elaborate and expensive valentines.Jonathan King became famous as a publisher of beautiful and unusual valentines in Britain in the 1870s. Esther Howland was the first to publish valentines in the United State
33、s, in the 1860s. She created handmade designs for valentines, which cost as much as thirty-five dollars.4Today, millions of Americans send and receive valentines on St. Valentines Day. Whether it is an expensive heart-shaped box of chocolates from a secret admirer or a simple handmade card from a ch
34、ild, a valentine is a very special message of love.Exercises:1. On Groundhog Day, people play tricks on each other._2. Halloween is a childrens holiday._3. On Sadie Hawkins Day, the boys chase the girls._4. St. Valentines Day is a special day for lovers._5. The first valentine was sent by Charles, D
35、uke of Orleans._6. The first person to publish valentines in the U.S. was_ 7. A valentine can be a box of chocolates in the shape of_Text fourA Country of ImmigrantsAs you walk along the street in any American city, you see many different faces. You see oriental faces, black faces, and white faces.
36、These are the faces of the United States, a country of immigrants from all over the world. Immigrants are people who leave one country to live permanently in another country.The first immigrants came to North America in the 1600s from northern European countries such as England and Holland. These pe
37、ople generally had light skin and light hair. They came to live in North America because they wanted religious freedom. In the 1700s and early 1800s immigrants continued to move from Europe to the United States. At this time there was one group of unwilling immigrants, black Africans. These people w
38、ere tricked or forced to come to the United States, where they worked on the large farms in the south. The blacks had no freedom; they were slaves. In the1800s many Chinese and Irish immigrants came to the United States. They came because of economic or political problems in their countries. The mos
39、t recent immigrants to the United States, the Indochinese, Cubans, and Central Americans also came because of economic or political problems in their own countries. Except for the blacks, most of these immigrants thought of the United States as a land of opportunity, of a chance for freedom and new
40、lives.In the United States, these immigrants looked for help from other immigrants who shared the same background, language, and religion. Therefore, there are neighborhoods in each U.S. city made up almost entirely of one ethnic or racial group. There are all Italian, all Puerto Rican, or all Irish
41、 neighborhoods in many East Coast cities and all Mexican neighborhoods in the Southwest.In Dearborn, Michigan, there is a large group of Lebanese. There are racial neighborhoods such as oriental Chinatown in San Francisco and black Harlem in New York. There are also neighborhoods with a strong relig
42、ious feeling such as a Jewish part of Brooklyn in New York. And, of course, there are economic neighborhood divisions; in American cities very often poor people do not live in thesame neighborhoods as rich people.This wide variety of neighborhoods in the cities is a reflection of the different group
43、s in American society. American society is a mixture of racial, language, cultural, religious, and economic groups. People sometimes call America a melting pot and compare its society to a soup with many different ingredients. The ingredients (different races, cultures, religions, 5and economic grou
44、ps) supposedly mix together to make a smooth soup. But, in reality, there are a few lumps left in the soup.Comprehension Exercise1. The earliest immigrants came to North America because _A) they wanted to have freedom in their religious beliefsB) they were poor people in their own countriesC) they w
45、anted to work on the large farms in the U.S.D) they were tired of the political problems in their own countries2. The black Africans came to the United States because _A) they wanted to gain political freedomB) they thought of the United States as a land of opportunityC) they wanted to live a new li
46、feD)they were tricked or forced to go there3. One of the reasons why immigrants to the U.S. formed racial neighborhoods is that they _A) had the same problemsB) shared the same political viewsC) worked in the same placesD)spoke the same language4. Jewish immigrants to the U.S. are most likely to be
47、found in _A) Dearborn, MichiganB) Chinatown, San FranciscoC) Brooklyn, New YorkD) Harlem, New York5. The sentence “there are a few lumps left in the soup“ implies that _A) some immigrants are poor; some are richB) the immigrants didnt get along with their neighborsC) different ethnic groups have kep
48、t their separate identitiesD) people of different cultures enjoy their life in the U.S.Text fiveFriendsIt was Saturday morning. Nicky and I were just finishing our shopping. “Let me see.“ Nicky said. “Weve been to the supermarket, the bakers and the greengrocers. Is that the lot?“I looked at my list
49、. “I just need a couple of things from the chemists,“ I told her. “All right,“ Nicky said. “While youre doing that, Ill just call in at the bookshop.“We arranged to meet at a caf6 in a quarter of an hour. I arrived first. When Nicky came in, she looked quite excited.“Did you find your book, then?“ I asked as she sat down.“Yes,“ Nicky said.“Something special?“ I asked. I was curious because Nicky was not a great reader, except for newspapers and magazines. She sometimes borrowed b
