average considerably lower levels of economic activity and much lower wages and incomes. Far too
many people in financial problems are trapped in homes they can"t sell, unable to move on to new centers
of opportunity.
The cities and regions with the lowest levels of homeownership-in the range of 55% to 60% like Los
Angeles and New York-had healthier economies and higher incomes. They also had higher levels of
happiness and well-being.
I was shocked to read these interesting points that Richard Florida made in his recent article. Let
me try to understand. The people in Detroit and St. Louis are less happy than the people in New York,
and Los Angeles. And, the reason is because of home ownership rates?
First, to compare them to New York City (the economic capital of the world), Los Angeles (the entertainment capital of the world) seems unfair. Most people in almost any other city in the world might be less
happy!
Next, let"s try a different way of determining whether renters are happier than homeowners. Why
don"t we ask them? Fannie Mae"s National Housing Survey 2010 reported:
75% of current renters believe owning a home makes more sense.
67% plan to buy a home at some point in the future.
When they asked current renters for the major reason to buy a house, these were their answers (they
could pick several answers):
78% said it was a good place to raise children.
75% said because they would feel safe.
70% said because you have control your own space.
If you believe renters are happier, you would also have to believe the majority enjoy living in a less
safe environment, which wouldn"t be a good place to raise children and would be a place where they
have less control of their space.
B. New York"s low homeownership rate increases people"s happiness levels.
C. Detroit"s high level of homeownership causes its economic problems.
D. St. Louis has a higher level of homeownership than Los Angeles.
B. Renting a house is better than owning a house
C. Detroit"s economy is healthier than New York"s economy
D. New York and Los Angeles are happiest cities
B. benefit from low levels of homeownership
C. are leading cities across the globe
D. are best American cities to live in
B. most homeowners plan to sell their houses
C. most renters prefer to become homeowners
D. parents need to buy a house for their children
B. to live in a safer environment
C. to make money
D. to have control of their own space
friend, Kate, found this article and sent it to her.
Introduction
A lot of crime is against bicycles. About 150,000 bicycles are stolen every year and most are never
found. You can prevent this happening by following a few careful steps.
Basic Security
Do not leave your bicycle in out-of-the-way places. Always lock your bicycle when you leave.
Secure it to lampposts or trees. Take off smaller parts and take them with you, for example lights and
saddles(车座).
Locks
Get a good lock. There are many different types in the shop. Buy one that has been tested against
attack. Ask for a recommendation from a bike shop.
Marking
Security marking your bike can act as a deterrent to a thief. It can also help the police find your
bicycle. It should be clearly written and include your postcode and your house or flat number. This will
provide a simple way to identify your bicycle.
Registration
There are a number of companies who will security mark your bicycle for you. They will then put
your registration number and personal details on their computer database. Then if your bicycle is found
it will be easy to contact you.
Finally
Keep a record of the bicycle yourself: its make, model and registration number. You can even take
a photograph of it, this will prove the bicycle belongs to you.
B. Marking
C. Registration
D. Basic Security
B. help the police find your bicycle
C. stop someone stealing your bicycle
D. stop you worrying about your bike
B. in a police station and security company
C. in a security company and your university
D. by yourself and in a security company
B. to suggest ways of keeping your bicycle safe
C. to give you advice on where to buy a good lock
D. to say why you shouldn"t keep your bicycle in a quiet place
Visitors to Britain are always complaining about English food. But they do not really know what they
are talking about because they rarely get a chance to eat it. Most of the restaurants in large towns have
foreign owners and serve foreign food. When visitors are invited to eat in an English home, their hosts often feel they must offer them something foreign. Those of us who do know English food are aware that at its
best it can be really very good. On the other hand it is true to say that it is sometimes terrible. Part of the
problem is that we are not really interested in food-we eat to live, we do not live to eat. So we don"t
generally spend the necessary time and effort needed to cook really good meals. We prefer food that is
simple and easy to cook, or ready prepared food which only needs heating up before eating.
You can find that best English food is in the country, where life is slower and people are not in such a
hurry. But, of course, most visitors come to London. They come because they are interested in shopping
and sightseeing. They do not come because of the food, so why should they complain about it?
B. prefer to take their guests to restaurants
C. have to serve the food their guests are used to having
D. prefer to serve them English food
B. we do not eat to live, we live to eat
C. we eat to live, but not live to eat
D. we eat to live, we live to eat
B. with only fresh vegetables
C. some typical English food
D. in a quick and easy way
B. it is possible to find good English food in towns but it takes time to find
C. apart from food, people also come to go shop-ping and sightseeing
D. if people complain about English food, they will get better food
with cash and credit cards?
Some people may be greedy, and others are simply too lazy to bother with the trip to the post
office to send back a wallet to a stranger. But according to a psychology study by Dr. Richard
Wiseman, there"s one thing that"ll greatly increase your odds of being reunited with a lost wallet:
a photograph of a cute baby.
In the study, hundreds of wallets were scattered around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. The
psychologists wanted to see how many strangers would take the trouble to return them to the
addresses listed on the drivers" licenses inside-but more than that, they wanted to find out what
would make a person more likely to help out a stranger.
To finish this, they included personal touches in most of the wallets: some included a photo of
a happy elderly couple, some contained a cute puppy, some contained a family portrait, and some
held a photo of a lovely baby. Others had receipts(发票) showing that the wallet"s owner had recently
donated to a charity. Some contained no personal details.
As the psychologists soon discovered, the sight of a smiling baby is enough to warm nearly any
heart: only one in ten of the strangers who retrieved such wallets did not return them. In contrast, the
second most successful image, the puppy, had a 53% return rate. When the wallet included no
photograph, it stood only a one in seven chance of being returned to the owner.
The success of the baby photograph shows a human compassion for the young that"s been passed
down through the ages, according to Dr. Wiseman. "The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people,
which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective(进化的角度)," he told the Times.
To ensure our species" survival, scientists think that we must feel empathy and compassion for our
young. Scientists say that this study supports the argument that we won"t feel compassion only for our
own babies, but for any that we see-hence, the strong desire a stranger would feel to return a wallet to
the baby"s parent.
On a more basic level, the study also provides a great tip to help ensure that if your wallet is ever
lost, you"re more likely to get it back. "If you want to increase the chances of your wallet being
returned if lost, obtain a photograph of the cutest baby you can find and ensure that it is clearly
displayed," said Dr. Wiseman.
B. what made people willing to help strangers
C. what kind of feelings could be caused by a smiling baby
D. how evolution influenced human beings
B. spread out
C. found out
D. looked for
B. Because the sight of a baby could cause a caring feeling in them.
C. Because they were curious to know the parents of the baby
D. Because the sight of a cute baby reminded them of their own children.
be returned?
B. About 15.
C. 20 or so.
D. About 27.
B. the caring feeling in people is gone during evolution
C. scientists believed that people only feel compassion for their own babies
D. a wallet with a cute baby"s picture in it cannot be lost
a bribe(贿赂), but is close to it.
All sorts of people are apple polishers, including politicians and people in high offices-just abou
t everybody. Oliver Cromwell, the great English leader, offered many gifts to win the support of
George Fox and his party, but failed.
There are other phrases meaning the same thing as “apple-polishing”-“soft-soaping” or
“buttering-up”. A gift is just one way to “soft-soap” somebody, or to “butter him up”. Another
that is just as effective is flattery, giving someone high praise-telling him how good he looks, or how
well he speaks, or how talented and wise he is.
Endless are the ways of flattery. Who does not love to hear it? Only an unusual man can resist the
thrill of being told how wonderful he is. In truth, flattery is good medicine for most of us, who get so
little of it.
We need it to be more sure of ourselves. It cannot hurt unless we get carried away by it. But if we
just lap it up for its food value and nourishment, as a cat laps up milk, then we can still remain true to
ourselves.
Sometimes, however, flattery will get you nothing from one who has had too much of it. A good
example is the famous 12th century legend of King Canute of Denmark and England. The king got
tired of listening to endless sickening flattery of his courtiers(朝臣). They overpraised him to the skies,
as a man of limitless might.
He decided to teach them a lesson. He took them to the seashore and sat down. Then he ordered
the waves to stop coming in. The tide was too busy to listen to him. The king was satisfied. This might
show his followers how weak his power was and how empty their flattery.
B. An employee tells her boss how good he is at management.
C. A knight is said to be of limitless power by his followers.
D. A teacher praises her students for their talent and wisdom.
B. Cromwell was not a good apple-polisher.
C. George Fox and his party were not apple-polishers.
D. There are people who don’t like being apple-polished.
B. Flattery is too empty to do people any good.
C. Flattery can get you nothing but excessive(过度的) pride.
D. Flattery is one of the ways to apple-polish people.
B. he disliked being overpraised any more
C. he wanted them to realize how wise he was
D. he wanted them to see how weak he was as a king
B. lack confidence
C. are really excellent
D. think highly of themselves
The chip will also know if your child has fallen and needs immediate help. Once doctors arrive,
the chip will also be able to tell them which drugs are not suitable for little Johnny or Janie. At the
hospital, the chip will tell doctors his or her complete medical history. And of course, when you
arrive to pick up your child, settling the hospital bill with your health insurance policy will be a simple
matter of waving your own chip-the one embedded in your hand.
To some, this may sound unbelievable. But the technology for such chips is no longer the stuff
of science fiction. And it may soon offer many other benefits besides locating lost children or elderly
patients. It could be used as credit cards and people won’t have to carry wallets anymore.
On the other hand, some are already wondering what this sort of technology may do to the sense
of personal privacy and liberty.
“Any technology of this kind could result in abuse of personal privacy,” says Lee Tien, senior
staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “If a kid can be tracked, do you want other
people to be able to track your kid? It’s a double-edged sword.”
Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. in Palm Beach, Florida, says it has recently applied to the Food
and Drug Administration for permission to begin testing its device in humans. About the size of a
grain of rice, the microchip can be encoded (编码) with bits of information and embedded in humans
under a layer of skin. When scanned by a nearby reader, the embedded chip gives the data.
Most embedded chip designs are so-called passive chips, which give information only when
scanned by a nearby reader. But active chips-such as the proposed Digital Angel of the future-will
give out information all the time. And that means designers will have to develop some sort of power
source that can provide a continuous source of energy, yet be small enough to be embedded with
the chips.
In addition to technical problems, many suspect that all sorts of legal and privacy issues would
have to be cleared as well.
B. chips are more convenient than credit cards
C. chips will soon be useful in many aspects of daily lives
D. chips will bring out the issue of abuse of personal privacy
B. Indifferent.
C. Arbitrary(随意的).
D. Cautious.
B. capacity
C. safety
D. purpose
B. Digital Angel will soon be produced and replace passive chips.
C. Digital Angel will be embedded in humans under a layer of skin.
D. Digital Angel will give information without being scanned by a reader.
B. technical problems
C. legal problems
D. privacy problems
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