A few years ago, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, where I was employed. purchased Norand Corporation. Pioneer's sales representatives in the field used Norand hand-held terminals to upload daily sales information and download new price and sales incentive information. Pioneer bought so many of these hand-held-terminals, the economies made the purchase of Norand look interesting. Owning Norand also allowed Pioneer to explore high-technology markets outside agriculture.

But after a few years, the emerging laptop PC technology made the hand-held units obsolete (已废弃的). Pioneer sold Norand at a loss. Pioneer always took a given percent of the annual profits to divide equally among all employees, so our profit-sharing checks were lower than if Pioneer had not purchased Norand. Additionally, my Pioneer stock was lower than it had been before the purchase of Norand. I was not pleased.

The CEO of Pioneer, Tom Urban, made annual formal visits to each of the Pioneer divisions to talk about the state of the business and to listen to employees' concerns. When he walked into the meeting room for his first visit after the sale of Norand, he acknowledged the group, remove his jacket, and neatly folded it across the back of the chair. He loosened his tie, undid his collar and rolled up his sleeves.The next thing he said was the last thing I ever expected to hear a CEO say.

He said, "I made a mistake buying Norand and I am sorry. I am sorry your profit-sharing was lower because of the purchase, and I am sorry your stock was hurt by the purchase. I will continue to take risks, but I am a bit smarter now, and I will work harder for you."

A great man and leader stood before us that day. As I sat listening to him, I knew I could trust him, and that he deserved every bit of loyalty I could give to him and to Pioneer. I also knew I could take risks in my own job.

In the brief moment of silence before the questions started, I recall thinking that follow him into any battle.

1.All of the following are the results brought by Pioneer's purchase of Norand except     .

2.The underlined sentence in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to       .

3.Why did Tom Urban remove his jacket, loosen his tie, undo his collar and roll up his sleeves before he spoke?

4.What did the employees feel after Tom Urban apologized to them?

E
There was one thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. At present, we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in rural areas away from any major concentration （集中）of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution.
Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of coal and oil is creating a “greenhouse effect” - raising the world’s average temperature. If this view is correct and the world’s temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be in water.
Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is preventing sunlight and lowering the earth’s temperature - a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. Today we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen though one recent government reports that the greenhouse effect is very possible. Perhaps, if we are lucky enough, the two tendencies will offset（抵消）each other and the world’s temperature will stay about the same as it is now. Driven by economic profits, people don’t think about the damage on our environment caused by the “advanced civilization”. Maybe the air pollution is the price the human beings have to pay for their development. But is it really worth?
72. As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution ________.
A. caused widespread damage in the countryside
B. affected the entire eastern half of the United States
C. had damaged effect on health
D. existed only in urban and industrial areas
73. As to the greenhouse effect, the author ________.
A. shares the same view with the scientists
B. is uncertain of its happening
C. rejects it as being ungrounded
D. thinks it will destroy the world soon
74. It can be concluded from the last paragraph that ________.
A. lowering the world’s temperature only a few degrees would lead major farming areas to disaster
B. raising the world’s temperature only a few degrees would not do much harm to life on earth
C. almost no temperature variations have occurred over the past decade
D. the world’s temperature will remain constant in the years to come
75. This passage is mainly about ________.
A. the greenhouse effect
B. the burning of coal and oil
C. the potential effect of air pollution
D. the likelihood of a new ice age

Com]

Section One

The city is an accumulation of human civilization. Just as the American social philosopher (哲学家) Lewis Mumford put it, it is a special system which, fine and compact, has been designed to preserve the fruits of human civilization. Many Western languages have developed their versions of the term “civilization” from the same Latin (拉丁语的) word “civitas”(meaning “city”), and it is by no means a coincidence. The city has played a significant role in the perfection of order in human society.

Section Two

The emblem, showing the image of three people ― you, me, him/her holding hands together, symbolizes the big family of mankind. Inspired by the shape of the Chinese character “世” (meaning the world), the design conveys the organizers' wish to host an Expo which is of global scale and which displays the various urban cultures of the world.

Section Three

Created from the inspiration of Chinese character “人”, the design roots deeply in Chinese culture. It tells the world the eternal core (永恒的核心) and theme of Shanghai World Expo will be always human. The mascot “Haibao” will become the messenger for the theme of World Expo 2010 Shanghai China “Better City, Better Life”.

The basic structure of the Chinese character “人” in which each stroke(一笔，一划) supports each other also shows the concept that the beautiful life should depends on mutual-help. If the human are willing to support one another, the harmony among human, nature, and society will be available. Such an urban life will be nice.

Haibao’s confident smile is expressing his sincere greeting from China ― “World Expo 2010 Shanghai China welcomes you!”

1. Section One mainly tells us about ______.

    A. the part cities play in human civilization  

B. the development of the word “city”

C. why the Expo is held in Shanghai       

D. where human civilization originated

2. The underlined word “it” in Section One refers to ______.

    A. the civilization    B. the philosopher   C. the word    D. the city

3. Which correctly matches the sections with the pictures described in the passage?

4. The second paragraph in Section Three explains how the creation is connected with the _____ of the Chinese word “人”.

    A. story            B. meaning       C. shape         D. usage

TYPING

This course is for those who want to learn to type, as well as those who want to improve their typing. The course is not common. You are tested in the first class and begin practicing at one of eight different skill levels. This allows you to learn at your own speed. Each program lasts 20 hours. Bring your own paper.

Course fee: $ 125   Materials: $25

Two hours each evening for two weeks. New classes begin every two weeks.

This course is taught by a number of qualified business education teachers who have successfully taught typing courses before.

UNDERSTANDING COMPUTERS

This twelve-hour course is for people who do not know very much about computers, but who need to learn about them. You will learn what computers are, what they can and can’t do and how to use them.

Course fee: $75    Equipment fee: $ 10

Jan. 4, 7, 11, 14, 18, Wed. & Sat. 9—11:30 a.m.

Joseph Saunders is Professor of Computer Science at New Urban University. He has over twenty years of experience in the computer field.

STOP SMOKING

Do you want to stop smoking? Have you already tried to stop and failed? Now is the time to stop smoking using the latest methods. You can stop smoking, and this twelve-hour course will help you do it.

Course fee: $30

Jan. 2, 9, 16, 23 Mon. 2—5 p. m.

Dr John Good is a practicing psychologist who had helped hundreds of people stop smoking.

If you choose the UNDERSTANDING COMPUTERS course, you will have classes _______.

A. from Monday to Sunday                

B. from Monday to Friday

C. on Wednesday and Saturday                 

D. on Saturday and Sunday

The STOP SMOKING course will last ______.

A. for half a day                            

B. for three hours         

C. for a week                                      

D. for four weeks

Mr. Black works every morning and evening, but he wants to take part in one of the three courses. The most probable course he will attend is ______.

A. typing                                           B. understanding computers  

C. stop smoking                                     D. all the courses

If you want to learn computer and at the same time you want to improve your typing, you will pay _______.

A. $ 75                        B. $ 15                  C. $ 115                       D. $ 235

The typical difference of “Typing” from the other two is ______.

A. people with different skill levels may learn at different speed

B. you will take a test after the course

C. you will pay the fee before practicing

D. you will pay less money

Urban congestion would be greatly relieved if only the ______ charged on public transport were more reasonable.

A) prices             B) tickets          C) fees              D) fares