Today’s consumer is clearly not interested in...

Today’s consumer is clearly not interested in saving for a rainy day, _____ was the case in the past.

A. as           B. when          C. about which          D. it

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Being a mother is apparently not like it was in the good old days.

　Today’s parents yearn for the golden age that their own mothers enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers found. Mothers have less time to themselves and feel under greater pressure to handle work and family life than the previous generation. As a result, 88 per cent said they felt guilty about the lack of time they spent with their children.

The survey of 1,000 mothers also found that more than a third said they had less time to themselves than their mothers did – just three hours a week or 26 minutes a day. And 64 per cent said this was because they felt they ‘had’ to go out to work, while nearly a third (29 per cent) said they were under constant pressure to be the ‘perfect mother’, the report found.

Other findings showed social networking and parenting websites, as well as technology such as Skype, were important in providing help and support among female communities. Kate Fox, a member of the Social Issues Research Centre, which conducted the survey for Procter & Gamble, said: ‘With increasing pressure on mothers to work a “double shift” — to be the perfect mother as well as a wage-earner — support networks are more important than ever.

It comes as a separate report examining childcare in the leading industrialised nations found that working mothers in Britain spend just 81 minutes a day caring for their children as a ‘primary activity’. Mothers who stay at home, on the other hand, manage twice as much time – more than two and a half hours – looking after their offspring, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

　Critics say the pressure on women to work long hours, and leave their offspring in the hands of nurseries or childminders, is putting the well-being of their children at risk.

　The study also reveals that, despite the fact that more and more modern mothers go out to work, the burden of childcare still falls on them - even if their husband is not in work. A father who is not in work tends to spend just 63 minutes a day looking after his child - 18 minutes less than a mother who goes out to work. Working fathers spare less than three quarters of an hour with their children.

1.. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A. The good old days of mothers in the 1970s and 1980s.

B. The great sufferings of today’s children.

C. The statistics of working mothers and full-time mothers.

D. The big problems that today’s working mothers face.

2.. What does the underlined phrase “yearn for” probably means ___________.

A. hate            B. miss           C. abandon         D. control

3. Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A. Today’s mothers have less time left for their children and themselves.

B. The working mothers can hardly strike the balance between work and family.

C. Most of the mothers can not control their husbands nowadays.

D. Modern fathers do not spend enough time with their children.

4. From para. 4, we can infer that ___________.

A. working mothers can seek help on line

B. Skype is a very famous expert in studying social issues

C. working mothers’ double shift is to be a wife and a mother

D. Kate Fox has opened a website offering help to working mothers

5.. What critics say means that _____________.

A. it is wise for working mothers to put their kids in nurseries or childminders

B. too much time in nurseries or childminders is bad for kids’ mental and physical health

C. nurseries or childminders are dangerous places for children

D. children do not like nurseries or childminders at all

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

The growing interest in ____ history is clearly evident in ____ number of people visiting museums and country houses.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Online shopping 1. (welcome) by most people due to various reasons. For the consumers, it can save some time for the people 2. don’t have much spare time. Just clicking the mouse, they can get what they want 3. staying at home. For the sellers, it can cut some costs for those without enough circulating funds. Compared with the traditional trade mode, they don’t have to spend money in 4. (rent) a house.

高三英语语法填空简单题查看答案及解析

Just now, I entered the website “Topic for Today”. I feel  1 (interest) in the report on middle school students’ using cell-phones on campus. In fact, more students now come to school2 cell-phones. My schoolmates have different opinions. Some think  3 is convenient to get in touch with others with the cell-phone, which also makes you feel safe especially in time of trouble. 4 , it is nice to enjoy_____5__(variety)functions of different cell-phones. 6 think differently. First, the cell-phone is not7 must in school, as  there are some IC phones there,  8    _(make) it easy to call others. Second, many students often play e-games and send e-massages with their cell-phones, even in class,9 ___will surely have bad effects on their study. What’s more, it ___10_____(result) in a great waste of time and money. In my opinion, the cell-phone is a useful tool in our daily life. But it doesn’t mean we can use freely in school.

高三英语其他题中等难度题查看答案及解析

– What’s wrong with your ipad2? The sound ____is not clear.

--Yes. It has been broken for some time.

高三英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析

(2013·天津模拟)His father got him a job in a bank but soon it became clear

　　he was not fit for that kind of work.

A. why                B. what            C. whether            D. that

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Amid weak job and housing markets, consumers are saving more and spending less than they have in decades and industry professionals expect that trend to continue. Consumers saved 6.4 percent of their after-tax income in June. Before the recession, the rate was 1 to 2 percent for many years. In June, consumer spending and personal incomes were essentially flat compared with May, suggesting that the American economy, as dependent as it is on shoppers opening their wallets and purses, isn’t likely to rebound anytime soon.

On the bright side, the practices that consumers have adopted in response to the economic crisis ultimately could make them happier. New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier when they spend money on experiences instead of material objects, when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it, and when they stop trying to outdo the Joneses.

If consumers end up sticking with their newfound spending habits, some tactics (策略) that retailers and marketers began using during the recession could become lasting business strategies. Among those strategies are offering goods that makes being at home more entertaining and trying to make consumers feel special by giving them access to exclusive events and more personal customer service.

While the current round of stinginess may simply be a response to the economic downturn, some analysts say consumers may also be permanently adjusting their spending based on what they’ve discovered about what truly makes them happy or fulfilled.

“This actually is a topic that hasn’t been researched very much until recently,” says Elizabeth W. Dunn, an associate professor in the psychology department at the University of British Columbia, who is at the forefront of research on consumption and happiness. There’s massive literature on income and happiness. It’s amazing how little there is on how to spend your money.

Studies over the last few decades have shown that money, up to a certain point, makes people happier because it lets them meet basic needs. The latest round of research is, for lack of a better term, all about emotional efficiency: how to reap the most happiness for your dollar.

So just where does happiness reside for consumers? Scholars and researchers haven’t determined whether Armani will put a bigger smile on your face than Dolce & Gabbana. But they have found that our types of purchases, their size and frequency, and even the timing of the spending all affect long-term happiness.

One major finding is that spending money for an experience — concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco — produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.

“‘It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch’ is basically the idea,” says Professor Dunn.

Thomas DeLeire, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure: vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment like golf clubs and fishing poles.

1.What’s the dark side of American consumers’ saving more and spending less?

A.The job and housing markets will become even weaker.

B.There is little hope that the American economy will recover soon.

C.More and more retailers and marketers will have to go bankrupt.

D.It’s possible that the American economy will rebound sooner.

2.What will happen if customers keep their spending habits formed in the economic downturn?

A.They will get goods and services much cheaper.

B.It’s likely that they spend more time indoors.

C.Retailers will change their business strategies.

D.They will enjoy better services and experiences.

3.What surprises Elizabeth W. Dunn according to the passage?

A.There is little about how to spend money to make people happy.

B.Consumers unconsciously adjust their spending habits to be happy.

C.People started researches on consumption-happiness relationship so early.

D.Happiness is proved to have nothing to do with consumption.

4.Scholars such as Prof. Dunn and Prof. DeLeire agree that_______.

A.richer people feel happier and more satisfied

B.most consumers prefer leading brands like Armani

C.spending on vacations brings long-term happiness

D.people should curb their spending on material thing

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

—What’s wrong with your ipad? The sound________is not clear.

—Yes. It has been broken for some time.

A．come out         B．coming out       C．to come out      D．came out

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

His father got him a job in a bank but soon it became clear ________ he was not fit for that kind of work．

A. why               B. what    C. whether       D. that

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析