The two girls got on very well with each other, even though it was the first time they  _.

A. have met                   B. met                           C. had met                     D. meet

 China has been pushing the reform of public hospitals ______ all its citizens.

  A. in charge of        B. for the purpose of  C. in honor of                    D. for the benefit of

 The scientist does not study nature ______ it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it.

A. until                   B. though                           C. because                 D. unless

Some people are afraid of starting a casual conversation with a stranger because of a fear of not having anything interesting to say. Fear of rejection is also a     41     for keeping silent. Small talk in a conversation can       42      as a way of warming up and getting to      43      each other. Most people, no matter       44      successful they are at work, will find the process of      45     small talk uncomfortable, even pointless.      46     , you will have a pretty small world      47      you refuse to let others in. Starting off with a casual comment or question will make others       48     , and even just greeting them with a simple “hello” will often be enough.

Once you have made the first      49     , there is no turning back. You need to keep things      50      before you can gracefully say goodbye. Think about what you would like to      51      with a new friend and that is what you can ask the other person about. Work, family, hobbies or interests are some      52      points of discussion. To keep the ball rolling, you can show that you are really      53      in what they are saying. Once you find common      54      of interest, things will definitely      55      off from there.

Small talk can      56      out to be a pleasant experience. The conversation      57      be brief and casual without turning into a long and boring discussion. Do not let yourself      58      the conversation. Stop worrying about how big of a fool you may appear to be. You may      59     find out later on that you have the “     60     ” of getting people to open up to you by engaging them in the small talk.

Research shows Dad，not Mum，is the big risk factor for childhood obesity．

A recent study has found having an overweight father quadruples (四倍) a child’s chance of being overweight，ever if they have a mother of normal weight .Interestingly, the opposite scenario(情景) doesn’t have the same result. So if the mother is overweight but the father is of normal weight the child’s risk of being overweight is not significantly raised.

The research was undertaken by researchers at the University Of Newcastle who examined more than 3, 000 two-parent families over a four-year period. Researchers measured the children’s change of weight from about four to five years of age to when mi they were eight or nine.

Dr. Emily Freeman, a researcher in the University of Newcastle Family Action Center, says, “While it is early days in terms of this type of research, the results of the study are very exciting. It is really important that we’ve found the link between Dads and their children, because lots of researchers tend to focus on mothers and children.”She adds. “We have had lots of stories of Dads refusing to eat vegetables, and then the kids don’t eat them either.”

She says further research is needed to understand the underlying reasons for the link. So what can fathers do to become batter role models for their kids? “They should definitely be more aware of the different behaviors they are modeling to their kids; they need to demonstrate they are eating fruit and vegetables and get outside more,” says Freeman, who has been involved with Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids, an education program in the Hunter Valley in NSW, and has seen these actions bring encouraging results.

33．A recent research has found that___________

A．mother is the biggest risk factor for childhood obesity

B．a fat dad has400％probability of making a child overweight

C．parent have the same opportunity of making a child overweight

D．childhood obesity is the result of not geeing enough exercise

34．What is Dr. Freeman’s attitude towards the result of the research?

A．Surprised    B．Doubtful    C．Worried  D．Thrilled

35．This research is very believable and significant because it___________

A．concentrated on different groups of people   B．showed mothers’ influence on their children

C．made art interview with all the Families     D．found the hidden reasons of obesity

Scientists say it may be five or ten years ______it is possible to test this medicine on human patients.

The way we do things round here

Some years ago, I was hired by an American bank. I received a letter from the head of the Personnel Department that started, "Dear John, I am quite pleased that you have decided to join us." That "quite" saddened me. I thought he was saying "we're kind of pleased you decided to join us although I wish we had hired someone else." Then I discovered that in American English "quite"sometimes means "very", while in British English it means "fairly".

So the first lesson about working in other countries is to learn the language and by that I don't just mean the words people speak. It is body language, dress, manners, ideas and so on. The way people do things highlights many of the differences we see between cultures（文化）．

Some of these differences may be only on the surface一dress, food and hours of work一while others may be deeper and take longer to deal with. Mostly, it is just a question of getting used to the differences and accepting them, like the climate（气候），while getting on with business.

Some of the differences may be an improvement. People are more polite; the service is better; you ask for something to be done and it happens without having to ask again.

However, other differences can be troubling, like punctuality（准时）．If you invite people to a party at 7 o'clock your guests will consider it polite to turn up exactly on time in Germany, five minutes early in the American Midwest, an hour early in Japan, 15 minutes afterwards in the UK, up to an hour afterwards in Italy and some time in the evening in Greece. I prefer not to use the word "late" because there is nothing wrong with the times people arrive. It is simply the accepted thing to do in their own country.

25. The author was unhappy as mentioned in Paragraph 1 because he thought______．

 A. the American bank didn't think much of him

 B. the American bank might hire another person

 C. it's difficult to get used to American culture

 D. it's easy to misunderstand Americans

26．The word "highlights" in Paragraph 2 probably means_____.

 A. encourages    B. helps to narrow   C. increases   D. draws attention to

27. According to the author, what should we do with most cultural differences?

  A. Ask the native people for help.

B. Understand and accept them.

C. Do things in our own way.

 D. Do in-depth research.

28. When invited to a party the people who are usually punctual are______.

A. Italians    B. Germans    C. Greeks    D. the British

  Black is the color of power (权力). It has the meaning of submission (服从). It is popular in fashion because it makes people look thinner.

White is the color for brides (新娘). White is considered as a summer color. White is popular in fashion because it is light and goes with everything.

Red is a hot and strong color. It can make the heart beat faster. It is also the color of love. Red clothes can make people look heavier. And red things can get noticed.

The color of the sky and the ocean, blue, is one of the most popular colors. It is often used in bedrooms. Blue can also be cold and make people feel sad.

Green means nature. It is the most comfortable color on the eyes and can improve vision (视觉). It is a calming color. Hospitals often use green because it relaxes patients there.

Yellow is the most difficult color for the eyes to take in. Yellow is sunshine. It is a warm color like red. On the one hand, it is the color of happiness and joy. On the other hand, it means fear and dishonest behavior.

44. Red is the color of ______ according to the passage.

   A. fear              B. love           C. summer           D. sadness

45. The best color to make an excited person calm down is ______.

   A. white                  B. blue                    C. green                    D. yellow

46 . Of al the six colors, ______ are mentioned as warm colors.

   A. two                     B. three                   C. four                  D. five

47. In the sentence “He is too yellow to stand up and fight”, “yellow” most probably means ______.

   A. sad                     B. happy           C. brave                   D. afraid

    A few days ago, I was sitting in a Thai restaurant enjoying a meal when I got on a phone call from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. In my enthusiasm and excitement, I talked quite louder than usual voice and in Spanish, my mother tongue.

    A few minutes into the call, an old lady sitting at the table beside mine got up, seemingly offended, and asked the restaurant staff to relocate (重新安排) a table as far away as possible from this man who seemed to be impolite.

    I sank in my seat out of embarrassment. I ended the call soon afterwards and felt the urge to apologize. Before getting up, I looked around to see where she was and she was at the table farthest away from me. I noticed that the lady was alone and staring out the window. I found a tinge (气息) of sadness or anxiety and perhaps a desire for aloneness and peace. But I had obviously destroyed it minutes earlier.

   Right then I abandoned my plan for a conventional apologetic gesture. Seeing those funny smile cards in my wallet, I took one out and wrote some words to express my apology. On signing my restaurant bill, I asked a waiter to secretly charge the lady’s meal to me and hand her the smile card instead of her bill.

    Did she take it the wrong way, I wondered? Did she get confused? Did she refuse the anonymous (匿名的) offer? And so on. I just waited and felt nervous to learn the outcome. To my pleasant surprise, things turned out the best possible way.

    The waiter approached me in a joy, telling me, “In the many times she had dined here before, I had never seen the old lady smile as she did when receiving the smile card and the $0 bill. She thanked me even though I explained that someone else did the job.”

12. The old lady changed her seat mainly because of __________.

   A. her private phone call             B. the author’s loud voice

   C. the views out of the window        D. the restaurant staff’s mistake

13. What can we infer from Paragraph 3?

   A. The author didn’t stop talking though he felt embarrassed.

   B. The author went up to the old lady and apologized to her.

   C. The old lady just moved to the farthest table to see outside.

   D. The lady didn’t have a nice mood and liked to stay alone.

14. Feeling sorry, the author offered the old lady the following EXCEPT __________.

   A. an apologetic gesture           B. a smile card

   C. a free meal                   D. some written words to apologize

15. Which of the following is the best title of this passage?

   A. A Misunderstanding Caused by Different Cultures

   B. An Unpleasant Experience in Thailand

   C. A Smile Card for a Sincere Apology

   D. An Old Lady Who Never Smiles

MUMBAI, India—The children in their party clothes on the stage were very excited when they received the award. And the two of them said, “It’s unbelievable! ”

Nine-year-old, Rubina Ali, and Azharuddin Ismail, 10, were living a very different life and obviously loving every minute of it. The two, some of the child stars of the Oscar-winning Slum(贫民窟) dog Millionaire movie, know the Indian slums very well. Thai was where they grew up, and it is where they will return at the end of their Hollywood dream trip.

But before going back home, there was an interview with the host, Ryan Seacrest. During the interview they smiled and repeated their disbelief in what was happening to them. To their surprise, their movie won first place in the Oscars. When the two received the award, it was late morning in the children’s home city of Mumbai, where family, friends and many fellow residents of the slums watched the result from Hollywood.

“I don’t really know what the Oscars are,” Rubina’s mother said. “I’m just glad my daughter looks happy, though she told me she missed Indian food. ”

“Our children lead a dog’s life,”Rubina’s mother said, pointing out the rubbish everywhere, the open drains (下水道) and the lack of education opportunities.

In a few days they will be back in Mumbai and back in the slums which are their home. Fortunately, according to media reports, the movie’s director, Danny Boyle, has promised to help the children he chose from the slum and make sure they will go to a proper school.

The two don’t need to worry about their daily lives because of the Oscar success of Slum dog Millionaire. But the poverty and lack of opportunity — the central theme of the movie — is always all around.

29. The two children were chosen to act in the film because           .

A. their life was similar to that in the film

B. they learned acting before

C. they were good at acting

D. they were lovely and clever

30. What can we infer from the text?

A. The two children have played in other movies before.

B. Rinoms’s mother also went to the Hollywood.

C. Rubina may not get used to the American food.

D. They will travel to other countries before returning home.

31. What will happen to the two children after they return to India?

A. They will go back to the miserable life.

B. They will play in movies as famous actors.

C. They will leave school to learn acting.

D. They will have a better education.

Recently I was invited to a friend’s house for supper—and had a meal I have never had before.

All the friends invited were a little   16  . It’s not that Ben is unsociable, or a bad cook, but it’s just that he never   17   more than he has to. So how come he was inviting us round for a meal? Had he bought something   18  for his friends? He greeted us at the door and showed us into his dinning room where a   19   table was waiting for us. “Nothing but the   20   for my friends!” said Ben. We all sat down and looked  21   at each other—what did he   22   to?

Ben returned with four bowls of hot soup. “It’s a   23   of carrots, potatoes and tomatoes,” said Ben. The next   24   was also a little strange in that we didn’t quite know what it was again. It’s just   25   mixture of vegetables.

As we ate we chatted and finally the   26   turned back to what we were eating. “Was there a recipe(食谱)for this,” asked Marina, “or did you   27   it up?” Ben put his fork down. “What I cooked   28what I could find.” Marina was surprised. “But you can find anything in supermarkets these days.”“But there’s   29  choice in what you can find   30   supermarkets.” He replies.

31   that we had all finished the food, Ben decided to tell the truth. He had read recently that supermarkets usually   32   away 5 percent of their food every day. So Ben decided to look inside his local supermarket bins. There he found food that was slightly out of   33  , boxes of throw-away vegetables and fruit.

So Ben had   34   provided a decent(不错的)meal for his friends, and made us aware of the fact that there are many poor people who need the food, but the amount of food thrown away is enough to   35   millions of people.

16. A. surprised          B. excited                     C. delighted                D. disappointed

17. A. takes                 B. costs                    C. uses                       D. spends    

18. A. practical                B. usual                   C. cheap                      D. special     

19. A. laid                    B. booked                   C. separate                 D. new

20. A. worst                 B. most                       C. least                       D. best

21. A. happily                  B. carefully               C. sadly                      D. nervously

22. A. think                 B. mean                   C. ask                D. consider

23. A. liquid              B. mixture                    C. matter                            D. lesson

24. A. soup                 B. step                        C. course                        D. salad

25. A. other                 B.another              C. the other          D. others

26. A. dinner               B. subject                        C. food                        D. idea

27. A. look                   B. make                      C. pick                        D. take

28. A. depended on           B. referred to                  C. resulted from       D. lay in

29. A. more                 B. less                      C. some                   D. any

30. A. within                B. inside                      C.outside                     D. beyond

31. A. Seeing                     B.Feeling                    C. Thinking         D.Realizing

32. A. throw              B. store              C. move                      D. hide

33. A. season                     B. place                      C. date                     D. order

34. A. possibly        B.successfully                 C. hardly                            D. hopefully

35. A. feed           B. please                          C. affect                      D. enrich

根据括号内的提示，用单词或短语的正确形式填空

1.The government took measures to prevent our city from _________ (污染) more seriously.

2. The important information in that contrast was _________ (删除), causing great loss to our company.

3. I think it is no use _________ (争吵) with him now and we must find solutions to the problem soon.

4. Our car _________ (出故障) on the way to the airport yesterday.

5. It is amazing that he fell in love with the girl _________ (dress) in a red skirt at the first sight.

6. He is in the study, _________ (专心) analyzing the collected data.

7. If the problem _________ (处理) in this way, it wouldn’t have caused such a serious Consequence.

8. Our group _________ (由...组成) two boys and three girls, and we often help each other.

9. We were all _________ (inspire) by the (10) ________(inspire) speech made by the famous teacher.

I was 9 years old when 1 found out my father was ill.It was l994 but I can remember my mother’s  words as if it were yesterday：“kerrel，I don’t want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS.Be very careful when you are around him.”

AIDS wasn’t something we talked about in my country when I was growing up.From then on.I knew that this would be a family secret.My parents were not together anymore，and my Dad lived alone.For a while he could take care of himself.But when I was 12，his condition worsened.My father’s children lived far away，so it fell to me to look after him.We couldn’t afford all the necessary medication for him，and because Dad was unable to work, and I had no school supplies and often couldn’t even buy food for dinner.I would sit in class feeling completely lost, The teacher’s words muffled(低沉)as I tried to figure out how I was going to manage.

I did not share my burden with anyone.I had seen how people reacted to AIDS.Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease.And even adults could be cruel. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside table even though he was too weak to feed himself.

I had known that he was going to die.but after so many years of keeping his condition a secret，I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days.Sad and hopeless，I called a woman at the nonprofit National A I DS Support.That day, she kept me on the phone for hours， I was so lucky to find someone who cared.She saved my life.

I was 15 when my father died.He took his secret away with him，having never spoken about AIDS to anyone，even me.He did not want to call attention to AIDS.I do.

1．What does Kerrel tell us about her father?

A.He had stayed in the hospital since he fell i11.

B.He depended on the nurses in his final days.

C.He worked hard to pay for his medication.

D.He told no one about his disease.

2．What can we learn from the underlined sentences?

A.Kerrel couldn’t understand her teacher.

B.Kerrel had special difficulty in hearing.

C.Kerrel was too troubled to focus on the lesson.

D.Kerrel was too tired to hear her teacher’s words.

3．Why did Kerrel write the passage?

A.To tell people about the sufferings of her father.

B.To show how little people knew about AIDS.

C.To draw people’s attention to AIDS.

D.To remember her father.

 From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife, Evelyn and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Wards during the Great Depression.

Then he was blessed with his little girl, Barbara. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn was diagnosed with cancer and the disease stripped them of all their savings and then Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums. Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.

Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined to make one — a storybook! Bob had created an animal character in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope. Again and again Bob told the story, adding more details with each telling.

Who was the character? What was the story all about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography(自传) in fable(寓言) form. The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose. Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day.

The general manager of Montgomery Wards caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book. Wards went on to print, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores.

By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph. That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book. Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter.

12. When did Bob’s life take a turn for the worse?

A. When he was in college.

B. As soon as he got married.

C. Shortly after Barbara was born.

D. Before the Great Depression began.

13. What’s Bob’s main purpose of writing his storybook?

A. To support his family.        B. To comfort his sick wife.

C. To tell his life story.          D. To make his daughter feel better.

14. We can learn from the passage that Bob’s book ___________.

A. was used as a gift at Christmas at first.

B. wasn’t well thought of by his manager.

C. brought no benefits to Bob himself.

D. was a best-seller until the 1940s.

15. The underlined part “a misfit outcast” in paragraph 4 probably refers to “_________”.

A. an experienced writer who is good at writing fables

B. a brave and determined person who is very successful

C. a person who always makes mistake but can escape from being punished

D. a person who is unfortunate and abandoned by the society

 Can one man make a difference? Ask Rossano Ercolini, the 2013 Goldman Prize winner, which is considered the Nobel Prize for “________”. Ercolini is a young ________ in a small town in Italy. After ________the news of reducing waste on the radio, he decided to teach his students to  ________  paper and replace plastic water bottles in the school lunchroom with ________  glasses.When his town announced plans to open an incinerator （ 焚化炉） to burn waste, Ercolini knew it would be  ________  for his students. Incinerators are huge heaters that burn all waste and poisonous material, leaving behind ________. You might think it is ________ than sending waste to landfills. It is true landfills  ________  space, smell bad, and that poisonous materials can make underground drinking water ________ to use. But incinerators have their own________. Burning gives off poisonous gases into the air which can cause ________  problems. People will have to wear a mask no matter ________ they go. The smoke also causes pollution, and even  ________ the greenhouse effect.Ercolini was worried about the ________ of his community and felt it was his duty to ________  them. He organized town hall meetings, and talked about how to reduce, reuse and recycle. ________ , Ercolini has advocated the zero-waste movement, the  ________  of which is to reduce the waste sent to landfills and incinerators to the least possible amount. He has already ________  plans for more than 50 incinerators in many Italian cities. ________  his efforts, there are more than one hundred zero-waste towns in Italy now!

【小题1】   A．Peace    B．Environment  C．Medicine D．Literature

【小题2】   A．teacher  B．farmer   C．trainer  D．gardener

【小题3】   A．watching B．reading  C．hearing  D．making

【小题4】   A．fold B．roll C．tear D．recycle

【小题5】   A．coloured B．reusable C．thick    D．valuable

【小题6】   A．harmful  B．necessary    C．suitable D．convenient

【小题7】   A．rock B．sand C．water    D．ash

【小题8】   A．worse    B．harder   C．better   D．further

【小题9】   A．add  B．fill in  C．create   D．take up

【小题10】  A．unsafe   B．simple   C．regular  D．illegal

【小题11】    A．difficultiesB.disadvantage C.expectationsD．improvements

【小题12】  A．heart    B．hearing  C．breathing    D．weight

【小题13】  A．why B．when C．how D．where

【小题14】  A．reduces  B．worsens  C．suffers  D．measures

【小题15】  A．health   B．development C．justice   D．employment

【小题16】  A．praise   B．support  C．educate  D．entertain

【小题17】  A．Anyhow   B．However  C．Otherwise    D．Moreover

【小题18】  A．goal B．reason   C．truth    D．problem

【小题19】  A．discussed    B．defeated C．prepared D．suggested

【小题20】  A．Along with   B．Except for   C．Thanks to    D．Instead of

51.Xie Lei's preparation course is helping her to get used to the academic r      （要求）of a Western university.

52.Xie Lei highly r      （推荐）it.

53.But I was also very nervous as I didn't know what to expect,"Xie Lei told me when I saw her waiting in a

q       （队伍）at the student cafeteria between lectures.

54.Made me very thoughtful and t      （感激）for my life today.

55.The industry b      （繁荣）attracted Europeans including many Jewish people.

56.From 1882 to 1940 Angel Island was a famous immigration station where many Chinese people a      （申请）for right to live in USA.

57.By the time California e      （选举）to become the thirty-first federal state of the USA in 1850,it was already a multicultural society.

58.Firstly,gardeners use it all the time to produce c      （商业的）quantities of plants.

59.Cloning plants is s      （直接的）while cloning animals is very complicated.

60.But at last the determination and patience of the scientists paid off in 1996 with a b      （突破）-the cloning of Dolly the sheep.

61.On the other hand,Dolly's appearance raised a storm of o      （反对）and had a great impact on the media and public imagination.

62.The advantage is that if there is a new illness some of these animals may die,but others will survive and pass on the ability to r      （抵抗）that disease to the next generation.

63.All efforts of cloning an animal will be in v      （徒劳）if there is not enough diversity in the group to

overcome illnesses.

64.Here was a chance for me to distinguish myself by inventing something m      （仁慈的）that would catch snakes but harm them.

65.Of the first Spanish to go to California,the m      （大多数）were religious men,whose ministry was to teach the Catholic religion to the natives.

I ______ to go to see my former class teacher, but it was raining cats and dogs that night.

A. have intended                       B. had intended

C. will intend                          D. was intended

A little boy invited his mother to attend his elementary school’s first teacher-parent conference. To be little boy’s    ___21___ , she said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teacher met his mother and he was embarrassed by her ___22___. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar that ___23___nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy ___24___wanted to talk about why or how she got the scar.

At the conference, the people were___25___by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother___26___the scar, the little boy was still embarrassed and ___27___himself from everyone. He did, ___28___, got within earshot of a 　____29____between his mother and his teacher, and heard them speaking. “How did you get the___30___on your face?” the teacher asked. The mother replied, “When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught on fire .___31___was too afraid to go in because the fire was___32___,so I went in. As I was running towards his bed, I saw a beam(横梁) coming down and I placed myself over trying to____33____him. I was knocked___34___but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us.” She touched the ___35___side of her face. “This scar will be ___36___,but to this day, I have never ___37___doing what I did.” At this point, the little boy___38___running towards his mother with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and felt a great sense of the ___39___that his mother had made for him. He held her hand___40___for the rest of the day.

21. A. sadness    B. worry    C. surprise    D. embarrassment

22. A. figure    B. voice    C. work    D. appearance

23. A. decorated    B. covered    C. fixed    D. spread

24. A. never    B. even    C. soon    D. still

25. A. cheated    B. impressed    C. scared    D. teased

26. A. despite    B. without    C. except    D. including

27. A. hid    B. kept    C. saved    D. benefited

28. A. so    B. when    C. however    D. unless

29. A. secret    B. promise    C. deal    D. conversation

30. A. dirt    B. scar    C. tear    D. wrinkle

31. A. Nobody    B. Anyone    C. Everyone    D. Somebody

32. A. in charge    B. out of control    C. on the way    D. under control

33. A. protect    B. pull    C. press    D. push

34. A. unhappily    B. powerlessly    C. unconsciously    D. carelessly

35. A. beautiful    B. boiled    C. colorful    D. burned

36. A. meaningful    B. missing    C. injured    D. permanent

37. A. forgave    B. regretted    C. remembered    D. admitted

38. A. came out    B. set out    C. let out    D. make out

39. A. achievement    B. pride    C. guilt    D. sacrifice

40. A. gently    B. quickly    C. tightly    D. anxiously

Millions of people have been thrown ____ due to the global economic depression.

A. out of place         B. out of sight

C. out of control       D. out of work

You can never be too sure these days in the United States of your neighbors or even your customers! Try to keep a low profile (姿态) in your neighborhood: Don't announce to everyone that you are running a home business with thousands of dollars worth of equipment. As much as possible, do not invite clients (客户) or visitors to your home. In fact, I know of some home­based entrepreneurs (企业家) who would rather meet their clients in a neutral ground, e．g. the client's office or even Starbucks.

There are other ways to keep burglars away from your house.

•Keep lights on around your house in the evenings. Light is a natural fright for burglars.

•Invest in a security alarm, particularly if your house is located at a remote spot. Security systems can often bring down the cost of your homeowner's premium (保险费)．

•Make sure that all windows and doors are locked and the security alarm turned on before you sleep at night or go out of the house. Avoid keeping house keys in obvious places, such as under the lamp or on top of the doorframe.

•Adding an additional lock will provide extra security when you are home. The dead­lock, sometimes called an “exit only deadbolt” is a deadbolt that does not have an external (外部的) key. It is clearly visible on the door from the outside, but cannot be broken into without destroying the door, frame or lock itself. While this security won't help directly when you aren't home,  the visibility may discourage an intruder from trying the door.

•Your door itself should be made of strong materials, such as one­inch thick solid hardwood or heavy metal.

25．The advice given by the writer in the passage focuses on ________.

A．how to make your house safe from burglars

B．what to do when your house is broken into

C．how to improve social security in the United States

D．how to run a home business

26．Some home­based entrepreneurs do not invite clients to their home ________.

A．to enjoy convenience outside their home

B．for the safety of their property

C．not to let others know about their business

D．in order to avoid being seen by burglars

27．All the following are part of the writer's advice except that the homeowner ________.

A．buy a security alarm and turn it on in the evening

B．fix an extra lock on the door from inside

C．have the doors made of solid hardwood or heavy metal

D．keep lights on in all rooms to threaten burglars

28．What does the underlined word “intruder” most probably mean in the passage?

A．Someone who is invited for a visit.

B．Someone who illegally enters the home.

C．Someone who pays regular visits to the home.

D．Someone who tries to destroy the lock.