A lot of houses were seriously damaged in the earthquake, so that thousands of people were

l villages: several fishing boats were _____ and many houses collapsed.

A) wrecked B) spoiled C) torn D) injured

There are two ideas—one, living within your means, and the idea that living on debt is a great equalizer(平衡装置). They both have validity because it is important that someone live within their means over their lifetime. When people are young and they are earning money, but they have very little savings, they almost have to borrow in order to own a house or own a car. But as they grow older, they should develop the habit of saving, so that by the time they reach the end of their earning life, they have savings to live on in retirement, and live within their means.

"Buy now, pay later" worked very well for us in the 1990s, but one suspects it won't work forever. The only thing that concerns me is that Americans are so contented, so optimistic, so unconcerned about any bumps in the road that many American households, not all of them, but many American households are very heavily extended in personal credit, a lot of credit card debt. People are paying very high prices for houses and borrowing heavily against those prices; and if we do run into a bump in the road, a recession, there are going to be a lot of households, not all of them, but many households that Ml be severely squeezed. That means we're more vulnerable to serious financial distress than Japan is. Japan has been in financial distress for ten years, but one reason it's been able to weather that is that the households had been very conservative, had a lot of savings, were very liquid, and were able to weather difficult times. And many American households would now be less able to do that because they are so heavily in debt.

We know from the passage that credit cards

A．make Americans get deeper and deeper in debt

B．are likely to be abandoned by more Americans

C．will soon become a symbol of American life

D．will help solve potential financial problems

A.arrived

B.returned

C.reached

D.came near

A.A

B.B

C.C

D.D

“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”

I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought ‘VACANCIES’ meant ‘holidays’, because the Spanish word for ‘holidays” is ‘vacations’. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said ‘VACANCIES’, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCIES’, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!

We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word ‘DIVERSION’ means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ‘DIVERSION’ on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.

English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris. when someone offered me some more coffee, I said ‘Thank you’ in French. I meant that I would like some more, However , to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ‘Thank you’ in French means ‘No, thank you.’

11. My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.

A. learning English

B. finding places to stay in England

C. driving their car on English roads

D. going to England by car

12. I suggested that they stay at bed and breakfast houses because ______.

A. they would be able to practise their English

B. it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels

C. it would be convenient for them to have dinner

D. there would be no problem about finding accommodation there

13. “NO VACANCIES” in English means ______.

A. no free rooms

B. free rooms

C. not away on holiday

D. holidays

14. If you see a road sign that says ‘Diversion’, you will ______.

A. fall into a hole

B. have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself

C. find that the road is blocked by crowds of people

D. have to take a different road

15. When someone offered me more coffee and I said ‘Thank you’ in French, I ______.

A didn’t really want any more coffee

B. wanted them to take the coffee pot away

C. really wanted some more coffee

D. wanted to express my politeness

A.of great expense

B.at a great expense

C.in a lot of expenses

D.by high expense

A. in the past ten years

B.for ten years

C. last year

D.ten years ago

A．who

B．what

C．which

D．whose