Golf is big business in America, with a total economy estimated at nearly 70 billion dollars. The U.S. is also the world’s biggest market for golf equipment, according to a report from Golf Datatech. The other top countries are Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom, Canada and China. But the industry is working on ways to make golf more appealing, especially to young Americans.

The CEO of the U. S. -based World Golf Foundation, Steve Mona, believes the current state of golf is healthy and stable. His group says about 20 million Americans regularly play the game. But Mona also sees the need for change, to get more people to discover and play golf. He said the industry has focused on ways to make the game faster, funnier and more playable.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Some golf courses have expanded fairways (球道) so golfers have less chance of losing balls in water or trees. Others move up the starting point for young or new players, so they are closer to the hole.

Some new courses also have fewer obstacles (障碍物) than those in the past, such as water ponds or sand traps. And the area near the hole is sometimes designed flatter, to keep the ball from rolling too much.

These changes could also attract adult golfers who want to play a faster, less difficult game. But with young people, Mona said it is important to get them interested at an early age.

Drive, Chip and Putting Championship

One program to do this is the Drive, Chip and Putting Championship, for girls and boys.

The name of the competition refers to golf’s three main skills. Driving is when a golfer hits the ball far at the start of the game. A chip is a much shorter shot, usually taken close to the hole. Putting refers to hitting the ball softly in the area near the hole, called the green.

Junior Golf Champions

Girls and boys from all 50 U. S. states compete in the championship. Organizers say the program has been one of the best ways to bring young people to golf. But Mona said it was not enough just to get people interested. “The challenge for us in the golf industry is that we have to change interest into trials,” he said. “And then change trials into actual participation in the game.”

Sam Schmitz is studying professional golf management at Eastern Kentucky University. He also believes speeding up the game will get more people to try golf. “For the younger generation, the biggest complaint about golf is how long it takes,” he said. A full game can last four hours.

【小题1】What is the passage mainly about?

A．How golf can appeal to more people.	B．Why the U. S. is the country of golf.
C．Whether young people like playing golf.	D．How a child can he good at playing golf.

【小题2】Which of the following subtitles can be put in the blank of the passage?

A．Changeable Positions of the Fairways	B．Sharp Increase in the Obstacles
C．Modern Changes on the Courses	D．Increasing Popularity of Golf

【小题3】What is Sam’s attitude towards speeding up the game?

A．Doubtful.	B．Unconcerned.
C．Critical.	D．Favorable.

   In ancient Egypt, a shopkeeper discovered that he could attract customers to his shop simply by making changes to its environment. Modern businesses have been following his lead, with more tactics (策略).
One tactic involves where to display the goods. For example, stores place fruits and vegetables in the first section. They know that customers who buy the healthy food first will feel happy so that they will buy more junk food (垃圾食品) later in their trip. In department stores, the women’s shoe section is generally next to the women’s cosmetics (化妆品) section: while the shop assistant is going back to find the right size shoe, bored customers are likely to wander over and find some cosmetics they might want to try later.
Besides, businesses seek to appeal to customers’ senses. Stores notice that the smell of baked goods encourages shopping, so they make their own bread each morning and then fan the bread smell into the store throughout the day. Music sells goods, too. Researchers in Britain found that when French music was played, sales of French wines went up.
When it comes to the selling of houses, businesses also use highly rewarding tactics. They find that customers make decisions in the first few seconds upon walking in the door, and turn it into a business opportunity. A California builder designed the structure of its houses smartly. When entering the house, the customer would see the Pacific Ocean through the windows, and then the pool through an open stairway leading to the lower level. The instant view of water on both levels helped sell these $ 10 million houses.
【小题1】Why do stores usually display fruits and vegetables in the first section?

A．To save customers time.	B．To show they are high quality foods.
C．To help sell junk food.	D．To sell them at discount prices.

【小题2】According to Paragraph 3, which of the following encourages customers to buy?

A．Opening the store early in the morning.	B．Displaying British wines next to French ones.
C．Inviting customers to play music.	D．Filling the store with the smell of fresh bread.

【小题3】What is the California builder’s story intended to prove?

A．The house structure is a key factor customers consider.

B．The more costly the house is, the better it sells.

C．An ocean view is much to the customers’ taste.

D．A good first impression increases sales.

【小题4】What is the main purpose of the passage?

A．To explain how businesses turn people into their customers.

B．To introduce how businesses have grown from the past.

C．To report researches on customer behavior.

D．To show dishonest business practices.

London’s newest skyscraper (摩天大楼)is called the Shard and it cost about 430 million pounds to build. At a height of almost 310 metres, it is the tallest building in Europe. The Shard has completely changed the appearance of London. However, not everyone thinks that it is a change for the better.
The Shard was designed by the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano. When he began designing the Shard for London, Piano wanted a very tall building that looked like a spire (尖顶)• He wanted the glass surfaces to reflect the sky and the city. The sides of the building aren’t regular. So the building has an unusual shape. It looks like a very thin，sharp piece of broken glass. And that is how the building got the name: the Shard. Piano says that the spire shape of the Shard is part of a great London tradition. The shape reminds him of the spires of the churches of London or the tall masts (桅杆）of the ships that were once on the river Thames.
The Shard has 87 floors. At the top, there is an observatory. At the moment the building is empty, but eventually there will be a five-star hotel. There will also be top quality restaurants, apartments and offices.
Before building work began, a lot of people didn’t want the Shard though the plans were approved. Now they are still unhappy about the Shard. Some critics say that such a tall skyscraper might be good in a city like New York, but not in London. They say that the best thing about the Shard is its spire shape. But that is the only thing. There is no decoration, only flat surfaces. The Egyptians did that 4,500 years ago. They also think the Shard is too big for London. It destroys the beauty of the city.
Other critics don’t like what the Shard seems to represent. They say that the Shard shows how London is becoming more unequal. Only very rich people can afford to buy the expensive private apartments and stay in the hotel. But the people who live near the Shard are among the poorest in London. So the Shard seems a symbol of the division in society between the very rich and the poor.
The Shard now dominates the London skyline. It is not certain, however, that ordinary London citizens will ever accept it as a valuable addition to the city.
【小题1】London’s newest skyscraper is called the Shard because of ._____

A．its cost

B．its size

C．its shape

D．its height

【小题2】When he designed the Shard, Piano wanted it to _____

A．change London’s skyline

B．inherit London’s tradition

C．imitate the Egyptian style

D．attract potential visitors

【小题3】The critics who refer to social division think the Shard_______ .

A．is only preferred by the rich

B．is intended for wealthy people

C．is far away from the poor area

D．is popular only with Londoners

【小题4】Which would be the best title for the passage?

A．The Shard: Cheers and Claps

B．The Shard: Work of a Great Architect

C．The Shard: New Symbol of London?

D．The Shard: A Change for the Better?

   One of the executives gathered at the Aspen Institute for a day-long leadership workshop using the works of Shakespeare was discussing the role of Brutus in the death of Julius Caesar. “Brutus was not an honorable man,” he said. “He was a traitor（叛徒）. And he murdered someone in cold blood.” The agreement was that Brutus had acted with cruelty when other options were available to him. He made a bad decision, they said—at least as it was presented by Shakespeare—to take the lead in murdering Julius Caesar. And though one of the executives acknowledged that Brutus had the good of the republic in mind, Caesar was nevertheless his superior. “You have to endeavor,” the executives said, “our policy is to obey the chain of command.”
During the last few years, business executives and book writers looking for a new way to advise corporate America have been exploiting Shakespeare’s wisdom for profitable ends. None more so than husband and wife team Kenneth and Carol Adelman, well-known advisers to the White House, who started up a training company called “Movers and Shakespeares”. They are amateur Shakespeare scholars and Shakespeare lovers, and they have combined their passion and their high level contacts into a management training business. They conduct between 30 and 40 workshops annually, focusing on half a dozen different plays, mostly for corporations, but also for government agencies.
The workshops all take the same form, focusing on a single play as a kind of case study, and using individual scenes as specific lessons. In Julius Caesar , sly provocation（狡诈的挑唆） of Brutus to take up arms against the what was a basis for a discussion of methods of team building and grass roots organism.
Although neither of the Adelmans is academically trained in literature, the programmes, contain plenty of Shakespeare tradition and background. Their workshop on Henry V, for example, includes a helpful explanation of Henry’s winning strategy at the Battle of Agincourt. But they do come to the text with a few biases (偏向): their reading of Henry V minimizes his misuse of power. Instead, they emphasize the story of the youth who seizes opportunity and becomes a masterful leader. And at the workshop on Caesar, Mr. Adelmans had little good to say about Brutus, saying “the noblest Roman of them all” couldn’t make his mind up about things.
Many of the participants pointed to very specific elements in the play that they felt related Caesar’s pride, which led to his murder, and Brutus’s mistakes in leading the  after the murder, they said, raise vital questions for anyone serving as a business when and ho w do you resist the boss?
【小题1】According to paragraph 1, what did all the executives think of Brutus?

A．Cruel.	B．Superior.
C．Honorable.	D．Bade

【小题2】According to the passage, the Adelmans set up “Movers and Shakespeares” to ________.

A．help executives to understand Shakespeare’s plays better

B．give advice on leadership by analyzing Shakespeare’s plays

C．provide case studies of Shakespeare’s plays in literature workshops

D．guide government agencies to follow the characters in Shakespeare’s plays.

【小题3】Why do the Adelmans conduct a workshop on Henry V?

A．To highlight the importance of catching opportunities.

B．To encourage masterful leaders to plan strategies to win.

C．To illustrate the harm of prejudices in management.

D．To warn executives against power misuse.

【小题4】It can be inferred from the passage that ____.

A．the Adelmans’ programme proves biased as the roles of characters are maximized.

B．executives feel bored with too many specific elements of Shakespeare’s plays.

C．the Adelmans will make more profits if they are professional scholars.

D．Shakespeare has played an important role in the management field.

【小题5】The best title for the passage is _____.

A．Shakespeare’s plays: Executives reconsider corporate culture

B．Shakespeare’s plays: An essential key to business success

C．Shakespeare’s plays: a lesson for business motivation

D．Shakespeare’s plays: Dramatic training brings dramatic results

选词填空（可变换形式）

China Daily is an English language daily newspaper 【小题1】 in Beijing, China.

China Daily 【小题2】 all the usual sections (版面) of a newspaper, 【小题3】 Home News — news about China, International News —news from 【小题4】, Business News, Travel News and Sports News.

There are 【小题5】 pictures and a weather report every day. Every Saturday there is a section about things to do at the weekend and the TV 【小题6】 in the coming week.

Many foreigners like to read this newspaper. It is also popular with students. Sun Yao, a student in Beijing, said, “I like reading China Daily. Learning new words and useful expressions can make great 【小题7】 to my progress in English. Besides, I enjoy learning about new things from 【小题8】 to sports and music.”