Whatever your reasons are for buying a used TV, there are a few things that you should keep in mind.

Why is the used TV put up for sale? Does the owner put it up for sale because it broke down? Does he sell it because the picture is not good enough? Or does he do that just because he got bored of it and bought a new one for himself? These are questions that must be answered before you consider buying a used TV. If the owner is selling it because he found a defect (瑕疵) with the TV, even if the defect was mended, you should stay away from such television sets.

The price of a second-hand television set depends on a number of factors, such as the time gap between its buying and selling date, the presence or absence of special features, the model and brand of the TV. For example, a TV that has been used for a year and put up for sale will be more expensive than one which was used for more than five years and put up for sale. Narrow your choices down on the basis of your preferences, and then check if it is worth it.

Once you have decided on the model, brand, and price of the TV, start testing different sets. Getting a clear picture on the screen is a basic necessity, and should not be compromised upon. If you are buying an LCD or an LED TV, check for factors like resolution (分辨率), color, video quality and so on, and make sure you like what you see. Some television sets have screens that develop a picture with spots all over it. It goes without saying that you should steer clear of such television sets.

The audio is as important as the video. Gone are the days when silent movies were popular. It wouldn’t be any fun to watch a basketball match without being able to listen to the loud applause of the audience, or watch a movie without being able to hear the dialogues.

Obviously, there is no point in buying a television set bigger than the wall you intend to hang it on. Also, if the room in which you intend to place the TV is big enough, then buying a television with low-level volumes, a smaller screen, and less clear pictures would kill the purpose of watching television and not let you enjoy it to the fullest. Also, keep in mind the size of your room. A TV with a big screen can be a problem for rooms that are small. Remember, there should be at least 6-10 feet of space between the TV and the spot from where you intend to watch it.

Are you planning on creating a home theater? Or is it going to be hung in the bedroom? Based on all these considerations, narrow your choices down and then decide which television set suits your requirements the best. A TV for the bedroom can have low-level sound, but the one you need for your home theater should have good-quality sound with surround sound effects.

Watching TV should be a treat for your eyes and senses. Don’t let unclear pictures or broken sounds ruin your experience.

1. By asking a series of questions in Paragraph 2, the writer mainly intends to indicate that        .

    A. the reasons why the seller sells the TV are very important

    B. the real value of a second-hand television is questionable

    C. a second-hand television is certainly worth purchasing

    D. there are many reasons why people buy used televisions

2. What does the underlined part “steer clear of” in Paragraph 4 mean?

    A. Keep out of. B. Look down upon.

    C. Stay away from.  D. Pay attention to.

3. A basketball match is mentioned in Paragraph 5 to tell buyers to pay attention to a second-hand television’s        .

    A. price                B. picture

    C. size     D. sound   

4. The size of a TV you buy depends on        .

    A. the price of the TV

    B. where you want to put it

    C. your preference     

    D. your budget for the TV

5. The purpose of the passage is to        .

    A. |tell readers how to buy a suitable second-hand television

    B. encourage readers to buy second-hand televisions

    C. show the writer’s experience in buying used televisions

    D. list the reasons why people buy second-hand televisions

Five-year-old Sally stood nervously in front of her kindergarten class with Bella, my trained dog, sitting calmly by her side. Her classmates focused on Sally, waiting for her to speak. It was June — only one week of school left — but they had never heard her voice. Not once.

Sally had selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that made her freeze up in social situations. She’d been so excited about putting on a dog show for her class. She had practiced with Bella and me for weeks. Now her eyes found mine. I nodded encouragingly. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth. But not a word came out. Sally stood off to the side, head down. I felt awful.

I’m a nurse and use Bella to help children in my community to bring them joy, comfort and confidence the way only a dog can. I thought back to when I’d first brought Bella to the school.

That morning in January, the counselor (指导老师) led us to an office. “Sally hasn’t spoken outside her home in two years,” the counselor told me. “Her parents have taken her to doctors, but nothing has worked.” A little girl stood shyly just inside the doorway. Her eyes brightened when she noticed my dog.

“This is Isabella Rose. I call her Bella,” I said. “Would you like to pet her? She doesn’t know anyone here and she’d like to meet you. She can play tricks. Would you like to see?”

Sally nodded. I moved my hand. Bella lay down and then rolled over.  Sally’s eyes cheered up.

“She’ll do it for you too,” I said. “I can teach you.”

We visited the school once a week. I showed Sally the hand signals for various commands. She was good at communicating with Bella, maybe because she couldn’t rely on spoken words herself. Bella sensed that and responded. Soon Sally was able to take Bella through her paces all on her own.

One morning in March when she was working with Bella, I heard a tiny voice, barely a whisper, “Good dog.” Sally didn’t take her eyes off Bella, but I wanted to jump for joy. Sally spoke a little more each week, only to Bella at first, but then to me. She started giving voice commands with her hand signals and her confidence rose. Still, she hadn’t spoken in class and the school year was about to end.

Sally returned to her seat, not looking at anyone, not even Bella.

The next week, the last of the school year, Sally met us at the door of our room. “I want to try again,” she said before I even said hello.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “You don’t want to wait till next school year?”

“No,” she said. “Today, I can do it.”

She looked up at me, her face determined. Bella, who’d parked herself beside her friend, wore a matching expression. “Great!” I said. We headed to Sally’s classroom. The kids were sitting in a circle on the floor listening to the teacher. They turned when we arrived. We walked to the front of the now quiet room. I squeezed Sally’s hand and stepped back. For a few seconds that seemed like hours, she stood silently, staring at her classmates. Finally she whispered, “This is Isabella Rose.” Then, a little louder, “Isabella Rose.”

The kids clapped. The whole class cheered.

Sally took a bow, just like we’d practiced. I followed her and Bella back to our room. There was a leap to Sally’s step that I hadn’t seen before, a lightness that came from breaking free from her fear. “I had an AWESOME day!” she declared, with a huge smile on her face.

1. The underlined part “freeze up” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “        ”.

    A. fail to speak    B. watch her manners

    C. stand upright    D. feel cold

2. Why is Sally good at communicating with Bella according to the writer?

    A. Because Sally could not express herself in spoken words.

    B. Because Sally takes regular practice once a week at school.

    C. Because Bella receives professional training and responds well.

    D. Because the writer has taught Sally the necessary hand signals.

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

    A. Sally hasn’t spoken at home for five years.

    B. The writer trained Sally to speak for two years.

    C. Sally started to speak outside her home in March.

    D. The writer began to train Sally in June with Bella.

4. Who came up with the idea of a second try?

    A. The writer.  B. The counselor.   C. Sally’s parents.    D. Sally herself.

5. After the second try, Sally felt        .

    A. relieved B. happy            C. disappointed    D. ashamed

Reading award-winning literature may improve your ability to read other people, too, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that when they had volunteers read works of well-known literary awards, it seemed to temporarily improve their ability to understand other people’s emotions. The same was not true of nonfiction or “popular” fiction — the mystery, romance and science-fiction books.

Experts said the findings suggest that literature might help people become more perceptive (有觉察力的).

“Reading literary fiction isn’t just for passing time. It’s not just an escape,” said Keith Oatley, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto. “It also enables us to better understand others, and then take that into our daily lives.”

Oatley was not involved in the new research, but worked on some of the first studies to suggest that reading literature can boost people’s empathy (同感) for others. His team has found that those who read a lot of fiction tend to show greater empathy on standard tests, but the same is not true of non-fiction fans.

For the study, researchers at the New School for Social Research, in New York City, set up a series of five experiments in which participants read either literary fiction, popular fiction, non-fiction or nothing at all before taking some standard tests.

One test is known as “Reading the Mind in the Eyes”. People have to look at photos of actors’ eyes, and then guess what emotion is being expressed in each. The test is considered a measure of empathy.

“Literary” fiction has no clear definition. So Kidd and his colleague Emanuele Castano chose contemporary works that have won or been finalists for famous literary awards. They included “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich, “Salvage the Bones” by Jesmyn Ward and the short story “Corrie” by Alice Munro.

“Popular” fiction included best-sellers like “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn, and Danielle Steel’s “The Sins of the Mother”.

What’s so special about literary fiction? “For one, it’s usually more focused on characters than on plot,” Kidd noted. But beyond that, he said, there is usually no single “authoritative narrator” who takes us through the story. It demands that the reader almost become a writer and fill in the gaps. “You really have to think about the characters,” Kidd said.

Oatley agreed. “Alice Munro doesn’t tell you what to think,” he said. “You, yourself, have to make deduction about characters. And that’s often what we’re doing in our real-life conversations.”

Or at least that’s what people could do. Often, Kidd said, their daily interactions with other people are more automatic, and don’t involve deep consideration. Reading could offer a way to “practice” your social skills and use them more in real life, according to another researcher not involved in the study.

1. What does Oatley think of the new research?

    A. It still lacks evidence.    

    B. It is only partly true.

    C. It is meaningful and valuable.  

    D. It is based on his own study.

2. Which of the following cannot improve your ability to read other people?

    A. Salvage the Bones.   B. The Round House. 

    C. Corrie.  D. Gone Girl.

3. We can learn from the last paragraph that reading literature fiction        .

    A. can help us control our emotions

    B. can help improve our social skills

    C. can make us understand the author better

    D. can make us more interested in literature

4. The underlined word “deduction” in the last but one paragraph probably means “        ”.

    A. inference    B. reference

    C. prediction   D. inspection

5. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

    A. Different kinds of fiction      

    B. Reading literature for fun

    C. Reading is more than entertainment  

D. Literature lovers read people better

Back in 2008, when local residents and organizers began planning a teen center, they couldn’t know that as it neared completion in 2013, the $190,000 in funding necessary to run the center and have actual programs might not be available.

When Liz Derias, from Oakland’s Leadership Excellence, led a group of West Oakland youth in the design of a community center for youth and by youth, the mission was clear: to serve and protect youth primarily in West Oakland, regardless of their backgrounds, through personal development, education, job training and the arts.

Ideas came up in 2003 by Nadel after a visit to McClymonds High School. The city had stopped investing in that part of Oakland, and McClymonds’ students started talking about what they wanted in their community.

By the time Derias and West Oakland youth began developing their survey, the focus was right on programs and architectural design. The results of the survey were promising, and opening the center met West Oakland community’s needs. With nearly 80 percent of the 108 surveyed unemployed, job training became the focus of the center’s programs. Computer labs, classrooms, offices, a stage and a kitchen were included in the building’s design to provide a wide variety of job training possibilities designed for West Oakland’s youth.

They even recommended the church’s former parking lot be converted to a covered seating area because a majority of respondents indicated they would walk or take the bus to the center, making a parking lot unnecessary.

But although construction of the youth center is set for completion this summer, money needed to pay for the programs and the staff, estimated at $190,000 for the first year by a city report, has not been provided.

Now, without public funding, community organizations, including Attitudinal Healing Connection who helped to host the 2009 survey and Hands Helping Hands, continue to search for possibilities that would create a bridge between the youth center, other community organizations and opportunities for education.

 Derrick Bulls, executive director of Hands Helping Hands, said, “We’re looking at Laney College’s Gateway to College program as well as combining General Educational Development courses and job training with counseling and support.”

And despite the funding challenge, McElhaney’s office plans to organize a grand opening ceremony if and when funding is available.

“We’re excited to have a new building that has exciting service for youth,” she said. “But it will go unfinished as long as program funding is unavailable.”

With the final vote on the city’s budget set for the end of June, public funding for the center is still possible, but not likely due to limited resources and a number of funding requests, leaving open the possibility of a beautiful but empty youth center waiting for funds.

Yet regardless of the uncertainty of the youth center’s future, former councilwoman Nadel is still holding out hope that the center’s mission will complete. She said, “It’s a problem of the way our society doesn’t fund things properly. The city hasn’t made a mistake. The city has found a need and gone little by little to meet that need, but that doesn’t mean money can’t be obtained.”

1. The teenagers in the West Oakland youth center will        .

    A. be treated equally   B. make great efforts

    C. donate more money   

    D. try to get more support

2. The idea of setting up a youth center first received great support from        .

    A. McClymonds High School      

    B. Oakland’s local government

    C. West Oakland community      

    D. Oakland’s Leadership Excellence

3. It can be inferred that Oakland’s youth center may probably fight a way out by        .

    A. seeking support from the government 

    B. purchasing more land from church

    C. organizing an opening ceremony

    D. strengthening outer cooperation

4. The underlined word “converted” in Paragraph 5 can be best replaced by “        ”.

    A. moved    B. changed 

    C. compared D. supplied

5. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

    A. Youth Center — Exciting Service for Youth

    B. A Funding Challenge for Youth Center

    C. Youth Center’s Mission Is Falling

    D. A Great Relief to Youth Center

I pulled the car into the garage and got out, just like every night for the past 16 years. The difference was that I wouldn’t have a job to go to in the morning.

I used to be a vice-president in technology for a national bank until it went bankrupt (倒闭). Not only did I work long hours, I was also on call 24 hours a day, weekends and holidays. If someone had a tech problem, even at 2:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, I was on it. My kids joked that even though they were the teenagers, I was the one who was absorbed in the cell phone and had to be told not to text at the dinner table.

My wife, Michelle, had been able to go to back to work full-time as an office manager once she heard my job was threatened. But our three kids would go to college — our son, TJ, was a high school senior, and the girls, Sarah and Tara, were in the ninth grade — and I wanted to give them the education and opportunities they deserved.

I stepped out into our yard. The lawn and flower beds that my mom had looked after so carefully were full of weeds. There was a tree in the middle of the yard that I remembered my parents planted when I was a boy. It needed pruning (修剪). But I’d put on a lot of weight. I went up to the house. Michelle greeted me at the door with a hug. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. “Maybe you should think of this time as a break. You deserve one.”

“I’m sorry, Dad,” TJ said. “I know how much your job meant to you.” His concern was mirrored in the girls’ faces. When had they grown up?

“I’ll take care of this,” I told them. “I’m going to find a new job and get our lives back to normal.”

The next morning I got up before everyone else. I searched for a job online. I e-mailed friends with connections. By midmorning the quiet of the house was driving me crazy. I missed the noise of the office. I saw those overgrown flower beds. I made my way to the backyard with the hoe (锄头).

I settled into a new routine. Every day, I took breaks to do other things I’d neglected when I was working all the time. The new lawn I’d planned for so long began to take shape. So did I. With the physical labor, the extra weight dropped off, and I felt healthier than I had in ages. And I cleaned the empty family rooms completely and bought some video games. Soon TJ, Sarah and Tara were bringing their friends over after school. There were so many teenagers hanging out in the family room that I called “the kid zone”. At weekends Michelle and I gardened together. On summer evenings the five of us hung out.

One day I noticed TJ sitting alone, looking thoughtful. I knew he had worries about going to college and he’d lost touch with some of his friends.

“TJ, I know how it feels to lose something,” I began.

“I know, Dad,” he said. “I learned that from watching how you’ve handled being unemployed. You might have been stressed, but you never let it affect our family. You kept us together.”

I looked at my son, and it hit me. This was the last year he was at home. The girls would be off to college soon too. Luckily, I had this time to be the husband and father my family needed. I’d had the chance to find a healthy balance between work and family — a balance that even after I found a new job with a great company, I have made sure to keep.

1. The second paragraph mainly intends to tell us that the writer        .

    A. was a cell phone lover  

    B. disliked the long work hours

    C. devoted all his life to work

    D. wanted to change jobs

2. We can learn from Paragraph 4 that        .

    A. the writer’s family still lived in the house where the writer grew up

    B. the writer’s wife hoped he could use the free time to lose weight

    C. the writer liked pruning the tree that he planted when small

    D. the writer did not like the lawn and flower beds in the yard

3. By saying “When had they grown up?” in Paragraph 5, the writer may regret        .

    A. not going back home every day on time 

    B. spending little time with his three children

    C. not asking what his children needed most

    D. letting his children know his unemployment

4. “Other things” mentioned in the eighth paragraph don’t include        .

    A. doing the housework 

    B. tending the garden

    C. applying for jobs   

    D. looking after his children

5. What did the writer conclude from what TJ said?

    A. If TJ didn’t go to college, he would keep in touch with his friends.

    B. Although people had worries now and then, life had to go on.

    C. Being unemployed meant nothing to the whole family.

    D. If he hadn’t had this time with them, he’d be wishing for it.

6. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

    A. A plan made after I lost my job

    B. A reminder to focus on family    

    C. My family   

    D. My job