I am traveling home. It is bitterly cold and snowy, but the warm train is right on time. I feel pleasantly satisfied as I look out at the rush hour traffic on the motorway. I feel more satisfied as the smell of fresh coffee announces the arrival of the drinks service. Swiss friends often tell me, proudly, that their rail service is the best in the world, but recently, one experience has proved that the great Swiss love affair with their railway has turned a little sour.
It all began with the decision to end ticket sales on trains. One cold morning I arrived at my local station only to find that the ticket machine was broken. No matter, I thought, I have got a smart phone, and I hurriedly set about buying my ticket that way. This was not as easy as I had expected, busying myself between credit card and phone with freezing cold fingers, but, by the time I got on the train to Geneva I had an e-ticket and I proudly showed it to the conductor. Unfortunately she told me that my ticket was not valid. Several weeks later a letter arrived from Swiss railways together with a fine
190 francs($210).
The good people there tell me the formal payment for my ticket from my credit card company arrived four minutes after my train left the station. That means, they say, that I bought my ticket on the train--and that is strictly prohibited
Swiss railways say their policy is designed to protect honest ticket-paying passengers, but a quick look at their balance sheet suggests something else. The company is making about $2 million a month from fines.
Although train travel is still popular, those seats do not feel as comfortable; the coffee does not smell quite so good--because Swiss railways have lost, for now anyway, something far more precious than $2 million a month: good relations with their customers.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?
A. The Swiss trains usually come late.
B. Traffic on the motorway goes smoothly.
C. The author hates traveling on the Swiss train.
D. The author is generally pleased with the Swiss rail service.
2. Why did the conductor say that the author's e-ticket was invalid?
A. It was purchased online.
B. If was paid for after the train’s departure.
C. It was purchased on a ticket machine.
D. It was paid on a smart phone.
3. What does the author want to show by telling the experience?
A. The fine was unfair.
B. The conductor was impolite
C. E-tickets are getting popular.
D. Credit cards can be inconvenient.
4. What does the author think of the new policy of Swiss railways?
A. It attracts more people to travel by train.
B. It makes the company lose a lot of money.
C. It damages company-customer relations.
D. It protects honest ticket-paying passengers
D B A C
日常生活类阅读的概念:
日常生活这一话题主要涉及人们衣食住行等方面的活动。这一话题的选材主要针对人们日常的工作,生活以及学习情况。做这一类题时,最主要的是要把握好人物的活动内容,时间和地点。
日常生活类阅读题答题技巧:
【题型说明】
该类文章内容涉及到人们的言谈举止、生活习惯、饮食起居、服饰仪表、恋爱婚姻、消遣娱乐、节日起源、家庭生活等。文章篇幅短小,追根溯源,探索各项风俗的历史渊源,内容有趣。命题也以送分题为主,如事实细节题、语义转换题、词义猜测题和简单推理判断题等。虽然这类文章读起来感觉轻松,试题做起来比较顺手,但绝不能掉以轻心。因为稍不留神,就会丢分。
【备考提醒】
为了保证较高准确率,建议同学们做好以下几点:
1、保持正常的考试心态。笔者在教学中发现,越是容易的试题,同学们越是容易失分。为什么呢?因为在这种情况下,同学们极易产生麻痹思想,认为题目好做,就不引起高度重视,于是思维不发散、不周密。而命题人就是利用同学们的这一弱点,设计陷阱题。所以,无论试题难易与否,我们都要保持正常的考试心态。试题容易,不欣喜;试题难,不悲观。
2、根据前面讲到的方法,认认真真、细细心心做好事实细节题。
3、做好语义转换题。这类题是根据英语中一词多义和某些词语在文中能表达一定的修辞意义的原则而设计的。要求同学们解释某生词的含义,确定多义词或短语在文中的意思,确认文中的某个代词所指代的对象,或者对英语中特有的表达、格言、谚语进行解释。这种题要求同学们一定要根据上下文猜测词义或理解句子,切不可望文生义。
4、做好简单推理判断题。简单推理判断题要以表面文字为前提,以具体事实为依据进行推理,做出判断。这种推理方式比较直接,只要弄清事实,即可结合常识推断出合理的结论。
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A. Reasons that employers use tests B. Procedures involved in recruitment’ C. Hints to follow while taking tests D. Disadvantages of interviews for recruitment E. Importance of interview F. Adoption of psychological tests to hire employees |
80. |
Nowadays more and more foreign enterprises and companies are no longer relying on interviews for recruitment. Years of studying interviewing has made clear that it is not a very objective process. Personnel officers often hire the person they like best or even the one they think most physically attractive. Looking good is no guarantee of doing the job well.
81. |
To get a more objective view, many companies are also using psychological tests, to hire both for relatively routine job and for positions at senior levels of management. It is impossible to say how many employers use tests, but estimates of test sales in the
82. |
Recruitment can involve steps in two ways. Step 1 is always the same: job application. The company decides whether you might be suitable based on your qualifications and your previous job experience. Step 2 can be screening. A specific test is given at this stage to rule out those who might not be worth interviewing. Some large employers use tests ---especially IQ based tests precisely to eliminate the unsuitable. Only those who pass Step 2 go to the interview. Step 2 can also be testing and interview combined. If the company thinks you might be suitable after looking at your application, they ask you to come to be tested and to be interviewed. It is seen very much as part of the same step.
83. |
Tests claim to be scientific and objective. A large body of research has shown that interviews by themselves are not very reliable as a method of selection. People’s judgments are often very subjective: whether they like the look of someone counts for more than almost anything else. But reliable and valid tests can offer rapid and more objective information about would-be employees. If a candidate talks well in an interview but his test results suggest that he is a careless person who cannot concentrate, and employer is likely to think twice about hiring him.
84. |
Taking a serious test for a job is rather different form taking a game-like test. You can spend just a little time answering questions of that kind of test, and you can deny the answers and say they are not accurate. But you can not go to a serious test without enough preparation since you can not afford to be denied and eliminated again and again. What can you do to do justice to yourself in tests? Here are three tips: Understand, Analyze, Practice.