My newly-purchased magazine is nowhere to be found.____ I le

Dear Economist,
My newly-wedded wife and I are deeply in love. There is, however, one issue that threatens the happiness of our marriage. I absolutely insist on shopping at Walmart. My wife, meanwhile, would rather avoid Walmart at all costs.
　　I have recently tried to convince her that not only does Walmart offer the lowest prices known to man, but that the chain is also a force for good―lower prices mean better standards of living for all consumers, increased global trade means a tighter-knit(紧密团结的) international community, and efficient operations translate into higher productivity growth for the economy. My wife complains about poor labour policies, the “fact” that Walmart squeezes suppliers, and that it puts local shops out of business.
　　Who is right? Will our marriage survive?
　　 Brian Gee
Dear Brian,
I have to agree with you about Walmart. Jason Furman, then an economist at New York University, now an adviser to President Obama, famously argued in 2005 that Walmart was unwittingly (不知不觉地) a progressive success story. The chain’s prices don’t much affect me (I prefer Whole Foods) but Furman estimated that they benefited low-and-middle-income Americans to the sum of around $250 billion a year.
　　Walmart does not pay much, so it may depress wages. Then again, it may increase wages by offering jobs to the otherwise-unemployed. Either way, the benefits of low prices to Walmart shoppers far outweigh any seemingly reasonable costs to Walmart employees. And while it is true that Walmart employees tend to be poor, the same is true of Walmart shoppers.
　　Armed with this information you can face your wife with confidence. You are sure to win the conversation. The divorce is likely to be more argued.
Economist
68. What concerns Brian Gee so much that he wrote the letter?
A. His wife refuses to shop at Walmart.
B. They are faced with a divorce.
C. They can’t afford the costs of shopping at Walmart.
D. They are in conflict about shopping at Walmart.
69. Brian Gee’s wife tends to hold the opinion that _________.
A. it is wrong for Walmart to depress its employees’ wages
B. consumers’ lives have improved thanks to Walmart
C. Walmart’s business operation increases productivity in economy
D. Walmart’s business increases global trade
70. What can be inferred from the reply letter?
A. Some employees accept the low pay to keep the job.
B. Walmart appeals to only poor consumers and poor employees.
C. Employees suffer from Walmart’s low prices more than consumers.
D. Jason Furman, a New York University economist, spoke highly of Walmart.

My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about f ifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successf ul ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed (揭示) a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.
小题1:The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.

A．he wanted to work in the centre of London

B．he could no longer afford to live without one

C．he was not interested in any other available job

D．he had received some suitable training

小题2:The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.

A．he often traveled underground	B．he had written many poems
C．he could deal with difficult situations	D．he had worked in a company

小题3:The length of his interview meant that _________.

A．he was not going to be offered the job

B．he had not done well in the intelligence test

C．he did not like the interviewer at all

D．he had little work experience to talk about

小题4:What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?

A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be.	B．How difficult it is to be a poet.
C．How unsuitable he was for the job.	D．How badly he did in the interview.

小题5:What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?

A．He was very aggressive.	B．He was unhappy with his job.
C．He was quite inefficient.	D．He was rather unsympathetic.

单词拼写
小题1:Last week, I s______________ my newly-bought sweater for one in another color.
小题2:It u__________ him that nobody told him about the whole thing.
小题3:He asked several questions c______________ the future of the company.
小题4:We can tell what people think from their facial e________________.
小题5:Whether it is safe or not is one of the most f________________ asked questions about the Internet.
小题6:Our president will make an o______________ visit to Tokyo in March and will attend a lot of meetings there.
小题7:We had planned to complete the new bridge in 2012, but it was finished two years ahead of s______________.
小题8:He is the chairman of a large international o________________.
小题9:The temperature is f__________ to reach as low as 4℃ and warm clothes will be needed.
小题10:Light travels faster than sounds, so we see l________________ followed by thunder on rainy days.