M: Me, too. Are we picking her up at the station?
Q: Why is the woman excited?
(14)
A. Because she will have a new kitchen.
Because she is going to see her mother.
C. Because her grandmother will come to live with them.
D. Because her husband has bought her a new house.
M: You're not the first person who has had his pleasure in something mined by a bad tether.
Q: What do we learn about the woman?
(17)
A. She had disliked novels until she went to college.
B. She would rather read novels than history books.
C. She enjoyed the class even though the teacher was poor.
D. Her study of literature spoiled her enjoyment of novels.
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
NEW YORK--Every so often, late at night, David Woodland steals away to the den of his home in Aberdeen, Washington, so that he can check stock prices on the Internet.
Mr. Woodland, a 78-year-old retired insurance salesman, delights at how with the click of a mouse, he can tap into the facts and fortunes of Wall Street. "If I get a bright idea late at night," Mr. Woodland said, "I go into the office, fire up the computer and put a buy or sell order in."
While on-line trading is popularly regarded as the province of any traders in their 20s and 30s, jumping in and ont of the market to make quick profits, it is now being invaded by millions of people like Mr. Woodland--senior investors who bring much larger accounts and more stability to this fast-growing corner of the markets,
The low cost of doing business on-line--now as little as $7 a trade--and the excitement of riding a bull market are the lures (诱惑) for many older investors--just as they are for the young. They are dismissing their full-service brokers, who offer research and advice but often charge more than $100 a trade, and instead are picking their own stocks, after downloading companies' annual reports and other research basics.
"These things are incredible tools, now in the hands of an individual investor," said Carol Potts, 56, a retired crafts designer in Santa Barbara, California. "There's no reason for me to have financial advisers. I am very analytical, and I like to get involved in research."
According to a survey this fall of 630 people over 50 by Charles Schwab & Co., many older investors say the Internet has made them more confident about their investments and more willing to trust their own judgment. But such confidence may also cause some to gamble away their retirement nest eggs, financial experts warn. "If stocks enter a bear market, it could prove disastrous for retirees, who are so dependent on their savings."
The main idea of the passage is that ______.
A. on-line trading attracts more and more retirees to get involved
B. on-line trading is more suitable for the old than for the young now
C. on-line trading enables the retirees to get rid of their advisers
D. on-line trading offers incredible tools and high profits to investors
听力原文: Pushing China's foreign exchange reform. ahead by another step, the central bank on Friday carried out its first currency swap deals with local banks. It hopes that this could help bring more flexibility to the market.
The People's Bank of China confirmed that it was carrying out its first foreign exchange swap deal on Friday, but would not give more details. A Beijing-based trader for a major state-owned bank said that the central bank offered one-year currency swaps worth $ 6 billion at 7.85 Chinese yuan per dollar.
In spot dealings, the yuan closed at 8.08 to the dollar on Thursday. Analysts said that it wasn't clear exactly what system the central bank was using in its swaps transactions, but said it could be selling dollars and buying yuan on the spot market, and a year later could reverse the deal at the set rate.
That would have the effect of removing yuan from the money market. At the same time, the central bank could use the swap rate to signal its expectations about how fast it expects the yuan's value to rise, they said.
Tile swap deal didn't seem to have any immediate effect on the spot market.
Late Thursday, China's State Administration for Foreign Exchange announced it would also introduce a new currency trading system allowing bank market members to trade directly with each other. It also invited qualified members to apply to become market makers for yuan spot trading.
A market maker agrees to act as either a buyer or seller in a financial transaction when no other party can be found. Currently, the central bank is China's key market maker in U.S. dollar trading due to tight restrictions on for eign exchange dealings, though regulators earlier announced they were considering letting other banks become market makers.
(33)
A. It is one of the China's foreign exchange reform.
B. It may bring flexibility to the market.
C. It is in the former plan.
D. They want to bring yuan to the spot market.