136 Crestview Circle Dover, Connecticut January 16, 1995 Gander's Furniture Store Stamford, Connecticut, 09876 Dear Sir, I am writing about your January bill, which I am returning with this letter. I am not going to pay this bill. Last month I bought a table and four chairs for $65.50. They were sent to me on December 18. That night one leg of the table broke while my wife was putting our dinner on it. It fell on one of the chair, and that broke, too. Our $ 2.50 steak landed on the floor, and the dog ate it. I spoke to the salesmen who had sold me the table and the chairs. He told me to write you a letter. I wrote you on December 20, saying that I was not going to pay for the furniture. On December 21 some men came and took it back to the store. Please do something about your records. I do not want to receive another bill for the furniture which I returned. Yours truly Alberts Robbins From the letter we can know that Mr. Robbins had actually paid _ for the table and the four chairs. A) $ 65.50 B) $ 68.00 C) $ 2.50 D) no money
D
People always think about "the problem of youth". If there is one -which I take leave to doubt- it is older people who create it, not young themselves. Let us get down to fundamental s and then the young are after all human beings -people just like their elders. There is only one difference between and old man and young one: the young man has a beautiful future before him while the old man a splendid future behind him and maybe that id where the rub is. When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and unknown -that I was a new boy in a hug w school, and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the thing s the young are busily engaged in seeking. I find young people exciting .they have and air of freedom, and they have not a dull promise to mean ambitious or love of comfort .they are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to important things .all this seems to me to ling then with life, and the origin of things .it's as if they were some sense of cosmic beings in violent and lovely contract with us suburban creatures. all that is in my mind when I need a young person .he may be too proud, ill-mannered or self-satisfied, but I do not turn for protection to boring cliches about respect for elders as if age were a reason for respect .I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with them, as an equal, if I think he is wrong. By "problem of youth" people mean the problem _ A) caused by young people B) need to be solve d by young people C) young people meet D) created by the old for the young
A
Q: One important variable affecting communication across cultures is destiny and personal responsibility. This refers to the degree to which we feel ourselves the masters of our lives, contrary to the degree to which we see ourselves as _ to things outside our control. Another way to look at this is to ask how much we see ourselves able to change and act, to choose the course of our lives and relationships. Some have drawn a parallel between the personal responsibility in North American settings and the view itself. The North American view is vast, with large spaces of unpopulated land. The frontier attitude of "King" of the wilderness, and the expansiveness of the land reaching huge distances, may relate to generally high levels of confidence in the ability to shape and choose our destinies. In this expansive land, many children grow up with a heroic sense of life, where ideas are big, and hope springs forever. When they experience temporary failures, they are encouraged to redouble their efforts, to "Try, try again." Action, efficiency, and achievement are valued and expected. Free will is respected in laws and enforced by courts. Now consider places in the world with much smaller land, whose history reflects wars and tough struggles: Northern Ireland, Mexico, Israel, Palestine. In these places, destiny's role is more important in human life. In Mexico, there is a history of hard life, fighting over land, and loss of homes. Mexicans are more likely to see struggles as part of their life and unavoidable. Their passive attitude is expressed in their way of responding to failure or an accident by saying "ni modo" ("no way" or "tough lick"), meaning that the failure was destined. This variable is important to understanding cultural conflicts. If someone believing in free will crosses paths with someone more passive, miscommunication is likely. The first person may expect action and responsibility. Failing to see it, he may conclude that the second is lazy, not cooperative, or dishonest. The second person will... The author would probably agree that _ . A) vast land may lead to a more controllable desire B) heroic sense of life roots deeply in a small country C) living in limited space contributes to an accepting attitude D) fighting over land helps people gain high levels of confidence
A: C
*Question*
During her junior year of high school, Diane Ray's teacher handed her a worksheet and instructed the 17-year-old to map out her future financial life. Ray pretended to buy a car, rent an apartment, and apply for a credit card. Then, she and her classmates played the "stock market game", investing the hypothetical earnings from their hypothetical jobs in the market in the disastrous fall of 2008. "Our pretend investments crashed," Ray says, still frightened. "We got to know how it felt to lose money." That pain of earning and losing money is a feeling that public schools increasingly want to teach. Forty states now offer some type of financial instruction at the high-school level, teaching students how to balance checkbooks and buy stock in math and social-studies classes. Though it's too early to measure the full influence of the Great Recession , the interest in personal-finance classes has risen since 2007 when bank failures started to occur regularly. Now, many states including Missouri, Utah, and Tennessee require teenagers to take financial classes to graduate from high school. School districts such as Chicago are encouraging money-management classes for kids as young as primary school, and about 300 colleges or universities now offer online personal-finance classes for incoming students. "These classes really say, 'This is how you live independently,' " says Ted Beck, president of National Endowment for Financial Education. Rather than teach investment methods or financial skills, these courses offer a back-to-the-basics approach to handling money: Don't spend what you don't have. Put part of your monthly salary into a savings account, and invest in the stock market for the long-term rather than short-term gains. For Ray, this means dividing her earnings from her part-time job at a fast-food restaurant into separate envelopes for paying bills, spending and saving. "Money is so hard to make but so easy to spend," she says one weekday after school. "That is the big takeaway." Teaching kids about the... After completing the financial class, Diane Ray is likely to _ . A) pay off all her debts. B) handle her money better C) find a job in a bank. D) manage the family income
**Answer**
B