British women are happy nowadays to wear mini-skirts up until the age of 40, according to research by Debenhams.

    Just 20 years ago, few women would dare to wear a mini-skirt after the age of 33, the store said. “It shows that women now have an increasing confidence in their bodies and are happy to dress accordingly,” it added in a statement. “If this trend continues, there’s no doubt that, within the next decade, women in their mid 40s and early 50s will rightly regard a mini-skirt as an essential pan of their everyday wardrobe.”

    The figures emerged when the store examined the latest age profile of women buying short, 36-cm skirts over the past six months. Their results show that it has jumped from an average age of 36-years-old at the start of millennium ¹ to 40 today. Figures from 1980 showed that on average women stopped buying minis when they reached 33 years old -- a figure unchanged from the mid-1960s.
    The store noted that experts believe that the popularity of intensive gym culture ², providing women with well toned bodies ³ for longer may be the reason The increasing number of British women living on their own may also be a fac tor.

    The Debenhams’ study showed that a modern woman’s love affair with a mini-skin begins at the age of 14 but that she doesn’t buy her first one until the age of 16 Instead, she flouts school roles by rolling up the waistband of the school uniform to give the impression of wearing a mini skirt.

    Skirts get shorter between the ages of 16 and 19, reducing in size from 46 to 36 cm before reaching their shortest, a mere 32 cm, at the age of 23. Skirt .length increases slightly between the ages of 23 and 27, rising to 37 cm, possibly due to girls being in their first stable relationship, with no desire to attract attention, the store said.

    However, it found short skirt suddenly zoom in popularity between the ages of 27 and 34, as those early relationships break down, and new relationships are formed. The move into longer skins begins irreversibly at 40 years old, when 46-cm skins, still slightly above the knee are the norm. From then on, skirt length increases dramatically, falling below the knee for the very first time since school days at the age of 42.

词汇：

millennium [mɪ"lenɪəm] n. 千禧年

gym [dʒɪm] n. 健身房

注释：

1.这里指公元2000年。

2.gym culture:指英国现在流行的去健身房健身的趋势。

3.well toned bodies:指结实而线条良好的体形。

According to the passage,British women are happy to wear mini-skirts up until an older agebecause of the following reasons EXCEPT:

A:Women are more and more confident in their bodies B:Women nowadays pay much more attention to body building,and this provides them withwell toned bodies to wear mini-skirts C:The Climate of Great Britainare getting warmer in recent years,thus women can wear minisfor a longer time D:More and more women are now living on their own

“Friction”和“Wear”分别是（）

A:摩擦和磨损； B:磨损和摩擦

Text 2
Some people would say that the Englishman’ s home is no longer his castle; that it has become his workshop. This is partly because the average Englishman is keen on working with his hands and partly because he feels, for one reason or another, that he must do for himself many household jobs for which, some years ago, he would have hired professional help. The main reason for this is a financial one: the high cost of labor has meant that builders’ and decorators’ costs have reached a level which makes them so high that house - proud English people of modest means hang back. So, if they wish to keep their houses looking bright and smart, they have to deal with some of the repairs and decorating themselves. As a result, there has grown up in the post - war years what is sometimes referred to as the ’ Do - It - Yourself Movement’.
The ’Do - It - Yourself Movement’ began with home decorating but has since spread into a much wider field. Nowadays there seem to be very few things that cannot be made by the ’ do - it - yourself’ method. A number of magazines and handbooks exist to show hopeful handymen of all ages just how easy it is to build anything from a coffee table to a fifteen -foot(4.5 meters) sailing boat. All you need, it seems, is a hammer and a few nails. You follow the simple instructions step - by - step and, before you know where you are, the finished article stands before you, complete in every. detail.
Unfortunately, alas, it is not always quite as simple as it sounds ! Many a ’ do - it - yourselfer’ has found to his cost that one cannot learn a skilled craftsman’ s job overnight. How quickly one realizes, when doing it oneself, that a job which takes the skilled man an hour or so to complete takes the amateur five or six at least. And then there is the question of tools. The first thing the amateur learns is that he must have the right tools for the job. Bui tools cost money. There is also the wear and tear on the nerves. It is not surprising then that many people have come to the conclusion that the expense of paying professionals to do the work is, in the long run, more economical than ’ doing it oneself’.

A:the high cost of labor B:the expense of tools C:too much time spent on it D:the wear and tear on the nerves

Kids all over the world wear the things related to Jordan except ______.（　）

A:shoes B:jerseys C:jackets D:socks

There is no specific rule ______ what we should wear to a dinner party.

A:because of B:as to C:as of D:but for

I rarely wear a raincoat because I spend most of my time in a car.（　）

A:normally B:seldom C:continuously D:usually

Do we have to wear these name {{U}}tags{{/U}}?

A:lists B:forms C:labels D:codes

? ?阅读下面的短文，文中有15处空白，每处空白给出了4个选项，请根据短文的内容从 4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。

A:hear B:bear C:wear D:tear

Can Loud Music Cause Hearing Impairment(损伤)? Have You ever gone to a concert and realized that your seats were right next to the booming speakers? Are you guilty__________ (51)．turning up the volume on your portable cassette or CD player to drown out the whining(哭哭啼啼)of your little brother? Sometimes it’s difficult to avoid loud music or noises，but they can be bad news because loud noises can__________ (52)temporary or permanent hearing loss． Extremely loud music and noises that go on for long periods of __________ (53) are common causes of deafness．If a noise is so loud that you have to shout to make yourself__________ (54)，there is a __________ (55)that the mechanism inside your ear can be injured Temporary hearing loss can happen after you’ve been __________ (56)to loud noise for only 15 minutes．If you have temporary hearing loss．you won’t be able to hear as __________ (57) as you normally can，and you may have tinnitus (耳鸣)，which is a fancy word for ringing in the ears．Your ears call feel“full”，too __________ (58) these things usually go away and your hearing soon returns to normal． Permanent hearing loss can happen when，someone is exposed to loud noise__________ (59)and over．Construction workers and people who work in factories must__________60)ear protectors because the equipment they use can be extremely loud．But even some lawn mowers(割草机)and power tools can permanently __________ (61) a person’s ability to hear high-pitched noises and can also give him permanent tinnitus．Listening to extremely loud music over and over call also have the same effect on a person’s __________ (62)．And using headphones on a portable cassette or CD player can be dangerous __________ (63)if the volume is too high and the headphones are used a lot，the noise can damage the ears． The best way to avoid hearing loss is to wear eat protectors when working with machinery and earplugs when going to a__________ (64)．Headphones are OK to wear when you’re listening to music；just be sure the volume isn’t too high，and give them a rest __________(65) once in a while．

A:hear B:bear C:wear D:tear

A:Alexander visited China and introduced a new type of glasses B:we should wear resinous glasses instead of glass glasses C:resinous glasses are popular in Europe and America D:glasses can be made of other materials instead of glass