You may fall prey to a nonviolent but frightening and fast-growing crime: identity theft. It happens to at least 500, 000 new victims each year, according to government figures. And it happens very easily because every identification number you have Social Security, credit card, driver’s license, telephone- "is a key that unlocks some storage of money or goods," says a fraud program manager of the US Postal Service. "So if you throw away your credit card receipt and I get it and use the number on it, I’m not becoming you, but to the credit card company I’ve become your account."
One major problem, experts say, is that the Social Security Number (SSN) — originally meant only for retirement benefit and tax purposes — has become the universal way to identify people. It is used as identification by the military, colleges and in billions of commercial transactions.
Yet a shrewd thief can easily snatch your SSN, not only by stealing your wallet, but also by taking mail from your box, going through your trash for discarded receipts and bills or asking for it over the phone on some pretext.
Using your SSN, the thief applies for a credit card in your name, asking that it be sent to a different address than yours, and uses it for multiple purchases. A couple of months later the credit card company, or its debt collection agency, presses you for payment.
You don’t have to pay the debt, but you must clean up your damaged credit record. That means getting a police report and copy of the erroneous contract, and then using them to clear the fraud from your credit report, which is held by a credit bureau. Each step can require a huge amount of effort.
In the Collins’ case, the clearance of the erroneous charges from their record required three years of poring over records and ＄6, 000 in solicitor’s fees. In the meantime, they were denied a loan to build a vacation home, forced to pay cash for a new heating and cooling system, hounded by debt collectors, and embarrassed by the spectacle of having their home watched by investigators looking for the missing car.
Of course, thousands of people are caught and prosecuted for identity theft. But it was only last year that Congress made identity theft itself a federal crime. That law set up a special government office to help victims regain their lost credit and to streamline police efforts by tracking cases on a national scale.
Consumer advocates say this may help but will not address the basic problems, which, they believe, are causing the outbreak in identity theft: industry’s rush to attract more customers by issuing instant credit, inadequate checking of identity, and too few legal protections for consumers personal information.
The Collins’ case impress that______.

A:the clearance of the erroneous charges is not easy B:they could not apply a loan to build a vacation home C:they have to pay cash for almost everything D:it is embarrassed to clean up the damaged credit record

The stretch of the Pacific between Hawaii and California is virtually empty. There are no islands, no shipping lanes, no human presence for thousands of miles—just sea, sky and rubbish. The prevailing currents cause flotsam from around the world to accumulate in a vast becalmed patch of ocean. In places, there are a million pieces of plastic per square kilometre. That can mean as much as 112 times more plastic than plankton, the first link in the marine food chain. All this adds up to perhaps 100m tonnes of floating garbage, and more is arriving every day.
Wherever people have been—and some places where they have not—they have left waste behind. Litter lines the world’s roads; dumps dot the landscape; slurry and sewage slosh into rivers and streams. Up above, thousands of fragments of defunct spacecraft careen through space, and occasionally more debris is produced by collisions such as the one that destroyed an American satellite in mid-February. Ken Noguchi, a mountaineer, estimates that he has collected nine tonnes of rubbish from the slopes of Mount Everest during five clean-up expeditions. There is still plenty left.
The average Westerner produces over 500kg of municipal waste a year—and that is only the most obvious portion of the rich world’s discards. In Britain, for example, municipal waste from households and businesses makes up just 24% of the total. In addition, both developed and developing countries generate vast quantities of construction and demolition debris, industrial effluent, mine tailings, sewage residue and agricultural waste. Extracting enough gold to make a typical wedding ring, for example, can generate three tonnes of mining waste.
Rubbish may be universal, but it is little studied and poorly understood. Nobody knows how much of it the world generates or what it does with it. In many rich countries, and most poor ones, only the patchiest of records are kept. That may be understandable: by definition, waste is something its owner no longer wants or takes much interest in.
Ignorance spawns scares, such as the fuss surrounding New York’s infamous garbage barge, which in 1987 sailed the Atlantic for six months in search of a place to dump its load, giving many Americans the false impression that their country landfills had run out of space. It also makes it hard to draw up sensible policies: just think of the endless debate about whether recycling is the only way to save the planet ran expensive waste of time.
The second paragraph mainly demonstrates

A:space garbage hazard towards people. B:that people produce waste of all kinds with large amount. C:whether people should take recycling into account. D:Ken Noguchi five clean-up expeditions.

Mountain climbers around the world dream about going up Mount Everest (珠穆朗玛峰). It is the highest mountain in the world. But many people who have climbed the mountain have left waste material that is harming the environment.
A team of Americans is planning the largest clean-up effort ever on Mount Everest. They will make the risky trip up the mountain next month.
The team of eight Americans will be guided by more than twenty Sherpas of Nepal (尼泊尔夏儿巴人). Their goal is to remove all the trash (废物，垃圾) they see. They will spend two months cleaning up the mountain by gathering oxygen bottles, fuel containers, batteries, drink cans and other kinds of trash. They are expected to remove at least three tons of trash in large bags.
Team leader Robert Hoffman is making his fourth trip up the mountain. He says he hopes to bring Everest to the condition it was in before the first successful climb fifty years ago. He also says he hopes the effort will influence other people to clean up the environment closer to home.
Human waste on Everest is a major concern. So the clean-up team will take along newly developed equipment to collect and treat human waste. Over the years, the waste articles have polluted the mountain. In the warm season when the ice melts, the polluted water flows to Nepali villages below.

What is probably the best title for this passage（　）

A:A Risky Trip Up Mount Everest B:Pollution on Mount Everest C:Mount Everest—Clean-up Effort D:Robert Hoffman and His Clean-up Team

Passage Four
Imagine taking a dust bath to keep clean! Sparrows have to bathe in dust to keep pests out of their feathers. Tiny bugs such as fleas and lice can be a problem for birds. In order to keep pests away, birds preen themselves. Preening is just a fancy name for keeping clean. Birds preen by running their beaks through their fathers. The beak acts like a tiny comb, picking up dirt, bits of leaves and pesty bugs.
A bird called the starling has the most remarkable way of keeping its feathers tidy. It uses ants! A starling covers its wings with ants. The ants gobble up insect pests that hide among the starling’s feathers.
Most birds like to dip into a lake or a puddle of water to wash off. They splash around like toddlers in a pool, hopping first on the leg, then on the other. Birds like to have fun while washing up too!

The writer thinks that birds bathing in a lake or puddle are（）

A:nervous B:preening C:having a good time D:very clean

Some time ago, a store advertised rebuilt vacuum cleaners of a nationally known brand at the absurdly (荒谬地) low price of $ 12.50. Why was this done Surely the store could not (36) to sell good vacuum cleaners (37) this price. As a matter of fact, any customer who tried to buy one would find it was" (38) ". He would be told that the one in the window was "the only one left" and had to remain on (39) , or that "it had been sold" before he entered the store.
The (40) aim of this kind of advertising is to lure (引诱) customers (41) the store for the purpose of (42) them to buy some other higher price brand. This is called "bait (诱饵) advertising". In (43) the $12.50 vacuum cleaners, the manufacturer whose name was used went to (44) and obtained an order (45) the store to employ the brand name for that purpose.
Why did the managers of the manufacturing (46) go to such lengths to (47) this abuse (恶习) in advertising They realized that misrepresentation of their firm’s name was sure to (48) public confidence in their products. The honest businessman wants to keep his customers (49) so that they will return to buy again and again. He builds good (50) by conducting his business on a (51) of trust and confidence. (52) , he wants other businessmen’s advertising, as well as his own, to (53) the public’s respect because he realizes that anything that (54) confidence in advertising tends to injure honest advertisers as well as the fraudulent (欺诈的) (55) . That is why businessmen have set up their own agencies to police advertising.

53（）

A:wipe out B:remove from C:clean up D:clear away

Passage Four Imagine taking a dust bath to keep clean! Sparrows have to bathe in dust to keep pests out of their feathers. Tiny bugs such as fleas and lice can be a problem for birds. In order to keep pests away, birds preen themselves. Preening is just a fancy name for keeping clean. Birds preen by running their beaks through their fathers. The beak acts like a tiny comb, picking up dirt, bits of leaves and pesty bugs. A bird called the starling has the most remarkable way of keeping its feathers tidy. It uses ants! A starling covers its wings with ants. The ants gobble up insect pests that hide among the starling’s feathers. Most birds like to dip into a lake or a puddle of water to wash off. They splash around like toddlers in a pool, hopping first on the leg, then on the other. Birds like to have fun while washing up too!

The writer thinks that birds bathing in a lake or puddle are （）

A:nervous B:preening C:having a good time D:very clean

Have you ever wondered why some people are successful in business and others are not Here’s a story about one successful businessperson. He started out washing dishes and today he owns 168 restaurants.
Zubair Kazi was born in Bhatkal, a small town in southwest India. His dream was to be an airplane pilot, and when he was 16 years old, he learned to fly a small plane.
At the age of 23 and with just a little money in his pocket, Mr. Kazi moved to the United States. He hoped to get a job in the airplane industry in California. Instead, he ended up working for a company that rented cars.
While Mr. Kazi was working at the car rental (租赁的) company, he frequently ate at a nearby KFC restaurant. To save money on food, he decided to get a job with KFC. For two months, he worked as cook’s assistant. His job was to clean the kitchen and help the cook. "I didn’t like it, " Mr. Kazi says, "but I always did the best I could. "
One day, Mr. Kazi’s two co-workers failed to come to work. That day, Mr. Kazi did the work of all three people in the kitchen. This really impressed the owners of the restaurant. A few months later, the owners needed a manager for a new restaurant. They gave the job to Mr. Kazi. He worked hard as the manager and soon the restaurant was making a profit.
A few years later, Mr. Kazi heard about a restaurant that was losing money. The restaurant was dirty inside and the food was terrible. Mr. Kazi borrowed money from a bank and bought the restaurant. For the first six months, Mr. Kazi worked in the restaurant from 8 a. m. to 10 p. m. , seven days a week. He and his wife cleaned up the restaurant, remodeled the front of the building, and improved the cooking. They also tried hard to please the customers. If someone had to wait more than ten minutes for their food, Mrs. Kazi gave them a free soda. Before long the restaurant was making a profit.
A year later, Mr. Kazi sold his restaurant for a profit. With the money he earned, he bought three more restaurants that were losing money. Again, he cleaned them up, improved the food, and retrained the employees. Before long these restaurants were making a profit, too.
Today Mr. Kazi owns 168 restaurants, but he isn’t planning to stop there. He’s looking for more poorly managed restaurants to buy. "I love it when I go to buy a restaurant and find it’s a mess, " Mr. Kazi says. "The only way it can go is up. /
To save a failing restaurant. Mr. Kazi did all the following things, EXCEPT to

A:advertize for it. B:clean it up. C:improve the food. D:retrain the employees.

第一篇 How to Be a Successful Businessperson Have you ever wondered why some people are successful in business and others are not?Here’s a story about one successful businessperson. He started out washing dishes and today he owns 168 restaurants. Zubair -Kazi was born in Bhatkal, a small town in southwest India. His dream was to be an airplane pilot, and when he was 16 years old, he learned to fly a small plane. At the age of 23 and with just a little money in his pocket, Mr. Kazi moved to the United States.He hoped to get a job in the airplane industry in California. Instead, he ended up working for a company that rented cars. While Mr. Kazi was working at the car rental(租赁的) company, he frequently ate at a nearby KFC restaurant. To save money on food, he decided to get a job with KFC. For two months, he worked as a cook’s assistant. His job was to clean the kitchen and help the cook. "I didn’t like it," Mr. Kazi says, "but I always did the best I could." One day, Mr. Kazi’s two co-workers failed to come to work. That day, Mr. Kazi did the work of all three people in the kitchen. This really impressed the owners of the restaurant. A few months later, the owners needed a manager for a new restaurant. They gave the job to Mr. Kazi. He worked hard as the manager and soon the restaurant was making a profit. A few years later, Mr. Kazi heard about a restaurant that was losing money. The restaurant was dirty inside and the food was terrible. Mr. Kazi borrowed money from a bank and bought the restaurant. For the first six months, Mr. Kazi worked in the restaurant from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. He and his wife cleaned up the restaurant, remodeled the front of the building, and improved the cooking. They also tried hard to please the customers. lf someone had to wait more than ten minutes for their food, Mrs. Kazi gave them a free soda. Before long the restaurant was making a profit. A year later, Mr. Kazi sold his restaurant for a profit. With the money he earned, he bought three more restaurants that were losing money. Again, he cleaned them up, improved the food, and retrained the employees. Before long these restaurants were making a profit, too. Today Mr. Kazi owns 168 restaurants, but he isn’t planning to stop there. He’s looking for more poorly managed restaurants to buy. "I love it when I go to buy a restaurant and find it’s a mess," Mr.Kazi says. "The only way it can go is up."To save a failing restaurant, Mr. Kazi did all the following things, EXCEPT to

A:advertise for it. B:clean it up C:improve the food. D:retrain the’employees

Have you ever wondered why some people are successful in business and others are not Here’s a story about one successful businessperson. He started out washing dishes and today he owns 168 restaurants.
Zubair Kazi was born in Bhatkal,a small town in southwest India. His dream was to be an airplane pilot,and when he was 16 years old,he learned to fly a small plane.
At the age of 23 and with just a little money in his pocket,Mr. Kazi moved to the United States. He hoped to get a job in the airplane industry in California. Instead,he ended up working for a company that rented cars.
While Mr. Kazi was working at the car rental(租赁的)company,he frequently ate at a nearby KFC restaurant. To save money on food, he decided to get a job with KFC. For two months, he worked as a cook’s assistant. His job was to clean the kitchen and help the cook. "I didn’t like it,"Mr,Kazi says, "but I always did the best I could. "
One day, Mr. Kazi’s two co-workers failed to come to work. That day, Mr. Kazi did the work of all three people in the kitchen. This really impressed the owners of the restaurant. A few months later, the owners needed a manager for a new restaurant. They gave the job to Mr. Kazi. He worked hard as the manager and soon the restaurant was making a profit.
A few years later,Mr. Kazi heard about a restaurant that was losing money. The restaurant was dirty inside and the food was terrible. Mr. Kazi borrowed money from a bank and bought the restaurant. For the first six months,Mr. Kazi worked in the restaurant from 8 a. m. to 10 p. m. ,seven days a week. He and his wife cleaned up the restaurant,remodeled the front of the building,and improved the cooking. They also tried hard to please the customers. If someone had to wait more than ten minutes for their food,Mrs. Kazi gave them a free soda. Before long the restaurant was making a profit.
A year later, Mr. Kazi sold his restaurant for a profit. With the money he earned, he bought three more restaurants that were losing money. Again, he cleaned them up, improved the food, and retrained the employees. Before long these restaurants were making a profit, too.
Today Mr. Kaziowns 168 restaurants,but he isn’t planning to stop there. He’s looking for more poorly managed restaurants to buy. "I love it when I go to buy a restaurant and find it’s a mess,"Mr. Kazi says. "The only way it can go is up. /
To save a failing restaurant, Mr. Kazi did all the following things, EXCEPT to

A:clean it up. B:improve the food. C:advertize for it. D:retrain the employees.