The need to feed a growing population is putting much pressure on the world's supply of water. With 97% of the world's water too salty to be drunk or used in agriculture, the worldwide supply of water needs careful management, especially in agriculture. Although the idea of a water shortage(短缺)seems strange to someone fortunate enough to live in a high rainfall country, many of the world's agricultural industries experience constant water shortages.

Although dams can be built to store water for agricultural use in dry areas and dry seasons, the costs of water redistribution(重新分配)are very high. Not only is there the cost of the engineering itself, but there is also an environmental cost to be considered. Where valleys(山谷)are flooded to create dams, houses are lost and wildlife homes destroyed. Besides, water may flow easily through pipes to fields, but it cannot be transported from one side of the world to the other. Each country must therefore rely on the management of its own water to supply its farming requirements.

This is particularly troubling for countries with agricultural industries in areas dependent on irrigation (灌溉). In Texas, farmers' overuse of irrigation water has resulted in a 25% reduction of the water stores. In the Central Valley area of southwestern USA, a huge water engineering project provided water for farming in dry valleys, but much of the water use has been poorly managed.

Saudi Arabia's attempts to grow wheat in desert areas have seen the pumping of huge quantities of irrigation water from underground reserves. Because there is no rainfall in these areas, such reserves can only decrease, and it is believed that fifty years of pumping will see them run dry.

1.What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

2.From the first two paragraphs we learn that________.

3.The text is mainly about________.

Homestay provides English language students with the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom and the experience of being part of a British home.

What to Expect

The host will provide accommodation and meals. Rooms will be cleaned and bedcovers changed at least once a week. You will be given the house key and the host is there to offer help and advice as well as to take an interest in your physical and mental health.

Accommodation Zones

Homestays are located in London mainly in Zones2,3 and 4 of the transport system. Most hosts do not live in the town center as much of central London is commercial and not residential（居住的）.Zones3 and 4often offer larger accommodation in a less crowed area. It is very convenient to travel in London by Underground.

Meal Plans Available

?Continental Breakfast

?Breakfast and Dinner

?Breakfast, Packed Lunch and Dinner

It’s important to note that few English families still provide a traditional cooked breakfast.Your accommodation includes Continental Breakfast which normally consists of fruit juice, cereal (谷物类食品), bread and tea or coffee. Cheese, fruit and cold meat are not normally part of a Continental Breakfast in England. Dinners usually consist of meat or fish with vegetables followed by desert, fruit and coffee.

Friends

If you wish to invite a friend over to visit, you must first ask your host’s permission. You have no right to entertain friends in a family home as some families feel it is an invasion of their privacy.

Self-Catering Accommodation in Private Homes

Accommodation on a room-only basis includes shared kitchen and bathroom facilities and often a main living room. This kind of accommodation offers an independent lifestyle and is more suitable for the long-stay student. However, it does not provide the same family atmosphere as an ordinary homestay and may not benefit those who need to practice English at home quite as much.

1.What can be inferred from Paragraph3?

2.According to the passage, what does Continental Breakfast include?

3.Why do some people choose self-catering accommodation?

When I was seven my father gave me a Timex, my first watch. I loved it, wore it for years, and haven’t had another one since it stopped ticking a decade ago. Why? Because I don’t need one. I have a mobile phone and I’m always near someone with an iPod or something like that. All these devices（装置）tell the time—which is why, if you look around, you’ll see lots of empty wrists; sales of watches to young adults have been going down since 2007. 

But while the wise have realized that they don’t need them, others—apparently including some distinguished men of our time—are spending total fortunes on them. Brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Breitling command shocking prices, up to £250.000 for a piece.

This is ridiculous. Expensive cars go faster than cheap cars. Expensive clothes hang better than cheap clothes. But these days all watches tell the time as well as all other watches. Expensive watches come with extra functions—but who needs them? How often do you dive to 300 metres into the sea or need to find your direction in the area around the South Pole? So why pay that much of five years’ school fees for watches that allow you to do these things?

If justice were done, the Swiss watch industry should have closed down when the Japanese discovered how to make accurate watches for a five-pound note. Instead the Swiss reinvented the watch, with the aid of millions of pounds’ worth of advertising, as a message about the man wearing it. Rolexes are for those who spend their weekends climbing icy mountains; a Patek Philippe is for one from a rich or noble family; a Breitling suggests you like to pilot planes across the world. 

Watches are now classified as“investments”(投资). A 1994 Philippe recently sold for nearly £350, 000, while 1960s Rolexes have gone from £15, 000 to £30, 000 plus in a year. But a watch is not an investment. It's a toy for self-satisfaction, a matter of fashion. Prices may keep going up—they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when fashion moves on, the owner of that £350, 000 beauty will suddenly find his pride and joy is no more a good investment than my childhood Timex. 

1.It seems ridiculous to the writer that_______________. 

2.What can be learnt about Swiss watch industry from the passage?

3.Which would be the best title for the passage?

Everyone in business has been told that success is all about attracting and retaining(留住) customers. It sounds simple and achievable. But,   41   , words of wisdom are soon forgotten. Once companies have attracted customers they often    42   the second half of the story. In the excitement of beating off the competition, negotiating prices, securing orders, and delivering the product, managers     43    become carried away. They forget what they regard as the boring side of business---    44   that the customer remains a customer.

     45   to concentrate on retaining as well as attracting customers costs business huge amounts of money annually. It has been estimated that the    46     company loses between 10 and 30 percent of its customers every year. In constantly changing    47    , this is not surprising. What is surprising is the fact that few companies have any idea how many customers they have lost.

Only now are organizations beginning to wake up to these lost opportunities and calculate the   48  implications.     49    the number of customers a company loses can make a big    50   in its performance. Research in the US found that a five percent decrease in the number of defecting(流失的) customers led to    51   increases of between 25 and 85 percent.

In the US, Domino’s Pizza estimates that a regular customer is     52    more than five thousand dollars over ten years. A customer who receives a poor quality product or     53    on their first visit and    54     never returns, is losing the company thousands of dollars in   55    profits (more if you consider how many people they are likely to tell about their bad experience).

The logic behind cultivating customer   56    is impossible to deny. “In practice most companies’ marketing effort is focused on getting customers, with little attention paid to     57   them”, says Adrian Payne of Cornfield University’s School of Management. “Research suggests that there is a close relationship between retaining customers and making profits.     58     customers tend to buy more, are predictable and usually cost less to service than new customers. Furthermore, they tend to be less price    59   , and may provide free word-of-mouth advertising. Retaining customers also makes it   60  for competitors to enter a market or increase their share of a market.”

 In China, the number of cities is increasing ______ development is recognized across the world.

---I’m going to San Francisco for a couple of days.

---_________. I wish I could get away for a while.

Mike was usually so careful, ______ this time he made a small mistake.

Try _____ she might, Sue couldn’t get the door open.

---I haven’t got the reference book yet, but I’ll have a test on the subject next month.

---Don’t worry. You ____ have it by Friday.

Armed with the information you have gathered, you can ____ preparing your business plan.