23.What does the underlined word“drawcard”in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A.barrier. B.attraction. C.honour. D.difficulty.
24.Why does the author write the article?
A.To advertise Staybridge Suites.
B.To introduce four recent visitors .
C.To inform us of a new service.
D.To sing high praise for the staff.
B
When riding enthusiast Nina lost the use of her legs,it looked as though she’d never be able to enjoy her favorite activities again.Elizabeth,a competition gymnast,says she attempted suicide after an accident left her disabled.Tim lost both legs serving in the Middle East and figured he’d never be able to ride trails with his wife the way they used to.
But John Gray,a master saddle(鞍)maker in tiny Horseshoe Bend,Arkansas,put them a11 back in the saddle.“I consider it a privilege to watch people achieve their goals,,”he says.“And I consider it an honor that I can help.”
John followed in his father’s footsteps in the saddle making business,but he learned how to fashion therapeutic(治疗的)ones by trial and error.At first he simply adapted standard models,until he found a saddletree maker willing to customize(定制)the frame to meet the needs of each rider.
Many of John’s saddles have backrests and seat belts.For Tim,he made a bucket seat similar to an old-fashioned sidesaddle.A rider who wanted to ride in the Mardi Gras parade needed a saddle with head and chest restraints.Each story is differ ent,but they all touch your heart.All these riders have come through life—changing experiences with the determination to keep doing the things they love.
Elizabeth raised the money to pay for her saddle by getting several country music personalities to sign a guitar,then selling it.Nina is competing in shows again—after helping to start a show class for disabled riders.“Help me onto my horse,and I can take it from there,”
she says.
“I’m so happy I could help.”John adds.“Nina has always been a good rider,and her disability hasn’t slowed her down.”
25.What motivates John Gray to develop the saddle?
A.His own life story. B.The demand of all riders.
C.His father’s wish. D.The suffering of the thr ee disabled.
26.What is special about the saddles made by John?
A.They’re fully copied from standard models.
B.They’re of different size from others.
C.They can satisfy the needs of each rider.
D.No change can be made in the saddles.
27.Which of the following can best describe John?
A.He follows tradition strictly.
B.He is helpful and creative.
C.He shows mercy on the disabled.
D.He’s full of ambition and humor.
28.What can be concluded from the text?
A.All the disabled can do the things they love.
B.The disabled have begun to do charity work.
C.John is doubtful about the future of his saddles.
D.John’s saddles are changing the lives of disabled people.
C
If a stranger offered you money to keep a suitcase in your spare room,would you accept? How about the other way round:if you had too many belongings,would you consider trusting someone you met online with their safekeeping? Anthony Paine believed enough of us would answer“yes”to these questions to launch his own startup(新兴公司),Stashbee.His business links people with space to those who need it.
And it's just one player in the booming“sharing economy”,an industry that relies on people renting out things like their beds,bikes and even parking spaces.Airbnb,a company valued at 200bn RMB,provides a platform for those renting property short-term.DogVacay pairs holidaymaking pet owners with pet-friendly hosts,and aims to be profitable by 2017.
All their business models revolve around one simple word:trust.So,how does Stashbee measure up? BBC journalist Dougal Shaw decided to try it out for himself.He had some odds and ends to store while renovating his ho use,and met a host through the site who could keep them for 475 RMB for two months.All relatively smooth and painless.
Heavyweights(行业巨头)in the traditional storage industry,such as Big Yenow and Access,aren’t convinced.A representative from Access told Shaw he was skeptical about storing with“amateurs”.He considered 24/7(全天候)access to the items and better security as the main advantages of his se rvice.
Stashbee agree that dealing with security concerns is important,but say business success depends more on people overcoming a distrust of strangers we’ve been taught since childhood. They aren’t alone.Companies such as Costockage,Roost and Spacer all run similar storage businesses,and are all relying on a shift in consumer attitudes.
And the concept of social storage doesn’t stop there.CityStasher believe there’s a gap in the market for those who want to store things for extremely short periods of time.
Would you try it out? It’s a question of trust.
29.The author put forward two questions at the beginning of the text to__________.
A.expect readers to answer them
B.carry out a survey among readers
C.start a conversation among readers
D.draw readers attention to the topic
30.How does Dougal Shaw try out Stashbee’s business?
A.Experiencing in person. B.Doing a survey online.
C.Analyzing some data. D.Exchanging his belongings.
31.What does the traditional storage industry value most?
A.Trust. B.Security.
C.Cost. D.Professional knowledge.
32.What can we infer from the text?
A.Trust is not well built in childhood education.
B.The new startup isn’t concerned about security.
C.No company follows the business model of Stashbee.
D.Consumer attitudes have changed greatly over time.
D
The“Take In”restaurant in Helsinki,Finland,is currently in the news for its ingenious(有独创性)service.Instead of cooking the meals in its own kitchen—which doesn’t exist—it allows customers to order various dishes from a selection of 20 other restaurants in the city.
Sponsored by American Express and Wolt,a popular food delivery app,Take In is a pop-up restaurant that opened at the beginning of November 2016,and will run through May 2,this year.
As you’ve probably already guessed,the name“Take In”is a clever play on words like take—out.The whole point of ordering take-out is to avoid going to a restaurant,and if you’re going to dress up to go out,you might as well go straight to your favorite restaurant instead of ordering food from it somewhere else.But here’s the idea behind it—when you go out with a group of friends and you can’t decide where to go for dinner,because everyone wants to order something else,Take In is the perfect solution.
“We want to be a living room in the city,”a Wolt spokesperson told Monocle magazine.“We all know what it’s like you’re about to go out for dinner with a big group of friends.Everyone wants to order what they like.What are you going to do? Well,the answer in Helsinki right now is you come to Take In because you can do all of those things in the same place.”
Customers are more than welcome to stick to the selection of drinks available at the bar.but if they want to try the“take in”experience,all they have to do is use the Wolt app,just as they would from the comfort of their own homes.Once they order and pay for their meals,all they have to do is wait for someone to deliver it to the pop-up restaurant.
上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] 下一页