My offer was based on reasonable profit, not on wild speculation.

A、It was written in autumn.

B、It described 59 wild swans.

C、It was the first time the speaker met the wild swans.

D、It was dedicated to Lady Gregory.

Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.

As a person who writes about food and drink for a living, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about Bill Perry or whether the beers he sells are that great. But I can tell you that I like this guy. That’s because he plans to ban tipping in favor of paying his servers an actual living wage.

I hate tipping.

I hate it because it’s an obligation disguised as an option. I hate it for the post-dinner math it requires of me. But mostly, I hate tipping because I believe I would be in a better place if pay decisions regarding employees were simply left up to their employers, as is the custom in virtually every other industry.

Most of you probably think that you hate tipping, too. Research suggests otherwise. You actually love tipping! You like to feel that you have a voice in how much money your server makes. No matter how the math works out, you persistently view restaurants with voluntary tipping systems as being a better value, which makes it extremely difficult for restaurants and bars to do away with the tipping system.

One argument that you tend to hear a lot from the pro-tipping crowd seems logical enough: the service is better when waiters depend on tips, presumably because they see a benefit to successfully veiling their contempt for you. Well, if this were true, we would all be slipping a few 100-dollar bills to our doctors on the way out their doors, too. But as it turns out, waiters see only a tiny bump in tips when they do an exceptional job compared to a passable one. Waiters, keen observers of humanity that they are, are catching on to this; in one poll, a full 30% said they didn’t believe the job they did had any impact on the tips they received.

So come on, folks: get on board with ditching the outdated tip system. Pay a little more up-front for your beer or burger. Support Bill Perry’s pub, and any other bar or restaurant that doesn’t ask you to do drunken math.

46.What can we learn about Bill Perry from the passage？

A.He runs a pub that serves excellent beer.

B.He intends to get rid of the tipping practice.

C.He gives his staff a considerable sum for tips.

D.He lives comfortably without getting any tips.

47.What is the main reason why the author hates tipping？A.It sets a bad example for other industries.

B.It adds to the burden of ordinary customers.

C.It forces the customer to compensate the waiter.

D.It poses a great challenge for customers to do math.

48.Why do many people love tipping according to the author？A.They help improve the quality of the restaurants they dine in.

B.They believe waiters deserve such rewards for good service.

C.They want to preserve a wonderful tradition of the industry.

D.They can have some say in how much their servers earn.

49.What have some waiters come to realize according to a survey？A.Service quality has little effect on tip size.

B.It is in human nature to try to save on tips.

C.Tips make it more difficult to please customers.

D.Tips benefit the boss rather than the employees.

50.What does the author argue for in the passage？A.Restaurants should calculate the tips for customers.

B.Customers should pay more tips to help improve service.

C.Waiters deserve better than just relying on tips for a living.

D.Waiters should be paid by employers instead of customers.

A、overflowing

B、congesting

C、crowding

D、huddling

A、The maps they were using were not correctly drawn.

B、They didn’t have an efficient way to determine longitude.

C、The clocks at that time were not accurate so they couldn’t find the correct latitude.

D、The ships at that time were not easy to navigate.

Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. To this end, we walk the dog, play golf, go fishing, sit in the garden, drink outside rather than inside the pub, have a picnic, live in the suburbs, go to the seaside, buy a weekend place in the country. The most popular leisure activity in Britain is going for a walk. And when joggers(慢跑者)jog, they don&39;t run the streets. Every one of them instinctively heads to the park or the river. It is my profound belief that not only do we all need nature, but we all seek nature, whether we know we are doing so or not.

But despite this, our children are growing up nature-deprived (丧失). I spent my boyhood climbing trees on Streatham Common, South London. These days, children are robbed of these ancient freedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic, the loss of the open spaces and odd new perceptions about what is best for children, that is to say, things that can be bought, rather than things that can be found.

The truth is to be found elsewhere. A study in the US: families had moved to better housing and the children were assessed for ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (多动症). Those whose accommodation had more natural views showed an improvement of 19%; those who had the same improvement in material surroundings but no nice view improved just 4%.

A study in Sweden indicated that kindergarten children who could play in a natural environment had less illness and greater physical ability than children used only to a normal playground. A US study suggested that when a school gave children access to a natural environment, academic levels were raised across the entire school.

Another study found that children play differently in a natural environment. In playgrounds, children create a hierarchy(等级) based on physical abilities, with the tough ones taking the lead. But when a grassy area was planted with bushes, the children got much more into fantasy play, and the social hierarchy was now based on imagination and creativity.

Most bullying（恃强凌弱）is found in schools where there is a tarmac(柏油碎石) playground; the least bullying is in a natural area that the children are encouraged to explore. This reminds me unpleasantly of Sunnyhill School in Streatham, with its harsh tarmac, where I used to hang about in corners fantasising about wildlife.

But children are frequently discouraged from involvement with natural spaces, for health and safety reasons, for fear that they might get dirty or that they might cause damage. So, instead, the damage is done to the children themselves: not to their bodies but to their souls.

One of the great problems of modern childhood is ADHD, now increasingly and expensively treated with drugs.

Yet one study after another indicates that contact with nature gives huge benefits to ADHD children. However, we spend money on drugs rather than on green places.

The life of old people is measurably better when they have access to nature. The increasing emphasis for the growing population of old people is in quality rather than quantity of years. And study after study finds that a garden is the single most important thing in finding that quality.

In wider and more difficult areas of life, there is evidence to indicate that natural surroundings improve all kinds of things. Even problems with crime and aggressive behaviour are reduced when there is contact with the natural world.

Dr William Bird, researcher from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, states in his study, "A natural environment can reduce violent behaviour because its restorative process helps reduce anger and impulsive behaviour. " Wild places need encouraging for this reason, no matter how small their contribution.

We tend to look on nature conservation as some kind of favour that human beings are granting to the natural world. The error here is far too deep: not only do humans need nature for themselves, but the very idea that humanity and the natural world are separable things is profoundly damaging.

Human beings are a species of mammals (哺乳动物). For seven million years they lived on the planet as part of nature. Our ancestral selves miss the natural world and long for contact with non-human life. Anyone who has patted a dog, stroked a cat, sat under a tree with a pint of beer, given or received a bunch of flowers or chosen to walk through the park on a nice day, understands that.

We need the wild world. It is essential to our well-being, our health, our happiness. Without the wild world we are not more but less civilised. Without other living things around us we are less than human.

Five ways to find harmony with the natural world

Walk: Break the rhythm of permanently being under a roof. Get off a stop earlier, make a circuit of the park at lunchtime, walk the child to and from school, get a dog, feel yourself moving in moving air, look, listen, absorb.

Sit: Take a moment, every now and then, to be still in an open space. In the garden, anywhere that’s not in the office, anywhere out of the house, away from the routine. Sit under a tree, look at water, feel refreshed, ever so slightly renewed.

Drink: The best way to enjoy the natural world is by yourself; the second best way is in company. Take a drink outside with a good person, a good gathering: talk with the sun and the wind with birdsong for background.

Learn: Expand your boundaries. Learn five species of bird, five butterflies, five trees, five bird songs. That way, you see and hear more: and your mind responds gratefully to the greater amount of wildness in your life.

Travel: The places you always wanted to visit: by the seaside, in the country, in the hills. Take a weekend break, a day-trip, get out there and do it: for the scenery, for the way through the woods, for the birds, for the bees. Go somewhere special and bring specialness home. It lasts forever, after all.

What is the author’s profound belief？

A.People instinctively seek nature in different ways.

B.People should spend most of their lives in the wild.

C.People have quite different perceptions of nature.

D.People must make more efforts to study nature.

What does the author say people prefer for their children nowadays？

A.Personal freedom.

B.Things that are natural.

C.Urban surroundings.

D.Things that are purchased.

What does a study in Sweden show？

A.The natural environment can help children learn better.

B.More access to nature makes children less likely to fall ill.

C.A good playground helps kids develop their physical abilities.

D.Natural views can prevent children from developing ADHD.

Children who have chances to explore natural areas______.

A.tend to develop a strong love for science

B.are more likely to fantasise about wildlife

C.tend to be physically tougher in adulthood

D.are less likely to be involved in bullying

What does the author suggest we do to help children with ADHD？

A.Find more effective drugs for them.

B.Provide more green spaces for them.

C.Place them under more personal care.

D.Engage them in more meaningful activities.

In what way do elderly people benefit from their contact with nature？

A.They look on life optimistically.

B.They enjoy a life of better quality.

C.They are able to live longer.

D.They become good-humoured.

Dr William Bird suggests in his study that______.

A.humanity and nature are complementary to each other

B.wild places may induce impulsive behaviour in people

C.access to nature contributes to the reduction of violence

D.it takes a long time to restore nature once damaged

It is extremely harmful to think that humanity and the natural world can be______.

The author believes that we would not be so civilised without______.

The five suggestions the author gives at the end of the passage are meant to encourage people to seek ______with the natural world.