MONEY – SAVING TIPS FOR DISNEY WORLD

Every time you visit Disney World, there’s something new to see. What began in 1971 as the Magic Kingdom now includes the high – tech, movie-mad Disney and Animal Kingdom . Each time the park expands（扩大）, so do your chances to spend money. How can you save ? As a family guide to Disney World, I've been to the park more than 25 times with my kids , and I've developed a few money-saving tips for you.

●Buy the Five-Day All-in-One Hopper Pass. Even if you're visiting for fewer days , it's a deal （The pass costs $ 229 for visitors aged 10 and up , $ 183 for kids aged three to nine and is free for kids under age three）. Without the pass , you'll have to pay separately for Pleasure Island and the water parks . A single trip to Blizzard Beach , for example , would cost a family of four $100.

　　●　Dine out at Lunchtime. The prices at some of the nicer restaurants , especially those in Epcot's World Showcase , are much lower at noontime than at any other time. It's wise to make reservations（预定）before you leave home . Call 407-W-DISNEY .

　●　Become a Gold Card Member.  For $ 65 , you can get a Magic Kingdom Club Gold Card （call 1-800-56-DISNEY）. Cardholders get up to 20% off Disney hotel rooms , plus prices on character breakfast , theme park tickets and goods from Disney stores .

　●　Don't Pay Extra to See a Character.  Character-theme dinner shows are expensive , costing a family of four about $ 140 , and even a character breakfast , where Mickey or Donald Duck joins you for cakes , can set you back $ 50. If your budget (预算) is tight, try to meet the characters inside the theme parks and at free in-park shows . You can watch the Diamond Horseshoe show , for example , in the Magic Kingdom for no additional cost , while the similarly themed Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue needs expensive tickets .

　●　Wait Until the End of Your Trip to Buy Souvenirs.  By then , the kids will really know what they want , and you won't waste money on expensive things .

If you are short of money, the writer suggests you should not        .

       A．buy things for the kids from Disney stores.

       B．buy souvenirs at the beginning of the trip

       C．make a trip to Blizzard Beach

       D．have your meals out at noontime

Which of the following can be used in place of “set you back”

       A．offer you  B．save you   C．return you D．cost you

You should pay more money if you         .

       A．have a five – day All – One Hopper Pass while you’re visiting for four days.

       B．do not make a reservation for hotel rooms in advance..

       C．are not a Magic Kingdom Club Gold Card holder.

       D．have lunch at a restaurant in Epcot’s World Showcase

In the writer’s opinion, the better way of meeting the Disney cartoon character is        .

       A．to have a character breakfast

       B．to watch the Diamond Horseshoe show

       C．to pay separately for Pleasure Island and the water parks

       D．to attend the Hoop – Dee – Doo Musical Revue

There's a man in the habit of hitting me on the head with an umbrella.At first I couldn't stand it；now I'm used to it.

　　 I don't know his name.I know he's average in appearance，wears a gray suit，and has a common face.One hot morning，when I was sitting on a tree?shaded bench in Palermo Park，reading the paper，suddenly I felt something touch my head.It was the very same man who now，as I'm writing，keeps striking me with an umbrella.

　　 On that occasion I turned around filled with anger.He just kept on hitting me.I asked him if he was crazy.He didn't even seem to hear me.Then I threatened to call a policeman.Calmly，cool as a cucumber，he stuck with his task.After a few moments of hesitation，and seeing that he was not about to change his attitude，I stood up and hit him on the nose.The man fell down.But he immediately got back on his feet，obviously with great effort，and without a word again began hitting me on the head with the umbrella.His nose was bleeding and，at that moment，I felt sorry for him.I felt regret for having hit him so hard.After all，the man wasn't exactly hitting me；he was merely tapping me lightly with his umbrella，not causing any pain at all.Of course，those taps were extremely bothersome.As we all know，when a fly lands on your forehead，you don't feel any pain；what you feel is annoyance.Well then，that umbrella was one huge fly that kept landing on my head time after time.

　　 Convinced that I was dealing with a madman，I tried to escape.But the man followed me，wordlessly continuing to hit me.So I began to run(I should point out many people run as fast as I do)．He took off after me，trying to land a blow.The man was out of breath so that I thought，if I continued to force him to run at that speed，he would drop dead right then and there.

1．When the man began to strike the author with an umbrella，the author________.

A．became angry

B．called the police

C．turned around and escaped

D．turned around and fought back

2．The author would most probably agree that the man was

________.

A．deaf 　　　　 B．blind

C．dead 　　　　 D．mad

3．The author felt sorry for the man because________.

A．the man formed a bad habit of beating others

B．he hit the man so hard that his nose bled

C．the man couldn't catch up with him

D．there was a fly on the man's head

4．It can be learned from the passage that the man ________.

A．shouted loudly while hitting the author

B．wanted to tell the author something

C．ran after the anthor breathlessly

D．acted as if he were a fly

American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he had lived for 44 days without food on October 19．2003．Hundreds of people came to watch the end of his starvation experiment, which has become one of London’s main tourist attractions.

Looking thinner and darker, 30-year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames and immediately went to hospital．He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process doctors say could be life threatening．He had been drinking only water since September 5.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s．He soon found himself doing magic tricks in bars for the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his super model friends.

Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed at getting a lot of attention.

In 1999, he was buried in a coffin(棺材) for one week and, in 2000, he spent 62 hours in a giant block of ice．Last year he stood on top of a 25-meter pillar(柱子) in the center of New York for 35 hours before jumping into a pile of boxes.

“I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they’re able to do what they can do,” he said．“They don’t realize we can survive．The human being is an amazing creation.” But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box．He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.

It is __________ for David Blaine to eat food after such a long starvation.

A．pleasant　　　       B．delicious　　　      C．dangerous　　 D．important

Having spent such a long time in the glass box, he suffered the following EXCEPT that __________.

A．he had become blind　　　　　　      B．he had serious back pains

C．he lost his sense of taste　　　      D．he was in weak health

Which of the following can best describe David Blaine?

A．Serious　　     B．Adventurous    C．Mad　　　　　      D．Crazy

Which of the following is NOT true of David Blaine?

       A．Blaine immediately went to hospital after he was taken out of his box.

       B．Blaine was born and brought up in England.

       C．In Blaine’s opinion, people can create a wonder．

       D．Blaine didn’t have any food for 44 days.　

We were standing at the top of a church tower. My father had brought me to this spot in a small town not far from our home in Rome. I wondered why.

“Look down, Elsa,” father said. I gathered all my courage and looked down. I saw the square in the center of the village. And I saw the crisscross (十字形) of twisting, turning streets leading to the square. “ See, my dear,” father said gently. “ There is more than one way to the square. Life is like that. If you can’t get to the place where you want to go by one road, try another.”

Now I understood why I was there. Earlier that day I had begged my mother to do something about the awful(糟糕的) lunches that were served at school. But she refused because she could not believe the lunches were as bad as I said.

When I turned to father for help, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he brought me to this high tower to give me a lesson. By the time we reached home, I had a plan.

At school the next day, I secretly poured my luncheon（午餐）soup into a bottle and brought it home. Then I asked our cook to serve it to mother at dinner. The plan worked perfectly. She swallowed one spoonful and sputtered（喷溅出） “ The cook must have gone mad！” Quickly I told her what I had done, and Mother stated firmly that she would take up the matter of lunches at school the next day!

In the years that followed I often remembered the lesson father taught me. I began to work as a fashion designer two years ago. I wouldn’t stop working until I tried every possible means to my goal. Father’s wise words always remind me that there is more than one way to the square.

1.The author's father took her to the top of a church tower to _____．

2.What did the author want her mother to do earlier that day?

3.By sharing her own experiences, the author tries to tell us ____________.

In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh（法老）treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However, if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news, his head was cut off.

　　Shades of that spirit spread over today’s conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out the door, picnic basket in hand, a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said, ”Oh boy, bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it’s going to rain.”I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report, for his smile.

　　Several months ago I was racing to catch  a him As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Grey hound counter, the sales agent said with a broad smile ,”Oh that bus left five minutes ago.”Dreams of head-cutting!

　　It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling of the receiver.

　　Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. When you’re tired from a long flight, has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn’t ready yet? When you had your heart set on the toast beef, has your waiter mainly told you that he just served the last piece? It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.

　　Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy, I would have appreciated his warming .Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left, I probably would have said, ” Oh, that’s all right I’ll catch the next one.” Big winners, when they bear bad news ,deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded（被轰炸的）person is sure to have.

1.In Paragraph 1,the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to ____.

A. make a comparison                      B. describe a scene

C. introduce a topic                 D. offer an argument

2.From “Dreams of head-cutting!”（Paragraph3），we learn that the writer___.

A. was mad at the sales agent

B. was reminded of the cruel pharaoh

C. wished that the sales agent would have had dreams

D. dreamed of cutting the sales agent’s head that night.

3.What is the main idea of the text?

A. Learning ancient traditions can be useful.

B. Receiving bad news requires great courage.

C. Helping others sincerely is the key to business success.

D. Delivering bad news properly is important in communication.