Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive(欺骗)?When someone tells you something that is true，but leaves out important information that should be included. he can give you a false picture．

For example，someone might say，“I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery(彩票)．It was great．I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!”

This guy’s a winner，right? Maybe，maybe not．We then discover that he bought $ 200 worth of tickets，and only one was a winner．He’s really a big loser!

He didn’t say anything that was false，but he left out important information on

purpose．That’s called a half truth．Half truths are not technically lies，but they are

just as dishonest．

Some politicians often use this trick．Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last

term，her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs．Then she seeks an

 other term．One of her opponents(对手)says，“During Governor Smith’s term，the

 state lost one million jobs!” That’s true．However，an honest statement would have

 been，“During Governor Smith's term，the state had a net gain of two million jobs．’’

Advertisers(广告商)will sometimes use half—truths．It’s against the law to make

false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth．An advertisement might say，

“Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to  take Yucky Pills to cure toothache．”It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky

Company．

This kind of deception happens too often．It’s a sad fact of life：Lies are lies，and

sometimes the truth can 1ie as well．

How much did the lottery winner lose?

A．one hundred dollars．           B．Two hundred dollars．

C．Three hundred dollars．         D．Four hundred dollars．

We may infer that the author believes people should

A．buy lottery tickets if possible       B．make use of half—truths

C．be careful about what they are told   D．not trust the Yucky Company

What do the underlined words “net gain” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．final increase                     B．big advantage

C．1arge share                      D．total number

What can we know from the example of the Yucky Pill advertisement?

A．False statements are easy to see through．

B．Half-truths are often used to mislead people．

C．Doctors like to act in advertisements．

D．Advertisements are based on facts．

How many examples does the writer give to show how the truth is used to deceive?

A．One．    B．Two．    C．Three．  D．Four．

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Using half truths is against the law．

B．Technically，half truths are in fact lies．

C．Yucky Pills is a very good medicine for toothache．

D．Governor Smith did a good job during her last term．

Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A．He’s really a big loser!

B．Sometimes the truth can lie as well．

C．Advertisers will sometimes use half truths．

D．It’s against the law to make false statements．

It is impossible not to make a mistake at some point in your life. We may as well accept that something will go wrong and we will be to blame. It is therefore sensible to work out some strategies for apologizing, and the best way to apologise is by letter. This way you can take care over every word you write—which you can’t do if you say sorry to someone in person .

We all say or do something that we wish we hadn’t said or done. You may say something that accidentally hurts someone, or you may provide a service which doesn’t come up to the standards that a client or customer expected.

You may feel that it was a genuine mistake which couldn’t be avoided. Rather than dwell on the mistake, you should quickly try to remedy （补救） the problem. An effective letter of apology is an important part of that process.

For the content of the letter, just remember TABS—Timing, Action, Brevity, Sincerity.

The timing of a letter of apology is vital—it must be sent as soon as possible. Any delay in sending the letter will only compound （使……更坏） the problem. In this case “Better late than never” is not the best motto! The longer you wait before writing a letter of apology, the more it will seem that you have been forced into writing it.

Although it is important to recognize what has gone before, it is also essential to detail the action you plan to take to put right whatever it was you did wrong. Research has shown that some indication that you have thought what future action you plan to take is always well received.

A letter of apology should be brief and the word “sorry” should appear no more than twice. Indicate that you are aware you are using it a second time “once again, I am so sorry for…”or “as I said earlier, I am really sorry about ….”. Finally, the tone of the letter has to be sincere. In fact the combination of all the above factors will help in this respect.

And don’t think that letters are out of date in the email-oriented 21st century. An apology email can be worse than no apology at all!

1. The underlined expression “rather than dwell on the mistake” in the third paragraph means you __________.

A. don’t waste time worrying about it             B. consider the problem

C. forget about what happened                      D. analyze who was at fault

2. What kind of advice does the text suggest about apologizing?

  A. It’s a good idea to send several emails to apologize and show you mean it.

B. It’s a good idea to write a letter of apology as soon as something goes wrong.

  C. Write a long letter apologizing several times to make your point.

  D. Wait to see how they react to your letter before planning to do anything.

3. In the author’s opinion, __________is the most important when writing a letter of apology.

A. brevity                       B. action                      C. timing                      D. sincerity

4. What kind of things do you NOT apologize for?

A. Services that are not as good as they should be.       B. Genuine mistakes made by your friends.

C. Car accidents while traveling around                D. Causing offence or hurt to others.

5. How can timing compound problems?

A. If you write immediately, they will be suspicious.

B. If you leave it for a few days, they will know it was your idea to write.

C. Waiting for a few days before you write will show your sincerity.

D. Waiting too long will make it worse because they won’t believe you mean it.

　　A fire drill is, to put it mildly, an inconvenient exercise at the best of times. A fire drill at 2:00 in the morning in terrible weather conditions, like the one we had on Thursday night Friday morning last week, is incomparably more inconvenient. That is why I am writing this note to thank you all most sincerely for your excellent cooperation and the spirit with which you endured the inconvenience.

　　A fire drill is not a meaningless exercise. It is an extremely serious one and can, in fact, save lives in the long run. Last week's fire drill has already shown a number of important precautions（预防措施）in the hall. For instance, there seem to exist a number of “deaf spots” in the hall, namely, the two rooms in the purser house and some rooms in the bottom corridor. I have no reason to doubt that residents from these areas could not hear the alarm. I shall request an immediate examination of this problem.

　　I should, also remind you that it is a requirement that fire drills are regularly carried out (at least two in every one year) and each resident is made fully aware of this and take part. All residents must take fire precautions with enough seriousness. Failure to do so can result in heavy fires and moving out of the hall. Thank you again for your cooperation.

(1) This note is made to ________.

[　　]

(2) Last fire drill caused much more trouble because ________.

[　　]

(3) Some people did not make their appearance at the drill because ________.

[　　]

A．they were deaf

B．they could not hear the alarm

C．nobody waked them up

D．they had some other reasons

(4) According to the speaker, a fire drill is extremely important for ________.

[　　]

A．it is a good physical exercise

B．it can save lives in case a fire starts

C．it is required by law

D．it can make people get more used to the inconvenience