Long ago, little attention was paid to a person’s birthday. Even though everyone knew that people grew older, they had no way of correctly marking time. It wasn’t until the early people learned more about how time passed that they made a note of time changes. Then they developed a calendar and began to celebrate special events such as birthdays. When birthdays first started to be celebrated during the early days, common people, especially children, hardly celebrated their birthdays.

　 Today, birthdays are celebrated by the young and the old alike all around the world. Many countries have different customs from ours of celebrating birthdays. At the same time there are a lot of people that celebrate birthdays in quite similar ways as we do. Some of the countries are very similar to the United States, such as Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland.

　 Customs within countries can be affected by things like language, religion, geographic location, and economic conditions. No matter what the customs are, however, they are always followed by the majority of the people in each country. For example, not all children in the US have birthday parties, candles or birthday cakes, but most of them do.

However, the reasons why we celebrate birthdays and use different symbols are very much the same to everyone. The reason why we have birthday parties goes back to long time ago. At that time people believed that good and bad spirits appeared when a child was born and influenced that child through his / her life. The belief brought about the custom of having birthday parties. They believed that surrounding the birthday person with friends, family and good wishes would frighten the bad spirits away.

72. According to the passage, when did people begin to celebrate birthdays?

A. When they learned that no one could stop time. 　　　　　 B. Before they invented a calendar.

C. Before they learned how time went by. 　　　　　　　　　　　 D. After they had a right way of marking time.

73. We can guess that in the early times, 　　　　　.

A. only grown-up people celebrated their birthdays　　　　　 B. only old people celebrated their birthdays

C. only people in the upper class celebrated their birthdays D. people only celebrated birthdays for children

74. Which of the following will NOT affect birthday customs according to the passage?

A. Religion. 　 　　　　　　 B. Education. 　　　　　　　　　　 C. Economic conditions. 　　　　　 D. Language.

75. At first, people had birthday parties to 　　　　　.

A. get rid of bad luck B. bring good luck 　　　

C. honor the important day 　　　 D. express their wishes

The following symbols have appeared on clothes labels for four decades, each one chosen by international experts for its simplicity and clarity.

Yet for most people, washing instructions might as well be written in Martian.

According to a new poll, nine in ten people are unable to decipher common symbols used on clothes labels. Even those who have mastered the difference between a wool and a synthetics（化学合成物）wash admit being baffled by the confusing array（排列）of boxes, circles and crosses used to give advice about drying and bleaching（漂白）.

The findings come from a poll of 2,000 people carried out by YouGov for Morphy Richards. A third of people surveyed said that they recognized none of the several symbols shown, while the only symbol recognized by more than half of people was the iron with a single dot. Around 70 per cent knew it meant "iron on a low heat". Just 10 per cent sign knew the sign for "do not dry clean", while only 12 per cent were familiar with "drip dry only".

Despite the sexual revolution, women are still more knowledgeable than men. Awareness was highest among 18 to 29-year-old women---for whom taking care of clothes is clearly important.

Chris Lever, from Morphy Richards, said: "Clothes Care symbols are a unique language, clearly a language that few people in the UK have taken the time to learn."

"Learning the basics such as which icon represents tumble dry and which represents normal wash would go a long way to getting the best out of clothes."

The Home Laundering Consultative Council said it was not surprised to learn that people were unfamiliar with them.

"It's disappointing that there is a lack of recognition, but it's a story that's repeated time and time again," said a spokesman, Adam Mansell. "We are a small organization and we don't have a big budget."

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60. Women know more about these common symbols than men, because _________.

A. women have the gift of recognizing these symbols by nature

B. women pay more attention to taking care of clothes in their daily life

C. women have much time to know about these symbols

D. women take advantage of the sexual revolution

61. Which of the following can be recognized by the majority of people?

                        

A              B                 C              D

62. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

A. Washing clothes is damaging them if we don’t know about some symbols used on clothes labels.

B. Washing clothes is also a cultured knowledge.

C. More and more people devote much time to studying these symbols used on clothes labels.

D. Clothes Care symbols are a unique language, which few people spend time to learn.

The following symbols have appeared on clothes labels for four decades, each one chosen by international experts for its simplicity and clarity.

Yet for most people, washing instructions might as well be written in Martian.

According to a new poll, nine in ten people are unable to decipher common symbols used on clothes labels. Even those who have mastered the difference between a wool and a synthetics（化学合成物）wash admit being baffled by the confusing array（排列）of boxes, circles and crosses used to give advice about drying and bleaching（漂白）.

The findings come from a poll of 2,000 people carried out by YouGov for Morphy Richards. A third of people surveyed said that they recognized none of the several symbols shown, while the only symbol recognized by more than half of people was the iron with a single dot. Around 70 per cent knew it meant "iron on a low heat". Just 10 per cent sign knew the sign for "do not dry clean", while only 12 per cent were familiar with "drip dry only".

Despite the sexual revolution, women are still more knowledgeable than men. Awareness was highest among 18 to 29-year-old women---for whom taking care of clothes is clearly important.

Chris Lever, from Morphy Richards, said: "Clothes Care symbols are a unique language, clearly a language that few people in the UK have taken the time to learn."

"Learning the basics such as which icon represents tumble dry and which represents normal wash would go a long way to getting the best out of clothes."

The Home Laundering Consultative Council said it was not surprised to learn that people were unfamiliar with them.

"It's disappointing that there is a lack of recognition, but it's a story that's repeated time and time again," said a spokesman, Adam Mansell. "We are a small organization and we don't have a big budget."

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60. Women know more about these common symbols than men, because _________.

A. women have the gift of recognizing these symbols by nature

B. women pay more attention to taking care of clothes in their daily life

C. women have much time to know about these symbols

D. women take advantage of the sexual revolution

61. Which of the following can be recognized by the majority of people?

                        

A              B                 C              D

62. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

A. Washing clothes is damaging them if we don’t know about some symbols used on clothes labels.

B. Washing clothes is also a cultured knowledge.

C. More and more people devote much time to studying these symbols used on clothes labels.

D. Clothes Care symbols are a unique language, which few people spend time to learn.

B

The following symbols have appeared on clothes labels for four decades, each one chosen by international experts for its simplicity and clarity.

Yet for most people, washing instructions might as well be written in Martian.

According to a new poll, nine in ten people are unable to decipher common symbols used on clothes labels. Even those who have mastered the difference between a wool and a synthetics（化学合成物）wash admit being baffled by the confusing array（排列）of boxes, circles and crosses used to give advice about drying and bleaching（漂白）.

The findings come from a poll of 2,000 people carried out by YouGov for Morphy Richards. A third of people surveyed said that they recognized none of the several symbols shown, while the only symbol recognized by more than half of people was the iron with a single dot. Around 70 per cent knew it meant "iron on a low heat". Just 10 per cent sign knew the sign for "do not dry clean", while only 12 per cent were familiar with "drip dry only".

Despite the sexual revolution, women are still more knowledgeable than men. Awareness was highest among 18 to 29-year-old women---for whom taking care of clothes is clearly important.

Chris Lever, from Morphy Richards, said: "Clothes Care symbols are a unique language, clearly a language that few people in the UK have taken the time to learn."

"Learning the basics such as which icon represents tumble dry and which represents normal wash would go a long way to getting the best out of clothes."

The Home Laundering Consultative Council said it was not surprised to learn that people were unfamiliar with them.

"It's disappointing that there is a lack of recognition, but it's a story that's repeated time and time again," said a spokesman, Adam Mansell. "We are a small organization and we don't have a big budget."

①

②

③

④

⑤

60. Women know more about these common symbols than men, because _________.

A. women have the gift of recognizing these symbols by nature

B. women pay more attention to taking care of clothes in their daily life

C. women have much time to know about these symbols

D. women take advantage of the sexual revolution

61. Which of the following can be recognized by the majority of people?

                        

A              B                 C              D

62. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

A. Washing clothes is damaging them if we don’t know about some symbols used on clothes labels.

B. Washing clothes is also a cultured knowledge.

C. More and more people devote much time to studying these symbols used on clothes labels.

D. Clothes Care symbols are a unique language, which few people spend time to learn.

Despite all the reports of Internet security attacks over the years, including the recent ones on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug (耸肩).

Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker（黑客） stole last month from Rock You, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it.

The list provided an unusually detailed window into computer users’ password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.

Some Web sites try to keep back the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

To improve security, some Wed sites are forcing users to mix letters,numbers even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are unwilling to put too many controls in place.

Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction（拍卖） by freezing the accounts of other potential buyers.

But owing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords— a complex one for Web sites where security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for less risky places, such as social networking and entertainment sites.

Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five-and six-character passwords.

“It’s like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his companions,” Mr. Moss said. “You just want to run that bit faster.”

The underlined sentence “Many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug” shows that many people            .

A.don’t take seriously the hacker’s break-ins

B.are worried and frightened at the hacker’s break-ins

C.don’t know what to do with the hacker’s attacks

D.are eager to get helps from the experts

According to the passage, which of the following web sites needs a more complex password?

A.A social web site.                            B.An entertainment web site.

C.A commercial web site.                    D.A game web site.

The Internet users are advised to             in order to keep back the hackers.

A.mix letters, numbers and symbols as well

B.choose passwords with at least 12 characters

C.choose passwords with 5 or 6 characters

D.choose at least two different passwords

Which would be the best title for the passage?

A.Password, good luck or risk!                          B.Popular Passwords, High Risk!

C.Clever Hackers, Stupid Netizens.                    D.Hacker,the Enemy of Internet Security.