105指考英文

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Starting a business on one’s own can be quite challenging and costly. To reduce the risks involved in starting a business from scratch, many people buy a franchise instead. ______ Under the license, the individual acquires the right to use the big company’s brand name and agrees to sell its products.
(A) Whether a franchise is profitable or not depends largely on the nature of the business. (B) Research has shown that customers tend to choose a brand they recognize over one they don’t. (C) A franchise comes with a built-in business formula including products, services, and even employee uniforms. (D) Moreover, the franchisee is given no right to renew or extend the franchise after the term of the contract. (E) The most famous example was Isaac Singer, who created franchises to distribute his sewing machines to larger areas. (F) A franchise is a license issued by a large, usually well-known, company to an individual or a small business owner.

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The concept of the franchise dates back to the 19th century in the U.S. ______ Then, in the 1930s, Howard Johnson restaurants skyrocketed in popularity, paving the way for restaurant chains and the subsequent franchises that would define the unprecedented rise of the American fast-food industry.
(A) Whether a franchise is profitable or not depends largely on the nature of the business. (B) Research has shown that customers tend to choose a brand they recognize over one they don’t. (C) A franchise comes with a built-in business formula including products, services, and even employee uniforms. (D) Moreover, the franchisee is given no right to renew or extend the franchise after the term of the contract. (E) The most famous example was Isaac Singer, who created franchises to distribute his sewing machines to larger areas. (F) A franchise is a license issued by a large, usually well-known, company to an individual or a small business owner.

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There are many advantages to investing in a franchise. One of the benefits is the ready-made business operation. ______ Depending on the franchise, the franchisor company may offer support in training and financial planning. Some even provide assistance with approved suppliers.
(A) Whether a franchise is profitable or not depends largely on the nature of the business. (B) Research has shown that customers tend to choose a brand they recognize over one they don’t. (C) A franchise comes with a built-in business formula including products, services, and even employee uniforms. (D) Moreover, the franchisee is given no right to renew or extend the franchise after the term of the contract. (E) The most famous example was Isaac Singer, who created franchises to distribute his sewing machines to larger areas. (F) A franchise is a license issued by a large, usually well-known, company to an individual or a small business owner.

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To new business owners, the most recognized advantage of a franchise is perhaps the well-established brand name of the franchisor such as that of McDonald’s. ______
(A) Whether a franchise is profitable or not depends largely on the nature of the business. (B) Research has shown that customers tend to choose a brand they recognize over one they don’t. (C) A franchise comes with a built-in business formula including products, services, and even employee uniforms. (D) Moreover, the franchisee is given no right to renew or extend the franchise after the term of the contract. (E) The most famous example was Isaac Singer, who created franchises to distribute his sewing machines to larger areas. (F) A franchise is a license issued by a large, usually well-known, company to an individual or a small business owner.

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Disadvantages include heavy start-up costs as well as ongoing royalty costs on the part of the franchisee. To take the McDonald’s example further, the estimated minimum cost for a franchisee to start a McDonald’s is US$500,000. And it has to pay an annual fee equivalent to 12% of its sales to McDonald’s. ______ Other disadvantages include lack of territory control or creativity with one’s own business.
(A) Whether a franchise is profitable or not depends largely on the nature of the business. (B) Research has shown that customers tend to choose a brand they recognize over one they don’t. (C) A franchise comes with a built-in business formula including products, services, and even employee uniforms. (D) Moreover, the franchisee is given no right to renew or extend the franchise after the term of the contract. (E) The most famous example was Isaac Singer, who created franchises to distribute his sewing machines to larger areas. (F) A franchise is a license issued by a large, usually well-known, company to an individual or a small business owner.

Some people call it a traveling museum. Others refer to it as a living or open-air museum. Built in Brazil to celebrate the quincentennial of Columbus’ first voyage to the New World, the Nina, a Columbus-era replica ship, provides visitors with an accurate visual of the size and sailing implements of Columbus’ favorite ship from over 500 years ago.
I joined the crew of the Nina in Gulf Shores, Alabama, in February 2013. As part of a research project sponsored by my university, my goal was to document my days aboard the ship in a blog. I quickly realized that I gained the most valuable insights when I observed or gave tours to school-age children. The field-trip tour of the Nina is hands-on learning at its best. In this setting, students could touch the line, pass around a ballast stone, and move the extremely large tiller that steered the ships in Columbus’ day. They soon came to understand the labor involved in sailing the ship back in his time. I was pleased to see the students become active participants in their learning process.
The Nina is not the only traveling museum that provides such field trips. A visit to Jamestown Settlement, for example, allows visitors to board three re-creations of the ships that brought the first settlers from England to Virginia in the early 1600s. Historical interpreters, dressed in period garb, give tours to the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. These interpreters often portray a character that would have lived and worked during that time period. Students touring these ships are encouraged to interact with the interpreters in order to better understand the daily life in the past.
My experience on the Nina helps substantiate my long-held belief that students stay interested, ask better questions, and engage in higher-order thinking tasks when they are actively engaged in the learning process. The students who boarded the Nina came as passive learners. They left as bold explorers.
36. What line of business is the author engaged in?
(A) Shipping.
(B) Education.
(C) Ecological tourism.
(D) Museum administration.

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37. Which of the following is true about the Nina introduced in the passage?
(A) She is a replica of a ship that Columbus built in Brazil.
(B) She is always crowded with foreign tourists during holidays.
(C) She is the boat Columbus sailed in his voyage to the New World.
(D) She displays a replica of the navigational equipment used in Columbus’ time.

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38. What is the third paragraph mainly about?
(A) Guidelines for visitors on the ships.
(B) Life of the first settlers in Jamestown Settlement.
(C) Duties of the interpreters in the British museums.
(D) Introduction to some open-air museums similar to the Nina.

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39. What does the author mean by the last two sentences of the passage?
(A) The students are interested in becoming tour guides.
(B) The experience has changed the students’ learning attitude.
(C) The students become brave and are ready to sail the seas on their own.
(D) The museums are successful in teaching the students survival skills at sea.

An ancient skull unearthed recently indicates that big cats originated in central Asia-not Africa as widely thought, paleontologists reported on Wednesday.
Dated at between 4.1 and 5.95 million years old, the fossil is the oldest remains ever found of a pantherine felid, as big cats are called. The previous felid record holder-tooth fragments found in Tanzania-is estimated to be around 3.8 million years old.
The evolution of big cats has been hotly discussed, and the issue is complicated by a lack of fossil evidence to settle the debate.
“This find suggests that big cats have a deeper evolutionary origin than previously suspected,” said Jack Tseng, a paleontologist of the University of Southern California who led the probe.
Tseng and his team made the find in 2010 in a remote border region in Tibet. The fossil was found stuck among more than 100 bones that were probably deposited by a river that exited a cliff. After three years of careful comparisons with other fossils, using DNA data to build a family tree, the team is convinced the creature was a pantherine felid.
The weight of evidence suggests that central or northern Asia is where big cats originated some 16 million years ago. They may have lived in a vast mountain refuge, formed by the uplifting Himalayas, feeding on equally remarkable species such as the Tibetan blue sheep. They then dispersed into Southeast Asia, evolving into the clouded leopard, tiger and snow leopard lineages, and later movements across continents saw them evolve into jaguars and lions.
The newly discovered felid has been called Panthera Blytheae, after Blythe Haaga, daughter of a couple who support a museum in Los Angeles, the university said in a news release.
40. According to the passage, why is the origin of big cats a hot issue?
(A) Because not many fossils have been found.
(B) Because they moved across continents.
(C) Because no equipment was available for accurate analysis.
(D) Because they have evolved into many different species of felid.