Question

【題目】How do you pay for things in a shop? Perhaps you like the touchable reliability of hard cash? Maybe the financial flexibility of a credit card suits you better? Or perhaps you prefer the simple convenience of a smartphone?

Whatever you use today, experts believe all these methods could soon become outdated. Instead, we will use our bodies: our eyes, our fingerprints, even our mere presence in the store. In fact it's happening already. Amazon are trialing stores which have no checkouts, where technology tracks the items you've taken from the shelves and deducts（扣除） the total from your account when you leave the shop.

French supermarket Monoprix takes a different path: you choose your groceries and leave them with a human cashier. You then leave the shop while the cashier adds up your bill, charges your account, and organizes delivery to your home.

Amir, CEO of Barclaycard predicts that such new developments mean the end of the plastic credit card. Instead, wearable items such as rings, necklaces and key chains will carry chips（芯片） that allow shoppers to shop, going between the web, an app or in store.

And while all the above payment methods are supported by accounts held in traditional currencies, let's not forget the rise of alternatives such as Litecoin. Virtual（虛擬） currencies can rise in value very quickly. One such possibility is explored in the movie In Time. It imagines a futuristic society in which the currency is time itself, where people trade the amount of time they have left to live.

Or perhaps we'd do better to wind back the clock to the simpler financial world of the equal exchange economy. While the term recalls images of bags of grain and herds of sheep being exchanged in ancient times, there are signs that are making a comeback in today's world of modern technology. Maybe the only thing we know for certain is that money will keep updating.

【1】Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Payment is done by the cashiers at Amazon.

B. All the methods of payment have become outdated.

C. Shopping at Monoprix is convenient for customers.

D. Customers can leave their credit cards at Monoprix.

【2】What might replace the credit cards in the future according to Amir?

A. Smartphones. B. Wearable items.

C. Virtual currencies. D. Fingerprints.

【3】What is used as a currency in the movie In Time?

A. Litecoin. B. Human life.

C. Time. D. Bags of grain.

【4】Which is the best title for the passage?

A. The Rise of Virtual Currencies. B. The History of Money.

C. The Ending if Credit Cards. D. The Changing Nature of Money.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】B

【3】C

【4】D

【解析】本文通過介紹幾家比較大的零售店的貨幣付款方式來講述了付款方式的不斷變化，并說明了一個道理：貨幣會不斷更新下去。

【1】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第三段的描述可知：你把選好的貨物留給收銀員，然后你就可以走了，收銀員算好賬直接從你的賬戶扣錢，然后他們會直接把你的東西快遞到你家，所以這對顧客來說非常方便，故選C。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第三段wearable items such as rings, necklaces and key chains will carry chips（芯片） that allow shoppers to shop, going between the web, an app or in store.可知今后一些可穿戴的東西，如項鏈、戒指等將會攜帶芯片來給購物者付款，故答案為B。

【3】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第二段One such possibility is explored in the movie In Time. It imagines a futuristic society in which the currency is time itself, where people trade the amount of time they have left to live.可知在電影In Time中，描述的是一個未來的社會，貨幣就是時間，故答案為C。

【4】標(biāo)題判斷題。本文從第一段開始就介紹了不同的貨幣付款方式，然后又分別介紹了幾個大的零售公司的貨幣結(jié)算方式的不同，最后進(jìn)行了總結(jié)，貨幣是在不斷變化 、不斷更新，這樣才會適應(yīng)不斷發(fā)展的社會，故選D。