23、

Everyone’s at it, even my neighbors．I thought I might be the only person left in the world who hadn’t done an eBay deal．So, I decided to try my hand at online auction（網(wǎng)上拍賣）.

Buying for Beginners

Sign up on www．eBay．co．uk．Most items （e.g．tables, computers and books） ready for auction will come with a picture and a short description; others may be marked with “Buy It Now” and have a fixed price．You can buy these right away．

If the item is being auctioned, you offer the highest price you are prepared to pay and eBay bids （出價(jià)） for you．The bid will be increased little by little until it goes beyond your highest bid, then you are emailed and asked if you would like to bid again．Auctions last up to 10 days and when they finish, you get an email telling you whether you have won the item.

How to Pay

Sellers decide how they would like to be paid and you need to check this before placing a bid as you might not want to post a check or postal orders．The easiest way is through PayPal, an online payment system that takes the money away from your credit card.

Selling Made Simple

If you plan to sell on eBay, it helps to include a picture of the item．I followed my friends’ advice and put up the items I wanted to sell for a 10-day auction, starting on a Thursday．This way buyers had two weekends to bid.

The big Things in Life

It’s easy to post a small item, but furniture is a big part of eBay and this has to be collectively sent by deliverymen．Check the ways of delivery before you bid.

1．What is the passage mainly about?

       A．How to make payment online．              B．Ways of making delivery online.

       C．Advantages of an online auction system．D．How to use an online-auction system.

2．After bidding for an item, a buyer ________.

       A．has chances to make higher bids           B．will get what he wants in ten days

       C．should make payment immediately         D．may check its picture and description

3．The easiest way of making payment mentioned in the passage is ________.

       A．through a local banking system             B．by sending the money to the seller

       C．by paying the deliveryman directly         D．through an online payment system

22、Forget chip fat, sugar cane or rapeseed oil ---- the latest source of biofuel could be watermelons．

　　Scientists have discovered that the fruit is a great source of sugar that can be readily distilled（蒸餾）into alcohol to power cars and farm machinery．

　　And because sellers reject 360,000 tons of  “substandard”fruit annually in America alone they could be used as an economical way to make fuel．

The waste from US growers could produce nearly two million gallons（nine million litres） of biofuel per year．

In the study, researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture set out to determine the biofuel potential of juice from rejected watermelons ---- those not sold due to cosmetic imperfections, and currently ploughed back into the field．

About a fifth of each annual watermelon crop is left in the field because of surface blemishes（瑕疵）or because they are misshapen．

　　Dr Wayne Fish, who led the team, found that 50 per cent of the fruit was fermentable（可發(fā)酵的）into alcohol which could provide valuable fuel．

　　“We’ve shown that the juice of these melons is a source of readily fermentable sugars, representing an unexploited raw material for alcohol biofuel production,”he said．

　　The study, published in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels, discovered that watermelons could produce around 20 gallons of fuel per acre from fruit that otherwise would go to waste．

　　Production of biofuels has been targeted by western governments as a way to support renewable energy targets．

　　The European Union has a target for 2010 that 5．75 per cent of transport fuels should come from biological sources, but the target is unlikely to be met．

The British government’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires five per cent of the fuel sold at the pump by 2010 to be biofuel．

1．The passage mainly tells us ______．

A． western countries aim at producing biofuels

    B． watermelons could be used to make fuel

    C． the advantages of fuel made from watermelons

    D． watermelon juice will be the largest source of renewable energy

2．Which of the following is NOT the reason why so many watermelons are deserted in America each year?

    A． They are substandard．                             B． They are imperfect．

    C． They are misshapen．               D． They are oversupplied．

3．It can be learned from the text that ______．

    A． sellers in the world throw away 360,000 tons of watermelons every year

    B． about two gallons of fuel could be made from rejected fruit per acre

    C． half of the watermelons were fermentable into alcohol to provide energy

    D． five percent of fuel is required to be biofuel from watermelons by 2010 in Britain

4．The underlined word “cosmetic” in Paragraph 5 probably means ______．

    A． inside             B． flavor             C． surface          D． freshness

5．We can infer from the passage that ______．

    A． western countries are engaged in biofuel study but still have a long way to go

    B． the EU is likely to meet its target of transport fuels from biological sources

    C． it will cost a lot to make biofuel from watermelons

    D． watermelon juice has been used as a source of sugars to produce alcohol biofuel