successful business model.
Franchising had been around for more than 100 years, but its popularity took off in the 1950s. Leading the trend were fast food restaurant like McDonald’s. These days, there are franchises in more than eighty-five industries, including dry cleaning, hotels and supermarkets. It’s a very big business. In the US, there are some 760,000 franchises, totaling more than $1.5 trillion in yearly revenues (income).
There are two sides in a franchise: the franchisor—the owner of the business system and the franchisee—the person who licenses the system. After signing a “franchise agreement”, the franchisee pays a fee. He or she also pays for equipment, supplies, and, if necessary, building costs. The total investment usually ranges from $10,000 to $1,000,000. After the business opens, the franchisee also pays a percentage of sales revenues—called a royalty—to the franchisor. Marking fees must also be paid.
In return, the franchisee receives many benefits. Training is among the most common ones. It includes everything from dealing with customers to understanding the company’s standards. The franchisor also handles advertising. On top of that, there’s the benefit of the brand reputation that the company has built up. All of these benefits make the risk of opening a franchise much smaller than that of starting a business from scratch.
However, a franchise can also have drawbacks. If a customer at a single restaurant gets sick, it may hurt every franchise in the system. Running a franchise also means closely following the company’s standards. So, one has to give up a degree of independence. You have to do things their way and trust that the system will work.
If you want to earn a lot of money from the business, you have to work hard. Also, remember that the monthly royalty must be paid, even if you are losing money. However, there are thousands of opportunities in franchising. They will surely grow as brand recognition becomes more important in the global economy(经济学).
53. What does the word “franchise” mean in the passage? A. A company policy for building up service reputation. B. A permission given by a company for selling its goods. C. An official association for improving business network.
D. A system operated by an organization for lower marketing fee. 54. What is the most important factor to make a franchise successful?
A. Brand power. B. Agreement. C. Training. D. Royalty. 55. After signing a franchise agreement, a franchisee will _________. A. pay for the advertisement B. get free necessary equipment C. receive the monthly revenues D. maintain the company’s standards
56. What does the author think of franchising? A. It will have a promising future. B. It will bring higher business risk. C. It will control the global economy.
D. It will cause losses of brand recognition.
四、单词拼写(本题共8小题，每小题1分，共8分)
57. To their d__________, their son was admitted into a famous university.
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58. Being e__________ to sunlight for too much time will do harm to one’s skin. 59. It seemed that the water was to b_____________.
60. Our class is d_______________ into two groups during the discussion. 61. He finished his work in a__________________（积极的）way. 62. Be _________________ (谨慎的)when you cross the street.
63. In your new job you will be expected to perform many ________(功能). 64. Early ___________ (定居者)in Australia came from Britain. 五、短文改错（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
下面短文中有10处语言错误，请在有错误的地方增加、删除或修改某个单词。 增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（︿），并在其下面写上该加的词。 删除：把多余的词用斜线（\\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下面划一横线，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。 注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。 Dear Ms. Smith,
I am secretary of the City Student Union. We were organizing an art exhibition for high school students in city. This will be held on the 9th of July in the exhibition Hall of Beihai. More than 1,000 painting will be on show, but high school students and teachers from all the eight districts will come to the event.
As you are very popularly with us Chinese high school students, we’d like to invite for you to the exhibition. We would be grateful when you could join them that day.
Looking forward to hear from you soon.
Yours, Li Ming
六、书面表达（本题有1题，共20分）
春节即将来临，你打算用以往攒下的零花钱给父母买一件礼物。请以“A present for my parents ”为题写一篇文章。要点如下：
1. 你送的礼物：一张健康俱乐部的贵宾卡；
2. 父母的现状：父亲是教师，工作很辛苦；母亲喜欢读书，但缺乏运动； 3. 你送礼物的原因；
4. 该礼物对他们可能产生的影响和带来的变化。 词数：100左右。
文章的开头已经写好，不计入总词数。 参考词汇：贵宾卡 a VIP card
A present for my parents
The Spring Festival is coming and I want to buy a present for my parents with my pocket money.
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