雅思考試閱讀材料大全

要考好雅思的閱讀部分，肯定需要多加練習。爲了方便大家備考，下面小編給大家帶來雅思考試閱讀材料大全。

雅思考試閱讀材料大全：英國超辣漢堡致5人住院

Diners are being asked to sign a waiver before eating a fiery chilli burger - aFTer it put five people in hospital.

英國一餐廳推出的熱辣漢堡已導致5人住院，現在再想吃這款“變態辣”漢堡要先簽署免責聲明。

The _X Hot Chilli Burger - dubbed the hottest dish in Britain - is served to over 18s only at Burger Off in Sussex.

這款被稱爲英國最辣的熱辣漢堡，是蘇塞克斯郡漢堡店Burger Off 的料理，僅賣給18歲以上的成年人。

It is topped with chilli sauce worth a staggering 9.2million on the Scoville scale - a measure of the 'hotness' of foods. In contrast, the average chilli pepper comes in at just 500 Scoville Heat Units.

熱辣漢堡塗有“史高維爾辣度指標”920萬的辣椒醬。“史高維爾辣度指標”是測量食物辣度的指標，普通辣椒指數僅500。

One diner was taken to hospital with a suspected perforated bowel after eating the spicy dish, while four others were admitted for treatment on the same night for suspected anaphylactic shock.

一位顧客在吃了這款熱辣漢堡後疑似因腸穿孔被送往醫院救治，當晚還有4位顧客疑似過敏休克入院。

Now, restaurant owner Nick Gambardella is asking customers to sign a legal disclaimer that prevents them from suing him if they fall victim to the red-hot burger.

漢堡店老闆尼克·甘巴德拉爲避免顧客用餐後出現不良反應起訴自己，要求顧客只有在簽署了法律免責聲明後方可嘗試此熱辣漢堡。

The document reads: 'I the undersigned accept all responsibility for any effects incured due to the consumtion of the above mentioned _X Hot Chilli Burger and release Burger Off, its owner and staff from any liability.'

聲明中寫道：“我簽署同意，在Burger Off食用熱辣漢堡所帶來的一切後果責任由我個人承擔，餐廳和餐廳老闆、服務員免責。”

Mr Gambardella, 55, said he was 'amazed' that he was allowed to sell such a spicy burger - adding: 'It has been a massive hit with the customers'.

55歲的甘巴德拉說自己也很吃驚，居然得到了銷售此款熱辣漢堡的許可證，他補充道：“這在顧客中反響很大”。

'I have to admit I’ve not dared to try one of these burgers myself as they are so spicy,' he said. 'One guy came in and he was just a little bit cocky and when he left he was admitted to hospital because prior to eating the burger he had a stomach ulcerand we believe it perforated his bowel. He wasn’t in a good way but he pulled through.

“不得不承認，連我自己都不敢嘗試這款熱辣漢堡，因爲它真的太辣了。”他說，“有位客人進店的時候還自以爲是，但是離開的時候就直接入院了。在吃熱辣漢堡之前這傢伙就有胃潰瘍，我們覺得在吃了漢堡之後他可能腸穿孔了。他還沒有完全康復，但目前已經度過了危險期。”

The burger, which is on sale for only ￡3.90, features sauce based on a Piri Piri chilli concentrate, created through steaming and later infused with carbon dioxide.

這款熱辣漢堡售價僅3.9英鎊(約合人民幣39元)，其特色在於添加其中的皮爾皮爾辣椒醬，這種辣椒醬的製作方法是先氣蒸後注入二氧化碳。

So far, only 59 out of 3,000 challengers have succeeded in eating the entire dish. Many of the burger's conquerors have taken to Twitter and The Burger Off Facebook page to spread the word of their victory.

截至目前，3000名挑戰者僅有59位成功吃完整個漢堡。許多挑戰成功者在推特和Burger Off餐廳的臉書頁面上炫耀自己的勝利。

Mr Gambardella said the burger had caused customers to adopt a number of undignified coping mechanisms, including stripping naked, begging for mercy, punching windows and vomiting.

甘巴德拉說，顧客在吃熱辣漢堡時言行舉止十分不雅，有的大脫衣服、有的跪地求饒、還有的捶窗嘔吐。

It has also left many diners suffering from anaphylactic shock - a severe allergic reaction that can cause swelling, rashes and difficulty breathing.

大量顧客吃了熱辣漢堡後過敏性休克，這種嚴重的過敏反應會導致腫脹、發疹和呼吸困難。

'The burgers are cooked properly - it’s the sauce that is maybe too hot to handle,' said Mr Gambardella.

甘巴德拉說：“其實漢堡烹飪是合理的。熱辣漢堡這麼辣，都是辣醬惹的禍。”

　　雅思考試閱讀材料大全：電影院裏的騙局

In 2013, China achieved a record-breaking high for its film industry's box-office revenues, which officially register at 21.769 billion yuan ($3.59 billion). But according to Wang Changtian, CEO of Enlight, that was at least 5 billion yuan short of the real number. Other experts put the gap at 2.4 billion, explaining the reported box-office figure at 10 percent less than the real one. That gap is someone's windfall, illegally pocketed by cinema owners and operators, professionally known as film exhibitors. And the regulating agency is getting tough on this kind of theft.

Wang Changtian has reasons to be angry. Over the Lunar New Year season that has recently wound down, he received on his microblog numerous audience reports, complete with photos, of tickets to Dad, Where Are We Going?, a runaway hit his company distributes. The tickets had no movie title printed on them or the prices printed were lower than what was actually paid by the moviegoers - all signs that the movie's revenues were not correctly registered.

The earliest manifestation of the shady practice of "box-office stealing" loomed a few years ago when individual moviegoers posted suspicious tickets online. Tickets of this type usually had movie title "A" computer-printed on it, but the printed title was scratched out by hand and title "B" written in. Fingers were pointed at the producer or distributor of title A, but more likely it was the movie theater that was behind it. The reason could be simple: Film A gives the exhibitor a larger share of the revenue than film B.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Industry insiders reveal it was much worse before computer systems were installed in the nation's cinemas, and of course, before social media websites turned everyone into a potential reporter of such business deceit. As a matter of fact, some cinema investors were not even aware that they had to split their revenue with other parties. "This phenomenon started from the age of planned economy," says Mao Yu, deputy director of the Film Bureau, a branch of the regulating agency.

But it may have turned from guerrilla tactics to larger-scale con games. For group purchases, violators would not even issue tickets, essentially not reporting a single cent of revenue from a whole screening. Since a representative of the group usually deals with the cinema, unless he or she specifically demands a printed ticket for each member of the group, all of them would be in the dark about income reporting from the cinema to the distributor.

Another trick lies in membership dues, which are often collected up front. When a paid member reimburses for a ticket, it may have only the screening room on it, and the exhibitors can choose to credit it to any movie they like, or not to any movie, in which case they pocket 100 percent of the revenue.

Some cinemas would go as far as investing in a separate point-of-sale computer system so that each ticket buyer gets the right ticket, but none of the data shows up on the centralized system. Instead, another set of credible purchase data would be put in the correct system, but with lower attendance.

Both distributors and exhibitors that I spoke to agree that cheating is much less rampant than before, say a dozen years ago, and now is mostly limited to third and fourth-tier cities. China Film Group, the nation's largest film production and distribution company, heads a consortium with several major private companies that hires 1,000 people to monitor cinemas nationwide, and Huaxia, another State-owned company, has a smaller army of 800.

However, there are situations even these sharp-eyed monitors can do little about. For example, if a cinema sells a ticket for 80 yuan, which is normal for primetime, but gives away a free popcorn, it may attribute as much as 60 yuan of the ticket price to the popcorn, leaving only 20 as the ticket price. But it can argue that 20 yuan is the minimum price for this particular film agreed upon by both sides and therefore it does not violate any rule.

A similar scheme was employed when Transformers 3 was bundled with Yang Shanzhou, a very small film with little box-office potential, making the latter into a strange film with eye-popping revenue (79 million yuan) but disproportionately fewer people who actually bothered to see it. There were sporadic online complaints about the practice even though consumers did not pay more for the package deal.

The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the regulating agency, announced measures in late January to curb under-reporting and cheating on box-office revenues. A special fund is set up to subsidize the upgrading of computer software at point of sale. The current system was installed in 2005 and "cannot keep up with the new situation", in the words of Jiang Tao, director of the fund. "The new system will fix loopholes and shorten the reporting window to only 10 minutes after a sale is made instead of waiting till next noon, which is the current reporting lapse in time, which leaves room for manipulation. The national platform will be ready by May and the cinema side will complete their upgrading by October."

Apart from putting a stamp of authorization on all sales systems, SAPPRFT insists that all film tickets carry correct prices and movie admission. But conspicuously absent are concrete penalties for violations. The software upgrade will certainly be a great help, admit distributors and exhibitors, but it may not be enough.

"The cost of violation is still too low. If you're caught under-reporting 10 tickets, all you need to do is make up for the shortfall," says Huang Ziyan, vice-president of Le Vision Pictures in charge of sales.

Cao Yong, a manager with the Huaxing UME cinema chain, suggests that violators should have their business license revoked. "Cinemas invest tens of millions of yuan and, with punishment of this severity, it would not make sense for them to steal 80,000 or 100,000 yuan from the box office."

Other ideas have been floated such as the use of an infra-red camera that automatically scans a movie theater for attendance. The technology has been available for eight or nine years and it claims to have 95 percent accuracy. But it has never been put into use.

Filmmakers are reluctant to stand firm when they become victims because they do not want to offend the exhibition branch of the business chain - the branch that deals directly with end users. Some say they are no longer sad at the irregularity, but have come to the stage of despair.

This time it's for real, and "we'll cleanse the industry of this illegal and irregular behavior", says Zhang Hongsen, director of SAPPRFT's Film Bureau.

　　雅思考試閱讀材料大全：阿里巴巴宣佈啓動在美IPO

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's largest e-commerce vendor, has officially confirmed it will hold an initial public offering in the United States, the company has announced.

The decision will "make [Alibaba] a more global company and enhance the company’s transparency, as well as allow the company to continue to pursue our long-term vision and ideals," according to a company statement sent on Sunday to China Daily.

It did not specify which bourse it will choose to float its shares, or give a detailed timetable.

Alibaba said that, should circumstances permit in the future, it will work towards toward extending its public status in China’s capital market in order to share its growth with the Chinese people.

The company also expressed gratitude towards those in Hong Kong who have supported Alibaba Group, including the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which shut the door on a potential listing last September.

"We respect the viewpoints and policies of Hong Kong and will continue to pay close attention to and support the process of innovation and development of Hong Kong," the statement added.

Hong Kong regulators rejected Alibaba's IPO because of the firm's special request to keep a shareholder structure which would have allowed a group of top managers and founders to nominate and control the company's board of directors.

The unique requirement went against the exchange's one-share-one-vote principle.

The statement puts an end to rampant rumors about Alibaba’s choice of listing venue.

For example, the firm's recent purchase of a stake in a Hong Kong-listed company prompted speculation that Alibaba might use the deal to go public.

Analysts polled by Reuters have put Alibaba's market value at around $140 billion and the value of the IPO at $15 billion. If successful, it will go public in the world's biggest listing since Facebook Inc's debut in 2012.

The announcement came just two days after micro-blogging service Sina Weibo filed to raise $500 million via a US IPO. Alibaba holds 18 percent of Sina Weibo's shares.

阿里巴巴集團16日宣佈，啓動在美國的上市事宜。

阿里巴巴集團表示，啓動在美IPO爲使公司更加透明、國際化，進一步實現阿里巴巴的長期願景和理想。

作爲中國的電子商務集團，自旗下子公司於2012年私有化以來，阿里巴巴集團謀求整體IPO的舉動一直備受關注。

此前有機構預計，阿里巴巴上市有可能成爲美國近年來規模的IPO，估值在千億美元左右。

去年10月，阿里巴巴集團曾公開回應關於其IPO的熱議，集團CEO陸兆禧當時宣佈，阿里巴巴決定不選擇在香港上市。

以下爲阿里巴巴公告全文：

阿里巴巴今天決定啓動在美國的上市事宜，以使公司更加透明、國際化，進一步實現阿里巴巴的長期願景和理想。未來條件允許，我們將積極參與迴歸國內資本市場，與國內投資者共同分享公司的成長。

感謝香港各界人士對阿里巴巴的關心和支持。我們尊重香港現時的相關政策和出發點，並將會一如既往地關注、參與並支持香港的創新和發展。

阿里巴巴集團

2014年3月16日

　　雅思考試閱讀材料大全：生活艱難時需要做的13件事

We’ve all gone through hard times. And we all get through them. However, some get through them better than others. So what is their secret? Most of it has to do with attitude. Here are 13 things to remember when life gets rough:

我們都有過灰暗的日子，也都熬過來了。然而有些的人心態會比其他人要好，他們的祕訣是什麼?其實主要就是取決於你的態度罷了。看看生活艱難時可以做的13件事吧。

1. What is, is

坦然接受現實

Buddha’s famous saying tells us: “It is your resistance to ‘what is’ that causes your suffering.” Think about that for a minute. It means that our suffering only occurs when we resist how things are. If you can change something, then take action! Change it! But if you can’t change it, then you have two choices: (1) either accept it and let go of the negativity, or (2) make yourself miserable by obsessing over it.

佛教有句經典的話：“你的痛苦都源於對現實的抗拒。”好好想想這句話。這意味着只有當你不接受現實時纔會產生痛苦。如果你能改變什麼，那就開始行動吧，改變它!但如果無法改變，你就有兩個選擇，(1)要不去接受要不就忽視消極的部分，或者(2)不斷的折磨自己讓自己更加痛苦

2. It’s only a problem if you think it’s a problem

只有你覺得這是個問題的時候纔會是個問題

Many times, we are our own worst enemy. Happiness is really dependent on perspective. If you think something is a problem, then your thoughts and emotions will be negative. But if you think it’s something you can learn from, then suddenly, it’s not a problem anymore.

很多時候，我們是自己的敵人。幸福取決於你的觀察角度。如果你覺得一件事是個問題，那麼你的想法和情緒都會變得消極。但如果你覺得這是學習的好機會，看看，突然就不是啥問題了。

3. If you want things to change, you need to start with changing yourself

如果你想改變什麼，那就從改變自己開始吧

Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. Don’t you know people whose lives are chaotic and stressful? And isn’t that largely because they feel chaotic inside? Yes, it is. We like to think that changing our circumstances will change us. But we have it backwards—we need to change ourselves first before our circumstances will change.

你的外在是內在的一個反應。你難道不覺得那些外表看起來亂糟糟亞歷山大的人們其實內心也是一團亂麻麼?的確是這樣。我們總是覺得改變環境就能改變自己。其實我們弄反了-我們需要先改變自己才能隨之改變環境。

4. There is no such thing as failure—only learning opportunities

沒什麼失敗-這只是一個學習的機會而已

You should just wipe the word “failure” right out of your vocabulary. All great people who have ever achieved anything have “failed” over and over. In fact, I think it was Thomas Edison who said something like, “I did not fail at inventing the light bulb, I just first found 99 ways that it didn’t work.” Take your so-called “failures” and learn something from them. Learn how to do it better next time.

把“失敗"這個詞從你的字典裏抹去吧。很多成就大事業的人都曾不止一次的失敗過。實際上，我非常贊同愛迪生說的那句話”我從來沒有在發明燈泡的過程中失敗過，我只是找到了99種不可行的辦法而已。“把你那些所謂的”失敗“當成學習的機會吧。學着下次怎麼做的更好。

5. If you don’t get something you want, it just means something better is coming

如果沒有得到想要的，只說明你值得擁有更好的

That’s hard to believe sometimes, I know. But it’s true. Usually, when you look back at your life, you will be able to see why it was actually a good thing that something didn’t work out. Maybe the job you didn’t get would have made you spend more time away from your family, but the job you did get was more flexible. Just have faith that everything happens exactly the way it’s supposed to.

有時候的確很難去相信，但這是真的。通常，當你回過頭看一看，就會發現正是一些事沒有成功纔會有後面的好事發生。也許那個沒有拿到手的工作會讓你無比繁忙沒法陪家人，而獲得的職位上班時間更加自由。只要相信，每件事都會有暗藏的方向。