The way people in the US travel to and from work has changed a lot in the last fifty years. Before the Second World War, most people lived in the town or the city where they worked. Almost everyone either walked to work or used a good inexpensive transportation system Many of these systems were electrified and ran on tracks, so they used very little energy. After 1945, the US government built many new roads and highways. People moved farther and farther form the cities where they worked because they could drive their cars on these new roads from their suburban homes to work in the city. Some of the big car makers also bought the electrified transportation systems and destroyed them. As people stopped using public transporation , cities spent less money fixing old buses and trains or buying new ones. Public transportation got worse and worse. In the late 1960s, people found out that the increase in the use of cars led to many problems. There were always too many cars for the highway system, and terrible traffic problems developed. People were spending hours in traffic jams getting to and from work every day. In addition, the air in many cities became dirty because of pollution from millions of cars, and many people died in traffic accidents. As people began to get worried about how the use of cars was hurting the environment, cities began to spend more money on public transportation again, so fewer people would have to drive cars. When gas became very expensive in the mid-1970s, the number of people taking public transportation began to increase .It's terribly expensive to build new public transportation systems. so it's very difficult to make big changes in the way people travel .However ,an increase in the use of public transportation has begun. Why did cities begin to spend more money on public transportation in the late 1960s? A) To change people's way of traveling. B) To improve the living conditions. C) To build a new transportation system. D) To control the increasing number o cars.
A
The Palm Islands are the largest artificial islands in the world and are under construction in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. They are being developed as tourist, leisure, and residential resorts, and will increase the coastline of the country by 120 kilometres. After four years of planning and careful consideration of the environmental issues, construction started in 2001. Dutch engineers with experience of reclaiming land from the sea were employed in the building of the first two islands. The site for all three islands is an area of the sea where the water is not very deep. Sand is taken from the seabed and sprayed into the construction site. Although the shallow water _ this process, the islands are still very exposed to the currents and tidal movements of the sea. Rocks are used to hold the sand in place resulting in a large crescent structure. This acts as a breakwater and protects the islands from the sea. The first two islands are in the shape of date palm trees and consist of a trunk and 17 frond, or leaves coming off the trunk. The first island, named Palm Jumeirah, has three five-star hotels in the trunk, and luxury homes in the leaves. It is astonishing that when these homes went on sale in 2004, they were all sold within three days. The second palm, Jebel Ali, was started in 2002 and is designed to be an entertainment centre. Six marinas are planned, with a water theme park, and homes built on stilts in the water. The Palm Deira planned to be the largest of the three islands, with a length of 14 km and a width of 8.5 km, an area larger than the city of Paris. It will consist of residential properties, marinas, shopping malls, sports facilities, and clubs. These will be open to both residents and tourists. More artificial islands, the World Islands, are now being constructed near the Palm Jumeirah. They consist of 300 private islands grouped into the shape of the continents of the world and will be used for estates, private homes, community islands, and resorts. Unquestionably, these... According to the passage, all the following are right EXCEPT _ . A) Some Dutch engineers are experienced in reclaiming land from the sea. B) The islands are being built in the shallow water of the sea. C) All the luxury homes on Palm Jumeirah were sold. D) The World Islands are bigger than the Palm Jumeriah.
D
Q: "Can't hold a candle to" is a popular expression.When there wasn't electricity, someone would have a servant light his way by holding a candle.The expression meant that the person who cannot hold a candle to you is not fit even to be your servant.Now,it means such a person cannot compare or compete. Another expression is"hold your tongue."It means to be still and not talk."Hold your tongue"is not something you would tell a friend.But a parent or teacher might use the expression to quiet a noisy child. "Hold out"is an expression one hears often in sports reports and labor news.It means to refuse to play or work.Professional football and baseball players"hold out" if their team refuses to pay them what they think they are worth. The expression"hold up" has several different meanings.One is a robbery.A man with a gun may say,"This is a hold up.Give me your money."Another meaning is to delay.A driver who was held up by heavy traffic might be late for work.Another meaning is for a story to be considered true after an investigation.A story can hold up if it is proved true. "Hold on"is another expression,which means wait or stop.As you leave for school,your brother may say,"Hold on,you forgot your book." It is used to ask a telephone caller to wait and not hang up his telephone. Our final expression is"hold the line."That means to keep a problem or situation from getting worse--to hold steady.For example,the president may say he will"hold the line on taxes."He means there will be no increase in taxes. The author introduces the expressions mainly by _ . A) giving examples B) making comparisons C) raising questions D) quoting famous remarks
A: A
(Q).
Important changes took place in the lives of women in the 19th century. When men went out from their farms to cities to seek jobs in industry, peasant women had to take over the sowing, growing, and harvesting of the fields as well as caring for cattle and raising their children. When women also moved to the cities in search of work, they found that it was increasingly separated by sex and that employment opportunities for women were limited to the lower-paid jobs. Later in the century, women in industry gathered mainly in cloth-making factories, though some worked in mining or took similarly difficult and tiring jobs. In the 1800s, service work also absorbed a great number of women who arrived in the cities from the country. Young women especially took jobs as servants in middle-class and upper-class homes; and as more and more men were drawn into industry, domestic service became increasingly a female job. In the second half of the century, however, chances of other service work also opened up to women, from sales jobs in shops to teaching and nursing. These jobs came to be done mainly by women. For thousands of years, when almost all work was done on the family farm or in the family firm, home and workplace had been the same. In these cases, women could do farm work or hand work, and perform home duties such as child care and preparation of meals at the same time. Along with the development of industry, the central workplace, however, such as the factory and the department store, separated home from work. Faced with the necessity for women to choose between home and workplace, Western society began to give particular attention to the role of women as homemakers with more energy than ever before. We know from the passage that in the 1800s _ . A) more and more women began to work in domestic service B) women mainly worked as servants, nurses, and miners C) service and industrial jobs absorbed more women than men D) women enjoyed working as sellers, teachers, and miners
(A).
A