Q: The quality of drinking water in Shanghai will meet European Union standard by 2010 and, a decade later, citizens in Shanghai will drink the best water in the world. These were the goals set out by the Shanghai Water Authority. With the city's population expected to increase only slightly and the economy to boom by 2020, Chen Yin, an official in the water authority, said Shanghai's water consumption will not increase from its present amount. Zhang Yue, director of the Urban Construction Division under the Ministry of Construction, said, "Shanghai is the first city in the country to publicize these ambitions. They will not be easy to achieve." He said water saving will help keep the sustainable development of China's economy. Saving one cubic meter of water means saving the city's infrastructure costs by 10,000 Yuan. Last year, Shanghai saved 300 million cubic meters of water either from readjustment of industrial structure or the employment of new technology. "The aim is to arouse public awareness of the seriousness of water shortages," Chen said. "The abundant surface water and amount of rain of the city are so misleading that they result in improper use of water." Shanghai lacks drinkable water. The Huangpu River, which supplies 80 percent of the city's drinkable water, is nearing exhaustion. The city, therefore, has been exploring new sources from the Yangtze River and growing forests along it to conserve quality water. Besides penning regulations, the authority is popularizing technology among the public to efficiently cut the amount of water used. At present, the city has 600,000 family toilets, each using 13 liters of water per flush. These are to be renovated to use only 9 liters of water per flush. The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households - at a cost of Yuan each. In three years, all the toilets will be renovated, which saves the city nearly 15 million Yuan every year in water conservation. Another task the city is engaged in is the treatment of sewage to improve the water... We can infer from the passage that _ . A) not everyone today in Shanghai is aware of water shortage B) citizens today in Shanghai drink the best quality of water in the world C) the boom of economy will need a larger amount of water in the future D) all the family toilets will be renovated to save water within 3 years
A: A

Q: Recent research has claimed that an excess of positive ions in the air can have an ill effect on people's physical or psychological health. What are positive ions? Well, the air is full of ions, electrically charged particles, and generally there is a rough balance between the positive and the negative charged. But sometimes this balance becomes disturbed and a larger proportion of positive ions are found. This happens naturally before thunderstorm, earthquakes when winds are blowing in certain countries. Or it can be caused by a build-up of static electricity indoors from carpets or clothing, or from TV sets, duplicators or computer display screens. When a large number of positive ions are present in the air many people experience unpleasant effects such as headaches, fatigue , excessive anger, and some particularly sensitive people feel sick or even suffer mental disturbance. Animals are also affected, particularly before earthquakes, snakes have been observed to come out, rats to flee from their burrows, dogs howl and cats jump about unaccountably. This has led the US Geographical Survey to fund a network of volunteers to watch animals in an effort to foresee such disasters before they hit vulnerable areas such as California. Conversely, when large numbers of negative ions are present, then people have a feeling of well-being. Natural conditions that produce these large amounts are near the sea, close to waterfalls or fountains, or in any place where water is sprayed, or forms a spray. This probably accounts for the beneficial effect of a holiday by the sea, or in the mountains with streams or waterfalls. To increase the supply of negative ions indoors, some scientists recommend the use of ionisers. They claim that ionisers not only clean and refresh the air but also improve the health of people sensitive to excess positive ions. Of course, there are the detractors, other scientists, who dismiss such claims and are skeptical about negative/positive ion research. Therefore people can only make up their own... What effect does exceeding positive ionization have on most of the people? A) They will throw up. B) They will be sick and tired of life. C) They may feel rather bad-tempered. D) They may feel they are out of their mind.
A: C

Q: Lindsay Binegar of Greenfield, Ohio, made her first $ 100 at the age of four, when she won a prize for showing a pig from her family's farm to the local 4H Club. Most kids would be thrilled to spend that money on toys, but not Lindsay. "I didn't get the money; it went to the bank," she told the Columbus Dispatch. Over the years, Lindsay kept on raising and showing pigs, and kept on winning prizes. Some were $ 100 for small wins, but she won thousands of dollars for championship prizes at county fairs. Before long, she earned an impressive amount of cash--but, aside from a purse when she was 14, Lindsay had never spent a dollar of her savings. By the time she was 18, she had got more than $ 40,000, which she planned to put towards her college education at nearby Ohio University. But her parents said that if she continued living at home while attending school, they wouldn't have to pay for her dorm housing, and would be willing to cover the entire cost of her education. It sounded like a good deal to Lindsay. But what should she do with her savings? Her father had an idea:buy a house, just as he'd done when he was young. He used the house's sale to help him buy the family farm where Lindsay had grown up and raised all those lucrative pigs. Lindsay was able to buy a house in Greenfield, paying for the entire purchase in cash. She did a bit of painting and then rented it out for $ 450 a month. After finishing college, Lindsay plans to marry Heath McNeal, and use the income from her house to buy a block of land and build a new house. But she'll never move too far from home. "I would like to stay in Greenfield," she said. "I just love everybody here. " At her current rate, she'll probably be the town's biggest real estate tycoon by the age of 25. What can we learn about Lindsay's parents from the passage? A) They are very rich. B) They are considerate. C) They don't know how to manage money. D) They don't care for money.
A: B