Harry is eighteen now. He studies in a middle school. His parents like him very much and hope he can become a famous man. So they often tell him to study hard and they do all for him. They call him at six in the morning, after breakfast his father takes him to school in a car and in the afternoon, as soon as the young man comes back, the supper is ready. Of course, he never washes his clothes or goes to buy something in the shops. Once, Harry's father was sent to London on business. He would stay there for half a year. Leaving, he told his wife to take good care of their son. The woman had to get up earlier and did all what her husband did before. And two months later she was so tired that she was ill in bed. Now the young man got into trouble. He couldn't do any housework. He had to do as his mother told him. Even he didn't know where to get on the bus! Yesterday Harry's mother found his shoes were worn out and told him to buy a new pair in the shop. But he didn't know how to choose. The woman had a sigh and gave him a shoe pattern and told him to buy a pair of shoes himself. It's Saturday today and Harry doesn't go to school. With a policeman's help, he found a shop. The shopkeeper was friendly to him. The man brought a lot of shoes and asked him to choose. When he was trying on a pair, suddenly he remembered something and took them off. The man was surprised and asked, "What's the matter, young man?" "I'm sorry, I've left the shoe pattern at home!" The woman told her son to buy a pair of shoes because _ . A) she didn't know what kind he needed B) she was busy with the housework C) something was wrong with her D) she wanted her son to do something himself
C
(Question)
The behaviour of a building's users may be at least as important as its design when it comes to energy use, according to new research from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The UK promises to reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, part of which will be achieved by all new homes being zero-carbon by 2016. But this report shows that sustainable building design on its own -- though extremely important- is not enough to achieve such reductions: the behaviour of the people using the building has to change too. The study suggests that the ways that people use and live in their homes have been largely ignored by existing efforts to improve energy efficiency , _ instead focus on architectural and technological developments. 'Technology is going to assist but it is not going to do everything,'explains Katy Janda, a UKERC senior researcher,'consumption patterns of building users can defeat the most careful design. 'In other words,old habits die hard, even in the best-designed eco-home. Another part of the problem is information. Households and bill-payers don't have the knowledge they need to change their energy-use habits. Without specific information,it's hard to estimate the costs and benefits of making different choices. Feedback facilities, like smart meters and energy monitors,could help bridge this information gap by helping people see how changing their behaviour directly affects their energy use; some studies have shown that households can achieve up to 15 percent energy savings using smart meters. Social science research has added a further dimension ,suggesting that individuals'behaviour in the home can be personal and cannot be predicted whether people throw open their windows rather than turn down the thermostat , for example. Janda argues that education is the key. She calls for a focused programme to teach people about buildings and their own behaviour in them. As to energy use, the new research from UKERC stresses the importance of _ . A) zero-carbon homes B) the behaviour of building users C) sustainable building design D) the reduction of carbon emissions
(Answer)
B
Ques: An Australian man has beaten 75 other contestants from around the world to win a race up the stairs of the world's tallest building, Taipei 101. Paul Crake,30, ran up 91 floors containing 2,046 steps in 10 minutes, 29 seconds. Mr. Crake, who has won a similar race up the Empire State Building five times, won $5,920 in prize money. The women's race was won by Austrian Andrea Mayr, who finished in 12 minutes,38 seconds and also won a $5,920 prize. Austrian Rudolf Reitheiger, who beat Mr. Crake in this year's Empire State Building Race, came second in the men's competition. Mr. Crake and Ms. Mayr missed out on the offer of $30,000 for completing the grueling race in under 10 or 12 minutes respectively. A further 1,001 people took part in a so-called "self-challenging" race up the skyscraper. Taipei 101 is 508 meters tall and was finished in 2003, although Chinese developers have said Shanghai's World Financial Center will be taller when completed in 2007. "Tower-running" races take place up the tallest buildings and structures across the world. The Sears Tower in Chicago, the CN Tower in Toronto and the Azrieli Tower in Tel Aviv have all held recent events. Runners also race up the longest staircase in the world-the service staircase for the Niesenbahn railway near Spiez, Switzerland, which has 11,674 steps. At event for the long--distance stairway runners also takes place in Radebeul, Germany, where competitors run up 397 stairs 100 times to equal the height of Mt everest. What's main idea of this passage? A) Races up the stairs of the tallest buildings and structures across the world B) Paul Crake won a race up the stair of the world's building Taipei 101 C) The tallest building of the world will be built in Shanghai D) Runners raced up the longest stairs in the world.
Ans: A
At a psychology conference in England years ago, a woman said to me: "I'll knock you up in the morning." I was taken aback by her strange suggestion, but it occurred to me that I might not have understood what she really meant. As it turned out, what she had meant was, "I'll knock on your door in the morning so that we can meet for breakfast to discuss the panel we're on." This example of the difference in the meaning of "knock you up" in British and American English shows the complicated situations that can result from cultural misunderstandings. A cultural misunderstanding occurs when something -- a word, gesture, object, social context, or almost anything you can think of -- has a different meaning in two cultures. Sometimes the misunderstandings get _ , sometimes they lead nowhere, and sometimes they can become the starting point of something much more extreme, from love to war. Race is one area where cultural misunderstandings are common. We Americans tend to assume that racial categories are biological rather than social, so it may not occur to us that people from other cultures have a different set of racial concepts and classify themselves and us differently. Some African Americans complain that certain immigrants from other countries, such as Haiti or Jamaica, "act as if they aren't black." The cultural misunderstanding is that, in the immigrants' countries of origin, they would never describe themselves as "black". This doesn't mean that they think they are white. It just means that their cultures have more categories, like marabou or grimaud in Haiti, or fair or brown in Jamaica, than are used in the United States. Meanwhile, white people in America, unaware of this cultural diversity, sometimes refer to all darker-skinned people as "black" without realizing that an issue exists. Resolving cultural misunderstandings can clear the air or even lead to laughter. Sometimes, though, when it comes to race, unidentified cultural misunderstandings can create tension, unhappiness and distrust. What is the author's opinion about cultural misunderstandings? A) There's no need to notice racial differences. B) Haitians prefer to be described as fair or brown. C) Cultural misunderstandings based on racial categories may be difficult to spot. D) Americans are especially likely to misunderstand people from other cultures.
C