Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. But many of the expressions using water have unpleasant meanings. The expression "to be in hot water" is one of them. It is a very old expression. "Hot water" was used 500 years ago to mean being in trouble. One story says it got that meaning from the custom of throwing extremely hot water down on enemies attacking a castle. That no longer happens. But we still get in "hot water".When we are in "hot water", we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble--serious or not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A young boy can be in hot water with his mother. if he walks in the house with dirty shoes. Being in "deep water" is almost the same as being in hot water. When you are in deep water, you are in a difficult position. Imagine a person who cannot swim being thrown in water over his head. You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you do not have the ability to solve. The problem is too deep. You can be in deep water, for example, if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market. "To keep your head above water" is a colorful expression that means staying out of debt. A company seeks to keep its head above water during economic hard times. A man who loses his job tries to keep his head above water until he finds a new job. "Water over the dam" is another expression about a past event. It is something that is finished. It cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water that has flowed over a dam cannot be brought back again. Which of the following two expressions have almost the same meaning? A) To be in hot water;To be in deep water. B) To be in hot water;To keep your head above water. C) To be in deep water;Water over the dam. D) Water over the dam;To be in hot water.
A
The poaching ,or illegal killing,of rhinos in South Africa is growing worse each year.The government recently reported that a record number of rhinos were poached in 2015,a year which had more rhino killings in South Africa than ever before. The World Wildlife Fund,or WWF,says about 20, 000 rhinos live in South Africa. That is more than 80 percent of the rhinos in the world. Edna Molewa, South Africa's Environment Minister,says, "During 2015,we are sad to say this,1, 215 rhinos were killed.This is a rise in the number of poached rhinos from 1,004 in 2014 and indeed very worrying." The animals are hunted for their horns .Many people in Asia believe the horn has curing power, which drives poachers, at all costs, mad for more horns. But there is no scientific evidence for this belief.The horn is made of keratin .That is the same thing as human hair,fingernails and toenails. Ms.Molewa said 386 suspected poachers were arrested last year,an increase from the year before.But rhino protection workers say poachers often go unpunished after arrest. South Africa's legal system is ineffective. Ms. Mo1ewa said more needs to be done and South Africa is taking strong measures to protect rhinos.The efforts include moving some of the animals to secret places in neighboring countries. "Now approximately 100 rhinos have been moved to neighboring states in the SADC region during 2015 and 200 more rhinos will be moved this year," Molewa said. Jo Shaw,the rhino program manager at the WWF,said,"We're talking about a loss of a hundred rhinos a month,or more than three a day.We really need to see effective action not just at a national level but internationally." She says officials should find the criminal groups responsible for the poaching and punish them. Government officials are to meet in Botswana in March at the Inter-governmental Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade. What is the main reason for people to hunt rhinos? A) To get more keratin. B) To protect the farmland. C) To use them for decoration. D) To make money from horns.
D
Q: Men are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, according to a report from Oxford University. The effect of the celebrity role models, who have given cooking a more manly picture, has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality and men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961. According to the research by Prof. Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961. Prof. Gershuny said, "The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend. There has been 40 years of sexual equality, but there is another 40 years probably to come." Women, who a generation ago spent nearly two hours a day cooking, now spend just one hour and seven minutes--a great fall, but they still spend far more time in the kitchen than men. Some experts have named these men in aprons as "Gastrosexuals (men using cooking skills to impress friends)", who have been inspired to pick up a kitchen knife by the success of Ramsay, Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd. "I was married in 1974. When my father came to visit me a few weeks later, I was wearing an apron when I opened the door. He laughed," said Prof. Gershuny. "That would never happen now." Two-thirds of adults say that they come together to share at least three times a week, even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table. Prof. Gershuny pointed out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table--with many "family meals" in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room, and shared by family members. "The family meal has changed a lot, and few of us eat--as I did when I was a child--at least two meals a day together as a family. But it has survived in a different format." Which is the best title for the passage? A) The Changes of Family Meals B) Equality between Men and Women C) Cooking into a New Trend for Men D) Cooking--a Thing of the Past for Women
A: C