What is your favorite color1? Do you like yellow, orange or red? If you do, you must be an optimist, a leader, and an active person who enjoys life, people and excitement. Do you prefer gray and blue? Then you are probably quiet, shy and you would rather follow than lead. If you love green, you are strong-minded and determined. You wish to succeed and want other people to see you are successful. At least this is what a psychologist tells us, and we are also told that we don't choose our favorite color1 as we grow up. If you happen to love brown, you did so as soon as you opened your eyes, or at least as soon as you could see clearly. A yellow room makes us feel more cheerful and more comfortable than a dark green one, and a red dress brings warmth and cheer to the saddest winter day. On the other hand, black is depressing . Light and bright color1s make people not only happier but also more active. It is a fact that factory workers work better, harder, and have fewer accidents when their machines are painted orange rather than black or dark gray. Remember, then, that if you feel low, you can always brighten your day or your life with a new shirt or a few color1ful thing. Remember also that you will know your friends and your enemies better when you find out what color1s they like and dislike. And don't forget that anyone can guess a lot about your character when you choose handkerchiefs or a lampshade. "I am feeling black" means _ . A) I'm feeling well B) I am in high sprits C) I am excited D) I am unhappy
D
(Question)
After a 15-year ban on the sale of fireworks in Beijing, Kang Guoliang, 51, was able to start his old trade again yesterday. As a salesman in Xinhui store in Dongcheng District, he is happy about the increasing number of buying fireworks wrapped in red paper -- a color standing for happiness and good luck. "Fireworks are available for the first time in town for more than a decade," Kang said happily."People will buy them." The store has 300 boxes of fireworks piled up and is open 24 hours at the moment.Residents are buying the fireworks and firecrackers for the upcoming Spring Festival, which falls on February 18. Citywide, 2,116 registered stores and retailers, 585 in the centre and 1,600 on the outskirts are trading fireworks in the Chinese capital.Sales of fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road started yesterday and will last until March 4, Xinhua reported.Among the stores, 117 stores are permitted to operate 24 hours.About 600,000 boxes of firecrackers worth more than 100 million yuan have been carried to registered stores. The Chinese capital began a ban in 1993 to reduce fireworks-related deaths and fires during the holiday season.Last September the ban was removed in response to residents' fondness for fireworks when celebrating Spring Festival. According to new rules, Beijing residents are allowed to set off fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road all day on Lunar New Year's Eve and Lunar New Year's day, from 7 a.m.to midnight every day from February 19 to March 4. "Spring Festival without fireworks is not Spring Festival," said Sheng Hefei, who was buying fireworks in the store."It was fun to light the firecrackers when I was little," he said."The sound and view of fireworks make a real holiday." However, not all residents welcome the return of firecrackers because of injuries, pollution and noise."My child is scared of the sudden sound of firecrackers, and it is annoying to hear it all night long," complained Lu Jun, a local resident. (China Daily02/11/2008) The passage is likely to belong to a(n) _ ? A) description B) argument C) advertisement D) news report
(Answer)
D
Ques: Ever feel like you've been hit on the head after a bad night's sleep? According to scientists, the thought isn't as unbelievable as it seems. A study found going without sleep for just one night causes changes in the brain similar to those that occur after a blow to the head. The researchers said the healthy young men examined in the study showed a sudden increase in the same chemicals which indicate brain damage. Professor Christian Benedict, of Uppsala University, Sweden, explained that the chemicals NSE and S-100B are biomarkers for brain damage, such as concussion . He said, "What we found was their levels in the blood rose in the group that went without sleep for a night. This was not to the extent that would happen after a head injury, for instance, but it was still significant. During sleep, the brain cleans poisonous substances off itself." Benedict also said previous studies which linked a lack of sleep with increased risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis could applaud his study. The rise of the chemicals in the blood after sleep loss may suggest not getting enough sleep contributes to a loss of brain tissue, he explained. Benedict, whose study is published in the journalSleep, added, "In conclusion, the findings of our experiment indicate a good night's sleep may be critical to maintaining brain health." A third of the UK population suffer from sleep-related problems, while the average person now sleeps for only seven hours a night, compared with almost nine a few decades ago. Many scientists believe irregular sleeping patterns lead to illnesses ranging from aches and pains to heart disease, while less than eight hours' sleep a night can lower the IQ the next day. What's the main idea of the passage? A) Eight hours' sleep is important. B) Regular sleeping patterns improve health. C) Sleep loss is close to a blow to the head. D) Human brains work during sleep.
Ans: C
Researchers around the world have been trying their hand at making better use of the huge amount of wind energy available in nature to produce clean energy. Apart from this, studies are being carried out to harness usable wind energy produced by man-made technologies. One useful source identified by Indian inventor Santosh Pradhan about two years ago is a speeding train, which produces fierce wind that can be transformed into electricity. According to Pradhan's proposal, with a few small improvements in existing trains running in Mumbai, the largest city in India, at least 10,000 megawatts of electricity could be harvested each day. Building on this principle, designers Ale Leonetti Luparinia and Qian Jiang from Yanko Design have created a device called T-Box that harnesses wind energy from speeding trains. T-Box can be placed within the railway tracks. It is half-buried underground between the concrete sleepers , which does not disturb the normal train operating at all. According to Yanko, around 150 T-Boxes can be fitted along a 1,000-meter railway track. A train running at a speed of 200 kph can produce winds blowing at 15 miles a second. Based on this calculation, 150 T-Boxes can produce 2.6 KWH of electricity per day. The T-Box's design won a silver medal in last year's Lite-On Awards and was exhibited last summer at the Xue Xue Institute in Taipei, Taiwan Province. Though the figures look impressive, it is important to remember that the design is still at a conceptual stage and hasn't taken into account issues such as pieces of waste material produced by the device and the efforts and costs involved in the maintenance of the device. We can expect the technology to see the light of the day only after it clears these issues. If so, rail travel, one of the greenest forms of travel, will become greener and more energy-efficient. What can we learn about T-Box? A) It will be fitted on the trains. B) It is based on Pradhan's idea. C) It can turn electricity into light. D) It was invented by an Indian scientist.
B