In the late nineteenth century, ^5,000 pianos were sold in the United States each year and, with over half a million youths learning to play the instrument, there was a huge demand for sheet music .Indeed the demand was so huge that publishers rushed to enter the profitable market.During the last fifteen years of the century, many publishers began to set up shops in New York, the center for the production of the musical arts By the turn of the nineteenth century many important publishers had their offices on 28thStreet between Broadway and 5th Avenue, and this Is the area that became known as Tin Pan Alley.It was here that publishers adopted new, aggressive business practices and marketing techniques to achieve great sales. How it became to be known by that name is unclear, but the general opinion is that it is down to a visiting journalist by the name of Monroe Rosenfeld.He described the area as being drowned in the noise coming from the producers' offices, sounding as though hundreds of people were hitting tin pans .He used it several times in his newspaper articles in the early twentieth century and the term stuck.With time this name was popularly embraced and many years later it came to describe the U.S.music publishing industry in general. The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885,.but the end of Tin Pan Alley is less clear-cut .Some date it to the start of the Great.Depression in the 1930s when the phonograph and radio replaced sheet music, as the driving force of American popular music, while others consider Tin Pan Alley to have continued into thel950s when earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged by the rise of rock & roll. There's a plaque on the sidewalk on 28th Street in honor of the influence of Tin Pan Alley on American popular culture, but the buildings that were home to the legendary Tin Pan Alley publishers and songwriters are up for sale and may be torn down to make room for modern high-rise buildings. What.is the passage mainly about ? A) American popular music. B) Tin Pan Alley's future. C) American music Industry. D) The history of Tin Pan Alley.
D
(Question)
My 8-year-old daughter is making an experiment. She has been making her own colorful smile cards and often takes them with her everywhere. Last Sunday, I took my kid to go shopping with me. She was hoping to see John, who is an elderly man and gives out samples. We see him from time to time and he is so happy and friendly. John wasn't at the store on Sunday, so my daughter decided that it would be a good idea to _ her smile cards to the store's other employees. So she did. In the produce department, she gave a card to a young man and she hoped it would make him smile. And he smiled at her and thanked her. Then she came across an older gentleman who looked rather impatient. And she snuck a card into his cart on top of his groceries, remarking to me later that he looked at her suspiciously as if she was dumping trash in his cart. But I thought he would be happy later. When we got back from our shopping trip, she had run out of cards. She was walking by a woman with two babies in her cart. My daughter smiled at her and the young mother smiled back. My daughter came to me and said excitedly, "Mom, I just realized something. You don't need cards to make someone smile. All you need to do is make eye contact and smile into their eyes and they will smile back." What a beautiful lesson my daughter reminded me of. You are never too young or too old to experiment with kindness and smiles. From the text, we can learn that _ . A) John got a smile card from the writer's daughter B) the older gentleman would smile later after he got the smile card C) we could make others smile only by giving them what they wanted D) the mother with two babies smiled because she got a smile card
(Answer)
B
Ques: The One and Only Ivan [hardcover] Katherine Applegate (Author) Patricia Castelao (Illustrator) 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (117 customer reviews) / Like (58) List Price: $16.99 Price: $9.34 (for total orders over 25.) Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks. Ships from and sold by Amazon. com. Gift-wrap available. Product Details Reading level: Ages 8 and up Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Harper Collins Languages: English ISBN-10: 0061992254 ISBN-13: 978-0061992254 Shopping weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Book Description Release Date: January 17, 2012 Age level: 8 and up Grade Level: 3 and up Ivan is an easy-going gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to human watching him. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he's seen and about his friends. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango. Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant, and she makes Ivan see their home--and his own art--through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it is up to Ivan to make it a change for the better. Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan's unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art and hope. The book is suitable for readers who are _ . A) 3-5years old B) 5-7 years old C) 7-8 years old D) more than 8 years old
Ans: D
Although hurricane season doesn't begin until June 1, a Pacific storm has already struck. El Salvador, which was ruined by a Caribbean storm in 1995, was hit by Hurricane Adrian on Friday. This is the first Pacific-born hurricane to ever reach land in this Central American country. Some 14,000 people left from the western coast of El Salvador. The storm weakened as it crossed land, heading east. Heavy rains created deadly flooding problems in the hurricane' s wake. Adrian is the first Pacific storm of the season. It reported maximum continuous winds of 75 miles per hour, the minimum strength of a hurricane. A Category 3 hurricane, Adrian also caused damage and flooding in Honduras. It is expected to break up before reaching the Caribbean Sea on the eastern coast of Central America. Hurricane season typically begins June 1 and lasts through November 30. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted seven to nine hurricanes for the 2005 season. "It is difficult to make any kind of an exact prediction of how many of these will strike land," NOAA administrator Conrad Lautenbacher said. He predicts two to three hurricanes will strike the U.S. this season. Last year, six of nine hurricanes reached Category 3 strength or higher. Four of those hit Florida within a six-week period. Altogether, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne caused more than $40 billion in damage in the Sunshine State. This year' s forecast is based on ocean temperatures. Warmer temperatures produce more tropical storms, which can then turn into hurricanes. "The issue, really, this year is the unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic," said Frank Lepore of the National Hurricane Center. How many countries struck by the hurricane are mentioned in the text? A) Six. B) Nine. C) Five. D) Three.
D