People in the United States honor their parents with two special days: Mother's Day, on the second Sunday in May, and Father's Day, on the third Sunday in June. Mother's Day was proclaimed a day for national observance by President Woodrow Wilson in 1915. Ann Jarvis from Grafton, West Virginia, had started the idea to have a day to honor mothers. She was the one who chose the second Sunday in May and also began the custom of wearing a carnation. In 1909, Mrs. Dodd from Spokane, Washington, thought of the idea of a day to honor fathers. She wanted to honor her own father, William Smart. After her mother died, he had the responsibility of raising a family of five sons and a daughter. In 1910, the first Father's Day was observed in Spokane. Senator Margaret Chase Smith helped to establish Father's Day as a national commemorative day, in 1972. These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care. These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother's Day people wear carnations. A red one symbolizes a living mother. A white one shows that the mother is dead.Many people attend religious services to honor parents. It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit the cemetery. On these days families get together at home, as well as in restaurants. They often have outdoor barbecues for Father's Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories. The author's purpose of writing this passage is to _ A) call on people to love and respect their parents. B) introduce Mother's Day and Father's Day. C) tell the difference between Mother's Day and Father's Day D) show how important fathers and mothers are
B
High school students need "cool" jobs in summer holidays. Working at popular retail chains and ice-cream shops are good choices. The U.S. Department of Labor says that about two-thirds of the teenager workers are in fast food business. 1/5 of cooks and food workers are between 16 and 19 years old and 2/5 of food workers are part-time workers. If you think taking a part-time job is easier, you are wrong. For young people, whatever you do, do your jobs well. Because a good work record will be useful for higher-paid jobs in the future. Let's share my story. Unless with my family members, I would go to eat fast food. That doesn't mean I don't like working in a fast food restaurant. My first part-time job, at age 16, was at the McDonald's in Bloomington, Indiana. It was very hard work. Especially on Indiana University football weekends, we had no time to rest, but we still had a lot of fun. Finally I got a higher-paid job. A future manager believes that difficult work encourages success. The growing U.S. population will bring more restaurants. While many people can't deal with the pressure to fill orders quickly, the people who really do a great job will get plenty of rewards in the workplace. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, _ . A) more than half of teenager workers are in fast food business B) teenagers in America like to work in a fast food restaurant C) teenagers like to take a part-time job in summer holidays D) almost all teenagers are interested in fast food
A
Q: A special laboratory at the University of Chicago is busy only at night. It is a dream laboratory where researchers are at work studying dreamers. Their findings have discovered that everyone dreams from three to seven times a night, although in ordinary life a person may remember none or only one of his dreams. While the subjects--usually students--sleep, special machines record their brain waves and eye movements as well as the body movements that signal the end of a dream. Surprisingly, all subjects sleep soundly. Observers report that a person usually fidgets before a dream. Once the dream has started, his body relaxes and his eyes become more active, as if the curtain had gone up on a show. As soon as the machine shows that the dream is over, a buzzer wakens the sleeper. He sits up, records his dream, and goes back to sleep--perhaps to dream some more. Researchers have found that if the dreamer is wakened immediately after his dream, he can usually recall the entire dream. If he is allowed to sleep even five more minutes, his memory of the dream will have disappeared. According to the passage, researchers at the University of Chicago are studying _ . A) contents of dreams B) dreamers while they dream C) the meaning of dreams D) the progress of sleeping
A: B
(Q).
Two thirds of the singles looking for love in Britain turned to the Internet last year, according to figures made in public yesterday. Special sites offer introductions to smokers, to Roman Catholics, tall people, beautiful people, frequent flyers and vegans . Technology has brought about a great change in the dating game. A survey by Parship, a British branch of Europe's largest dating service with more than 1.5 million members, says that 65 percent of the 5.4 million Britons looking for a relationship used online dating services last year. A spokeswoman for Relate, the relationship advisor, confirmed that a figure of two third feel it all right. "Doing it online allows people quite a lot of privacy, because they can do a bit of quiet research and look around from the comfort of their own home. You don't have to meet a middleman or go to an actual dating agency office, which takes a lot of courage," she said. There are more than 100 independent online dating agencies in Britain. Parship says that 50 percent of single people believe they will meet a suitable partner through the Internet, up from 35 percent six months ago. Mary Balfour, the founder, says that the Internet has changed the dating industry completely. "It's like a return to old-fashioned love letters," she said. "You don't base your initial judgment on how someone looks or what his or her figure is like. You e-mail or talk before you actually see each other. Everybody you know who is single these days has at least had a good look at a dating website, introduction agency or personal ad. They have to, because all the old matchmaking institutions have gone. People work harder, settle down later and live more isolated lives. They're much more likely to end the day with a DVD and a can of beer than by going to a village dance." For those who want to look for love online, they _ . A) don't need to do any research at all B) have to meet first before they can e-mail each other C) don't have to find a go-between. D) must go to an actual dating agency office first
(A).
C