Please help! I live in Germany with my wife and three kids. My parents live in the UK. I want my kids to have as much contact with their grandparents as possible. The kids all use e-mail, Skype and SMS but my parents won't. I've bought them a laptop, paid for broadband, given them both mobile phones and a digital camera, but they won't use them. My parents say they hate computers and new technology. What can I do with these " _ "? Daniel, Buremburg, Germany Actually, the original technophobes were the Luddites, a group of cloth workers in 19thcentury Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The Luddite cloth workers, who traditionally made cloth by hand, were worried that machines were going to take away their jobs and way of life. These machines could make cloth much faster and cheaper than humans. In 1811 and 1812 the Luddites destroyed the machines that they hated so much, but the British government supported the factory owners. Many Luddites were arrested. Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley will tell your parents all about it. Laura, Valencia, Spain Laura makes some interesting points, I think. Technophobes has been a common theme in science fiction. Frankenstein, one of the first science fiction, is a warning of what could happen if humans began to experiment with human life. Freda, Copenhagen, Denmark One thing you could try is to find hardware that is designed for older people to use. An example is the mobiles made by the US company, Jitterbug. Instead of icons and menus the Jitterbug phones ask users simple "yes/no" questions and have larger keypads. The company realized that there are potentially 100 million older users in the US alone. Graham, Patras, Greece The passage is probably taken from _ . A) a personal blog B) a letter between friends C) a personal diary D) a speech on new technology
A
(Question)
Life gets noisier every day and very few people can be free from noise of some sort or another. It doesn't matter where you live--in the middle of a modern city, or a faraway village--the chances that you will be disturbed by jet aero planes, transistor radios, oil-powered engines, etc. are almost everywhere.We seem to be getting used to noise, too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they are working. Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be very frightening experience for human beings. However, some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud, and this can do harm to their eardrums .The noise level in some disco is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas. One recent report about noise and concentration suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration, what really affects their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise, which doesn't change too much (music, for example) may even help people to concentrate. "Background music" in the passage means _ . A) music played in the concert B) a kind of noise coming into your ears C) music helps people to concentrate D) music played while people are working
(Answer)
D
Ques: Buckingham Palace has a history that dates back over 500 years and has changed hands on numerous occasions, however, much of the building that remains standing today is from the original structure built in the early 1700's. In the beginning Buckingham Palace was originally known as Buckingham House. However, in 1762 George III liked the house so much that he bought it for 28,000 and renamed it "The Queen's House". The reason for this was down to the fact that he bought the house to give to his wife Charlotte. Shortly after he did this, work soon began in order to remodel the house with the help of Sir William Chambers. This trend then continued with the accession of George IV in 1820 when he decided to reconstruct the house but he still used it for the same purpose that his father did. One of the biggest physical changes to the house occurred several years later when the king had a change of mind. It was in 1826 that King George IV set about transforming the house into what it is known today, Buckingham Palace. He did this with the help of an architect known as John Nash. The work that Nash carried out involved doubling the size of the main block through adding a new suite of rooms on the garden side facing the west. He then faced this with mellow Bath stone, which reflected the French neo-classical influence favored by George IV. Many of the rooms that Nash added still remain pretty much unchanged today. The palace as it stands today acts as not only the London residence of Her Majesty the Queen but also the administrative headquarters of the Royal Household. It is in fact one of the few working royal palaces that remain in the world today. The state rooms are extensively used by the Queen as well as members of the royal family as a way of receiving and entertaining guests on state, ceremonial and official occasions. One of the biggest changes to Buckingham Palace took place in _ . A) 1762 B) 1820 C) 1826 D) 1829
Ans: C
(Q).
ABORIGINAL is a term used to describe the people and animals that lived in a place from the earliest known times or before Europeans arrived. Examples are the Maori in New Zealand, the Aborigines in Australia and the Indians in America. They all share the fact that they were pushed off their land by European settlers. Maori The Maori were the first people to go to New Zealand, about 1,000 years ago. They came from the islands of Polynesia in the Pacific. They brought dogs, rats and plants with them and settled mainly on the Northern Island. In 1769, Captain James Cook from Britain took possession of the Island and from that time British people started to settle. The Maori signed an agreement on land rights with these settlers, but in later years there were arguments and battles between them. Aborigines The native people of Australia came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago. They lived by hunting and gathering. Their contact with British settlers began in 1788. By the 1940s almost all of them were mixed into Australian society as low-paid workers. Their rights were limited. In 1976 and 1993 the Australian Government passed laws that returned some land to the Aborigines and recognized their property rights. American Indians Long before the Europeans came to America in the 16th and 17th century, the American Indians, or Native Americans, lived there. It is believed that they came from Asia. Christopher Columbus mistook the land for India and so called the people there Indians. The white settlers and American Indians lived in peace at the beginning, but conflicts finally arose and led to the Indian Wars (1866-1890). After the wars, the Indians were driven to the west of the country. Not until 1924 did they gain the right to vote. Before European settlers arrived, we can infer that the Aboriginals had lived _ life. A) a miserable B) a bitter C) a peaceful D) a troublesome
(A).
C
Early in the 16th century men were trying to reach Asia by traveling west from Europe. In order to find Asia they had to find a way past South America. The man who finally found the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific was Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan sailed from Seville in August, 1519 with five ships and about 280 men. Fourteen months later, after spending the cold winter on the coast of Patagonia, he discovered the channel which is now called Magellan Strait . In November, 1520, after many months of dangers from rocks and storms, the three remaining ships entered the ocean on the other side of South America. They then continued, hoping to reach Asia. But they did not see any land until they reached the islands off the coast of Asia. Before they arrived at these islands, later known as the Philippines, men were dying of starvation. While they were staying in the Philippines, Magellan was killed in a battle. The remaining officers then had to get back to Spain. They decided to sail round Africa. After many difficulties, one ship with eighteen men sailed into Seville three years after leaving. They were all that remained of Magellan's expedition. However, their achievement was great. They were the first men to sail round the world. The number of the ships lost on the whole expedition was _ . A) two B) three C) four D) five
C