NASA postpones Discovery landing After orbiting the earth for nearly two weeks, astronauts aboard space shuttle Discovery were told to circle the planet for another day as bad weather inprefix = st1 /Floridaforced NASA to delay Monday's scheduled landing. The astronauts had powered up their space-craft and were awaiting word from Mission Control to fire their breaking rockets and head for home when controllers announced early Monday that low clouds over Cape Canaveral would postpone the landing. When cloud cover still threatened after the second of two landing opportunities, NASA officials rescheduled the landing for Tuesday, when they would consider two alternative landing sites in addition to Florida'sKennedySpaceCenter. Before the weather _ , Discovery had been set to land before dawn. Its return to the earth would have concluded the first shuttle flight sinceColumbiadisintegrated while re-entering the earth's atmosphere 21/2 years ago. Discovery's 13-day flight to the international space station may be the last one for a long while. NASA grounded the shuttle fleet after a slab of insulating foam broke off Discovery's external fuel tank during liftoff---the very thing that doomed(...) Columbia and was supposed to have been corrected. Discovery was the first shuttle to visit the station since 2002. As a result ofColumbia, Discovery's crew inspected their ship for damage on five different days and also tested repair techniques developed since the tragedy. How many shuttle flights returned to the earth before Columbia? A) One B) Two C) Three D) We have no idea
D
(Question)
An old and very rich friend of mine told me he had an unpleasant experience. He went to a famous jewelry shop and asked to be shown some gold necklaces. After examining several minutes, he decided to buy a gold necklace with a precious diamond, and asked if he could pay by cheque . The assistant said that was quite in order, but the moment my friend signed his name, he was invited into the manager's office. The manager was very polite, but he explained that someone with exactly the same name had given them a worthless cheque not long ago. My friend got very angry when he heard this and said that he would buy a diamond necklace somewhere else. When he got up to go, the manager told him that the police would arrive at any moment and he had better stay unless he wanted to get into serious trouble. Sure enough, the police arrived soon afterwards. They were polite, too, but explained that a person who had used the same name as his was responsible for a number of recent robberies. Then the police asked my friend to copy out a note which had been used by the thief in a number of stores. The note read, "I have a gun in my pocket. Ask no question and give me all the money in the drawer." Luckily, my friend's handwriting was quite unlike the thief's. He was not only allowed to go without further delay,but also to take the diamond necklace with him. After the man heard what the manager said, he _ . A) got very angry and left at once B) went out to buy a diamond necklace somewhere else C) insisted on staying until the police came D) thought that he had nothing to do with the stealing
(Answer)
D
Ques: London will host a major exhibition of 15th-century Chinese artwork, including paintings, sculptures and porcelain, which are all from Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The exhibition will be open from Sept 18 to Jan 5. On display will be 108 cultural relics from 10 museums in China, as well as collections from the British Museum and museums in Japan, the United States and Europe. The exhibition will be in five parts to give an overview of the society. "This was a time when the political and social system of the dynasty became stable , and the country also experienced huge changes. China was in frequent contact with the rest of the world at that time, and its artists and scholars also influenced other cultures," said Yao Yu, the director of this activity. During this time, Beijing became the capital of China, and Zheng He (1371-1433) set sail and reached the shores of eastern Africa. Jessica from the British Museum, said _ an artwork may differ in different cultures. "When a Chinese audience sees a painting you see figures and stories. But we see beautiful views. " However, she added that the British public had a basic knowledge of the dynasty and many British people probably knew more about the later period of the Ming Dynasty after the Portuguese and Spanish came to China to trade. Their houses and dining tables have Chinese blue and white vases but they don't know much about the earlier period, which in China was a more culturally important period. "We'd like to take away people from the idea that China became international after the Europeans arrived. China in the early Ming Dynasty was very international. " What can we know from Jessica? A) British people have a good knowledge of the Ming Dynasty. B) British citizens know more about the later period of the Ming Dynasty than the earlier ones. C) British and Spanish came to trade in Ming Dynasty. D) The later period of the Ming Dynasty is a more culturally important period in China.
Ans: B
Ques:A blue hole is a flooded sea cave with a hole that opens up at the land's surface. These cave systems form in carbonate rock, often on islands. Some blue holes have very special rock formations and water chemistry. Far below sea level, they contain some of the harshest environments on Earth, with no oxygen and no light. Yet these areas are filled with life forms that have adapted to the extreme conditions. Information gathered from these blue holes is helping scientists to increase their understanding of biology, archaeology and geology. But exploring these blue hole environments brings danger as well as discovery. Blue holes get their name from the color1 some have when seen from the air. The color1 is usually a reflection of the sky on the water. But not all of these cave systems have blue surfaces. Some contain dark or muddy water. Blue holes are the result of erosion in which water breaks down rock. Rain falling thousands of years ago contained chemicals which slowly wore away at the limestone landmass. These holes were later filled with sea water as the sea level changed. The rising and falling of sea levels and the mixture of salt and fresh water further wore away at these cave formations. Blue holes are vertical caves. But they can also have horizontal cave formations that may be hundreds of meters long. These flooded cave systems can be found in the ocean, or they can be found inland. Ocean caves are affected by tides, so they always have water movement. But blue holes on land are very still. They have several layers of water, chemicals, and bacteria. The top layer of fresh water comes from rainfall. This layer acts like a cap on top of the layered mixture, and keeps out oxygen from the atmosphere. The fresh water floats on a denser layer of saltwater. Underneath this is a layer of poisonous hydrogen sulfide, produced by bacteria living in the water. Underneath this layer is anoxic seawater -- water that does not contain any oxygen. Underwater caves are probably one of the least explored ecosystems... It can be inferred front the passage that _ . A) quantities of advanced life forms exist in blue boles B) blue holes are not fully explored due to their low value C) blue holes are vertical caves because of strong currents D) the chemicals in the rain lead to the formation of blue caves

Ans:
D