Customs are social habits. They have been handed down through generations among groups, social classes, etc. Customs can be described as ways of doing things. They are particularly strong in social practices on the occasions of births, marriages and deaths. In China, these days, some people in cities are learning from Western customs. For example, some brides dress in the long white dress that is usual bridal wear in many Western countries. Every people has special customs for New Year. The Han people have many interesting Spring Festival customs. And now, quite a number of people living in the cities have followed the Western customs of sending New Year greeting cards for January 1st. One interesting custom in China is that mothers wrap up their babies tightly .This is not the custom in Western countries, where babies are usually dressed in loose garments. In this passage, the word "garment" is_. A) a kind of food B) a bed C) a sort of clothes D) a room
C
(Question)
Steven Spielberg was not a scholar, and his classmates teased him. Rather than read, the kid really preferred running around with an 8mm camera, shooting homemade movies, which he showed to friends for a small fee. In his first year of high school, he dropped out. But when his parents persuaded him to return, he was mistakenly placed in a learningdisabled class, which lasted one month. Only when the family moved to another town did he land up in a more suitable high school, where he eventually graduated. After being denied entrance into a traditional filmmaking school, Steven Spielherg enrolled in English at California State University at Long Beach. Then in 1965, he recalls, in one of those serendipitous moments, his life took a complete turn. Visiting Universal Studios, he met Chuck Silvers, an executive in the editorial department. Silvers liked the kid who made 8mm films and invited him back sometime to visit. He appeared the next day. Spielberg, dressed in a dark suit, carrying his father's briefcase with nothing inside but a sandwich and candy bars walked confidently up to the guard at the gate of Universal and gave him a casual wave. The guard waved back. He was in. "For the entire summer," Spielberg remembers, "I dressed in my suit and hung out with the directors and writers, including Silvers, who knew the kid wasn't a studio employee, but winked at him. I even found an office that wasn't being used, and became a squatter . I bought some plastic tiles and put my name in the building directory: Steven Spielberg, Room 23C." It paid off for everyone. Ten years later, the 28yearold Spielberg directed Jaws, which took in $470 million, then the biggest grossing movie of all time. Dozens of films and awards have followed because Steven Spielberg knew what his teachers didn't--talent is in the eyes of the filmmaker. What could have changed Steven Spielberg's life? A) Being dressed in a suit. B) Meeting Chuck Silvers. C) Missing a filmmaking school. D) Working for Universal Studios.
(Answer)
B
Ques: The search for life in the universe took a step forward last month with the opening of the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, California. The telescopes were partly made possible by a gift of twenty-five million dollars from Paul Allen. The total cost of the project is already fifty million dollars. At present, there are 42 radio telescopes working at the Hat Creek observatory. The signals they receive are combined to create what is equal to a single, very large telescope. The telescope will be used to observe objects like exploding stars, black holes and other objects that are predicted but have not yet been observed. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute says this is the first telescope whose main purpose is to search for signals from intelligent life in space. The SETI Institute is based in Mountain View, California. The organization supports the search for other life forms in the universe. What makes the Allen Telescope Array unusual is that it can collect and study information from a wide area of the sky. In addition, the 42 telescopes can study information about several projects at the same time. That means studies of large areas of the sky can be made faster than ever before. Some officials think the Allen Telescope Array will be completed in three more years. 350 individual radio telescopes are planned. The new abilities of the Allen Telescope Array will make searching for stars similar to the sun much faster. An earlier search by SETI, Project Phoenix, studied about 800 stars to a distance of 240 light years. The project ended in 2004. With the Allen Telescope Array, astronomers hope to gather thousands of times more information in the search for life beyond our planet. The main purpose of the Allen Telescope Array is_. A) to serve for the research of weather predication B) to prepare for the wars against life from the universe C) to search for signals from intelligent life in space D) to observe exploding stars, black holes and other objects
Ans: C
Ques: There was good news last week for people who struggle to get eight hours of sleep a night: they may not need so much shut-eye after all. Researchers from UCLA and elsewhere looked at sleep habits of remote hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Namibia and Bolivia -- groups with pre-industrial lifestyles whose sleep patterns are believed to reflect those of ancient humans. The researchers found that, on average, members of each group sleep a bit less than six and a half hours a night. The study, published in the academic journalCurrent Biology, indicates that "natural" sleep is less than eight hours a night and that modern society's numerous electronic distractions aren't necessarily to blame for people getting just six or seven hours of sleep. "The story that often gets out is that if you sleep for less than seven hours, you're going to die early," he told me. "That's not true." Yet Americans are addicted to getting more sleep -- and on turning to medical shortcuts to help them. According to the Centers for Disease Control, as many as 70 million U.S. adults suffer from sleep disorders or sleeplessness. Only a third of Americans get the government's recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night. About 9 million American adults use sleeping pills to help get a good night's rest, the CDC found. Siegel said the number of people relying on medicines "has gone up rather rapidly since then." Industry consulting firm GlobalData estimates that worldwide sales for sleeplessness medicines will run about $1.4 billion next year and reach $1.8 billion by 2023, recovering from lower sales in recent years because of cheaper generics hitting the market. Dr. Roy Artal, a sleep specialist in West Los Angeles, said it's understandable that busy people in today's go-go world would turn to medicines to speed up the sleep process. But all they're doing is building a reliance on powerful drugs for relatively little improvement. "There's no magic pill that makes us sleep when we want and wake up when we want," Artal said. "The effects... The research on sleep habits of remote hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Namibia and Bolivia shows that _ . A) they have a lack of sleep because of their bad lifestyle B) "natural" sleep may be less than eight hours a night C) modern electronic products cause the sleeplessness D) pre-industrial lifestyles will be helpful to a better sleep
Ans:
B