Q: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: While you're hurrying around picking up gifts in the last few days before Christmas, do you have any time to think about how much your s, or friends will actually value what you find? WePay, a Website that helps people collect, manage and spend money online, has analysed tons of research, reports and surveys from different sources, and the results were surprising! Are Gift Cards a Good Idea? Rather than give someone a gift that they might not like, it's better just to pick up a gift card so they can buy what they really want, right? Wrong. This year, $ 2.5 billion in gift cards went unspent. Of that amount, $1.3 billion went unspent because people didn't bother making the time. Another $ I billion or so was forgotten altogether. How Much Do We Really Value the Gifts We're Given? The lucky recipient of a gift, like a cashmere sweater, will value it less than the amount it was purchased for. And ladies, contrary to what you might think, place less monetary value on the diamond ring they are given than the guys who have bought it for them. What Happens to Our Gifts After They're Given? Many complain that the holiday season means shopping and crazily spending money, but studies show that once the big day arrives, we are less focused on gifts than we think. Every year, at least one gift per person is regifted, returned or never even opened And How Do We Really Feel About Fruit Cakes? We all know that no one likes fruit cakes, right? Wrong, once again. Although fruit cakes continue to be taken away behind the rest of the holiday cookies and cakes on the dessert table, one in four people still consider giving them as gifts. What does this all really mean? To be clear, it's certainly not that you shouldn't enjoy the holiday spirit and feel great about giving gifts to those most important to you. While so many of us are worrying about how much money we're spending and who we still need to buy for, it simply helps to take a step back and rethink what it really means to give a gift. Question: The text is mainly about _ . Answer:

OPTIONS:
- a web site that helps people buy gifts
- some advice on how to choose a gift
- the stories behind the holiday gifts
- the ways to deal with the gifts received

A: the stories behind the holiday gifts

Q: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: I've been living in China for a while -- long enough to observe the long-term deterioration of my own native language abilities, as well as those of my fellow English speakers. This deterioration can take different forms, one of which is the non-standard usage of the words. Its source is, specifically, Chinese culture, and its target is native English speakers. Below I give some of the common ways that the Chinese environment strikes down the native speaker's linguistic competence . Net bar: In Chinese, they're called "", This is fine. We generally call them "Internet cafe" in English. The Chinese seem to think that "" should be translated as "net bar" in English, and many careless foreigners have even been misled by this idea. Name card: In the English-speaking world, business people have lots of business meetings to discuss business. On these occasions, business people exchange specially printed pieces of paper known as business cards. In China everyone calls them "name cards", because in Chinese they are called "" and "name card" is a more direct translation . Bean curd. It's called "tofu," OK! This English word comes from Chinese. I know all dictionaries sold in China will tell you "" is "bean curd" in English and that may represent the two characters nicely, but "bean curd" is more a definition than a comfortable translation. And yet some foreigners start saying "bean curd" rather than tofu. Deplorable ! I think you see the pattern. The normal native way of saying something is replaced by a more unnatural way of saying it using other English words. If you've been living in China for a while and find yourself using all of these, you might be on dangerous ground. You're going to start making a fool of yourself back home. Look out! Resist Chinglish attempts at destroying your own command of your mother tongue! Question: What is the main cause of the non-standard usage of the words by native English speakers? Answer:

OPTIONS:
- Chinese culture
- Chinese tradition
- English flexibility
- Chinese polluted environment

A: Chinese culture

Q: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Expressions about water are mostly as common as water itself. The expression "to be in hot water" is one of them. It is a very old expression. Hot water was used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble. One story says it got that meaning from the custom of throwing extremely hot water down on enemies attacking a castle. That no longer happens. But we still get "in hot water". When we are in hot water, we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble, serious or not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A young boy can be in hot water with his mother if he walks in the house with dirty shoes. "Being in deep water" is almost the same as being in hot water. When you are in deep water, you are in a difficult position. Imagine a person who can not swim being thrown in water over his head. You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you don't have the ability to solve. You can be in deep water, for example, if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market. "To keep your head above water" is a color1ful expression that means staying out of debt. A company seeks to keep its head above water during economic hard times. A man who loses his job tries to keep his head above water until he finds a new job. "Water over the dam" is another expression about past events. It is something that is finished, and cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water has floated over a dam and cannot be brought back again. When a friend is troubled by a mistake she has made, you might tell her to forget about it. You say it is water over the dam. Another common expression "to hold water" is about the strength or weakness of an idea or opinion that you may be arguing about. It probably comes from a way of testing the condition of a container. If it can hold water, it is strong and has no holes in it. If your argument can hold water, it is strong and does not have any holes; if it does not hold water, then, it is weak and not worth... Question: We can see from this passage that many of the expressions using water have _ meanings. Answer:

OPTIONS:
- funny
- unpleasant
- close
- moral

A:
unpleasant