Scotland is a unique place, loaded with history, where you can find aristocratic palaces and castles, as well as the traditional parades in national costumes. In order to see and discover the true soul of Scotland today and what formed the character of this splendid region, we have to go towards the northern regions, to the Grampian Mountains , beautiful and plain. The Scots conquered the environment with simple spades and strong arms, for it was difficult to farm. The history of this ancient struggle, and its people's ancient love with the hard land, can be felt within the walls of the Angus Folk Museum. You are able to get a feel of the typical rural atmosphere of times past from the everyday artifacts displayed here. From coastal Aberdeen in towards the Grampian Mountains there runs the Castle Trail, a road that touches on many fortresses , which are witnesses of continual fights against the control of neighboring England in Scottish history. Perhaps the most exciting moment for Scottish autonomy is _ experienced inside this ancient church of Arbroath, where, in 1320, the Declaration of Independence was celebrated, at the instigation of King Robert the Bruce. He carried out the plan for autonomy drawn up by the great popular hero William Wallace, for whom cinema has designed the wonderful film Brave Heart, the winner of the five Oscars. This is Glamis Castle, where King Macbeth and Queen Elizabeth used to live. Among the most frequent guests here are the predictable ghosts, if not actually created, by ancient popular beliefs. These have been handed down over the centuries by people tending to live with mystery, with the forces of the supernatural. Another attraction here is a legendary monster: the Loch Ness Monster. Whether it's real or imaginary, this monster, which has been nicknamed Nessie, has collected a good 3,000 sightings over the last 50 years. The true flag of Scotland, tartan, is recognizable from the brightly colored plaid patterns which are used to distinguish the various social... Take a look at the Angus Folk Museum, and we can learn about _ . . A) the love of ancient Scottish to the hard land B) the rural atmosphere in Grampian Mountains C) ancient Scottish people's fighting against the enemy D) the history of the Scottish famous palaces and castles
A
Flexible working hours, homeworking opportunities and cover for emergencies or school holidays are the top concerns for working mothers, according to a British survey on Thursday. The survey of 1,677 people by specialist employment advice website workingmums.co.uk showed that despite a tougher job climate, in which redundancies had risen dramatically during the crisis, mothers demanded for a more flexible schedule. Flexible hours for full-time jobs came top of the list for 85 percent of respondents who were asked what they thought made for a family-friendly employer. That came just ahead of homeworking opportunities. "Flexibility is really key and able to help achieve an element of work/life balance," workingmums.co.uk founder Gillian Nissim told reporters. She said the crisis had not reduced the urgency of this issue for working mums and that employers who want to be prepared for the eventual upturn would do well to listen to them rather than risk losing them to more forward-thinking rivals. Many women said they had considered setting up their own business as a way around the flexibility problem and nearly half (45 percent) of respondents said they had looked into it. Nissim said the workingmums.co.uk database alone showed that on average working mums have more than 15 years of work experience and a range of valuable skills picked up in the workplace and from their parenting experiences. "So the benefits to employers of being able to accommodate a degree of flexibility is significant," she said. Part-time work, flexibility around emergency cover or school holidays were the next highest concerns with extended maternity pay as well on the list of concerns.More than half (54 percent) of respondents said they would accept a less well-paid job in return for flexibility, with 40 percent prepared to consider this option. If you are the editor of a newspaper, which column will you fit this article in? A) Advertisements. B) People. C) Education. D) Career.
D
Q: Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of prenatal involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic. The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting where schools except them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn. Kaith Robinson, the author of the study, said, "I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework." Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task." They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they're still offering advice." Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant. Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because "children with good academic success do have involved parents ", admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success." A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives." The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should _ . A) help children realize the importance of schooling B) set a specific life goal for their children C) spend more time improving their own lives D) take a more active part in school management
A: A
Q: Art is visible. However, everything one sees is filtered through certain conditions, some of them historical, and others, natural. The historical conditions include the material which is used --oil, color1s, and the canvas; second, a certain style. There can be a general style, for example, the style of Impressionism, or a particular style, for example, the individual ways in which two painters, both impressionists, paint. The natural conditions include certain unchanging psychological laws of sight, for instance, the effects of color1s or optical illusions. The conditions of art are nothing but a particular way of interpreting reality. To understand this, one can examine the difference between the classical Greek and the classical Egyptian styles. For the Greeks, the reality of the visible was given by the perspective and the situation in which the object appears; for that reason they presented a person in his individual movements. For the Egyptians, however, this was only the appearance of a brief moment, which, according to their beliefs, was not real. Therefore, the Egyptians searched for the permanent essence and the typical character in their depiction of an object. For the Egyptians, Greek art was an illusion; for the Greeks, on the other hand, Egyptian art was unrealistic constructivism. The way in which reality appears in art must not be regarded on its own. It is affected by many other systems of recognizing reality, including the political, religious, economic, intellectual, and social -- in short, all the phenomena of human life. Moreover, art is always of a certain epoch ,with its particular conception of reality. Thus, when discussing, for example, the art of ancient myth, of medieval Christianity, or that of the technological age, one must be aware that myth, Christianity, or technology was the most outstanding feature of the epoch. It is paradoxical to understand art as some kind of copy of the fields of experience connected with it. So, for example, it is meaningless for the work of art to... Why did the Egyptians search for the permanent essence of an object? A) Egyptian art was thought to be unrealistic constructivism. B) They should present a person in his individual movements. C) The reality of the visible was only the presence of an instant. D) The appearance of the object features largely in the reality.
A: D