Internet shopping is a new way of shopping. You no longer need to walk around hundreds of shops looking for the items you need. Nowadays, you can shop for just about anything from your armchair. All you need is a computer which is linked to the Internet. Shopping on the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. In the United States, 50 percent of families have computers at home and almost one third are linked to the Internet. Americans spent over $2.5 billion in Internet shopping in 1998. This figure is expected to reach $11 billion by the year 2004. People can shop for a variety of products on the Internet. _ include items such as books, CDs, clothes and food. These types of products are the most common purchases through the Internet. You can also buy information products such as on-line news or magazine stories, or you can download computer software through the Internet. Services such as booking airline tickets, reserving hotels or renting cars are also available on the Internet. You can also go shopping on the Internet for entertainment services and take part in on-line games or E-mail "chats". To find something on the Internet, people often use powerful computer tools called "search engines". You can search for a type of product, such as sports shoes, or a brand name, such as Nike. The search engine will give you a list of websites where you can find these products. These websites may be specialist shops such as a Nike shop, or they may be general stores, called malls, which sell a variety of goods. Internet shopping offers a number of benefits for the shoppers. The most important advantage is convenience. You can shop when you like as the on-line shops are open 24 hours a day, and you do not have to queue with other shoppers at the check-out counters. Secondly, it is easy to find what you are looking for on line. Finally, it is often cheaper to buy goods through the Internet, and you can tell the shop exactly what you want. The main disadvantage of Internet shopping is that you cannot actually see the... The best things about Internet shopping is _ . A) the speed the goods are delivered at B) the reasonable price C) the quality of the goods D) the convenience it brings to you
D
Biomass energy , often forgotten as promising alternative to oil, received its day in the sun with the gathering of the Bio-Energy World Congress and Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, late in April, 2007. Nearly 1700 scientists, businessmen and policy-makers, one-quarter from the foreign nations, gathered for a week to discuss various means of squeezing usable energy out of trees, crops, sea plants and urban waste. Biomass energy in the prefix = st1 /United Statescontributes 2.5 percent of the total supply, but this amount can be doubled by 2017 and then doubled again by the year 2027. Eight percent of Sweden's energy supply, for example, is presently coming from wood and pulp remaining. Swedenintends to raise this percentage by more intensive harvesting of waste food lying around in forests, and through the planting of so-called energy forests of fast-growing trees such as willow. Brazilis frequently pointed to as a nation with a major successful investment in energy coming from grains: it presently runs 330,000 automobiles on a water and alcohol mixture, replacing 10 percent of its previous oil supply. Brazilian representatives at the conference said they wish to double this in five years, with a final goal of total replacement. Most of the cars are built at the factory to use the mixture, while older models are changed through low-cost government programs. A suitable title for this passage would be _ . A) An Energy Conference B) Approval of Biomass Energy C) Bio-Energy for Automobiles D) Keys to Energy Crisis
B
Q: WASHINGTON--More than one in 10 of the nation's airline pilots are cleared to carry a handgun while flying, and the number will continue to grow, according to a Transportation Security Administration projection. The Federal Air Marshal Service, a TSA agency that runs the armed-pilots program, reports that 85,000 to 90,000 pilots and crewmembers flying domestic passengers and cargo planes are eligible to carry a gun. That puts the number of armed pilots at about 9,500. The TSA projects the program to grow to 16.5% of eligible pilots by the year 2011. Aviation experts were surprised and alarmed that so many pilots are toting guns in the sky. "That's a big number compared to what I thought it would be," said aviation-security consultant Rich Roth, who said he had predicted there would be fewer than 1,000 armed pilots. The 5-year-old program trains pilots for one week and arms them with 40-caliber semiautomatic pistols. "That's a scary number," said Joseph Gutheinz, a former Transportation Department special agent and aviation attorney in Houston. "By allowing so many pilots the opportunity to fly armed, we're giving terrorists opportunity to identify somebody who has a gun and overpower him." Capt. Bob Hesselbein, head of security for the Air Line Pilots Association, said the number of armed pilots is "a tremendous deterrent " to hijackings. "The challenge of an organized terrorist team is to take control of the cabin, then the flight deck." Armed pilots have come under scrutiny since March 22 when the gun of a US Airways pilot fired in the cockpit of Flight 1536 as it approached Charlotte from Denver. No one was hurt, and the plane landed safely after the bullet pierced the fuselage. From this passage we can infer that about 9,500 pilots in the USA are allowed to carry _ while flying. A) shotguns B) 40-caliber automatic pistols C) handguns D) all the above
A: C
*Question*
The Dangers of Dieting Thanks to our modern lifestyle, with more and more time spent sitting down in front of computers than ever before, the number of overweight people is at a new high. As people crazily search for a solution to this problem, they often try some of the popular fad diets being offered. Many people see fad diets as harmless ways of losing weight, and they are grateful to have them. Unfortunately, not only don't fad diets usually do the trick, but they can actually be dangerous for your health. Although permanent weight loss is the goal, few are able to achieve it. Experts estimate that 95 percent of dieters return to their starting weight, or even add weight. While the irresponsible or unwise use of fad diets can bring some initial results, long-term results are very rare.[:**] Nonetheless, people who are bored with the difficulties of changing their eating habits often turn to fad diets. Rather than being moderate, fad diets involve extreme dietary changes. They advise eating only one type of food, or they prohibit other types of foods entirely. This results in a situation where a person's body doesn't get all the vitamins and other things that it needs to stay healthy. One popular fad diet recommends eating lots of meat and animal products, while nearly eliminating carbohydrates . A scientific study from Britain found that this diet is very high in fat. According to the study, the increase of damaging fats in the blood can lead to heart disease and, in extreme cases, kidney failure. Furthermore, diets that are too low in carbohydrates can cause the body to use its own muscle for energy. The less muscle you have, the less food you use up, and the result is slower weight loss. Veteran dieters may well ask at this point, "What is the ideal diet?" Well, to some extent, it depends on the individual. A United States government agency has determined that to change your eating habits requires changing your psychology of eating, and everyone has a different psychology. That being said, the British... After losing weight by dieting, what usually happens to people? A) They have kidney failure. B) They gain the weight back again. C) They keep the weight off. D) They have less muscle.
**Answer**
B