What can help you make a fortune in the future? Graduating from a top university might not be enough. A new study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more friends you have in school, the more money you'll earn later. The idea that popularity could have a serious impact on one's earning potential shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills and networking are easily as powerful as talent and hard work. "If a person has lots of friends, it means that he or she has the ability to get along with others in all kinds of different situations," said Xu Yanchun, 17, from Nantou High School in Shenzhen, who totally agreed with the recent finding. "Also, friends always help each other. They not only create wider social circles for you but lift your mood when you occasionally feel depressed," said Xu. She believed that all this helps you "earn a higher salary". Maybe that's why some people think the younger generations are in the age of Friendalholism . A woman even complained that the networking website Facebook's 5,000-friend limit was too low for her large reserve of social contacts. But what does a friend mean? Should friends be regarded as a form of currency? "Call me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing. It seems, however, that this is no longer the definition of 'friend'," said Meghan Daum, who works with the Los Angeles Times in the US. According to Xu Yanchun, when you have lots of friends, it means _ . A) you have the ability to earn more money B) you will not feel lonely C) you are quite content with your life D) you have the ability to get along with others in various situations
D
(Question)
Unless you bring your own thermos, paper cups are the real option for on-the-go coffee. But as we all know, producing these simple items cuts down forests of trees and contributes to mountains of waste. In fact, Starbucks alone uses 4 billion paper cups a year globally and most of these plastic-lined cups are never recycled. But a project from Reduce. Reuse. Grow. is handling the coffee industry's paper cup problem by giving these single-use coffee holders a further purpose: reforestation. A company in California has developed the world's first plantable coffee cup, which has seeds in the paper-based material. That means after you're done with the cup, you can tear it, leave it in water for a few minutes, bury it and let nature take over. To prevent the spread of invasive plants, the bottom of the cup details the seed variety and also includes instructions on how to plant it either in the northern or central coast of California. For those who don't want to get their hands dirty, the cup can be put into a Reduce. Reuse. Grow bin where it will eventually be taken to a reforestation location. The cup can biodegrade within 180 days and offer nutrition to plants. The company is trying to put the cup into commercial production and persuade coffee shops to buy the cups. The seed variety is shown on the cup mainly to _ . A) interest cup users B) spread knowledge of plants C) make sure it is planted properly D) help users choose certain cups
(Answer)
C
Ques: LONDON --- A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake bomb detectors to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn't cared about potentially deadly consequences. It is believed that James McCormick got about $77.8 million from the sales of his detectors which were based on a kind of golf ball finder to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. McCormick, 57, was convicted of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London. "Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people," Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. "you have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt." The detectors, sold for up to $42,000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they "lacked any grounding in science" and were of no use. McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand. "I never had any bad results from customers," he said. ks5u Why was McCormick sentenced to prison? A) He sold bombs. ks5u B) He caused death of people. C) He made detectors. D) He cheated in business.
Ans: D
Targeting teens Using the Web makes teens a target. Posting too much personal information for those millions of cyber eyes to see can cause some big problems and can even invite a threat to your life. As Mary learned, not everyone on the Internet is who he or she says they are. Adults will sometimes pose as other teens, posting fake photos and nice messages to gain trust. They use their fake identity to access the personal information of others, such as home address, phone number, or school name. "That's not the most common scenario ", says David Finkelhor, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire. "Only 3 percent of teens aged 10 to 18 who use the Internet report being asked to meet offline. But the danger is real. Safety measures Mary's My Space profile is set to "private", which means that only the people she adds under the "friend" category can access her page. She also doesn't have any pictures of herself on her site. The only self-identifying material she has posted is her name, grade, and a list of hobbies. "People can only add me if they know my last name or my e-mail, "Mary says. " I don't want random people to see my profile. I just go online to talk to my friends." Stay safe and have fun online Experts say almost 90 percent of U.S. teens are online. But not everyone knows how to surf the Web in a smart way. With these tips, you can have fun, stay safe, and avoid embarrassment! Pick a safe password. Make sure your password is something that other people won't be able to guess. Use numbers in between letters. "spar123ky" is better than "sparky 123." Pick a safe username. Make sure yours doesn't say too much about you, "Happygirl13" is better than "AliceWaters13." Don't include your name, age, or where you are from. Never tell a stranger your name, school, address, age, birthday, phone number, or friends' names. Why are numbers used when we pick a safe password? A) Numbers are easy to write. B) Using numbers are cool online. C) The safe password is more unlikely to be guessed. D) Numbers are popular online.
C