Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: A unique thermo-solar power station Germasolar in southern Spain can work even on cloudy days:energy stored when the sun shines lets it produce electricity even during the night. It is the first solar power station in the world that works 24 hours a day! This is how it works: the panels reflect the sun's rays onto the tower, transmitting energy 1,000 times stronger than that of the sun's rays reaching the earth. Energy is stored in tanks, and then steam is produced before finally turned into electricity. It is the station's capacity to store plenty of energy that makes Gemasolar so different because it allows the plant to transmit power during the night, relying on energy it has gained during the day. Helped by the generous state aid, renewable energies have enjoyed a boom in Spain, the world number two in solar energy and the biggest wind power producer in Europe, ahead of Germany. For the Gemasolar solar product, foreign investors helped too: Torresol Energy is a joint enterprise between the Spanish engineering group Sener, which holds 60 percent, and Abu Dhabi-financed renewable energy firm Masdar. This type of station is expensive, not because of the raw material we use, which is free solar energy, but because of the enormous investment these plants require. The investment cost is over 200 million euros ($ 260 million). But the day when the business has repaid that money to the banks (maybe, in 18 years, someone estimates), this station will become a 1,000-euro note printing machine! For now, the economic crisis has nevertheless cast a shadow over this kind of project: Spain is battling to cut its deficit as it slides into a difficult time and has cancelled aid to new renewable energy projects. Question: What is NOT the reason for this power station being unique? Options: A: It is the first solar power station which costs over 200 million euros. B: It is the first solar power station in the world working around the clock. C: It even works well when it is cloudy. D: Its capacity to store energy is large.
A: A

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Communications technologies are far from equal when it comes to conveying the truth.The first study to compare honesty across a range of communication media has found that people are twice as likely to tell lies in phone conversations as they are in emails.The fact that emails are automatically recorded--and can come back to puzzle you---appears to be the key to the finding. Jeff Hancock of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, asked 30 students to keep a communications diary for a week.In it they noted the number of conversations or email exchanges they had lasting more than 10 minutes, and confessed to how many lies they told.Hancock then worked out the number of lies per conversation for each medium.He found that lies made up 14 per cent of emails, 21 percent of instant messages, 27 per cent of face-to-face interactions and an astonishing 37 percent of phone calls. His results to be presented at the conference on human-computer interaction in Vienna, Austria, in April, have surprised psychologists.Some expected emailers to be the biggest liars, reasoning that because deception makes people uncomfortable, the indirect contact of emailing would make it easier to lie.Others expected people to lie more in face-to-face exchanges because we are most practiced at that form of communication. But Hancock says it is also crucial whether a conversation is being recorded and could be reread, and whether it occurs in real time.People appear to be afraid to lie when they know the communication could later be used to hold them to account, he says.This is why fewer lies appear in email than on the phone. People are also more likely to lie in real time---in an instant message or phone call, say---than if they have time to think of a response, says Hancock.He found many lies are spontaneous responses to an unexpected demand, such as: "Do you like my dress?" Hancock hopes his research will help companies work out the best ways for their employees to communicate.For instance, the phone might be the best medium for sales... Question: Hancock's research finding surprised those who believed that _ . Options: A: people are less likely to lie instant messages B: people are unlikely to lie in face-to-face interactions C: people are most likely to lie in email communication D: people are twice as likely to lie in phone conversations
A: C

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The famous director of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset over the ocean so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other for ever . He sent his camera crew out one evening to film the sunset for him . The next morning he said to the men , " Have you provided me with that sunset ? " " No , sir . " the men answered . The director was angry . " Why not ? " he asked . " Well , sir , " one of the men answered . " we're on the east coast here , and the sets in the west . We can get you a sunrise over the sea , if necessary , but not a sunset . " " But I want a sunset ! " the director shouted . " Go to the airport . take the next flight to the west coast , and get one . " But then a young secretary had an idea . " Why don't you photograph a sunrise . " she suggested . " and then play it backwards ? Then it'll look like a sunset . " The camera crew went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful bay . Then at nine o'clock they took it to the director . " Here it is sir . " they said , and gave it to him . He was very pleased . They all went into the studio . " All right . " the director explained . " now our hero and heroine are going to say good-bye . Run the film backwards so that we can see the ' sunset behind them . ' " The " sunset " began , but after a quarter of a minute , the director suddenly put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera crew to stop . The birds in the film were flying backwards . and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach . Question: After the " sunset " began , the director suddenly put his face in his hands _ . Options: A: because he was moved to tears B: as he saw everything in the film moving backwards C: as the sunrise did not look as beautiful as he had imagined D: because he was disappointed with the performance of the hero and heroine
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe. Previous studies have linked high exposure to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problem, but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of "moderate" quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure. The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health. Question: The text mainly discusses the relationship between _ . Options: A: heart problems and air quality B: heart problems and exercising C: heart problems and smoking D: heart problems and fatty food
A: A