It was a sunny holiday Monday. Olivier Ferrante was cooking sausages on the barbecue and entertaining friends in his garden north of Paris when the phone rang. The call came from the BEA, France's air accidents investigation bureau , where the 38-year-old former football player and driver was an investigator. The news was grim. "An Airbus is missing over the Atlantic: we need you." As a safety investigator,Ferrante and his teams had participated, directly and indirectly,in the recovery of crashed planes from the Red Sea, the Black Sea,and every ocean. But this investigation would be his toughest ever: the plane had disappeared without a witness, or a trace on radar . At least eight ships and a dozen military aircraft gathered on the plane's last known position, about halfway between Brazil and Western Africa. After six days the aircraft's tail fin and 50 bodies were spotted on the surface and the first burning questions were answered. The plane wreckage and passenger injuries indicated the doomed Airbus was unbroken when it hit the water. It was not exploded apart by a bomb or lightning, now broken up by violent weather. Strangely, no mayday message had been sent by its pilots. Ferrante worked energetically with his team:collecting offers of help from around the world, consulting navy ministries and research organizations in France and elsewhere, and contracting suitable ships and high-tech equipment. He would not return home for another 29 days. His team used the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle(AUV) operated around the clock, searching about 400 square kilometers a day. But the race against time was lost and no signals were heard and no more wreckage was found. Day after day, the screen remained bare except for objects that turned out to be stones or garbage from ships. Stressed by media attention and painful meetings with victims' s,Ferrante went jogging one day to clear his head. Then he had an idea. He decided to look at what had happened to nine other planes that crashed after something abruptly... Based on the passage,which of the following is most probably true? A) All of the people on the plane did not survive this air crash. B) The crashed Airbus plane belonged to Air France. C) No media were watching the search after many failures. D) The bodies of victims were hard to recognize.
B
(Question)
Lang Lang,one of the best-known Chinese pianists in the world,was born in 1982 in Shenyang.He began to take piano lessons at the age of three.At the age of five he won the Shenyang Piano Competition and played his first public recital.Four years later,he got the chance to study at the Central Music Conservatory in Beijing. What made him sad was that his piano teacher in Beijing didn't like him."You have no talent.You will never be a pianist,"said the teacher.Lang Lang was badly hurt.He decided that he didn't want to be a pianist any more.For the next two weeks he didn't touch the piano.Wisely,his father didn't push,but waited. Luckily,the day came when his teacher asked him to play some holiday songs.He didn't want to,but as he placed his fingers on the piano keys,he realised that he could show others that he had talent after all.From that point on,everything turned around.Lang Lang's father even quit his job and followed Lang Lang everywhere he went,not only as a father,but also as a manager,tutor and friend. He started winning competitions.In the 1994 International Young Pianists Competition,Lang Lang impressed the audience with his splendid piano skills.In 1997 Lang Lang went to Philadelphia,US,where he spent two years practising.During his study there he made rapid progress and became a top professional pianist.After his successful performance at Chicago's Ravinia Festival,gigs in Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall he started pouring in.Lang Lang finally worked to reach the place where fortune spotted him and let him shine. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? A) At first,Lang Lang had no talent for piano. B) All of Lang Lang's teachers like him. C) Lang Lang went to Philadelphia,US,at the age of 18. D) Lang Lang's father must have done a lot for his success.
(Answer)
D
Around 200 people who thought their only experience of the London 2012 Olympic Games would be minor heats of synchronized swimming have received an unexpected hange to the men's 100m final because of an embarrassing ticketing mistake. The London 2012 Organising Committee (Locog) confirmed on Wednesday that an error n its ticket selling had led to four synchronised swimming competitions being oversold by 10, 000 tickets. Locog and its ticket agent spent the Christmas period contacting ticket holders and offering them alternatives that included the tickets they had applied for but unsuccessful.The hanges need no additional cost.It has also offered to return any discrepancy if the n ew tickets cost less than the originals.Locog said the replacement tickets would come from a number of unsold seats across the Olympic Games and _ was doing all it could to make up the error to the fans who bought tickets. Locog said the error occurred in the summer, between the first and second round of ticket sales, when a member of staff made a mistake, entering "20,000" into the computer rather than the correct figure of 10,000 remaining tickets.The error was discovered when Locog checked the number of tickets that had been sold against the final seating numbers, and began contacting ticket holders before Christmas. Thousands of ticket holders have already struck lucky, changing to tickets for major events including swimming and athletics finals, and in around 200 cases the hottest of all, the men's 100m final.Locog said the decision to award 100m final tickets was made because one of the synchronised swimming competitions was on the same afternoon as the event, August 5. Which of the following is true according to the text? A) The synchronized swimming is the hottest of the Olympics. B) Thousands of ticket holders refused to change their tickets. C) The men's 100m final will take place on August 5, 2012. D) The number of tickets for synchronised swimming is 10,000.
C