Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: When you see homework covering the kitchen table and toys are piling up around the sofa, you probably wish there was a bit more space. You are not alone. Nearly a third of parents say they feel squeezed into their homes but cannot afford to move to a bigger property, a report reveals today. Twenty-nine perc ent say "their property is too small to fit the size of their family--rising to 40 percent for those 34 and under". One in four children is 'forced to share' a bedroom, according to the Finda-Property. Com website. Property analyst Samantha Baden said: "Afford-ability remains a key issue for families, with the average cost of a three-bedroom home around PS193,000."Very few can afford to buy or to rent a property of the size they want and in the area they desire to live in, according to Miss Baden. A recent report, from investment firm LV, also found that many 'space-starved parents'are pushed into a two-bedroom home which was perfect when they were a young couple, but has no space for three or so children. Grown-up children who cannot afford to leave homo are also adding to the problem facing families in Britain's 'big squeeze'. For a home to be the correct size, which means it is not overcrowded, parents must have their own bedroom. Children under ten can share, as well as same-sex children between ten and 20.Anyone over 21 also needs their own room. Question: The report comes as official figures, published yesterday by the Land Registry, revealing house prices are falling sharply in every region except London. The worst - hit area is the North East where average house prices have fallen to below PS100, 000 for the first time in seven years. However, they remain unaffordable for millions.According to Paragraph 1, the report reveals_. Options: A: children like to do homework in the kitchen B: some families can't afford a bigger property C: only a few families have housing problem D: people are satisfied with their living condition
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Who's in control of your life? Who's pulling your strings ? For the majority of us, it's other people--society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry , their passions a quotation." So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug--we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix , we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval. But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom--the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. People have their own agenda , and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probably pleasing no one in the process. So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way--make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values--not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more... Question: It can be concluded from the passage that _ . Options: A: it's better to do what we like B: we shouldn't care what others think C: we shouldn't change our own opinions D: it's important to accept others' opinions
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Most British telephone cards are just plain green, but card collecting is becoming a popular hobby in Britain and collectors even have their own magazine, International Telephone Cards. One reason for their interest is that cards from around the world come in a wide variety of different and often very attractive designs. There are 100, 000 different cards in Japan alone, and there you can put your own design onto a blank card simply by using a photograph or a business card. The first telephone cards, produced in 1976, were Italian. Five years later the first British card appeared, and now you can buy cards in more than a hundred countries. People usually start collecting cards because they are attractive, small and light , and they do not need much space. It is also a cheap hobby for beginners, although for some people it becomes a serious business. In Paris, for example, there is a market where you can buy only telephone cards, and some French cards cost up to 4, 000 pounds. The first Japanese card has a value of about 28, 000 pounds. Most people only see cards with prices like these in their collectors magazine. Question: The main reason for most people to collect phone cards is that _ . Options: A: they find the cards beautiful and easy to keep B: they like to have something from different countries C: they want to make money with cards D: they think the cards are convenient to use
A: A

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: International teams have spent nearly half a year looking for evidence of the missing Malaysian Airlines plane, a search that includes the hunt for the aircraft's so-called black box, which holds flight data that would likely explain what caused MH370 to move away from its course. But many aviation experts wonder why, in our increasingly networked world, divers are searching the Indian Ocean for a metal box when technology already exists that would enable planes to stream black box data to the ground in the event of an emergency. Black boxes have been on planes since the late 1950s, and now every commercial aircraft has two: a flight data recorder and a voice recorder. (Although they are referred to as black boxes, they are typically orange in color, making them easier to spot in waters.) Black box recorders are mainly used to investigate the cause of in-flight accidents. While black boxes are built to survive a crash and long-term submersion in water, it can be a real challenge to find the device if a plane has gone down in the ocean. While each box contains a beacon , the unit only has enough battery power to transmit a signal for 30 days. After the crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, it took divers two years to find the black box. Pierre Jeanniot, a Canadian engineer who helped perfect black box technology about 40 years ago, feels that the device, in its current form, is " _ ". He started to question its effectiveness more than a decade ago, after seeing the broken pieces of the black boxes in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade towers in New York. Jeanniot is now on the advisory board of a Toronto-based firm that has built a live-streamed black box system. When a plane experiences an irregular event, the system can send streaming data off the aircraft to one of the satellites and then down to ground-based servers, where the message is interpreted and sent to the airline. It seems necessary that the loss of MH370 and other similar cases wake more people up to the fact that... Question: What's airlines' attitude towards the live-streamed black box system? Options: A: They approve of the system since it may save time, money and effort. B: They consider using the system as the bottom line of costs. C: They are reluctant to start the system because it still needs improving. D: They are unwilling to equip planes with the system as it cuts their profits.
A: D