Jack used to curse the front yard as if it were a living thing. He was the man who lived with my grandmother for thirty years. He was not my grandfather, but an Italian who came down the road one day, selling fruit in Florida. Jack stopped at my grandmother's house to sell her some oranges just a stone's throw from downtown Miami, and he was delivering her whiskey a week later. He stayed for thirty years. Jack hated the front yard because he thought it was against him. There had been a beautiful lawn there when Jack came along, but he let it wander off into nothing. He refused to water it or take care of it in any way. Now the ground was so hard that it gave his car flat tires in the summer. The yard was always finding a nail to put in one of his tires or the car as always sinking out of sight in the winter when the rains came on. The lawn had belonged to my grandfather, who lived out the end of his life in an insane hospital. It had been his pride and joy and was said to be the place where his powers came. We can learn from the passage that when the lawn belonged to the author's grandfather, it had been _ . A) beautiful B) worn out C) wasted D) full of nails
A
(Question)
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(Answer)
B
Ques: Picture a wasteland of computer monitors and TVs, stretching as far as the eye can see. Imagine towers of boxes, all of them filled with broken glass and old electronic devices. Technology graveyards like this can be found in communities across the country. Experts say that landfills and warehouses will overflow unless a plan for the disposal and reuse of electronics is put into place. "We can't put electronics and glass aside and tell ourselves we'll deal with them later," Lauren Roman, managing director of Transparent Planet said. Roman's group works to improve the disposal of electronic waste. She says about 660 million pounds of tech trash is produced each year in the US. What's behind the tech trash pile-up? About ten years ago, major advances were made in computer and television technology. Manufacturers began producing devices like flat-paneled LCDs and plasma screen monitors. These new products provide a clearer image and take up less space than older models. It goes without saying that consumers choose them rather than heavy, glass-based technologies. The new electronics are built with materials that are difficult to recycle. In addition, the new products have decreased the demand for recycled parts from the older monitors and screens. Older, heavier computer monitors and TVs used glass-based components called CRTs. CRTs have a high lead content and can be environmentally risky if not recycled properly. If crushed and put in landfills, the lead from CRTs could seep into groundwater and rivers, harming the water supply. For many years, plants and recycling programs safely processed CRTs. The recycled CRTs were reused in the construction of new monitors. Monitors being made today do not use glass tubes. "People are returning old-style TVs with CRTs, but no new ones are being made," said Linnel. This is creating an imbalance in the amount of glass being disposed of and recycled properly. Many recycling companies have shut down. Others no longer have the resources or space to process... What is the main idea of the passage? A) New technologies cause trouble for recyclers. B) Experts are trying to solve the tech trash problem. C) New technology has both advantages and disadvantages D) CRTs from old computer monitors harm the earth.
Ans: A
(Q).
Which _ is the most talkative? No matter what you answer, you are partially right. A recent Gallup Poll show that both man and women believe that women possess the gift of talking and some even believe women are biologically built for conversation, but all of this is challenged in research published in the November issue of "Personality and Social Psychology Review". In recent research by Campbell Leaper and Melanie Ayres, they collected all of the available evidence from decades of scientific study and systematically combined the findings into an overall picture of the differences between men and women regarding talkativeness. They found a small but reliable tendency for men to be more talkative than women in certain cases, such as when they were conversing with their wives or with strangers. Women talked more to their children and to their college classmates. The type of speech was also explored in the research. The researchers discovered that, with strangers, women were generally more talkative when it came to using speech to ensure her connection to the listener, while men's speech focused more on an attempt to influence the listener. With close friends and family, however, there was very little difference between genders in the amount of speech. Talking with strangers, _ . A) women are more talkative than with people they know B) men are more talkative than with their wives C) women prefer to listen more rather than speak more D) men speak a lot to have their opinions accepted
(A).
D
The very wealthy English Baron Fitzgerald had only one child, a son, who understandably was the apple of his eye. His wife died when the child was in his early teens. So Fitzgerald devoted himself to (...) fathering the kid. Unfortunately the son died in his late teens. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald's wealth greatly increased. He spent a lot on art works of the masters . Later Fitzgerald himself became seriously ill. Before his death, he had carefully prepared his will as to how his wealth would be settled - to sell his entire collection at an auction . Because of the large quantity and high quality of his collection, a huge crowd of possible buyers gathered for the auction. Many of them were museum directors and private collectors eager to bid . Before the auction, the art works were shown, among which was a painting of Fitzgerald's son by an unknown artist. Because of its poor quality, it received little attention. When it was time for the auction, the auctioneer gaveled the crowd to attention. First the lawyer read from Fitzgerald's will that the first art work to be auctioned was the painting of his son. The poor-quality painting didn't receive any bidders, except one old servant who had served the son and loved him, and who for emotional reasons offered the only bid. As soon as the servant bought the painting for less than one English pound, the auctioneer stopped the bidding and asked the lawyer to read again from the will. The crowd became quiet, and the lawyer read from the will: "Whoever buys the painting of my son gets all my collection." Then the auction was over. Fitzgerald's will showed _ . A) his desire to fool the bidders B) his invaluable love for his son C) his sadness at the death of his son D) his regret of having no children to take over his wealth
B