Do you usually go Dutch(AA) when you take someone out to dinner? Do you expect your date to pay for the whole meal? Many people say that as long as there's love, money doesn't matter much. But this might change when the relationship gets serious and it is related to the money borrowed from the bank, the family present accounts and debt. A survey among 8 million couples in the UK suggested that 44% of married couples don't know exactly what their partner earns. An astonishing 23% actively try to keep their finances secret from their partners. About 38% of them are open to each other. Another 12% refuses to tell the truth. British relationship expert Russell says: "It's very difficult to talk about money. Often there's guilt, there's shame. To start those conversations is difficult. Money can be about how we value ourselves, how we feel valued. It's not just a simple case of talking about hard cash." So if you are in a couple, it might be a good idea to check if you both are on the same page about money before bills pile up on the kitchen table and love flies out of the window. When moving in together, couples should not only talk about their personal habits but also about their financial ones. Russell has a word of advice: "Accept the fact that in your relationship you might do money differently - there might be a spender or a saver. It's very attractive if your partner does things differently to say they're wrong. Do it differently but plan it well." And now, back to that date. Would you be bored with someone who was attractive but expected you to pay the bill by yourself? There's food for thought. How many people are very careful not to let their partner know their income? A) About 3.5 million. B) About 3 million. C) About 1.9 million. D) About 0.96 million.
C
Saber Miresmailli was on vacation in London when, caught in a bit of traffic on London Bridge, he decided to take a photo of Tower Bridge. "I noticed the couple," he said. "At that moment, I did not see anyone from the wedding party or a photographer with the couple, so I took several pictures. Usually, my pictures are not very good given the fact that I don't use flash and I don't stop to compose --so when we get back after two weeks, I was very surprised to find this one turned out so well." Miresmailli said, "I thought to myself, if it was me getting married, I would have wanted the picture." So he posted the photo on Facebook and attached a few friends with the hope of finding the couple and passing them the picture. What happened next, he said, "was crazy." "I received more than 2,000 requests from perfect strangers and lots of positive and negative emails." Until this afternoon, almost 230,000 people had shared his Facebook post on the photo. There's also been an uncertain identification of the couple. It's likely that their names are Laura and James. "If it's the right couple," Miresmailli said, "they are on their honeymoon in Bali and have no idea about the photo. I believe they will be shocked to find out about their fame". Miresmailli said he's been drowned by the interest in the photo. "I just want to give them their picture and go back to work and tend my tomatoes," he said. Why are Miresmailli's photos usually not satisfactory? A) They are not developed in time. B) He is not good at finding views. C) He doesn't take enough pictures. D) He doesn't care much about photograph skills.
D
Q: You stare at waterfall for a minute or two, and then shift your gaze to its surroundings. What you now see appears to drift upward. These optical illusions occur because the brain is constantly matching its model of reality to signals from the body's sensors and interpreting what must be happening--that your brain must have moved, not the other; that downward motions is now normal, so a change from it must now be perceived as upward motion. The sensors that make this magic are of two kinds. Each eye contains about 120 million rods , which provide somewhat blurry black and white vision. These are the windows of night vision; once adapted to the dark, they can detect a candle burning ten miles away. Color vision in each eye comes from six to seven million structures called cones . Under ideal conditions, every cone can "see" the entire rainbow spectrum of visible color1s, but one type of cone is most sensitive to red, another to green, a third to blue. Rods and cones send their messages pulsing an average 20 to 25 times per second along the optic nerve. We see an image for a fraction of a second longer than it actually appears. In movies, reels of still photographs are projected onto screens at 24 frames per second, tricking our eyes into seeing a continuous moving picture. Like apparent motion, color1 vision is also subject to unusual effects. When day gives way to night, twilight brings what the poet T.S. Eliot called "the violet hour." A light levels fall, the rods become progressively less responsive. Rods are most sensitive to the shorter wavelengths of blue and green, and they impart a strange vividness to the garden's blue flowers. However, look at a white shirt during the reddish light of sunset, and you'll still see it in its "true" color1--white, not red. Our eyes are constantly comparing an object against its surroundings. They therefore observe the effect of a shift in the color1 of illuminating on both, and adjust accordingly. The eyes can distinguish several million graduations of light and shade... The author's purpose in writing the passage lies in _ . A) showing that we sometimes are deceived by our own eyes. B) informing us about the different functions of the eye organs. C) regretting that we are too slow in the study of eyes. D) marveling at the great work done by the retina.
A: B
Q: "A messy desk can actually lead people towards clearer thinking", say researchers from Germany. The researchers found in a series of linked studies----using a messy desk and a messy shop front ----that people actually thought more clearly when all around was chaos, as they sought to simplify the tasks at hand. Visual and mental mess forces human beings to focus and think more clearly. Famous thinkers and writers such as Albert Einstein and Roald Dahl have been well-known for their untidy desks. "Messy desks may not be as harmful as they appear to be. As the problem-solving approaches they seem to cause can increase work efficiency or improve employees' creativity in problem-solving," say the authors. "Business and government managers often promote 'clean desk' policies to avoid disorganized offices and messy desks, for the purpose of improving work efficiency and productivity," writes lead researcher Jia Liu from the University of Groningen in a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research. "This practice is based on the conventional wisdom that a disorganized and messy environment can clutter one's mind and make one's judgments difficult." "However, not all evidence supports this traditional link between a messy environment and a messy mind." The scientists tested people's response in various messy environments----including a messy shop front, a disorganized desk, and even a work environment where a language task "reminded" people of messiness. The authors found in the series of six studies tended towards simplicity in their thinking. "They categorized products in a simpler manner, were willing to pay more for a T-shirt that shows a simple-looking picture, and sought less variety in their choices," said the researchers. From the passage we can infer that_. A) managers often promote "clean desk" policies B) people tend to make clearer and simpler choices at a messy desk C) people find it hard to organize time at a messy desk D) people dislike a T-shirt with a simple-looking picture
A: B