A military train carrying soldiers has derailed south of Egypt's capital Cairo, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 100, officials say. The train was travelling to an army camp in Cairo when it came off the tracks in the Badrashin area of Giza. It is not yet known what caused the accident. Egypt's roads and railways have a poor safety record. Last November 50 children died after a train crash into their school bus. Both the transport minister and the head of the railway authority were forced to resign as a result of the crash, which took place in November near Manfalut, 350km south of Cairo. Investigations later showed the barriers at the crossing were not closed because the signal operator had fallen asleep. Monday's incident occurred as the army train was heading from Upper Egypt into Cairo. Reports say more than 1,300 passengers were aboard the train when the accident happened shortly after midnight. The passengers wounded in the accident have been taken to hospitals, the governor of Giza said. An eyewitness told BBC Arabic that he saw two dozen dead bodies at the scene of the accident. The latest incident could increase the pressure on the government to deal with the safety of trains, the BBC's Said Shehata reports from Cairo. Four years ago, some 18 people were killed and dozens injured in an accident crash between two passenger trains in the Giza area. And in 2002, a train caught fire in Cairo, killing 373 people. The accident perhaps happened at _ . A) 1 p.m. B) 2 p.m. C) 6 a.m. D) 1 a.m.
D
How men first learnt to invent words is unknown; in other words, the origin of language is a mystery. All we really know is that men, unlike animals, somehow invented certain sounds to express thoughts and feelings, actions and things, so that they could communicate with each other; and that later they agreed upon certain signs, called letters. These letters could be combined to represent those sounds, and which could be written down. Those sounds, whether spoken, or written in letters, we call words. The power of words, then, lies in their associations---the things they bring up before our minds. Words become filled with meaning for us by experience, and the longer we live, the more certain words recall to us the glad and sad events of our past; and the more we read and learn, the more the number of words that mean something to us increases. Great writers are those who not only have great thoughts but also express these thoughts in words which appeal powerfully to our minds and emotions. This charming and telling use of words is what we call literary style. Above all, the real poet is a master of words. He can convey his meaning in words which sing like music and which by their position and association can move men to tears. We should therefore learn to choose our words carefully and use them accurately, or they will make our speech silly and vulgar . What does this passage primarily concern? A) The Meaning of Words. B) The Characteristics of Words. C) The Origin of Words. D) The Power of Words.
D
Q: "In the online world you don't need to fill buildings or lecture theatres with people and you don't need to be trapped into a lecture timetable," says Peter Scott, director of the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute. The Open University, the UK's open access university, which allows people to study from home in their own time, has been an international pioneer of degree courses online. The university, with more than 263,000 students in 23 countries, has become a record breaker on the iTunes U service, which provides a digital library of materials for university students and staff.Instead of music or movies, Apple's iTunes U provides a download service for lectures and resources from universities around the world.Top universities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard in the US to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK have been making their materials available, with no charge to the users. There have been 31 million downloads of OU materials, more than any other university, representing roughly 10% of all iTunes U downloads.Nearly 90% of these users are from outside the UK.In this online era, the OU student is also getting younger.A quarter of students are aged under-25 and only 10% are aged 50 or over.That change can only be accelerated as the cost of going to university increases in many countries.The prospect of learning from Harvard from your own bedroom is getting closer. "We have a belief that a degree and an opportunity are rights for all citizens.And we have got to enable the population of students attending higher education to scale up.What I am most excited about is that the privilege of going for higher education is not something only for the wealthy or for the smartest or for the most well-equipped students in the future," an American educator says.Online education will be a way of opening up more choices and getting beyond the big brand names of the most exclusive universities. At the Open University, Peter Scott says they are trying to develop services that give students... According to the passage, we can infer that _ . A) all the citizens can get the higher education now B) online education will take the place of the traditional education C) online education will probably change the way that people go for higher education D) studying in Harvard or Cambridge will become easier in the future
A: C
Q: Every year more people recognize that it is wrong to kill wildlife for "sport." Progress in this direction is slow because shooting is not a sport for watching, and only those few who take part realize the cruelty and destruction. The number of gunners, however, grows rapidly. Children too young to develop proper judgments through independent thought are led along way away by their gunning parents. They are subjected to advertisements of gun producers who describe shooting as good for their health and guncarrying as a way of putting redder blood in the veins . They are persuaded by gunner magazines with stories honoring the chase and the kill. In school they view motion pictures which are supposedly meant to teach them how to deal with arms safely but which are actually designed to stimulate a desire to own a gun. Wildlife is disappearing because of shooting and because of the loss of wildland habitat . Habitat loss will continue with our increasing population, but can we slow the loss of wildlife caused by shooting? There doesn't seem to be any chance if the serious condition of our birds is not improved. Wildlife belongs to everyone and not to the gunners alone. Although most people do not shoot, they seem to forgive shooting for sport because they know little or nothing about it. The only answer, then, is to bring the truth about sport shooting to the great majority of people. Now, it is time to realize that animals have the same right to life as we do and that there is nothing fair or right about a person with a gun shooting the harmless and beautiful creatures. The gunners like to describe what they do as character-building, but we know that to wound an animal and watch it go through the agony of dying can make nobody happy. If, as they would have you believe, gun-carrying and killing improve human-character, then perhaps we should encourage war. According to the text, most people do not seem to be against hunting because _ . A) they have little knowledge of it B) it helps to build human character C) it is too costly to stop killing wildlife D) they want to keep wildlife under control
A: A