City traffic is a great problem. More cars are produced every year and the streets are getting more and more crowded. So during "rush hours", when people are going to or from their work, traffic is brought to a standstill. It has been suggested that commuters--the people who travel to work every day from outside the city--should share their cars and give each other lifts. So each car would carry four or five people instead of only one. It is an excellent idea., however, so far nobody has been able to think of a way to make people do so. To discourage motorists from leaving their cars in the streets all day, parking meters are used. When you park at a meter, you must put a coin in the slot . This pays for a certain amount of time. The meter records this and it shows when the time that you have paid for is finished. If the car is still there then, you have to pay a fine. Traffic wardens look after the meters. They walk around the streets and check that every meter shows that money has been paid for the car parked there. If a meter shows 'TIME EXPIRED', the motorist who has left his car there is fined. Of course, the traffic warden can not wait for the owner of the car to return. He carries many printed forms, and on one of these he writes down all the details, such as the number of the car, where it is parked, how much the driver must pay and where he must send the money. He leaves this form on the car, where the driver will be able to see it easily; he usually pushes it under one of the windscreen wipers so that it will not be blown away. And in case it rains before the motorist returns, the form is put in a little plastic envelope to protect it. When the driver comes back, he gets an unpleasant surprise, but it is his own fault for leaving his car too long at parking meter. You have to pay a fine if_. A) you drive at night B) you leave your car in the street C) your car is still parked in the street when the given time is finished D) you park car in other's places
C
Chicago's children's Hospital is the lucky receiver of a surprise $18million gift from Gladys Holm.She once was a secretary who never earned more than $15000 a year and never married.She lived alone in a small flat in Chicago,and was a volunteer at the Children's Hospital.She was called the "Teddy Bear lady" because she brought toy animals to sick children on her regular visits.But Miss Holm,who died in 1996 at the age of 86 ,was also a long-time buyer of stocks .Over the years,she saved money that rose up to $18 million ,which she left to the Children's Hospital .It was the largest single donation in the hospital's 115-year history.The hospital president,Jan Jennings,was shocked when she heard the news "when Miss Holm's lawyer called to tell me how much that money was,I asked him to repeat it ,since I was certain I had misheard." Why did Gladys Holm fell so strongly about the Children's Hospital? Jennings said the hospital first touched Miss Holm's heart nearly 50 years ago,when doctors there saved the life of her friend's daughter.She never forgot the happiness she felt all those years ago. Holm's gift will be devoted to heart disease research.People at the hospital said they regretted that they couldn't thank Miss Holm for the surprising gift. How will the donated money be used? A) To built up a new children's hospital B) To help sick children and their parents C) To improve research on heart disease D) To buy more toys for sick children
C
Q: Swimming is one of those activities that can be learned early in life. Little children can learn to swim as soon as they walk. In fact, you need the same skills in walking as in swimming. However, I believe that five is the best age to learn. By five or six, a child knows fear of water, a very important thing to know. It's wise to be afraid, to recognize true danger. Young ones understand that the water can sometimes be very dangerous. To really benefit from swimming, every swimmer should learn, as soon as possible, these four basic strokes; butterfly, backstroke, Breaststroke, and crawl. I feel that one of these-the breaststroke-is different from the others, since some young swimmers use this stroke naturally, without any training. In swimming there are certain rules every swimmer should follow: 1). Never swim alone! No matter how good you are in the water, don't risk drowning by swimming alone. If you swim by yourself, with no life guards or friends with you, you may get into trouble. 2). Don't go beyond your abilities. Most swimmers know enough not to swim too far from the bank or the beach, Showing off by doing dangerous tricks is no good. Swim safely and you will continue to swim and alive. 3). Don't smoke. Swimming depends on a healthy body; good lungs are part of it. 4). Work at any activity that builds muscles. The author believes that fear of water is _ . A) stupid B) sensible C) dangerous D) not smart
A: B
Staying married has its benefits. A new U.S.-wide study shows the wealth of a married person is almost double that of somebody who is single. "If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married. On the other hand, divorce can destroy your wealth," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study. Married people will see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people, ac-cording to the study published in the Journal of Sociology. Those who remained together saw a 93 percent gain in wealth compared to that of a single person, while individuals facing divorce saw their financial situation worsen long before they finally divorced, according to Zagorsky. The study used data from surveys taken over a 15-year period involving 9,055 Americans who were between 21 and 28 years old in 1985. Those who remained single had a steady, but slow growth in wealth, from less than $2,000 at the start of the surveys up to an average of about $11,000 after 15 years. However, those who married and stayed that way showed a sharp increase in wealth after marriage, growing to an average $43,000 by the 10th year of marriage or by about 16 percent a year. For people who married and then divorced, there was a slow build-up of wealth during the early years of marriage and then a steady decrease about four years before divorce. The study also showed doubt about a common idea that divorce was much harder financially on women than on men. In fact, it showed that women suffered financially only slightly more than men. If you married and then divorced, what would happen to your finances? A) Your money wouldn't increase at all until you got divorced. B) Your wealth would increase slowly first, and then decrease before you got divorced. C) You would lose more money if you didn't get divorced. D) You would find you made no more money than those who were single.
B