*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: The rise of the so-called "boomerang generation" is revealed in official figures showing that almost one in five graduates in their late 20s now live with their parents. By contrast, only one in eight university graduates had failed to fly the nest by the same age 20 years ago. It also found that grown-up sons are twice as likely as their sisters to still be living with their parents in their late 20s. With nearly a quarter of men approaching 30 still living at home, the findings are bound to lead to claims of a "generation of mummy's boys". Young professionals in their late 20s or early 30s have been nicknamed the "boomerang generation" because of the trend toward returning to the family home having initially left to study. Recent research has suggested that young people in Britain are twice as likely to choose to live with their parents in their late 20s than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe. Growing housing prices, rising student debts and the effects of recession on the job market have forced a wave of young people to move back into the family home at an age when they would normally be moving out. But commentators warned that the phenomenon may have more to do with young people facing " _ " prospects than simply a desire to save money. While the proportion of those of university or college age moving out from the family home has continued to rise in the last 20 years, among those in their mid and late 20s the trend has been reversed. Overall 1.7 million people aged from 22 to 29 now share a roof with their parents, including more than 760,000 in their late 20s. In 1988, 22.7 per cent of men aged 25 to 29 were still living with their parents but last year the proportion was 24.5 per cent. Question: The following factors may account for the phenomenon except _ . Options: A: that living prices have risen a lot B: that it's difficult to land a job C: that education has already cost them a lot D: that parents can help them more
**Answer**
D

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: Last week, on a flight to Washington, I met a confident businessman who asked me about my profession when sitting himself down comfortably next to me. I told him that I am an educator, and for twelve years I have been trying to develop and promote critical thinking about learning in mainstream education. "Goodness, it must be the most difficult task in the world!" He thought for a moment. "Why do you do this?" I talked about how I had started teaching geography. I told him about the struggles of being a headmaster. And then I told him what I have come to regard as my real turning-point experience. It was back in 1984, when I visited what was known at the time as one of the most outstanding high schools on the Eastern seaboard. After two days there I was totally amazed. I had never met such a fine collection of young people, every one of them apparently confident, enthusiastic, sensitive and well able to manage their futures. I asked the principal how this had been achieved and he smiled. "We believe in functional literacy for all young people; that is, the ability to feel confident that you can handle the challenges of modern society. That confidence comes when you know that you are able to manage your own learning and will be able to handle that throughout a lifetime. And that," he concluded, "requires the highest possible skills in thinking, communicating, collaborating and decision-making." "But, for goodness' sake, those are just the skills I'm looking for among my employees," exclaimed my companion. "That's just what industry has been trying to tell the academic world for years. Instead of listening, you continue to perpetuate a set of practices which are opposite to those very skills needed in employment. You teachers think that life is about working alone on some piece of academic research in an ivory tower different from the daily routines. You just don't understand about working with confusion, nor do you accept the importance of rule-of-thumb calculations or even simple guesswork! This is the... Question: We can infer from the passage that the businessman _ . Options: A: is critical of the way students are taught in schools B: attaches great importance to work experience C: thinks highly of the teaching profession D: is not satisfied with the performance of his employees
**Answer**
A

*Question*
I'm taking a test and have to guess the right answer to the question after the article. Article: It is a novel that is probably more talked about than read. People think: "It's such a big book! It has such a serious theme!" The feeling that they are going to be taught a long, hard lesson often puts readers off. But really, War and Peace (1869), which tells the stories of five upper-class families in Russia at the time of the 1812 French invasion, is not to be missed. Reading this novel is one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, like climbing the Great Wall: You will regret it if you do not try. Earlier this month, USA Today reported that a six-episode War and Peace miniseries produced by the BBC would air next year. With a complex plot and so many characters, readers unfamiliar with the work might be most interested in the characters from the financially-troubled Rostov family of Moscow. Count Rostov has four teenage children. Natasha is in love with Boris Drubetskoy, who is about to become an army officer. Nikolai Ilyich loves the poor Sonya, a ward of the family, but his family is not happy with their relationship. The proud Vera is about to start a happy marriage with a German-Russian officer. The youngest Rostov is the 9-year-old Petya, who, like his brother Nikolai, has his heart set on fighting for his country. The lives of all are about to be changed by the upcoming great war that involves many other major characters of War and Peace, such as Prince Andrei, who goes into a military career partly in order to get away from his unhappy marriage to the socialite Lise. The novel has a great reputation among many kinds of writers and millions of readers. US writer Ernest Hemingway wrote: "I don't know anybody who could write about war better than Tolstoy did." A comment by the great 20th-century Russian short-story writer Isaak Babel shows the rich sense of history that Tolstoy's work conveys. "If the world itself could write, it would write like Tolstoy," Babel commented. Question: Why do people prefer to talk about the novel rather than read it? Options: A: The story is directly related to their daily life. B: The story is too long and has too serious a theme. C: They often get confused with the complex relationship. D: They can understand the story through shared ideas.
**Answer**
B