An ATM that spits out cupcakes instead of cash is now filling a popular demand in the American market:late-night desire for freshly baked sweets. In six cities across the country, sugar addicts can now purchase a cupcake for $4.25 from an automatic machine 24 hours every day.The freshly baked goods are made by the California-based cupcake shop Sprinkles. The idea came to the company's co-founders Candace and Charles Nelson when Candace was pregnant with their first child. Candace thought it was ridiculous that she owned cupcake bakeries aad couldn't get a freshly baked treat at an unusual hour.That desire inspired the company's first cupcake ATM in Beverly Hills,Calif.in 2012. Charles said each ATM serves about l,000 cupcakes per day.The machine is so popular that when it appeared in Manhattan, customers were lined up around the block to use _ Yet,inventing the first cupcake ATM was not as easy as convincing customers to use it.When the Nelsons started defigning the machine,they quickly realized nothing existed that could give a fully unbroken cupcake to a customer.The company had to partner with a European firm to develop the technology that could deliver a cupcake without dropping it several feet like a typical machine.After going through a seeond development cycle with the product, the ATMs can now satisfy tlle demand of growing customers and even make as many as four cupcakes at a time. In terms of the company, the-machine allows Sprinkles to do the impossible:increase hours of operation without raising costs.Now the company can sell cupcakes around the clock through the ATM without paying employees. Now the company is partnering with a Middle Eastern company to open 34 new locations abroad. What can we infer from the text? A) The ATM will replace the traditional cake shops. B) The ATM will appear in more cities in the world. C) The company will promote different kinds of products. D) People will get cupcakes through the ATM without paying.
B
Wikipedia is a free-access, free content Internet encyclopedia , supported and hosted by the non-profit Wikipedia Foundation. Wikipedia is ranked among the ten most popular websites and is considered the Internet's largest and most popular general reference book. Now, Wikipedia is becoming Wookiepedia as scientists hope the informative website will help us reach out to intelligent life forms. So aliens can learn about the human race. Astronomers would like to beam the entire contents of Wikipedia into space in the hope of contacting aliens. They want to send messages to hundreds of star systems and planets 20 light years away using radio telescopes. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, in California, wants to use powerful radio telescopes to try to reach Chewbacca and his mates in a galaxy far away. The plans will be discussed by astronomers at the weekend as some scientists fear the reply from ET might not turn out to be friendly. Institute scientist David Black said, "One question is if there are dangerous creatures we might be drawing their attention to ourselves. Another is if we go ahead, what message should be sent? There could be many civilizations out there,but if they are all listening and no one is broadcasting or responding, then nothing will happen." Professor Stephen Hawking, who has warned that intelligent aliens probably exist and we should keep a safe distance from them, is among _ . "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. Signals from Earth's radio and TV broadcasts have been heading out in space for some 60 years reaching around 5,000 stars. What has Prof. Stephen Hawking warned? A) intelligent aliens would probably land in America. B) the plans will be in vain and nothing will happen. C) none of the civilizations would reply. D) aliens would bring disasters to the human race.
D
Q: BEIJING - No further deadly stray fire incidents should happen or the Chinese military will take "firm and decisive action" to protect the safety of its people, senior Chinese military leader Fan Changlong said on Saturday. Fan, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while speaking with Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Defense Services over the telephone, after a bomb dropped by a Myanmar warplane on Friday killed four Chinese in Southwest China's Yunnan province. Fan called on Myanmar to seriously investigate the incident, and urged the Myanmar side to severely punish the perpetrators, as well as apologize to and compensate the families of the victims. He voiced hope that the Myanmar side would settle the incident well and work with China to ensure the safety and stability of the border areas. Min Aung Hlaing said the Myanmar side understood China's feelings and assured that the Myanmar side would send personnel to jointly investigate the incident with the Chinese side. Min Aung Hlaing also promised to properly handle relevant issues and hold relevant people accountable. He said the Myanmar military would advance friendly cooperation with the Chinese army.Myanmar's warplanes have on several occasions crossed the China-Myanmar border and stray fire has caused casualties and loss of property of the Chinese people, Fan said. On March 8, stray fire from a fight that occurred between Myanmar's government forces and a local ethnic army had damaged a house in China. Friday's bombing hit a sugarcane field in the border city of Lincang, killing four people working there and injuring nine others. _ . This article may be derived from _ . A) Journal B) Magazine C) newspaper D) address
A: C
Q: WHAT sets Spain apart from the rest of Europe? It might be "siestas", the three-hour lunch break that is customary in the country. The Spanish start work at 8 or 9 am, but in the early afternoon they usually take a three-hour break. After lunch, people can be seen napping in cars or on benches. During hot summer afternoons, Spanish village streets are often totally deserted . When they return to their offices at 4 pm, Spanish workers often have to make up for the lost time by working until 8 or 9 pm. So, while most other Europeans are sound asleep, Spaniards are still having dinner or watching television. "Everything in Spain happens later, from meal times to broadcast entertainment," described AP. "This work schedule is a Spanish cultural vice," said Nuria Chinchilla, head of the International Center on Work and Family at the University of Navarra in Barcelona. "Changing to the European schedule should be the most urgent project for the government." Many Spanish people complain about their never-ending workdays, and some even think the issue has affected the country's development. "In Spain we sleep almost an hour less than the World Health Organization recommends," lawmakers in the Spanish parliament wrote in a proposal. "This has a negative effect on productivity, stress, accidents and school dropout rates." That's why, last September, they recommended that Under the proposed newuthe government turn back the clocks by one hour. schedule, the lunchtime break would be cut to an hour or less. And a regular eight-hour workday would be introduced. However, some doubt that changing the time zone would reverse low productivity, which comes more from the country's service-oriented economy , according to Maria Angeles Durant, a sociologist with the Spanish National Research Council. But Ignacio Buqueras, the president of the Association for the Rationalization of Spanish Working Hours, told The New York Times that "changing the Spanish schedule would allow families more... What's the main idea of the passage? A) Spain hopes to boost its economy by changing its work schedule. B) Spain will change the time zone to allow families more free time together. C) Spain's long lunch set it apart from the rest of Europe. D) The typical workday in Spain includes a long break at lunch.
A: A