People in cities all over the world shop in supermarkets. When you enter the supermarket, you see shelves full of food. You walk in the aisles, pushing your shopping cart. You probably hear soft, slow music in the supermarket. This kind of music is playing to relax you and make you walk slowly. Thus, you will probably stay longer and buy more food. Where do you go in the supermarket when you first arrive? Many people go to the meat section first. This area of the store has many different kinds of meat. Some kinds are expensive and others are not. Usually, some kinds of meat are on sale. So it has a special low price. The manager of the store knows where the customers usually enter the meat section. The meat on sale is usually at the other end of the section, away from where the customers enter. If you want to buy this specially priced meat, you have to walk by the more expensive meat first. Maybe you will see something that you want to buy before you reach the cheaper, inexpensive meat. Then you will spend more money in the meat section. The diary section sells milk that is low in fat. Some supermarkets sell three different containers of low-fat milk. Each container looks different, but each contains the same product. One says "1% fat", one says "99% fat free" and one says "low-fat" in big letters and "1%"in very small letters. If you look carefully you can see that all the milk has the same amount of fat, and each container is the same size. The prices of all these three should be the same. However, in many stores these three containers of milk would each have a different price. The store will make more money if a customer chooses the milk that costs the most. Most of the food in supermarkets is very attractive. People often stop to look at the products in attractive containers. But remember, many products will say, "Buy me!". Stop and think which ones are the best value for your money. When you walk by the expensive meat, _ . A) maybe you will buy some B) you will not look at it C) you will buy diary products D) maybe it is on sale
A
(Question)
New York, the city that never sleeps, fell silent last week--schools were closed; bus and subway services were stopped; flights were canceled, and even the stock market closed for the first time since 1985. All the disorder was caused by one thing, the arrival of hurricane Sandy. This big storm landed on Oct 29 on the US east coast and brought damaging winds, flooding, blackouts and heavy snow. Sandy is one of the largest storms that have ever hit the US, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. By the afternoon of Nov1 (Beijing time), about 140 deaths were caused by the storm as it traveled across the Caribbean islands and into the US. Unlike most hurricanes that happen during summer, Sandy was strengthened not only by warm ocean water, but also by the cold air coming from the northwest. Sandy's power grew because of the difference in masses between the warm and wet air and cool and dry air. It became a kind of "super-storm", the Guardian reported. The flooding was particularly severe. Scientists said it was because Sandy's arrival happened together with a full moon, which normally means higher-than-usual tides . "The most worrying aspect of Sandy is the high tides," Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee told Reuters before the storm arrived. "With the full moon on Monday, with Sandy coming up the bay, we're very concerned about flooding in our low-lying coastal areas." Apart from the power of Sandy itself, another reason why her arrival has caused so much damage is that its target area is crowded with big cities such as New York and Philadelphia. These urban areas are home to tens of millions of people. The flood, the snow and the blackout have brought the country's financial and political centers to a stop. "The size of this alone, affecting a heavily populated area, is history making." Said Jeff Masters, a hurricane specialist. The author mentioned the disorder in New York city at the beginning of the article to _ . A) remind us of the problems people might face when disaster strikes B) introduce the disastrous influence of hurricane Sandy C) criticize the poor management of the city by the New York government D) prove New York suffered most from hurricane Sandy
(Answer)
B
Ques: Older people with hearing loss may suffer faster rates of mental decline. People who have hearing trouble suffered meaningful impairments in memory, attention and learning about three years earlier than people with normal hearing, a study published online January 21 in JAMA Internal Medicine reveals. The finding supports the idea that hearing loss can have serious consequences for the brain,says Patricia Tun of Brandeis University in Waltham,Mass., who studies aging. "I'm hoping it will be a real wake-up call in terms of realizing the importance of hearing. " Compared with other senses, hearing is often overlooked, Tun says. "We are made to interact with language and to listen to each other, and it can have damaging effects if we don't." Frank Lin of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and colleagues tested the hearing of 1,984 older adults. Most of the participants, who averaged 77 years old, showed some hearing loss -- 1,162 volunteers had trouble hearing noises of less than 25 decibels, comparable to a whisper or rustling leaves. The volunteers; deficits reflect the hearing loss in the general population: Over half of people older than 70 have trouble hearing. Over the next six years, these participants underwent mental evaluations that measured factors such as short-term memory, attention and the ability to quickly match numbers to symbols. Everybody got worse at the tasks as time wore on, but people with hearing loss had an especially sharp decline, the team found. On average, a substantial drop in performance would come about three years earlier to people with hearing loss. Lin cautions that the study has found an association between hearing loss and mental abilities; the researchers can't conclude that hearing loss directly causes the decline. Yet more and more studies are turning up ways that diminished hearing could damage the brain. A person who can't hear well might avoid social situations, and isolation is known to be bad for the brain. "You gradually become more socially withdrawn, " Lin says.... Dementia and cognitive decline mainly result from _ . A) social isolation B) hearing loss C) memory loss D) speech impairment
Ans: A
Ques: Everybody has one of those days when everything goes wrong. This is what happened to Harry. He got up one morning very late because he had forgotten to wind up his alarm clock . He tried to shave quickly and cut himself. When he got dressed he got blood all over his clean shirt, so he had to find another one. The only other shirt that was clean needed ironing , so he ironed it. While he was ironing it, there was a knock at the door. It was the man to read the electricity meter . He showed him where the meter was, said good-bye and found that the iron had burnt a hole in his shirt. So he had to wear the one with the blood on it after all. By this time it was very late, so he decided he couldn't go to work by bus. He telephoned for a taxi to take him to work. The taxi arrived and Harry got in and began to read the newspaper. In another part of the town, a man had killed a woman with a knife and was seen to run away in a taxi. When Harry's taxi stopped outside his office, a policeman happened to be standing there. He saw the blood on Harry's shirt, and took him to the police station. He was kept till 3 o'clock in the afternoon before the police were sure that he was not the man they wanted. When he finally arrived at the office at about four, his boss took a look at him and told him to go away and find another job. Harry had _ . A) a lucky day B) an unlucky day C) a busy day D) a good day
Ans:
B