Question: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: It may be one of Britain's most successful exports - Miss World. This 53-year-old event took place in China last week and attracted over 120 women worldwide with knockout looks in a mad struggle for the crown. Traditional values have long kept the Chinese, especially women, from displaying beauty. But Chinese people have now changed their attitude toward beauty contest, although some men will still be shouting that the winner is no more beautiful than his wife or his former girl friend or even his mother in a sour tone. But such men are not shouting for the right reason. The question to be asked is : Why isn't there a Mr. World Beauty Contest? And a further question to be asked is: Does taking part in a beauty contest show a woman's courage, wisdom and liberation or rather the opposite - a forced choice and a revolting act made under conditions of long-term discrimination? Organizers of such beauty contests claim that the contestants are judged on qualities other than just their physical appearance. But still no answer is given to why there isn't a Mr. Beauty or a Mr. World Contest? Or at least, why isn't that kind of contest popular? Why is it that only women's "qualities" need to be recognized but not men's? Think about who is always standing beside a fancy car on show? Is it a boy or a girl? And this is how "qualities" are judged: if the girl looks good, there is little reason why the car beside her is not of high quality. The beauty contests go on year after year, with winners enjoying fame which quickly disappears. While such events go on and on, what never changes is the routine practice that in every fancy car show, a girl stands beside a fancy car. What never changes is the need to hold a women's conference every year to appeal for the promotion of respect for and improvement of women. What never changes is the fate of women as a class. So let's put more time and resources into trying to change all this rather than holding beauty contests. Question: From the passage we can know the writer thinks that _ . Answer:
OPTIONS:
- contestants' qualities are more important than their physical appearance
- a Mr. World Contest should be held instead of a Miss World Contest
- a boy should stand by a fancy car
- women's social status is still low
Answer: women's social status is still low

Question: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you had been there around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have been the same? For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how rainforests might have reacted to the cold, dry climate of the ice ages, but till now, no one has reached a satisfying answer. Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to solve global warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO2 each year: equal to the total amount of CO2 given off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to the future climate change? If it gets drier, will it survive and continue to draw down CO2? Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past. Unfortunately, collecting information is incredibly difficult. To study the past climate, scientists need to look at fossilized pollen kept in lake mud, Going back to the last ice age means drilling down into lake sediments , which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery. There are very few roads and paths, or places to land helicopters and aeroplanes. Rivers tend to be the easiest way to enter the forest, but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers completely unsampled . So far, only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon forest reacts to climate change. Question: Where is the passage most probably taken from? Answer:
OPTIONS:
- A medical journal.
- A news report
- A travel brochure.
- A science magazine.
Answer: A science magazine.

Question: Read the following article and answer the question. Article: "Slow City" -- a recently launched project focused on preserving the traditional quality of life enjoyed in some of Italy's smaller cities and towns. The project was born from the idea of the "Slow Food" movement -- started in Italy in the 1980s -- which promotes leisurely eating and the growing of local, healthy products to fight against the American fast-food style. "The American urban model has invaded our cities, making Italian towns look the same. We want to stop this kind of globalization," says Paolo Saturnini, an Italian mayor. The "Slow City" project plans to emphasize the rich, cultural, culinary and artistic local traditions of each community. Walking areas will be enlarged and squares and parks will be made greener with more plants. Car alarms and other noise that disturbs the peace will be banned, and ugly TV aerials , advertising posters, and signs will be taken down. City councils will also insist on the use of recycling and renewable energy sources, and will also introduce ecological transport systems. Parking will be made stress-free by creating more public parking areas, and easily accessible walkways and bike lanes will cross the city. But in the "Slow City" way, all improvements will probably come about slowly. Thirty-two Italian city councils, which joined the "Slow City" program, have decided to take further steps in this direction by increasing the numbers of traditional family-style eating establishments, reducing noise pollution, and concentrating on making their towns friendlier for people to live in. Organic local produce will be promoted in all restaurants and genetically modified foods will be banned. "We can't stop large, fast-food chains from coming here, but we hope that people who come to our towns will not want to eat exactly the same hamburger they can eat in Melbourne, London or Paris, but want something genuine and different," said Saturnini. Question: According to the passage, the "Slow City" project aims at _ . Answer:
OPTIONS:
- preventing Italy from being affected by America
- beautifying the environment of small Italian cities and towns
- calling on Italians to enjoy stress-free life
- protecting the traditional Italian lifestyle
Answer:
protecting the traditional Italian lifestyle