XUE Bai, a 21-year-old university student, hopes to volunteer for Beijing's 2008 Olympics. "I want to do something for the Olympics. It is also a kind of learning for me," said the fourth-year student at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Now it is time for Xue to act on her plan. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the 2008 Olympiad will start to recruit volunteers on August 28. The Olympics will need around 70,000 volunteers and the Paralympic Games will need another 30,000. University students like Xue will make up the majority of the volunteers. But the Olympics also need other volunteers - ordinary citizens and foreigners, for example. Students in Beijing should apply through their universities. Other volunteers may apply online or submit a written application. The online application system and a hotline will be open next Monday. For applicants outside Beijing, the application process begins in December. There is plenty of work for volunteers to do. For example, there will be chances to help publicize the games over the next two years. During the games themselves, volunteers will clean, serve food, marshal or offer language help. The Sydney Olympics in 2000 was the first that placed special emphasis on the role of volunteers. It used more than 45,000 volunteers in different roles. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, around 45,000 volunteers were used. More than 70,000 volunteers will be needed for the Olympic games and Paralympic Games in 2012, the London Olympic Organizing Committee has said. Xue Bai is willing to be a volunteer for the Beijing Olympics for the purpose of _ . A) watching live Olympic matches B) learning more C) meeting his favorite sports stars D) making money
B
Mail lay scattered across the kitchen table. I couldn't put off sorting through it any longer. I checked the envelopes, putting aside the ones addressed to my husband. It had been over three years since Bob had died. To friends and family it looked like I had moved past the worst of my sorrow. I took care of my house, socialized and kept up with community. On the outside everything appeared to be normal. But inside I was anything but I worried I would never get better, never be myself again. They say sorrow has no set time limit, but I was so tired of feeling empty and hopeless. My sorrow was sharp and fresh as ever. It was like a wall of pressure in my chest, pressing my heart. I picked up a piece of Bob's mail and held it out to tear in half, but stopped myself from cutting up the envelope. The letter was from an organization that funded a Haitian orphanage called _ . Its founder, Carol Hawthorne, had given a presentation at our church. Bob and I had donated, and Bob ended up on the mailing list to receive the newsletter with updates on the children. I hadn't read one since Bob died. But just three months before, in January 2012, the country had been hit by a terrible earthquake. In my depressed state, it hadn't even occurred to me to wonder whether the orphanage had survived. I opened the newsletter and was surprised to find out that My Father's House was still standing. Of course now it was more crowded than ever. At the bottom of the page was an announcement about an upcoming trip to visit the orphanage in person. "I should go." The thought wouldn't leave me. I contacted Carol Hawthorne."What would I do if I go?" I asked."Build houses?" "The Haitian people there are eager to work and they know what they're doing," said Carol. "What they need are raw materials, and we provide them. We also visit with the children. We go to clinics and schools, pass out supplies. You'll be very busy, I promise!" I reserved a seat but didn't mention it to any of my friends. Just a few weeks later, I was at the airport... The writer enjoyed herself at _ . A) driving over the roads B) viewing the landscape C) seeing the expressions on children's faces D) observing water buckets on women's heads
C
Q: "Yes, I'll be ready at nine in the morning. Goodbye, dear, and thanks again." It had not been an easy telephone call for Mrs. Robson to make. Her daughter had been very kind, of course, and had immediately agreed to pick her up and drive her to the station, but Mrs. Robson hated to admit that she needed help. Since her husband had died ten years before, she had prided herself on her independence. She had continued to live in their little house, alone. On the evening, however, she was standing at her living room window, staring out at the SOLD notice in the small front garden. Her feelings were mixed. Of course, she was sad at the thought of leaving the house, as it was full of so many memories. But at the same time she was looking forward to spending her last years near the sea, back in the little seaside town where she had been born. With the money from the sale of the house, she had bought a little flat there. She turned from the living room window, and looked round at the walls. There was a small fish tank, with two goldfish in it. When asked why, here husband used to say, "It's nice to have something alive in the room." Since he had passed away, she had always kept some goldfish, had always had "something alive in the room". The next morning, as her train was pulling out of the station, Mrs. Robson called to her daughter, "Kate, you won't forget to collect the goldfish, will you? The children will love them. It's ..." "I know," Kate interrupted gently. "It's nice to have something alive in the room." According to the passage, we know that Mrs. Robson _ . A) was tried of living alone B) was not liked by her daughter C) did not like asking people for help D) did not want to be visited by her daughter
A: C
"Any time! Any where! Decades ago there was no such thing" - "Communication". Then, September 7th 1987, the global system for mobile communication or GSM was born. And international agreements that laid out the standards, regulations and practices gave rise to a global mobile phone industry. To be honest, the world's first mobiles were not so attractive and the range of effectiveness wasn't very good. But they became a must-have among those wealthy people who could afford that. However, by advantage of GSM which has many different elements to it, we can all enjoy the ability to go around the world in 217 countries, land in that country and know that a phone would work. There are other cell phone systems using different technology in the world. The majority of the United States and parts of South America have been using something called CDMA which is very rare in Europe. In some Asian countries like China, GSM and CDMA both exist at the same time. But the GSM Association claims 85% of the global mobile phone market. They estimated there are now about 2.5 billion different users who make more than 7 trillion minutes of calls everyday, and that's not all. 20 years later, the mobile phone is so much more than just a phone. You can use it to send text messages, take pictures, show video, even surf the internet. "The phone itself is involved from just being a communication tool, to be a tool for round-the-clock connectivity, you can not live without it even in a minute." Mobile consultant Nick Lane also points out with so many customized styles and features, your mobile phone will become a symbol of you. Where will the global mobile phone industry be in another 20 years? Certainly, there will be more connections than better coverage. As for where else technology will take us, one can only imagine. From this passage, we can infer that _ . A) as soon as the first mobiles appeared, they became popular and many people have one B) with a GSM mobile phone, you can make a phone call in most parts of the USA C) there are only two cell phone systems in the whole world: GSM and CDMA D) most of the mobile phone users in the world now are using the GSM mobile phone
D