Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Children are hooked on computers. Some spend up to six hours a day on their gadgets. They can be playing games live with others elsewhere in the world, updating their status on social media, texting friends or looking for the latest app to download to their tablets or smart phones. This worried Martin Strott, headmaster of the Old Hall School in Wellington, in the west of England. He was so concerned that he challenged his students to take part in a week of 'digital detox'. Strott told the local newspaper, the Shropshire Star, that he encourages the pupils to have a good knowledge of the computer from a young age, but is concerned that too much screen time will affect the development of their social skills. He said that this over-reliance on digital devices "erodes family time and they're missing out on messages from body language and facial expressions from those around them". According to the headmaster, the parents are happy with the movement. But what about the children? Nine-year-old Fred usually spends around two hours on his gadgets at home after school and around 12 hours on weekends. For him, the digital detox experience was "really hard". Fred spent it playing outside, especially basketball. He said that he'll probably engage in different activities from now on but he did miss his phone and online games. The idea of keeping children away from their tech for a while to prevent 'addiction' is not particularly new. There have been similar movements in the US. But are they effective in the long run? Well, even if kids go back to their gadgets, the hope is that at least they'll think about how they use their time. What about you: do you spend too many hours hooked on your digital devices? Question: Which of the following words can replace the word "erodes" in Para 2? Options: A: enriches B: saves C: adjusts D: ruins
A: D

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Our plan was to drive into Cambridge, catch the 7:34 train to Liverpool Street Station, then to separate and meet again for lunch. We should have arrived at Liverpool at 9:19, but due to a typical London fog, the train had to move along so slowly that it was not until 10:30 that it got there. In spite of our late arrival, Joan, my wife's sister, decided that she would go to see the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London while we went shopping. It was only after her sister had disappeared into the fog that my wife realized that we hadn't decided where we should meet for lunch. Since I had our three tickets for the concert in my pocket, this was indeed a problem. There seemed to be nothing we could do except taking a taxi to the Tower of London, and try to find her there. Needless to say, we didn't find her. It was now one o'clock, and the concert began at 2:30. "Perhaps she will think of waiting outside the concert hall," suggested my wife hopefully. By this time the fog was so thick that road traffic had to stop, and the only way to get there was by underground railway. Hand in hand we felt our way along the road to where we thought the nearest station should be. An hour later we were still trying to find it. Just as I was about to lose my temper completely when we met a blind man tapping his way confidently through the fog. With his help we found Tower Hill tube station just fifty yards down the road. By now it was far too late even to try to get to the concert hall before the performance began at 2:30, so we decided to return to Cambridge. It took seven long hours instead of the usual two to make that journey. Nor were we able to get any food and drink on the train. Tired and hungry we finally reached home at ten, opening the door to the sound of the telephone bell. It was Joan; she had seen the Crown Jewels, had managed to get another ticket for concert, and had had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant near the hotel where she decided to stay for the night. Now she was ringing to discover whether we had had an... Question: The reason why they didn't all meet for lunch was that _ . Options: A: They lost their way in the fog B: they forgot to make necessary arrangement C: they waited at different places and didn't meet each other D: the couple couldn't find the underground station
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Researchers at San Diego Zoo have been studying what has been described as the "secret language" of elephants. They have been monitoring communications between animals that cannot be heard by human ears. The elephant's call will be familiar to most people, but the animals also give out growls . Their growls, however, are only partly audible ; two-thirds of the call is at frequencies that are too low to be picked up by our hearing. To learn more about the inaudible part of the growl, the team attached (......) a microphone sensitive to these low frequencies and a GPS tracking system to eight of the zoo's female elephants. The researchers could then relate the noises the animals were making to what they were doing. Matt Anderson, who led the project, told BBC News, "We're excited to learn how they interact and contact with one another." The team has already learned that pregnant females use this low frequency communication to announce to the rest of their long gestation of over two years, in the last 12 days we see the low part of the growl, which we can't hear. This we believe is to announce to the rest of the herd that the baby is upcoming," said Dr Anderson. The researchers believe that this also warns the elephants to look out for coming danger. "You may think that a baby calf of about 300 pounds would not be as open to predation as other species," he says. "But packs of hyenas are a big threat in the wild." Female elephants are only in season for around four days every four years and these calls can be heard by males more than two miles away. Question: A pregnant elephant uses inaudible growls to _ . Options: A: show the location where she is staying B: ask for help when she losses her way C: scare away the enemy D: let others know she will have a baby
A: D

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: The biggest hamburger restaurant chain in the world is McDonald's. It started in 1955 with just one restaurant, but now has more than 20000 worldwide. There are more than 12000 McDonald's restaurants only in the US. You can find them in 100 countries on six continents. There isn't a McDonald's in Antarctica, but I don't suppose they eat hamburgers at the South Pole. When you eat at a McDonald's restaurant you are joining the 35 million people who eat and drink at McDonald's every day, and there are more than one million people who work there. McDonald's has sold 100 billion hamburgers since it opened, and it sells more than 6.8 million pounds of French Fries every day. How do you like your hamburger restaurant? There are old McDonald's ---- part of one restaurant in England is 600 years old. There are elegant McDonald's ---- there is one on the Champs Elysees in Paris. There are cool McDonald's ---- there is one in Hollywood. There are McDonald's restaurants on ships and trains, in hospitals and zoos, in airports and in colleges. Clearly many people like the speed, hygiene and cheapness of fast food restaurants. However, not everyone likes fast food. Some people question the nutritional value of the food; some people think the fast food causes too much waste and pollution. So the fast food business gives us _ , as well as convenient, affordable meals. Question: From the passage we can infer that _ . Options: A: there are McDonald's of different styles to meet different customers B: the writer encourage more people to eat hamburgers C: the writer thinks people should stop eating hamburgers D: hamburgers are of great nutritional value
A: A