Most airlines go all out to ensure their passengers have the best possible flight experience. Now, Europe's low-budget airline, easyJet, wants to extend the positive experience beyond the plane ride with "Sneakairs"--smart shoes that allow visitors to explore new cities and towns without ever looking at a map. To transform Sneakairs from an ordinary shoe to a tour guide, all the wearer has to do is enter his or her desired destination into the easyJet smartphone app. A built-in GPS will determine the wearer's starting location while the Google Maps navigation tool will help chart the best route. Whenever a change of direction is necessary, the app will communicate with the appropriate shoe via the Bluetooth and cause it to vibrate . For example, if the wearer needs to turn right, he/she will feel the sensation in the right shoe. Should the user miss the turn, the smart shoes will both vibrate at the same time, reminding him/her to change course. Visitors that wander off the suggested path or decide to take a break for a cup of coffee or a meal have nothing to worry about. The smart app will automatically determine the new location and chart out a new route, once the desired destination is reached. Sneakairs will vibrate three times to inform the user of the arrival and then go back to being ordinary shoes--until their navigation services are needed again! Sneakairs is certainly not the first navigation shoe in the market. However, easyJet is the first airline to offer them to passengers just as they are about to land in an unknown city. However, before Sneakairs can go mainstream, the easyJet team still needs to make some adjustments. Among the challenges that need to be addressed is the smart shoe's three-hour battery life, which is hardly enough for a tourist to catch all the delights a new or town has to offer! What might easyJet do to improve its smart shoes? A) Bring down their cost. B) Add more functions. C) Develop more types. D) Make the battery last longer.
D
Most people think the first pies were made by early Romans. They may have learned about pie making from the Greeks. These pies were sometimes made in"reeds ", which were used for the purpose of holding the filling ( ), and were not eaten. The Romans spread the word about pies around Europe and the word"pie"became a popular word in the 14th century. The first pie recipe was also published by the Romans. Pies first appeared in England as early as the twelfth century. The early pies were mostly meat pies. There was actually more crust than filling. Often these pies were made from fowl ( ) and the fowl's legs were left to hang over the side of the dish and used as handles. Fruit pies were probably first made in the 1500s. It is said that Queen Elizabeth I made the first cherry pie. Pie came to America with the first English settlers. The early settlers cooked their pies in long narrow pans. As in the Roman times, the early American pie crusts were often not eaten, but simply used to hold the filling during baking(@&*). Over the years, pie has become what it is today --- "the most traditional American dessert". Pie has become so much a part of American culture that we now often use the phrase "as American as apple pie". What can best show pies have become part of American culture? A) Americans use long narrow pans to cook pies. B) People use "as American as apple pie" to show something about American characteristics. C) Americans don't eat crusts but use them to hold the filling during baking. D) Pies are the most traditional American dessert.
B
Q: One of the most recent social changes taking place in the world is social networking. Social networking has been in existence for at least 150 years, and probably longer than that. In the times before the invention of the computer and the World Wide Web (WWW), social networking was done in person. People who had similar likes and interests would gather together to share experiences, make new friends, and improve their businesses. On the Internet, social networking websites made their first appearances during the late 1990s. The first major social networking website in the United States was MySpace. MySpace allowed its users to exchange messages, share pictures, and make new friends in a way that was never thought of in the past. With MySpace, people who did not go out much could reach out to others from their own homes. In 2004, Facebook was created. It was first a website created for use by Harvard University's students and teachers, but it soon expanded to include just about everyone. It is now larger than some of the largest companies in the world. It is a website that is changing all the time. Facebook has completely changed the way people stay connected with each other and the rest of the world. The way it works is simple. Users can set up a new account easily. All a new user needs is an email address to start. Once a person has created an account and his friend also has his own Facebook page, he can invite his friend by sending a request out to him. Once you get started, making new friends will come easily. What can we learn about social networking? A) It is not a new development. B) It made World Wide Web famous. C) It appeared because of the computers. D) It helped people develop new interests.
A: A
(Q).
One of my China Dialogue colleagues in Beijing recently bought a Philips energy-saving light bulb to replace a standard one.He was happy with his choice.It may have cost 30 yuan (just under US$4.50) - ten times the price of a filament bulb - but he wanted to save energy as part of his low-carbon lifestyle.And according to the shopkeeper, he would save, in the long run, much more than the 30 yuan he was spending. Yet only one month later, his expensive light bulb blew up, before he had saved even a small part of the purchase price.Will he stick to his high-cost, low-carbon lifestyle? China's environmental organizations have started to advocate low-carbon lifestyles and the decrease of carbon footprints to help fight against climate change.But they have overlooked one fact: in China, low-carbon living comes at a high cost.It means buying energy-saving bulbs and appliances, and environmentally friendly building materials and daily goods.Cost can no longer be the only standard for purchases.An energy-saving and environmentally friendly product is more expensive than a standard alternative - whether it's a simple light bulb or the house it shines.For average consumers, even buying an ordinary bulb is a huge burden.How can we persuade ordinary people to choose an energy-saving residence? This is not a trend they can afford to follow; perhaps this fashion is only for the rich. Most consumers today do not cause huge carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.Their responsibility lies not in choosing a low-carbon lifestyle today, but in avoiding a high-carbon life in the future.The principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" - a basis of sustainable development - can be applied here as well. In China, low-carbon living still is resisted by a lack of social infrastructure . Even if your salary allows you to make that choice, nobody is there to help you accomplish it. Consider energy-saving homes. You need to find out whether or not the developer has used natural materials wherever possible; how effective the... We can infer from the passage that _ . A) Using energy-saving bulbs and appliances is a fashion. B) It's easy for most Chinese to try to learn a low-carbon lifestyle. C) All citizens in China don't have the same responsibility in living a low-carbon lifestyle. D) Most Chinese families cannot afford to purchase an energy-saving residence.
(A).
C