My nephew, Adam, turned 19 on Monday. He's a good kid and makes the whole family laugh. He wears his baseball cap backward, his shorts baggy and his T-shirts loose. In short, I hate the way he looks. To me, it seems as if everything is about to fall off at any moment. He makes me nervous. But he's still a teenager. I think that's the way he's supposed to look. Cooler than cool. I was on the Harvard campus recently and was surprised how almost everyone looked like Adam, just as they did on the Georgetown campus the week before with baggy shorts far below the knees. It's a uniform, of course, just as there was a uniform when I went to college. Fashion is a changeable thing. _ has made fools of us all over the years. In my college years, everyone wore frayed bell-bottoms, tie-dye shirts and hair to the shoulders. But I predict the "uniform" that's likely to cause the most shame for its wearers 30 years from now will be the exposed-tummy look brought to us by Britney Spears. I'll admit. Britney's exposed-mid-waist looks pretty good in those short jeans. Just a piece of skin. Firm, flat, brown. Unfortunately, the look has been picked up by young women from Malibu to Maine, young women who do not have Britney Spears' firm, flat, brown skin. As my mother has asked a thousand times: Don't these girls have mirrors? What's the writer's opinion about Britney's exposed-tummy look? A) It doesn't fit everyone B) It fits no one C) It is pretty to wear D) It will have an ill effect on young women
A
I sometimes feel left out with my friends at the party.What can I do? --Susan Alice: Speak to your best friend before you arrive and ask her to make sure you don't get left out of the group.That way, she'll know to include you in all the fun.Make the effort to speak to some other people at the party.You might even make a new friend or two. Sometimes I think parties get boring and I want to go home! --Jenny Alice: Even a great party will drag if you're not enjoying yourself.Making the effort to dance and have a chat with your friends will beat the boredom! You don't have to stay to the very end of the party. Our school is having a Christmas dance party but I'm really shy.Shall I go or not? --Emma Alice: Part of you would like to go to the party, so give it a try.Let good friends know how you feel and make sure you'll have people to dance with when the evening comes.Practice some fun dances so you'll feel comfortable on the dance floor. Whenever I go to a party, my dad comes to pick me up at 8 pm.I always have to leave earlier than the rest of my friends and I get really angry with my dad. --Anny Alice: Talk with your dad and let him know how you feel.It feels hard to have different rules from your friends but don't worry too much--your friends are probably picked up soon after you anyway. What worries Anny? A) Her dad is strict with her. B) She always argues with her dad. C) Nobody picks her up after the party. D) She can't go to the party with her friends.
A
Q: Limit the use of private cars, improve public transport and encourage the use of bicycles to control traffic congestion during the 2008 Olympics, experts from foreign countries advised Beijing on Friday. Professor Nigel Wilson, of the civil and environmental engineering department of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he was "supportive to the limiting of private cars during the Olympic Games", saying that in foreign countries, the method is also adopted during big events, but he was unsure about the approach. The government planned to keep an average of more than one million cars off the roads to improve traffic flow during the Olympics, said Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing Traffic Committee, at the China Planning Network First Urban Transportation Congress. Sharing Wilson's view, Dr. Yoshitsugu Hayashi, dean of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies of Nagoya University, believed the reduction in car use should be achieved not by banning, but through _ . "Drivers who don't use their private cars could be given points," he said, "and the points could be exchanged for goods from online shopping." Wetzel stressed limiting the use of company cars. "Governmental officials should also be encouraged to use public transportation or ride bicycles," he said, adding that he himself is a bicycle-rider in London. Matthew Martimo, director of Traffic Engineering with Citilabs, said the bicycle was China's advantage. "Limiting private cars is an idea worth trying but it is just a temporary solution," he said. "The real cause of congestion is high density of people in Beijing and many have cars." Beijing, with a population of 15 million, is home to more than three million automobiles, and the number is rising by 1,000 a day. Professor Wilson said the Olympic Games was a great opportunity for Beijing to think about traffic problems and develop transportation, adding that the city had already been making public transport more efficient. Beijing has promised to stretch its 114-kilometer... The purpose of the passage is _ . A) to limit the use of private cars, improve public transport B) to encourage the use of bicycles to control traffic congestion during the 2008 Olympics C) to borrow Beijing's experiences and draw from its lessons in preparation for the 2012 Olympics D) to tell the advice given by foreign experts on traffic congestion during 2008 Beijing Olympics
A: D
(Question)
In 1859,during the Gold Rush,a twenty- year-old immigrant from Bavaria named Levi Strauss stepped off the boat in San Francisco. He had with him a special cloth called Serge de Nimes that was later called denim in America. Levi Strauss hoped to sell the denim as material to make tents and covers for wagons to the men who were going to the goldfields to look for gold. "You should have brought trousers to sell. In the goldfields we need strong trousers that don't wear out,"one young miner advised Strauss. So Levi Strauss took some of his denim to the nearest tailor and had him make the miner a pair of trousers. The miner was so pleased that he told other miners about the wonderful newcomer,Levi,and soon Levi Strauss had to open a shop,producing enough trousers for the miners. The miners wanted trousers that were comfortable to ride in and were low cut so that they could bend over easily to pick up the gold from under their feet. Besides they wanted the trousers to have big useful pockets. One miner complained that the gold in his pockets kept tearing them. So Levi put metal corners in the pockets to make them stronger. Very soon,miners and cowboys from all over came to get fitted up with Levi's trousers. Today more than a hundred years later, Levi's trousers walk the world a Levi's blue jeans . Why did the miners need strong pockets in the trousers? A) Their pockets kept tearing the gold. B) Their pockets were not made of metal. C) The gold they found was too sharp and heavy to tear their pockets. D) The gold they collected easily tore their pockets.
(Answer)
D