Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: For Yali Liu, the hardest thing about UK higher education is having to go to the pub. "It's how much you need to invest socially with other students," she says. "I don't like going to a pub or club, but people just keep going out and I feel the pressure to go out too." This is because, unlike in China, she says, there is so much emphasis during the course on teamwork and group projects, so socialising with other students - especially British people, is crucial. Liu, 23, who is in her final year of a BSc in business administration at the University of Bath, is one of more than 80,000 Chinese students studying in UK universities. They are responsible for a large proportion of the more than PS10bn a year that international students contribute to the UK economy. However, research shows that where their academic attainment is concerned, the picture is not satisfactory. While nearly 58% of all students - and 45% of overseas students graduated with a first-class degree last year, this was true of only 35% of students from China. To find an explanation, Zhiqi Wang and Ian Crawford, lecturers at the University of Bath, compared the performance of Chinese and British undergraduates in each year of their degree. Taking a sample of 100 British and Chinese students and comparing their average marks and final degree classification, they found a dramatic drop in performance among the Chinese students between year one, when they performed better than their UK counterparts, and year two, when they performed worse. They believe the drop results from two factors. First, Chinese students fail to adapt their approaches to learning and so their performance declines in the later years when the complexity of the work increases. Second, many young people in China enroll in higher education due to pressure from family rather than their own motivation. Professor Sedghi thinks part of the problem may be the changing socio-economic background of Chinese undergraduates. While 85% of Chinese students at British universities before 2000... Question: Which of the following is NOT a possible factor for Chinese students' unsatisfactory attainment? Options: A: They don't adjust their studying methods in time. B: They are lacking in motivation to achieve success. C: They are too young and mostly come from poor families. D: They haven't got necessary support from the UK universities.
A: C

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: There are a number of special days of the year that are celebrated in different countries. The origins of most of the days are unknown. They were certainly not created by individual people. Other days, however, especially those celebrated in western countries, often owe their origins to a particular person. One of the most popular of these, even though it is fairly recent, is Mother's Day. Mothers have always been highly regarded in all cultures. The ancient Romans had a festival known as Hilaria, during which children took presents to the temple of the "Mother of the Gods". The Christian Church adopted this idea and called it Mothering Sunday. However, over the years this custom was gradually forgotten and almost disappeared by the end of the 19th century. Born in 1864 in Virginia, USA, Anna Jarvis was a school teacher and believed children should show gratitude to their mothers for all their love and care. Encouraged by a friend, she wrote to thousands of important people--politicians, churchmen, doctors, city officials--and asked them to support her idea: a special day of the year for thanking mothers. In 1910 the Governor of West Virginia introduced Mother's Day into the state. The date chosen was May 10--the second Sunday in May, which is still observed in America today. This date was chosen because May 10 was the date on which in 1908 Anna Jarvis's mother had died. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made May 10 the official date for Mother's Day throughout the United States. Soon there was a Mother's Day International Association and the custom began to be adopted in many countries of the world. Anna Jarvis, a sad and disillusioned woman, died in 1948. The custom she had worked so hard to establish and which had become almost universal had lost its original purpose. It had been taken over by business. Like Christmas, the giving of presents and the sending of cards had become a multi-million-dollar industry. Question: The story is about _ . Options: A: Mothering Sunday for Christmas B: the origin of a special day for mothers C: President Wilson and Anna Jarvis D: how people celebrate Mothers Day
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: A listener from Brazil recently wrote to us asking for some advice. He's planning a trip to the United States, and wanted to know about the best places to travel in America. Today, we tell about the most popular places to visit in the country, and hear about what makes them so appealing. Each of the 50 states in America has interesting things to offer visitors, but some are more popular than others. Washington, D.C. is famous for its historical places, like the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. Visitors to Los Angeles, California can see the Hollywood Walk of Fame or shop the stores on Rodeo Drive where they may see a star or two. The Grand Canyon in Arizona appeals to hikers, climbers and nature lovers, as does Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Trip Advisor is a website where people can write reviews about their travel experiences. There are also ratings for hotels, restaurants, and places people have visited around the world. Every year, Trip Advisor makes a list of the top 25 cities to visit in the United States. The results are based on the opinions of visitors to the website. America's major cities are still the most popular destinations for visitors. This is probably because of the good quality of services they provide tourists. "They do a great job of giving travelers what they want when they're on vacation. I think they kind of cater to every type of traveler need. So whether you're traveling alone, you're traveling for business, you're traveling with your family - whatever it is, those destinations are really tuned in to delivering amazing experiences and just a lot of different opportunities when you're there." said Brooke Ferencsik, a tourist from Germany. Question: According to Brooke Ferencsik, _ make America's major cities the most popular destinations for visitors. Options: A: city residents' kindness and care B: the good services C: great opportunities of jobs D: the varieties of cities
A: B

Q: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: You might not know it, but there is something wonderful at your fingertips. You can make people happier, healthier and more hard-working just by touching their arms or holding their hands. Doctors say that body contact is a kind of medicine that can work wonders. When people are touched, the quantity of hemoglobin -a type of matter that produces the red color in blood increases greatly. This results in more oxygen reaching every part of the body and the whole body benefits. In experiments, bottle-fed baby monkeys were separated from their mothers for the first ten days of life. They became sad and negative. Studies showed the monkeys were more probable to become ill than other babies that were allowed to stay with their mothers. Human babies react in much the same way. Some years ago, a scientist noticed that some well-fed babies in a clean nursery became weak. Yet babies in another nursery were growing healthily, even though they ate less well and were not kept as clean. The reason, he concluded, was that they often had touches from nurses. Experiments show that most people like being touched. And nearly all doctors believe touch helps to reduce patients' fear of treatment. Of course there is time when a touch is not welcome. But even if we don't like being touched, a smile can make us feel better. Smiling increases blood flow and starts the production of "happy brain" chemicals. So let's have a big smile and don't forget to keep in touch. Question: According to the passage _ . Options: A: human brains need oxygen and blood supply now and then B: touches from doctors and nurses have nothing to do with treatment C: new-born baby monkeys should stay away from their mothers D: not all the people like being touched
A: D