The average British 22 year-old has more than 1,000 online friends on sites like Facebook, compared to those in their fifties who have fewer than 20, according to a new study. The "Facebookgeneration gap" has been highlighted in a new piece of research which shows that the average 22 year-old claims to have 1,000 or more friends on sites like Facebook. People in their twenties have more than 50 times as many digital friends as those who are over 50 years old, despite the popularity of sites like Facebook with the older generations, says a study conducted by consumer research group Intersperience. The news comes during the same week Facebook's second-in command, Sheryl Sandberg, is visiting the UK to deliver a speech at the London School of Economics. Facebook's chief operating officer is going to speak about how the social web has transformed people's friendships and relationships. The survey found that there was a clear link between people's age and the number of online friends they have.The researchers found that those aged 13 to 16, have an average of 450 friends on social networks, with girls having slightly more friends that boys.People in their thirties tend to have between 100 and 200 friends, while those in their forties have between 50 and 100. However, those using sites such as Facebook over the age of 50, tended to have 20 or less friends.The oldest person surveyed was 70 years old. Paul Hudson, Intersperience's chief executive, said: "Our research underlines fundamental changes taking place in British society as a result of finally entering the digital age.Half of the UK population are on Facebook now.In a social media context, a 'friend' means something different to a 20 year old than to a 50 year old." He added: "Social networking activity is just one example of how different groups are adapting to the digital age at different paces.In this case, age is the determining factor - however in other instances it is not." What can we learn from the survey? A) The older a person is, the less online friends he may have B) Girls have remarkably more friends than boys C) People in their thirties tend to have between 50 and 100 friends D) The link between people's age and the number of online friends they have is not clear
A
My goddaughter, Shari, owns The Berry Factory in Sacramento, California, and her mother, Joan, and I were helping with the Valentine's Day rush of 2011. We'd been preparing hundreds of berries, arranged gift baskets and packaged orders to be shipped around the country. By the end of the day and I were exhausted. Shari didn't seem tired. That was what Shari liked doing especially when she gave someone else something. I'd seen her give away berries to everybody--parking attendants, mail carriers, hairdressers. "For me?" they'd say, breaking into a smile. As a "thank you", Shari took us out for dinner. But there was a 45-munite wait at her favorite restaurant. "No big deal. There's another place just up the road," she said, driving us there. This time we walked right in. While the waitress took our drink orders Shari reached into her handbag, pulling something out. "I want you to have these," she said, handing the waitress a box of chocolate-dipped strawberries. "Will she love those berries!"I said to myself. But the waitress seemed extremely surprised. She hardly let out a "Thank you" before grabbing the box and rushing into the kitchen. A few minutes later, the waitress returned with our iced tea. " I apologize," she said. " It's just ...my best friend and I made an agreement to send each other something every Valentine's Day. But she passed last year. I didn't know how I'd get through this day without her. Then you handed me that box." "I'm so sorry to hear that," said Shari. " It's not much, but I hope you can enjoy them." "Oh, I will," the waitress said. " See, every year we always sent each other the same thing: a box of chocolate-dipped strawberries bought from our favorite store, The Berry Factory." What do we know about the waitress? A) She was unhappy with Shari's gift B) She was a new customer at Shari's store C) She would be very depressed without Shari's gift D) She was reminded of her dead friend by Shari's gift
C
Q: The Norwegian Government is doing its best to keep the oil industry under control. A new law limits exploration to an area south of the southern end of the long coastline; production limits have been laid down (though these have already been raised); and oil companies have not been allowed to employ more than a limited number of foreign workers. But the oil industry has a way of getting over such problems, and few people believe that the Government will be able to hold things back for long. As one Norwegian politician said last week: " We will soon be changed beyond all recognition." Ever since the war, the Government has been carrying out a program of development in the area north of the Arctic Circle. During the past few years this program has had a great deal of success. Tromso has been built up into a local capital with a university, a large hospital and a healthy industry. But the oil industry has already started to draw people south, and within a few years the whole northern policy could be in ruins. The effects of the oil industry would not be limited to the north, however. With nearly 100 percent employment, everyone can see a situation developing in which the service industries and the tourist industry will lose more of their workers to the oil industry. Some smaller industries might even disappear altogether when it becomes cheaper to buy goods from abroad. The real argument over oil is its threat to the Norwegian way of life. Farmers and fishermen do not make up most of the population, but they are an important part of it, because Norwegians see in them many of the qualities that they regard with pride as essentially Norwegian. And it is the farmers and the fishermen who are most critical of the oil industry because of the damage that it might cause to the countryside and to the sea. The Norwegian Government has tried to _ . A) encourage the oil companies to discover new oil sources B) prevent oil companies employing people from northern Norway C) help the oil companies solve many of their problems D) keep the oil industry to something near its present size
A: D
Some English words are made up of the same part and have different beginnings and different endings, such as import, export, report and transport. All these words, you can see, have the same "port", which comes from the Latin word, meaning "to carry" or "to move" from one place to another. And according to the bit at the beginning, which we call the prefix, the meaning changes. "Import" means "to carry in" or "to bring into a country"; "export", "ex" means "out of", so this word means "to carry out of the country"; "re" means "back", so the "report" means "to tell somebody, to bring back information to somebody"; "transport", "trans" means "across" and it means "to carry across one place to another". Let's look at the following words: supporter, reporter, importer and exporter. You can see that in this case these words are nouns which are made up of the verbs plus a suffix, thus meaning a person who does this thing. So "supporter" means somebody who supports. A "reporter" is somebody who reports. "Importer" is somebody who imports and "exporter" is somebody who exports, and so on. By adding a prefix or a suffix to a root, we can get a word which has _ . A) the meaning of a Latin word B) a different meaning C) the meaning of "in" or "out of" D) a lot of meanings
B