Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The Panama Canal opened almost 100 years ago.It connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and reduces travel by about 13,000 kilometers and avoids the need for ships to sail around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America. Built from 1904 to 1914,the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 ships in 2008.In total,over 815,000 ships have passed through the canal.It has been named one of the seven modern wonders of the world.More than forty ships pass through the canal each day. Now,a major expansion project will permit more ships and bigger ships to pass through the canal.Jorge Quijano,the Panama Canal's executive vice president of engineering,says,"The present canal has a total capacity of about 340 million tons a year.With the expansion we expect to double that." For years,shipbuilders limited the size of many ships so that they could pass through the Panama Canal.But now many shipping companies use bigger ships to transport more goods as a way to reduce costs.Mr.Quijano says the expansion project will allow many of these larger ships to use the canal. Workers are building the new locks alongside the old ones,which will remain in use.The existing locks are 305 meters long and 33.5 meters wide.The new ones will be 427 meters long and 55 meters wide.They will be able to handle ships with drafts of more than 15 meters.At present,ships can ride only 12 meters deep in the canal. Engineers could not make the new locks too big.Mr.Quijano says the plans have to balance the size of the locks with the cost for ships to use the canal. The cost of the expansion is estimated at more than five billion dollars.The new locks are set to open in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal. Question: What do we know about the old locks? - They are still used. - They will be removed. - They have been replaced by the new ones. - Ships with drafts of 15 meters can pass through them.
They are still used.
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: If prefix = st1 /U.S.software companies don't pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye. BothIndiaandBrazilare developing a world-class software industry. Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the topU.S.quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country. Already, of the world's 12 software houses that have earned the highest rating in the world, seven are in India. That's largely because they have used new methods rejected by American software specialists. For example, for decades, quality specialists, W. Edwards Deming and J. M. Juran had urgedU.S.software companies to change their attitudes to quality. But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the U.S -- but not in Japan. By the 1970s and 1980s,Japanwas grabbing market share with better, cheaper products. They used Deming's and Juran's ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs. InU.S.factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%. In software, it still is. Watts S. Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance. But his advice was seldom paid attention to. He retired from IBM in 1986. In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing(evaluating) and improving software quality. It has proved its value time and again. For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60% of total software production costs. It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10%. Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home. The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai,India. Let's hope thatU.S.lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems. Question: What country has more highest-rating companies in the world than any other country has? - India. - TheUS. - Brazil. - Germany.
India.
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: A little old couple walked slowly into McDonald's one cold winter evening. They were so old that they looked out of place amid the young families and young couples eating there that night. Some of the customers looked admiringly at them. You could tell what the admirers were thinking. "Look, there is a couple who has been through a lot together, probably for 60 years or more!" The little old man walked right up to the cash register, placed his order with no hesitation and then paid for their meal. The couple took a table near the back wall and started taking food off the tray. There was one hamburger, one order of French fries and one drink. The little old man unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half. He placed one half in front of his wife. Then he carefully counted out the French fries, divided them in two piles and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife. He took a sip of the drink, his wife took a sip and then set the cup down between them. As the man began to eat his few bites of hamburger the crowd began to get restless. Again you could tell what they were thinking, "That poor old couple. All they can afford is one meal for the two of them." As the man began to eat his French fries one young man stood and came over to the old couple's table. He politely offered to buy another meal for the old couple to eat. The old man replied that they were just fine. They were used to sharing everything. Then the crowd noticed that the little old lady hadn't eaten a bite. She just sat there watching her husband eat and occasionally taking turns sipping the drink. Again the young man came over and begged them to let him buy them something to eat. This time the lady explained that, no, they were used to sharing everything together. As the little old man finished eating and was wiping his face neatly with a napkin the young man could stand it no longer. Again he came over to their table and offered to buy some food. After being politely refused again, he finally asked a question of the little... Question: Why did some of the customers admire them? - Because they walked in hand in hand - Because they come to McDonald's together - Because they have been together for many years - Because they come in such a cold winter evening
Because they have been together for many years
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