Music probably isn't the main reason for where you choose to eat something, but restaurant owners put a lot of thought into what they play. In a recent article about music's role in restaurant design, author Mark Brandau details the different ways sound influences sales. Here are a few "notes" to keep in mind the next time you need to pick a restaurant: It's someone's job to design playlists. Restaurant owners hire experts to build music playlists for different times of the day. A restaurant owner says, "Lively songs encourage quick dining and faster table turns at meal time." What you hear at lunch won't be what you hear at dinner. And what you hear after dinner will be something totally different. If a restaurant wants to increase late-night sales, music is very important to creating the right atmosphere. Music builds brands . Nick Vojnovic, president of Little Greek, had been in the business for 20 years. He began to realize how important music is to the restaurant experience after listening to a manager from The Cheesecake Factory speak about using music to develop brand identity. Where have you heard that before? Restaurants may be using the same music providers. Ambiance Radio provides playlists for Little Greek in Florida, and also Schlotzsky's and Union Square Cafe in New York City. Vojnovic, who started his business at Chili's, pointed out that years ago, background music was changed only once per quarter. Music helps restaurants choose diners. Brandau explains that some restaurants would like to turn up the music, not to bother certain groups of customers, but to stay true to their main diners. If college kids are a restaurant's main diners, the restaurant will surely play music that makes older people feel uninvited. The passage mainly discusses the relationship between music and _ . A) diners B) restaurant sales C) eating habits D) menus
B
Printing images is easy. Just select an image of a purple robot on your PC, for example, and press print. Your home printer exactly shoots drops of ink onto a flat piece of paper, creating the robot's 2-D image. "Printing" 3-D objects is different. Take the purple robot. First select a file of the 3-D printer. Immediately, the printer begins making noise, and a nozzle releases plastic material in thin layers. In two or three hours, a 3-D purple robot is standing before you. 3-D printing has developed to the point where printers can now create high-quality objects using a variety of materials, including metals. That means 3-D printers can now make final products that meet high industrial standards. 3-D printers are already being used to make parts for racecars and jets as well as man-made limbs and hearing aids. So far, few homes have 3-D printers. That's because 3-D printing is not only new to most people but also quite expensive. To bring 3-D printing to the masses, some retail stores plan to offer the service. For example, the Staples chain of office supply stores has announced that it will offer 3-D printing in Europe beginning in 2013. Customers will be able to submit their own 3-D designs to Staples website for printing. After the job is done, they'll pick up their item at a nearby Staples store or have it mailed to their homes. This service is sure to encourage many more people to try out 3-D printing. What does the writer of this article imply about 3-D printing? A) Its inventor is famous B) Its future looks bright. C) It is still quite cheap. D) It will be of little use.
B
Q: HANGZHOU, China -- Millions of Chinese basketball fans who were upset about the retirement of Yao Ming, are excited to see another even more shining star, Jeremy Lin, rising from the N.B.A and becoming a household name all across China. "We are amazed by Lin Shuhao's magic performance and should cheer him on," one Internet user wrote. "His sport shirts have sold out, even including the counterfeit ones," said Zheng Xiaojun, a 24-year-old clerk. Lin's amazing success over the last month has caught the imagination of the Chinese. He has been particularly popular here in northern Zhejiang province, from which his grandmother went to Taiwan in the late 1940s. Cai Qi, a well-known micro blogger, posted a message on micro blog over the weekend stating that Lin's hometown is Jiaxing, a city near Hangzhou where Lin's grandmother grew up. Cai Qi's nephew Yu Guohua, a 56-year-old factory worker, is Lin's closest still living in northern Zhejiang. He said in a telephone interview that Lin had come to play basketball with the Jiaxing High School team last May and had been surrounded by admirers. Yu said he did not have a chance to meet Lin in the crowd, but managed to speak with his family. "His father was very supportive of Lin's playing basketball, but his grandmother was not, for fear he would be injured," Yu said. Lin may owe his height, 6 feet 3 inches, to his grandmother's family, Yu said. Chen Weiji, the father of Lin's grandmother, was well over 6 feet and all of Chen's children were tall as well, he said. The N.B.A. believes that 300 million people in China play basketball. The retirement last year of Yao Ming took its main Asian draw away from the N.B.A. But Lin's appearance has helped the league remain a hot topic of Chinese online chatter. Lin's success in N.B.A has _ . A) attracted more Chinese children to play basketball as a career B) drawn Chinese people's attention back to the league C) helped his hometown develop sports shirts business D) helped his hometown attract more foreign visitors
A: B
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy-five, he gave PS 12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children's play ground. As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman, During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy-five, Johnson had a sense of humor . He liked whisky and drank some each day. "I have an injection in my neck each evening." He told the newspaperman, thinking of evening glass of whisky. The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and has a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection. When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that _ . A) he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening. B) he needed an injection in the neck. C) a daily injection in the evening would make him sleep well. D) there was something wrong with his neck.
A