Finding time to enjoy life is becoming harder and harder. As the average workweek lengthens, leisure time drops. Yet some of the world's busiest people are able to develop rewarding careers and also make time for family and leisure activities. Here is their best advice plus that of time-management experts: 1. Use your peak hours wisely. People tend to be most alert in late morning and midevening. Afternoon brings an increase in sleepiness. Use your high-efficiency hours to handle difficult jobs or engage in creative thinking. For low-efficiency times, concentrate on cleaning up or sorting your mail. By adapting to your mental condition, you can accomplish more in less time. 2. Make a plan. Just 20 minutes of organizing can save an hour of extra effort remembering what must be done. "Don't try to carry your life around in your head," says Lucy Hedrick, author of Five Days to an Organized Life. "Write things down so you can free your brain for more inventive pursuit ." 3. Discourage drop-ins. The person who welcomes every visitor will get plenty of conversation but won't accomplish much. The trick is to develop harmless ways to protect yourself from minute-stealing interruptions. David E. Levy, a public-relations consultant , uses an alternative to the open-door policy by keeping his door half open. The message is clear: he really doesn't want you to come in, but you can if it is important. 4. Tame the telephone. Few devices save more minutes--or waste so many more--than the telephone. Signal the end of your conversation with a phrase such as "Before we hang up..." You can save even more time by not taking every incoming call. Keep a record of when people you call regularly are least busy and call them at those times. Even better, make appointments to call important contacts. To help us gain an extra hour every day, a clockmaker in Dallas has created a timer measuring each minute at 57.6 seconds. The 2.5 seconds borrowed from each minute add up to an extra 60 minutes at the end of each day. Who works most efficiently according to the passage? A) An editor who is trying to produce a title for his article in the afternoon. B) A manager who is designing selling plans with his office door open. C) A visitor to a mayor without making an appointment. D) A student in class without taking any incoming calls.
D
About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies like Australia , and Ireland. But Thailand, Indonesia and Japan also do so. This strange quirk puzzles the rest of the world; however, there is a perfectly good reason . Up to the late 1700's , everybody travelled on the left side of the road because it's the most sensible option for feudal , violent societies with mostly right-handed people. Soldiers with their swords under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road, you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him. Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon. It changed under Napoleon because he was left-handed. His armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent. From then on, any part of colonized by the French travelled on the right. After the American Revolutionary War (1775--1783), the US became independent and decided to make traffic drive on the right in order to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past. As America became the center of the car industry, if you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American right-hand-drive cars. From then on, many countries changed out of necessity. Today, the EU would like Britain to fall into line with the rest of Europe, but this is no longer possible. It would cost billions of pounds to change everything round. The last European country to change driving on the right was Sweden in 1967. While everyone was getting used to the new system, they paid more attention and took more care, resulting in a reduction of the number of road accidents. What is the main cause of the UK failing to adopt the new system? A) Its high costs to change. B) Its increasing traffic accidents. C) Its influence on colonies. D) Its fast-developing car industry.
A
Q: On September 22, 1986, Jay Brunkella, a police-officer in the Rogers Park district in Chicago, was shot during a drug arrest and died. Shortly afterwards, fellow officer Ken Knapcik, a 20-year veteran of the force, returned home after work to find a note from his 15-year-old daughter on the dining table. Dad---This poem came directly from my heart. I love you so much! It scares and amazes me that you go out every day and risk everything to provide us with all that we have. I wrote this to express how much I love you and how much lost I'd be without you-Laura. P.S.: Hey, let's be careful out there. Titled "The Ultimate Cop", Laura's poem was dedicated "To all the cops in the world who have daughters who love them with all their hearts. And especially to my dad." It was about a police-officer's daughter who sees on the night time news that her father has been shot. Part of poem: "Daddy, my Daddy, can you hear me cry? Oh, God, I need my Daddy, please don't let him die." Ken Knapcik stood alone as he read the poem. "It took me several minutes," he said. "I'd get through part of it and have to stop before I could go on. I was weeping. She had never told me she was scared." He took the poem to work the next day and showed it to his fellow officers. "I've never seen so many grown men cry. Some couldn't finish it." Knapcik keeps Laura's poem in the pocket of his police jacket. He takes it with him every time he leaves the house for a new shift. "I don't want to be out there without it." he said, "I'll probably carry it with me forever." Which of the following is the best title for the passage? A) Poem for a cop B) An officer's death C) Daughter's love D) Love my job, love my daughter
A: A