Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: As a result of pollution, Lake Erie, on the borders of the USA and Canada, is now without many living things. Pollution in water is not simply a matter of "poisons" killing large numbers of fish overnight. Very often the effects of pollution are not noticed for many months or years because the first organisms to be affected are either plants or plankton . These organisms are the food of fish, birds, and other creatures. When this food disappears, the fish and birds die too. In this way a whole food chain can be wiped out, and it is not until dead fish and water birds are seen at the river's edge or on the sea shore that people realize what is happening. Where do the substances which pollute water come from? There are two main sources, sewage and industrial waste. As more detergent is used in homes, more of it is finally put into our rivers, lakes and seas. Detergents harm water birds by breaking down the natural substances which keep their feathers _ Sewage itself, if not properly treated, makes the water dirty and prevents all forms of life in rivers and the sea from receiving the oxygen they need. Industrial waste is even more harmful since there are many highly poisonous materials in it, such as copper and lead. So if we want to stop this pollution, the answer is simple. Sewage and industrial waste must be made clean before flowing into the water reservoirs. It may already be too late to save some rivers and lakes, but others can still be saved if the correct action is taken at once. Question: Which of the following things is /are harmful according to the passage? - Industrial waste and chemicals - Water in the river - Coal and wood - plastic
Industrial waste and chemicals

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: After a lot of weightlifting and 25 exhausting days training, a 52-year-old woman recently became the first female "gripman" on San Francisco's historic cable cars. Fannie Barnes passed her written test and completed a final run under the watchful eye of a supervisor, Municipal Railway spokesman Alan Siegel said. Deep calluses are already forming at the base of her fingers and there is a hole in her glove. Two other women quit after a single day with injured muscles. "Now they're going to have to change the word from gripman to grip person, just because of me," Barnes said earlier, "I'm so excited." After almost a year of serious workouts, Barns can pull more than 61 kilos, only 23 kilos less than her body weight. And she'll need the muscle, for this is no modern, push-button technology. Every time a car starts up again after making a stop, the gripman must haul back on a lever controlling a device that grips the cable, which runs continuously at 14 kilometers per hour. If the grip slips, so does the car. A second person operates the brakes. In addition to having to throw her weight around on the job, she's got to throw out some attitude to men who were hard to convince. The city employs 76 men in the job. "A lot of men said mean things to me and didn't want to help train me. But I would like to thank the guys who were against me because they gave me even more inspiration to do it." she said. Not all the men were against her. Many of the male colleagues yelled out support as she did her training runs. One of her biggest tests was drizzly December morning. She first went down the Hyde Street Hill, considered the most dangerous incline on the cable car routes. "I had to have the will and I had to believe I could do it," she said. "It was scary, but as I started going down full grip and felt that I was in control, I knew I was on my way," Barnes already is a pioneer of sorts. She started working as a cable car conductor six years ago, collecting fares and assisting on the back brake. She is one of only three... Question: What is unusual about Fannie Barnes getting a job as a gripman? - She is the oldest one to work as a grpman. - She is the first women to work as a gripman. - She is the fattest women to work as a gripman. - She is the most suitable one to work as a gripman.
She is the first women to work as a gripman.

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Ahead of so-called Singles' Day on the 11th of this month,2013, online sales have already begun peaking. The leading e-business platform, tmall.com, has promoted its fifty-percent-off discount to attract consumers. They are also trying to attract buyers through social media. Vice President of tmall.com Wang Yulei says more than 20 thousand online stores have joined the Double 11 Day sales. But this number has doubled. The final number of how many products going to be on sale has not been known yet. But so far, many more products planned to be put on shelves with discounts. During last year's Singles' Day, tmall.com, together with taobao.com, reached a record of 19.1 billion yuan in sales, which considered a milestone in the e-business history of China. Singles' Day was first started by Chinese college students in the 1990s as the opposite of Valentine's Day, a celebration for people without romantic partners. The timing was based on the date: Nov. 11--or double 11--for singles. Single young people would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to show love to someone and end their single status. But now, the Singles' Day has been promoted as a kind of grand craze just for the shopping season, thanks to thousands of discounted products being promoted online. Taobao.com was the first big e-retail platform which used the double 11 idea to promote sales. Taobao.com reached one million yuan worth of sales on that day in 2009, when they first promoted the Singles' Day idea. In 2010, the sales increased to 936 million yuan. The figure climbed up to 5.3 billion yuan in 2011, putting huge demand on shipping services. The figure doubled in 2012. E-commerce is considered to be replacing the traditional retailing industry, but the reality is both sides are learning from each other. Question: What can we infer from the passage? - Taobao.com reached 2.65 billion yuan in 2012. - E-commerce is going to replace traditional business at the end. - Double 11 Day was created to get the single status over for young people. - More than 20 thousand products will be provided in the Double 11 Day sales.
A: Double 11 Day was created to get the single status over for young people.

(Q).
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Bamboo is one of the nature's most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass. Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist recorded one bamboo plant that grew almost 1.5 meters in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe . There are more than 1,000 kinds of bamboo that grow around the world on both mountains and plains. Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimeters across. This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green. Many Asian countries have been using bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for building new buildings. As a matter of fact, the cables hold up the hanging bridge across the Min River in Sichuan are made of bamboo. The bridge has been in use for more than 1,000 years, and is still holding strong. In Africa, engineers are teaching poor farmers how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap ways to find water because they have no money, and their fields often die from no rain and no water. It seems that bamboo is one of the best things they can use. Bamboo pipes and drills can help to make the poor thirsty fields be watered. Question: How is bamboo like grass? - It is thin and easy to cut. - It grows everywhere. - It grows quickly after it's cut short. - It is short and green.
(A).
It grows quickly after it's cut short.