Coffee experts are willing to pay large sums of money for high-quality coffee beans. The high-end beans, such as Kona or Blue Mountain, are known to cost extraordinary sums of money. Then there is Kopi Lowak (translated as "Civet Coffee"), the world's most expensive coffee, which sells for as much as US $50 per quarter-pound. This isn't particularly surprising, because approximately 500 pounds a year of Kopi Lowak make up the entire world supply. What is surprising is why this particular coffee is so rare. In fact, it's not the plants that are rare. It's the civet droppings. That's right, the civet droppings--the body waste of the palm civet. Coffee beans aren't Kopi Lowak until they've been digested and come out in the body waste of the palm civet. Palm civets are tree-dwelling, raccoon-like little animals, native to Southeast Asia and the Indonesian islands. They also have a love for coffee cherries. According to Kopi Lowak suppliers, palm civets eat the fruit whole, but only digest the outer fruit, leaving the beans intact . While the beans are not destroyed, they undergo a transformation in the animal's body. A chemical substance in the digestive system of the palm civet causes some changes to the beans to give them a unique flavor . However, this is not the only explanation why coffee beans retrieved from civet droppings have a special flavor all their own. Another possible reason is that palm civets have an unfailing instinct for picking the coffee cherries at the peak of their ripeness. Kopi Lowak is reported to have a character in taste unlike any other coffee, complex with caramel undertones and an earthy flavor. Currently, most of the world's supply of Kopi Lowak is sold in Japan, though a few US markets are also starting to stock up on Kopi Lowak. Which of the following statements is true, according to the passage? A) Little palm civets eat only the outer layer of the coffee cherries. B) Palm civets somehow know the right time when the coffee fruit ripens. C) Kopi Lowak is most popular in Southeast Asia and the Indonesian islands. D) Kona and Blue Mountain are the most expensive coffees but only of average quality.
B
Friends play a very important part in everyone's life. Friendship usually develops during childhood. New friends are made when you progress through school. Those friends that you make as a student can usually last long. Friends influence your development, maturity and sense of responsibility. A familiar expression is "You can tell a lot about a person by knowing who his friends are." Friendship is based on common interests. If you like sports, most of your friends are likely to be athletic . If you enjoy reading and shopping, most of your friends do the same. Some people call you their friends for the wrong reasons. These people are not really friends. They are superficial only "friends" on the outside, not the inside where it counts. Superficial friends only want to be your friends if it is to their advantage. True friends are there if you are rich or poor. It is easy to have many _ if you are rich. By this time you should be able to separate your friends into the real or the "phoney". True friends are most special. They are also difficult to find. You can consider yourself very lucky if you have one true friend. This friend is eager to help you whenever necessary. He or she knows you would do the same for them. A true friend is someone you can talk to about any subject or problem. You and your true friend have good understanding of each other. True friends support you, take your side, and build up your confidence. Which of the following is NOT TRUE? A) You should tell true friends from phoneys. B) True friendship is too difficult to find. C) You can share your joys and sorrows with a true friend. D) A true friend will stand by you whatever happens.
B
Q: When I was 16 years old, I made my first visit to the United States. It wasn't the first time I had been abroad. Like most English children, I learnt French at school and I had often been to France, so I was used to speaking a foreign language to people who didn't understand English. But when I went to America I was really looking forward to having a nice easy holiday without any language problems. How wrong I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Danny a ring and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking like being lost and asked if he could help me. "Yes,"I said."I want to give my friend a ring." "Well, that's nice,"he exclaimed ."Are you getting married? But aren't you a bit young?" "Who is talking about marriage?" I replied. "I just want to give my friend a ring to tell her I've arrived. Can you tell me where there's a phone box?" "Oh!"he said."There's a phone downstairs." When at last we did meet up, Danny explained the misunderstanding to me."Don't worry," she said to me."I had many difficulties at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from us British. You'll soon get used to all the funny things they say. But most of the time British and American people can understand each other!" From the passage we can see that "give somebody a ring " _ A) has two different meanings B) means "call somebody" for the old man C) means "be going to get married "in England D) has the same meaning in American as in England
A: A
Q: Londoners are great readers. They buy vast numbers of newspapers and magazines and of books -- especially paperbacks , which are still comparatively cheap in spite of ever-increasing rises in the costs of printing. They still continue to buy "proper" books, too, printed on good paper and bound between hard covers. There are many streets in London containing shops which specialize in book-selling. Perhaps the best known of these is Charring Cross Road in the very heart of London. Here bookshops of all sorts and sizes are to be found, from the celebrated one which boasts of being "the biggest bookshop in the world" to the tiny, dusty little places which seem to have been left over from Dickens' time. Some of these shops stock , or will obtain, any kind of book, but many of them specialize in second-hand books, in art books, in foreign books, in books on philosophy, politics or any other of the myriad subjects about which books may be written. One shop in this area specializes only in books about ballet! Although it may be the most convenient place for Londoners to buy books, Charring Cross Road is not the cheapest. For the really cheap second-hand volumes, the collector must venture off the beaten track, to Farringdon Road, for example, in the East Central district of London. Here there is nothing so impressive as bookshops. Instead, the booksellers come along each morning and pour out their sacks of books onto small barrows which line the gutters . And the collectors, some professionals and some amateurs , have been waiting for them. In places like this one can still, occasionally, pick up for a few pence an old volume that may be worth many pounds. The book sellers on Farringdon Road _ . A) keep fine bookshops B) keep only small bookshops C) sell books on hand-carts D) sell the same books as the bookshops on Charring Cross Road
A: C