One summer I was driving from my hometown of Tahoe City,Calif.,to New Orleans.In the middle of the desert, I came upon a young man standing by the roadside. He had his thumb out and held a gas can in his other hand. I drove right by him.There was a time in the country when you'd be considered a jerk if you passed by somebody in need. Now you are a fool for helping. With gangs, drug addicts, murderers, rapists, thieves lurking everywhere, "I don't want to get involved" has become a national motto. Several states later I was still thinking about the hitchhiker.Leaving him stranded in the desert did not bother me so much.What bothered me was how easily I had reached the decision.I never even lifted my foot off the accelerator. Does anyone stop any more? I wondered.I recalled Blanche DuBois's famous line:"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers". Could anyone rely on the kindness of strangers these days? One way to test this would be for a person to journey from coast to coast without any money, relying solely on the goodwill of his fellow Americans.What kind of Americans would he find? Who would feed him, shelter him,carry him down the road? The idea intrigued me. The week I turned 37,I realized that I had never taken a gamble in my life.So I decided to travel from the Pacific to the Atlantic without a penny.It would be a cashless journey through the land of the almighty dollar.I would only accept offers of rides, food and a place to rest my head.My final destination would be Cape Fear in North Carolina,a symbol of all the fears I'd have to conquer during the trip. I rose early on September 6, 1994, and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge with a 50pound pack on my back and a sign displaying my destination to passing vehicles:"America". For six weeks I hitched 82 rides and covered 4,223 miles across 14 states.As I traveled, folks were always warning me about someplace else.In Montana they told me to watch out for the cowboys in Wyoming; in Nebraska they said people would not be as nice in Iowa. Yet... The author decided to travel without a penny in order to _ . A) find out how long he could survive without help B) go through the great difficulty in surviving unexpected environment C) find out whether strangers would offer help to him D) figure out how strangers thought of his plan
C
You may have noticed that the world's population is not evenly distributed around our planet. There are some countries where people seem to be living nearly _ each other because conditions are overcrowded. Then there are others where it seems that hardly anybody lives. What influences this unequal distribution of people? There are specific advantages and disadvantages of *diving in a certain area. The two main factors that influence people's choice of location are climate and resources. Climate is the usual weather conditions in a region. Areas that have bad weather are generally less deal as places to live in. The north and south poles at the top and bottom of the world may be beautiful in their rugged, natural way, but the disadvantage of the bitterly cold and windy conditions usually keeps people away. When it comes to climate, warm conditions and a normal amount of rainfall are advantages that attract people. Natural resources are things that we get from nature that help us survive. Each region offers different resources, and therefore attracts different groups of people. People who enjoy the beach can make their living by catching and selling the ocean's many fish and other sea creatures. Those who prefer farming can take advantage of rich soil in valleys near rivers. Some people are willing to accept the disadvantages of the terrible conditions of deserts or mountains in order to take advantage of the resources like oil or woods. The writer thinks many people don't live near the north or south pole because _ . A) they can't get enough food there B) they natural sights there don't attract people C) the unpleasant weather keeps them away D) the length of nighttime is too short or too long
C
Q: Watching television makes it easier for toddlers to kick and scream, according to a U.S. study. Children under two should not watch any TV. The longer they sit in front of the box, the worse their behavior becomes. Just having the TV on in the background, even if the child wasn't watching it, was also connected to troublemaking behavior although the relationship wasn't as strong, said the researchers. "Parents should be smart about TV use," researcher Jennifer Manganello from the University at Albany, New York, said. "They should limit the time that children use TV, pay attention to the content of TV programs, and consider how TV is used throughout the home." The study looked at 3,128 women from 20 U.S. cities who had a child between 2005 and 2008. While there was some diversity of education among the women, one-third hadn't graduated from high school. Two-thirds of the mothers said their three-year-old watched more than two hours of TV a day, and the average viewing time for children was around three hours. On average, the TV was on for about five additional hours on a common day. After accounting for factors such as living in a violent neighborhood, scientists also found watching TV was strongly connected to behavior such as hitting others, having angry moods, being disobedient , and screaming a lot. The researchers thought that children may see violence on TV, and spend less time on positive development tasks such as reading or playing. The American Academy of Paediatrics suggests no TV at all for children at two and younger, and two hours a day or less for older kids. Children who spend much time watching TV will _ . A) not be hit by others B) be influenced by others C) become angry easily D) know more about the neighborhood
A: C
*Question*
People do not analyze every problem they meet. Sometimes they try to remember a solution from the last time they had a similar problem. They often accept the opinions or ideas of other people. Other times they begin to act without thinking. They try to find a solution by trial and error. However, when all these methods fail, the person with a problem has to start analyzing. There are six stages in analyzing a problem. First the person must recognize that there is a problem. For example, Sam's bicycle is broken, and he cannot read it to class as he usually does. Sam must see that there is a problem with his bicycle. Next the thinker must define the problem. Before Sam can repair his bicycle, he must find out the reason why it does not work. For instance, he must determine if the problem is with the gears, the brakes, or the frame. He must make his problem more specific. Now the person must look for information that will make the problem clearer and lead to possible solutions. For instance, suppose Sam decided that his bike does not work because there is something wrong with the gear wheels. At this time, he can look in his bicycle repair book and read about gears. He can talk to his friends at the bike shop. He can look at his gears carefully. After studying the problem, the person should have several suggestions for a possible solution. Take Sam as an illustration. His suggestions might be: put oil on the gear wheels; buy new gear wheels and replace the old ones; tighten or loosen the gear wheels. Eventually one suggestion seems to be the solution to the problem. Sometimes the final idea comes very suddenly because the thinker suddenly sees something new or sees something in a new way. Sam, for example, suddenly sees that there is a piece of chewing gum between the gear wheels. He immediately realizes the solution to his problem: he must clean the gear wheels. Finally the solution is tested. Sam cleans the gear wheels and finds that afterwards his bicycle works perfectly. he has solved the problem. By referring to Sam's broken bicycle, the author intends to _ . A) illustrate the ways to repair his bicycle B) discuss the problems of his bicycle C) tell us how to solve a problem D) show us how to analyze a problem
**Answer**
C