Question: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: "People are ruder today because they are rushed and more 'time poor' than ever before," says Patsy Rowe, " _ " Due to our strong attraction to electronic equipment it is a wonder more people don't wake up each morning and greet the singing birds with a complaint about the noise. Here are some examples of rudeness. Some people prefer to do almost everything over the internet. To them, dealing with an actual human is like an evolutionary step backward. It feels very slow because humans don't work at 4G speeds. When you have dinner with friends, you will often notice someone paying more attention to his mobile phone. We have programmed ourselves to think that every new message brings life-changing news, so taking calls and checking our texts are more important than talking to the people we are with. What is worse, some people even tend to send anonymous rude messages by email. However, rudeness is never acceptable. Don't assume it is OK to be rude if the person you're in touch with won't recognize you. If you have something awful to say, have the courage to face the person and say it, write a letter or email and sign it, or forget it. Upsetting people with unsigned messages is cruel and annoying. We shouldn't blame technology for our shortcomings. Technology is here to help us, but we should not allow it to take over our lives. An important step is admitting our shortcomings. People spend a lot of time pointing out bad manners but it would be even more helpful if we'd publicly recognize good manners when we see them. Question: Some people are less willing to deal with humans because _ . Options: A: they are becoming less patient B: they are growing too independent C: they have to handle many important messages D: they have to follow an evolutionary step backward
Answer: A

Question: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: Wind turbines are efficient sources of cheap energy but also a source of concern as their huge spinning blades frequently kill birds and bats. A new type of wind generator developed in Spain offers a creative solution to that problem. In 2002, Spanish inventor David Yanez saw a short film about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the U.S., collapsing in strong wind. It was a vivid example of the powerful vibrations wind can create when it blows past a long pole, such as a car antenna or even a stick of bamboo. It gave him the idea for a new type of wind-energy generator. "The initial philosophy or spirit was to create a generator of dreams that had all the qualities one would want: It should be as cheap as possible, need as little maintenance as possible, the setup as simple as possible," he said. Yanez and his friend Raoul Martin took the idea to an engineering firm, where they were told it would never work. Undiscouraged, they started experimenting on their own in a small wind tunnel they built. Good initial results were repeated by a larger working model called Vortex installed in a nearby field. "What we have is a mast , which is the top piece and acts as a blade," Yanez said. "It's constructed from the same material as a conventional generator, and what it does is it oscillates , transmitting the oscillation to a conventional alternator, which by its own oscillation converts the wind's energy into electric energy." Yanez said the output of the 6-meter-tall generator, and even that of smaller models, was better than expected. The Vortex creates about 30 percent less energy than a comparable bladed wind turbine, but it is lighter and cheaper to build and maintain. It is made mostly of reinforced plastic and has very few moving parts. Also, it does not create noise and--even more important for many environmentalists--it does not present a threat to passing birds. The current prototype works at wind speeds ranging from 1.5 to 7 meters per second. The inventors say the next step is building a 12.5-meter tall... Question: What do we know from the passage? Options: A: The original idea was considered as practical in an engineering firm. B: Yanez and Martin's initial tests by themselves proved to be successful. C: The material for constructing the mast is different from that of the past. D: The new generator is better at creating energy than a comparable bladed one.
Answer: B

Question: Read the article and select the best answer. Article: A few days ago we - that's me and the husband - took a cab to the station. Chat with the driver fell to the wrong of cyclists, and the misunderstanding of the road rules. So far as the rules of the road go, there seems to be one basic principle: when you are driving a car you hate bikes, when you are riding a bike you hate cars (and I guess walkers hate everyone). There is an obvious difference of viewpoint built in here. It wasn't until I started to drive a car (almost 20years after I had first rode a bike) that I actually realized that you could not see a cyclist at night without lights. In fact I now want to shout at late night cyclists without lights(like motortists once did at me): "You'll get killed, sunshine, I can't see you." The problem is that cyclists do ride headlong into danger. It's not just not having lights. It's biking on pavements (and so threatening to injure a load of innocent walkers in the process) and biking down one-way streets the wrong way. I admit that I do bike the wrong way down a one-way street sometimes. My feeble defense is that I try always to do it as if I know I was doing wrong. That is slowly, with an apologetic look on the face, and ready to get off at any minute. I can't bear the guys (usually, but not always it is guys) who do it as if they owned the place, and at high speed. So cyclists are not entirely innocent. But they are among the disadvantaged groups, because the bottom line is that a car or a lorry can kill a cyclist and not the other way around. Question: What can we learn about the writer? Options: A: She often took a cab with her husband. B: She has been a motorist for over 20 years. C: She used to ride a bike without lights at night. D: She often biked the wrong way down a one way street.
Answer:
C