(Question)
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: When dinning in restaurants, Americans usually order drinks first, then soup, salad, main course or entree , and dessert at last. This is somewhat a different order way from that in Europe. Until about the middle of the nineteenth century, Americans didn't have to worry about whether the salad came before or after the main course since they didn't eat salad at all. Chomping on greens was once considered sissy , and Americans preferred to get their greens indirectly, after they had been processed by rabbits or deer. The shift of public taste toward the salad may be attributed to New York's Delmonico brothers, who originally introduced smorgasbord from Europe, and served it in their restaurant. Such novelties became so popular that by the end of the nineteenth century, the Waldorf salad has swept the country. Europeans still chomp on greens after the main course, as a way of clearing the palate , and being ready for the cheese. Why Americans eat their salad first is uncertain. The following joking suggestions might make sense: The custom may be related to the slimming craze, for "salad first" may fill you up without any worry about fattening; to avoid customers' impatience with waiting, the restaurant serves salad first to keep them busy while the main courses are being prepared; eating raw food while one is waiting for the cooked food may be a way of announcing that one is not wasting time, which is seen as a virtue; probably unfair to the restaurant, this custom has been encouraged by the merchant as trick-the meagerness of a meal is less noticeable if it comes after "free" salad-after all, rabbit food is much cheaper than the rabbit. Question: In the last sentence of the passage, "rabbit food" refers to _ . Options: A: the salad B: food made of rabbit meat C: junk food D: food prepared for the rabbit
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A

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Read the article and select the best answer. Article: A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", saying the character best represents their love for the child, according to an official trying to standardize the national language. The unusual name stands out especially in Mandarin, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multistroke characters to represent words. "The whole world uses it to write emails, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming. While the @ symbol is familiar to Chinese email users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out. With a drawnout "t", this sounds something like "ai ta", or "love him", to Mandarin speakers. Li says the name is an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Mandarin, as commercialization and the Internet break down conventions . Another couple tried to give their child a name that in English sounds like "King Osrina". Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals and foreign languages. Sixty million Chinese face the problem that their names use ancient characters so uncommon that computers cannot recognize them _ , said Li, according to a report on the government website. One of them is the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name has a rare "rong" character that gives newspaper editors headaches. Question: The passage is mainly about _ . Options: A: how Chinese parents name their babies B: the importance of standardizing Chinese characters C: a ban on names using Arabic numerals and foreign languages D: the problems caused by uncommon characters used in Chinese names
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D

(Question)
Read the article and select the best answer. Article: For years and years people have been saying that the rail ways are dead. "We can do without railways", people say as if motorcars and planes have made the railways unnecessary. We all keep hearing that trains are slow, that they lose money, and that they're dying. But this is far from the truth. In these days of expensive oil, the railways have become highly competitive with motorcars and planes. If you want to carry people or goods from place to place, they are cheaper than planes. And they have much in common with planes. A plane goes in a straight line and so does a railway. What is more, it takes you from the heart of a city into the heart of another. It doesn't leave you as a plane does, miles and miles from the city center. It doesn't hold you up as a car does, in endless traffic jams. And a single train can carry goods which no plane or motorcar could ever do. Far from being dead, the railways are very much alive. Modern railway lines give you a smooth, untroubled journey. Where else can you eat well, sleep in comfort, feel safe and enjoy the scene while you are traveling at speed at the same time? And we are only at the beginning,for we have just entered the age of _ . Trains are traveling at 150 miles an hour and more. Soon we will be wondering why we spent so much on motorways we can't use because we have not enough money to buy the oil and planes we can't fly in for the same reason. Question: Some people think the railways are unnecessary for many reasons except that _ . Options: A: planes and motorcars have taken the place of trains B: oil is expensive today C: trains are slow D: always lose money
(Answer)
B