Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Americans are buying more products and services than ever before through the Internet, and the popularity of online sales is likely to spread to other countries. Online sales now represent as much as one-tenth of all retail sales in the United States,which has led traditional stores to seek new ways to keep their customers loyal. Lynne Shaner used the Internet to buy everything she needed for her wedding and holiday gifts for her husband. Other than food, 90 percent of her purchases were made on her home computer. "I find that, by being able to go online and _ the things that I need to select and have them delivered to me right at my doorstep, I'm free from all the driving, all the crowds, all the noise, and I usually get a better selection." There are a lot of people like her. Experts say American online shopping hit records in both November and December. Fifty-seven percent of Americans have bought something electronically. Store owners worry that this growing amount of online sales will hurt their business. Cornell University marketing professor Ed McLaughlin says, "They should be worried. Anything that can move online will be sold online. And it's just a matter of time. However, traditional stores can keep their customers by selling goods like clothing, which buyers may want to see and try on before purchasing. The stores could also offer things that are difficult to ship. " Bill Martin, whose business helps stores learn about their customers, says, "Traditional stores offer a social experience that some people enjoy. There is still a lot of emotion in the buying decision that takes place, and you can't always get that on-line. It's a rather cold process. Traditional stores can provide goods for buyers more quickly than online stores. And some retailers are using websites to persuade people to visit their stores. " While online shopping worries some business owners, the only worry for delivery services like FedEx and UPS is keeping up with the number of packages. UPS Manager Dana Kline says her company... Question: Professor Ed McLaughlin thinks that _ . - online shopping has little effect on traditional stores - it is time for store owners to be anxious about their business - traditional stores can do nothing to stop challenges from online shopping - traditional stores should sell more things that are difficult to ship
it is time for store owners to be anxious about their business

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Steven Jobs, the designer of Apple Computer, was not clever when he was in school. At that time, he was not a good student and he always made troubles with his schoolmates. When he went into college, he didn't change a lot. Then he dropped out . But he was full of new ideas. After he left college, Steven Jobs worked as a video game designer. He worked there for only several months and then he went to India. He hoped that the trip would give him some new ideas and give him a change in his life. Steven Jobs lived on a farm in California for a year after he returned from India. In 1975, he began to make a new type of computer. He designed the Apple Computer with his friend in his garage. He chose the name "Apple" just because it could help him to remember a happy summer he once spent in an apple tree garden. His Apple Computer was so successful that Steven Jobs soon became famous all over the world. He often said, "I live in order to change the world, there aren't any other reasons. The only way to have a great achievement is to love your own career. If you can't find your favorite career, go on looking for it and never give up." This is Steven Jobs, though he is dead, his spirit and achievements still influence our lives. Question: Steven Jobs was famous for his _ all over the world. - new ideas - Apple Computer - video games - saying
Apple Computer

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: A house of cards? Sounds unbelievable, doesn't it? Not if the architect is 31-year-old Bryan Berg. He's made a career out of building fantastic card houses, stadiums, capitols, castles -- and the world's tallest card tower. How does he do it? Bryan's structures are amazing because they are made entirely of perfectly balanced, freestanding playing cards. He never uses glue, tape, or anything else to hold the cards together. Nor does he fold the cards. He's discovered another way to make a strong house of cards, using a trick from nature. To make plants strong, nature builds them with cells that have tough walls. Rows and rows of these cells form a grid that helps leaves and stems keep their shape. Bees use the same kind of repeating pattern to create strong honeycombs, where they live and store honey. Bryan designs similar grids, using cards to create a repeating pattern of cells. He begins with a single cell made by balancing four cards against one another to form a box. Then he repeats the cell over and over, expanding outward to form the grid, which makes a good foundation for a strong card structure. The larger the grid, the more weight it can carry. Sometimes Bryan uses several cards, instead of just one, to construct the cell walls, making the grid even stronger. The trick, he tells kids when he speaks in classrooms, is to place your cards as tightly together as possible when laying out your grid, making sure the cards are not leaning at all. After building this solid base, Bryan lays cards across the top to make the floor for the next "story" of the building. He may add towers, columns, steeples, or domes. Using the principle of repeating cells, Bryan builds structures of amazing strength. In the Cards Not surprisingly, Bryan has always been interested in building things. Growing up on a "big, old farm" in rural Iowa, he had plenty of room to play. "We were in the middle of nowhere," Bryan remembers, "with lots of space to do whatever we wanted. I was always making something, using things like sticks... Question: According to the article, which natural structure is a model for Bryan's card structures? - A sand dune. - A honeycomb. - A snowdrift. - A thundercloud.
A: A honeycomb.

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help clarify hospitals who are charged with wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients overcome discomfort and pain. A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Lenoardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to watch either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly paintings, or a blank panel while the team struck a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been hurt by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when considering the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings. While distractions , such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part. The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process. "Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their aesthetic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist. "Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. I think these results show that more research is needed into how a beautiful environment can reduce suffering." Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticellis' Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonino Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. "these people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would... Question: According to the research, when designing a hospital, we should consider its _ . - convenient facilities - functional operating room - pleasing environment - bright waiting room
A: pleasing environment