Dear Jack, Thank you for your congratulations,my congratulations to you! I remember Margaret Field very well--the girl with that wonderful red hair and those beautiful eyes. She was the most popular girl in our college. You're a very lucky fellow and I'm sure you'11 be very happy with her. Brenda and I are very lucky,too. Her father gave us this house as a wedding present,so we don't have to pay rent. The house and furniture are insured already,so I can't help you by giving you that kind of business. I wish I'd known earlier that you were in the insurance business. I'd certainly have asked you to give me a policy for the house and its contents. I'm rather doubtful about the value of life insurance. It's my duty,I know,to see that there will be money for my wife,and later on for the children,in the event of my early death. But I feel that it's wiser to put my money into the shares of good business companies. You say I can get a policy that will provide 50,000 when I'm 65. Yes,but that time is nearly forty years away,and what will 50,000 be worth then?The real value of money has been going down and prices go up a little every year,perhaps only 4%or 5%,but the movement is always up,never down. 50,000 in fifty years from now may be worth only two--thirds or even a half of what it is worth today. Now if I put my savings into the shares of the big oil companies,or aircraft manufacturers,the value of the shares will go up with the rise in costs and prices. So the real value of my money would remain about the same,wouldn't it?I know your answer. You'll say that your life insurance policy provides against my possible death. I've got to balance that possibility against the almost certain fall in the value of money* I'd very much like you to meet Brenda. Can you come for a weekend some time?What about next Saturday?If you can manage it,please let me know which train you're coming by,and I'll meet you at the station. We can have a talk about life insurance and perhaps you'll succeed in making me see... This is a letter of_. A) refusing B) inquiring C) complaining D) negotiating
A
If music makes you smarter, and exercise helps brain function, can exercising to music really boost brainpower? Some researchers said it could. Volunteers who listened to Vivaldi~ "Four Seasons" while working out on a treadmill did much better on a test of verbal ability than when they exercised without music, a team at prefix = st1 /OhioStateUniversityfound. "Evidence suggests that exercise improves the cognitive performance of people with coronary artery disease ," said psychologist Charles Emery, who led the study. "And listening to music is thought to enhance brainpower. We wanted to put the _ together," Emery added in a statement. Writing in the latest issue of the journal Heart & Lung, Emery and colleagues said they studied 33 men and women taking part in a cardiac rehabilitation program after having bypass surgery, angioplasty or other procedures to treat clogged arteries. The volunteers said they felt better emotionally and mentally after working out with or without the music. But their improvement on the verbal fluency test doubled after listening to music on the treadmills ."Exercise seems to cause positive changes in the nervous system, and these changes may have a direct effect on cognitive ability," Emery said. "Listening to music may influence cognitive function through different pathways in the brain. The combination of music and exercise may stimulate and increase cognitive arousal while helping to organize cognitive output." Emery said he now wanted to test people using music of their own choice. "We used The Four Seasons' because of its moderate tempo and positive effects on medical patients in previous research," Emery said. "But given the range of music preferences among patients, it's especially important to evaluate the influence of other types of music on cognitive outcomes." According to the latest issue of the journal Heart & Lung, which of the following is tree? A) The volunteers only didn't feel better mentally after working out with out the music. B) Improvement on the verbal fluency can be achieved by working out with the music. C) improvement on the verbal fluency can be achieved by working out without the music. D) The volunteers only felt better emotionally and mentally after working out with the music.
B
Q: Home gardens are very common in America. They can provide people with fresh vegetables, but hard work should be done. For example, you have to fight against insects and animals in home gardens, because they like the fresh vegetables as much as us. Maybe you will surround a small garden with a wire fence, but this may not keep out birds or some digging animals. Instead, it can reduce unwanted visitors. You can remove harmful insects by hand. But if you want to use poisons, be extremely careful. Be sure to follow all the safety directions. There is another way to fight insects-avoid planting a crop in the same place every year. Insects lay eggs in the soil, so they reappear yearly. Moving a crop from place to place in the garden can keep insects away from the plants they like to eat. To reduce garden work, spread eight to ten centimetres of _ under and around vegetables. Mulch can be made of tree bark or the pages of newspapers. Mulch will help limit the growth of weeds and hold water in the soil. Mulch also provides fertilizer as it breaks down. You can talk to an agricultural adviser about other fertilizers to add to the soil. Harvest vegetables during the cool part of the morning if possible. Here is some advice for some popular kinds of vegetables: Harvest beans and peas when they have grown full, bright and green. Do not wait too long. Heads of broccoli should be harvested before any yellow flowers appear. More growth will develop later for a continuous harvest. Some greens like collards , mustard and spinach produce more leaves after the first harvest. They will continue to grow all the season. Pick green onions when they reach the desired size. Pick other onions when their top leaves turn yellow. A home garden can be hard work for several months. But a good harvest is the best reward. How many ways are mentioned to fight insects in the passage? A) Two. B) Three. C) Four. D) Five.
A: B
Q: Football is America's most popular sport, and by football I don't mean soccer. American football is a unique sport with its own rules, regulations, and fans. Being a football fan means something different than being a fan in other sports; football fans have their own culture and customs. Since football is a violent, contact sport, its games are played infrequently. Usually fans have to wait an entire week before they can see their favorite team play again. This means that football fans take advantage of the days they can cheer for their teams. One custom that football fans have is called tailgating. Tailgating describes when a big group of people gets together before a game and has a small party. Tailgating usually lasts a few hours and involves lots of good food and beverages. It is most common to grill food at a tailgate, especially hamburgers, hotdogs, sausages, and any other type of meat. It is not unusual to see people drinking lots of beer, throwing footballs around, talking to (or arguing with) other fans, etc. Tailgating happens for other sports too, but it is much more important to football fans. Sports fans in every country have unique and strange ways to celebrate their favorite teams and players. Football in America is no different. What is the best adjective to describe the attitude of tailgating fans? A) Busy B) Relaxed C) Serious D) Unique
A: B