Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways. But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet. For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult. The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in safeguarding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed. While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning. In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down to four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real "down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning. We... It can be inferred from the passage that _ . A) working parents can enjoy a five-week break to care for their children B) the suggested plans for a five-term school year can hardly be carried out C) the long summer holiday gives teachers and students real "down time" D) some school staff will say " No" to the plans for a shorter summer holiday
D
Most of the sandstorms that had swept China last year came from foreign land,a Chinese official in charge of desertification control said on Monday. And the invasions could partly explain the frequent sandstorms in the country in recent years despite its achievements in desertification control. Since the start of last spring,the north and northwestern Chinese regions had been hit by 17 sandstorms,of which,a dozen came from foreign land. Situated in the centralAsia sandstorm region,one of the world's four largest sandstorm sources,China also suffers from sandstorms from outside the country while being blamed as a sand source to northeast Asia. The other three major sources are in Africa,North America and Australia. The land suffering from desertification has been _ by 7,585 square kilometres annually in China,and the area of sandy land has also been falling by 1,284 square kilometres a year. The shrinkage forms a clear contrast to the fact that the land suffering from desertification and sandy feature was added by 10,400 square kilometres and 3,436 square kilometres late last century,respectively. Currently,the desertification land in China makes up 2.64 million square kilometres,accounting for 27.46 percent of the nation's land,and its sandy land totals 1.74 million square kilometres,accounting for 18.1 percent of the country's total. Which of the following is believed to be the sand source to northeast Asia? A) Mongolia. B) Africa. C) China. D) Australia.
C
Q: Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are now a part of everyday driving in many counties.These satellite-based systems provide turn-by-turn directions to help people get to where they want to go. But, they can also cause a lot of problems, send you to the wrong place or leave you completely lost. Many times, the driver is to blame. Sometimes a GPS error is responsible. Most often, says Barry Brown, it is a combination of the two. Barry Brown is with the Mobile Life Centre in Stockholm, Sweden. The center studies human-computer interaction, or HCI, especially communications involving wireless devices. He told us about an incident involving a friend who had flown to an airport in the eastern United States. There he borrowed a GPS-equipped car to use during his stay. "And they just plugged in an address and then set off to their destination. And, then it wasn't until they were driving for thirty minutes until they realized they actually put in a destination back on the West Coast where they lived. They actually put their home address in. So again, the GPS is kind of 'garbage in garbage out'." Mr. Brown says this is a common human error. But, he says, what makes the problem worse has to do with some of the shortcomings, or failures, of GPS equipment. "One problem with a lot of the GPS units is they have a very small screen and they just tell you the next turn. Because they just give you the next turn, sometimes that means that it is not really giving you the overview that you would need to know that it's going to the wrong place." The Mobile Life Centre in Sweden foruses on the research into _ . A) computer-computer interaction B) human-computer interaction C) satellite-satellite system D) human-satellite system
A: B
Dining in a completely dark room, unaware what's on your plate while sitting next to a complete stranger may not sound like an ideal restaurant experience but it's certainly an _ way to spend a rainy night in London. Dans le Noir, close to London's financial district, is a restaurant full of blind waiters and waitresses who become your eyes around the restaurant, whose original Paris branch opened in 2004. In the bar with the light, you choose whether you want the fish, meat or vegetable, but the dishes themselves remain a secret, as do the ingredients of the "surprise" cocktails. Bags, coats and devices that light up, including watches and mobile phones, are kept in the bar. Placing your hand on the shoulder of your guide, you are led to a table in a black dining room that sets up to 60 people. And it is dark. The waiters tell you when the food is being placed down in front of you, then the fun begins, trying to get food into your mouth, then identifying just what it is that's on your plate, and finally whether you have missed any of it. It's also a great chance to break social convention and eat using your fingers. Those same fingers are also the only way you can tell how much wine you're pouring into your glass. The happy atmosphere in the dining room also made the night memorable. You can't really avoid talking to the person next to you at the long tables and guessing what the dishes are certainly provides adequate fuel for the conversations. All will be revealed at the end of the meal when you are led back out into the lit bar. Not only do you finally get to see what you've just been eating but also who you' ve been talking to for the last 90 minutes. What's the main purpose of the text? A) To help blind people find a job in restaurants. B) To show how to open a restaurant with a new idea. C) To show how to enjoy the time in a dark restaurant. D) To introduce and attract customers to "Dans le Noir ".
D