China has a long tradition of respecting education. But its present education is not that respectable. According to the Hurun Report, which conducted one-on-one interviews with 980 wealthy Chinese people with net assets of more than 60 million yuan ($9.5 million) in 18 mainland cities from May to September, about 14 percent of them said they had either already moved overseas or had applied to do so, and another 46 percent said they planned to emigrate within three years. All cited the higher-quality education available for their children overseas as the reason. Such a mindset has resulted in a growing number of Chinese students studying abroad. To be fair, our primary and high schools are a leader in content throughout the world. The Program for International Student Assessment last year offered a feather in the cap for our education. Participating in the program administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, teenagers in Shanghai were far in advance of their peers from 64 countries, including the United States, in reading literacy, mathematics and science. So why does education in this country leave so many wealthy parents cold? Children in China have no say in what they learn. They normally learn by rote and are forced to study the subjects that help them in examinations for a school of a higher grade, especially the college entrance exams. Studies conducted by the China Youth and Children Research Center show that more than half of Chinese secondary school students study overtime and they don't get enough sleep. And more than 70 percent of students in primary and middle schools take after-school tutoring classes, which is considered a heavy burden on children. And this situation turns many parents into demons like "Wolf Father" Xiao Baiyou in Guangdong province, who supported his children's learning with verbal abuse and physical violence. Xiao doesn't pale in comparison to Tiger Mother Amy Chua in the United States. He is satisfied with his parenting skills, as he... Education in China is criticized in this passage for the following flaws EXCEPT _ . A) burdening children with after-school tutoring classes B) Depriving children of sleep with too much study C) forcing children to take college entrance exams D) making children learn by rote memorization
C
Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California.That could take several months. So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C.Lawmakers in Congress in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land.Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail--and passengers, too. Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less. It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers. Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day. One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail. The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day. The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: "You will... What is the passage mainly about? A) Different ways of sending mail in the United States. B) The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land. C) The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail. D) The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.
C
Q: What do you think life would be like if whenever you were asked to do something you had to answer "yes"?Would it be more exciting?Dangerous?A little crazy? Well,that's the premise of a new American comedy called Yes Manthat stars Jim Carry. In the film,Carry plays a divorced loser named Carl,whose idea of a good time is to sit on his couch watching DVDs.Carl's working life is just as boring--he's been at the same bank for five years,and still hasn't got the promotion he wants. But everything changes when he bumps into an old friend on the street,who invites him to attend a seminar about the power of the word "yes".At the seminar,the speaker preaches that if you say "yes" to every opportunity,you'll have a much happier and more fulfilled life than if you let opportunities pass you by. Carl takes this to heart,which sees him offering lifts to homeless people,bungee jumping,and learning to speak Korean and to play the guitar.He also meets a beautiful girl. While the power of "yes" seems to change Carl's life in a positive way,he soon discovers that if you don't make your own decisions,you can end up in some very _ situations. Yes Mansees Carry returning to a comedic role after starring in several serious movies.It came out on December 19thin the US and ranks No.1 at the box office. While the majority of Carry's movies are comedies,he actually considers himself quite a serious person,he said recently on the American talk show "Larry King Live".Carry told Larry King he first started out doing comedy because his mother suffered from depression,and he wanted to find a way to cheer her up or "fix her". And as for whether or not he's a "yes man",Carry said that he hires a whole group of "people who say no for me"so that he can "stay the nice guy everybody knows and loves". According to the passage,Carl learns that _ . A) you should always accept what life presents B) life becomes color1ful when you take it to your heart C) you have to decide for yourself before saying yes or no D) the wonderful power of "yes" can solve all the problems in life
A: C