Every ten years there is a national census to count the number of people. The Census Office asks every household to answer questions on a census form. The census counts... * the number of people in each area * the numbers of men and women and whether they are single, married, widowed or divorced * how many children there are, how many teenagers, people in their twenties, thirties, forties... retired people and so on The census counts people by... * the kind of housing they live in * the country in which they were born * the kind of job they do and how they travel to work Some uses of the census: Housing: to work out present and future needs we must know how people are housed now, and the sizes and ages of their families. Hospitals, schools and other local services: the size of annual grants made by the Government to these services depends largely on the numbers and needs of people in the area. Many of the figures come from the census. Planning: the census shows how many people have moved from one area to another and how the local workforce is changing. This information is used when factories, offices, shops, public transport and places for leisure are being planned. In strict confidence The census is taken in order to provide figures about the nation as a whole; it does not give information about any named person, family or household. Names and addresses are needed to take the census accurately, but they are not fed into the computer. After the census, the forms are locked away and will not be released to anyone outside the Census Office for 100 years. The answers you give on your census form will be treated in strict confidence. NO one outside the Census Office will see your completed form. Everyone working on the census is sworn to secrecy and can be charged if he or she improperly reveals information. The census is not interested in _ . A) how many houses you have B) how old you are C) what your job is D) how much money you have
D
Maybe you don't think animals have certain mental powers which human beings do not have. But the truth is that some of them have instincts, and besides this, I am sure they can feel certain things we humans cannot. A personal experience showed me this. Some years ago, I had a dog named Howard. From the time when he was a puppy, he was timid, so we named him Howard, sounding like "coward"! He was especially afraid of thunderstorms. At the first flash of lightning or crash of thunder, he would run whining into his house and hide under a table. I often went for a walk with Howard. Once, as we were walking along a road, it began to rain. I quickly ran to a bus stop for shelter. The bus stop had a roof supported by metal poles. Soon after I had got there, Howard caught my trousers in his teeth and tried to pull me away. At first I was puzzled and a little angry at his behavior. But I decided to humor him and walked away from the shelter into the rain and started to go home. When I was about two hundred metres from the shelter, there came a flash of lightning and soon after, there was thunder which nearly deafened me. Howard stopped walking and began whining. Thinking he was afraid, I bent to pick him up. As I straightened up, I glanced at the bus shelter we had just left. I was shocked to see that two of the poles were bent and the roof was lying on the ground, broken. The shelter had been struck by the bolt of lightning! The reason why the author was puzzled and angry with the dog was that _ . A) Howard had a strange behavior B) Howard should be afraid of the metal poles C) Howard should know the approaching of the terrible lightning D) Howard bit his trousers in his teeth
A
Q: The making of glass is a very old industry---at least 4,500 years old. Glass has many extraordinary qualities and it is often being used in new ways. One of the most interesting new uses for glass is in telephone communication. Scientists have developed glass fibers as thin as human hair which are designed to carry light signal. When the light reaches the other end,it is first changed into electrical signals , which are in turn changed into sound messages. Called lightwave communication, the new system was used successfully in an experiment in Chicago in 1977. During the experiment, two glass fibers were able to carry 672 conversations at the same time. The lightwave cable , containing 144 glass fibers, is able to carry 50,000 conversations at the same time. The lightwave communication system has two important advantages. First, the glass fiber cables are smaller and weigh less than copper cables. Second, they cost less. Perhaps it can be said that telephone communication has entered the age of light. According to the passage the new telephone communication system _ . A) has been put into actual use B) was put into actual use in 1977 C) was put on experiment in 1977 D) had been repeatedly experimented on before 1977
A: D
*Question*
A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package: What food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap! Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse declared the warning, "There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house." The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr Mouse, I can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me, I cannot be bothered by it." The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mouse trap in the house." "I am so sorry, Mr Mouse," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers." The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, "A mouse trap, am I in grave danger, huh?" So the mouse returned to the house, head down and depressed to face the farmer's mouse trap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was an evil snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knew to treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main _ . His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat. So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We could see from the passage that the mouse was _ . A) kind and warm-hearted B) well-informed C) good at cheating others D) foolish and rude
**Answer**
A