Q: As nanny , cook, cleaner, shopper, driver, and gardener, she has one of the most demanding jobs in Britain today. And paying someone else to do the chores which take the average housewife 71 hours a week would cost EUR349. At over EUR18,000 a year that's more than the earnings of 70 percent of the population, including train drivers, firemen, prison officers, and social worker. Looking after a baby less than a year old takes a housewife into a even higher pay league. According to a stud, she earns EUR457 a week - at nearly EUR24,000 a year, the same as teachers, engineers, and chemists. Researchers put a price on each chore, then tried to find out how long the average person takes doing them. They found housewives spend an average 70.7 hours a week on housework - with looking after the children (17.9hours) and cooking and cleaning (12.9 hours each) the most time-consuming . A wife with a part-time job still works and average of 59 hours a week at home. Those in full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace. The good news is that these hours sharply as children get older. While the average mother with child under one puts in 90 hours weekly, the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66 hours from five to ten. Mother-of-four Karen Williams from London said, "Paying the housewives may not be practical, but the government should recognize the value of housework, perhaps through the tax. Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don't understand this. For example, my husband only puts a shelf up now and again. He never cleans the kitchen - that's the real test." Who earns most according to the text? A) A social worker. B) A fireman. C) A gardener. D) A teacher.
A: D

Q: I usually doubt about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago.While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, 1 was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children between 9 and 17 have a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago. Why are America's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place. Given that _ , adults can still do plenty to help the next generation to cope. At the top of the list,nurturing is a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress. To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later.They will then have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep. Limit the amount of virtual violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news. Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale. Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you deal with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable,but it doesn't have to ruin your life. What conclusion can be drawn from the passage? A) Anxiety, though always unavoidable, can be coped with. B) Children's anxiety has been enormously exaggerated . C) Children's anxiety can be removed with more parental care. D) Anxiety, if properly controlled, may help children become mature.
A: C

Q: Garden building is considered an important part of Chinese culture. Some people say that if you have never walked through a Chinese garden, you cannot say that you have really visited China. Traditional Chinese gardens are located in North China in such places as Beihai Park, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City. In larger imperial gardens, the main buildings are connected by an imaginary line in the middle of the garden on the north-south axis . Other features of imperial gardens are colored-paintings, man-made hills and lakes. Most private gardens are found in the south, especially in cities south of the Yangtze River. Private gardens were mostly built at one side or at the back of the houses. Around the beautiful scene are small open areas with beautiful shaped-doors through which visitors can enjoy the sights. _ are open on all sides and are often near the water so that the whole scene can be enjoyed. Suzhou, known as the home of gardens, displays the most and the best Chinese traditional private gardens. Different parts of it are examples of the garden style of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.[ The landscape garden contains a number of pleasant natural scenes and some fairy tales. The ancient Chinese used to call the garden landscape "Jing" , which means "scene" in English. Good examples include the ten West Lake Scenes in Hangzhou, the twenty-four slim West Lake in Yangzhou and the eight Daming Lake Scenes in Jinan. The passage tells mainly about _ . A) an important part of Chinese culture B) how to enjoy Chinese gardens C) where foreigners can find Chinese gardens D) the characters of different style of Chinese garden building
A: D

Q: Americans have always been hungry for the holidays. After all, a big Thanksgiving feast is one of our country's oldest traditions, older than America itself. Thankfully, the spirit behind Thanksgiving has never changed, either. It has always been a special time to be thankful for the blessings of the past year. The feast that has become known as the First Thanksgiving was actually a harvest festival celebrated in December of 1621. That's when English settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, gave thanks for the progress they had made after a harsh winter in their new country. Guests at outdoor tables gobbled up ducks, geese turkeys, clams, eels, fish, wild plums, corn bread and other goodies. About 90 Native Americans also came and brought five deer to add to the feast. The festival lasted for three days. Thanksgiving customs spread and expanded along with the rest of America. After the American Revolution, George Washington proclaimed that the first national Thanksgiving would be on November 26, 1789. In the decades to follow, however, people celebrate Thanksgiving locally and with no official date. A women's magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale wanted to change this. After years of trying hard to get support, she finally persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to proclaim the last Thursday in November 1863 as a national day of Thanksgiving. It stayed that way for 75 years afterward until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt set it one week earlier. He wanted to lengthen the shopping period before Christmas to encourage gift-buyers and help businesses. So Congress ruled that, after 1941, Thanksgiving would be an official federal holiday falling each year on the fourth Thursday of November. This year we celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26. What can we NOT learn from the passage? A) Some Native Americans also joined the First Thanksgiving. B) Americans will have three days off on Thanksgiving Day. C) Roosevelt set Thanksgiving one week earlier to develop economy. D) People still celebrated Thanksgiving with no official date in 1809.
A: B