Peter waved goodbye and closed the door slowly as Jane left home to visit her grandmother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favorite TV talk show on his first day off in months. "This will be like a walk in the park," he'd told his wife, "I'll look after the kids, and you can go to visit your grandma." Things started well, but just after eight o'clock, his three little "good kids"--Adam, Bob, and Christopher--came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted "breakfast, daddy." When food had not appeared within thirty seconds, Adam began using his spoon on Christopher's head as if it were a drum. Christopher started to shout loudly in time to the beat . Bob chanted "Where's my toast, where's my toast" in the background. Peter realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds. Life became worse after breakfast. Adam wore Bob's underwear on his head. Bob locked himself in the bathroom, while Christopher shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their very eyes. Someone named "Not Me" had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Peter knew the talk show had already started. By ten o'clock, things were out of control. Christopher was wondering why the fish in the jar refused his bread and butter. Adam was trying to show off his talent by decorating the kitchen wall with his color pencils. Bob, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the family room, but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Peter realized that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible. At exactly 11:17, Peter called the daycare centre ."I suddenly have to go into work and my wife's away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes?" The answer was obviously "yes" because Peter was smiling. Which of the following did Bob do? A) Using his spoon on Christopher's head. B) Wearing his underwear on his head C) Reading quietly in the family room. D) Eating apple jam from the bottle.
D
All over the world, and for many different reasons, there are millions of people who rarely or never eat meat. These people are called vegetarians. To people who eat meat, being a vegetarian may seem like a very strange thing, diets for several different reasons. First, vegetarians have an enormous health advantage. One of the major health problems in modern societies is not too much protein but too much fat, especially in the form of animal fats. Medical evidence suggests that animal fats, including butter, contribute to the development of cholesterol in the human body. High amount of cholesterol seem to be part of the cause of heart disease. Most vegetarians have low level of cholesterol. High amounts of animal fats also seem to lead to certain kinds of cancer, and vegetarians are typically less _ to these cancers than people who eat a lot of meat. Overall, studies comparing the health of vegetarians and meat-eaters show that the meat-eaters are twice as likely to die of heart disease as vegetarians are. Better health is one reason that people choose to become vegetarians. Another reason is religion. Some religions forbid the eating of meat. The largest of these is the Hindu religion, which has about 600 million believers in the world. Although not all Hindus are vegetarian, many are, and there are many believers of other religions such Buddhism and even some Christian religions that also do not eat meat. Many vegetarians do not eat meat simply because they do not like the taste of it. They have no religious or philosophical reasons; they just do not like meat. Another important reason that vegetarians give for not eating meat is the health advantages that were given above. Lastly, there are many people who do not eat meat because they just do not like the idea of killing animals for food. They believe that life, all life, is valuable , and that we do not have to destroy life to feed ourselves when there are other good sources of food. It can be inferred from the passage that _ . A) being a vegetarian may be a very strange thing B) vegetarians eat meat on some special occasions C) all vegetarians have reasons for their not eating meat D) most vegetarians believe that life without meat is happy.
D
Q: After being laid off from her job, Ann Bauer struggled financially. She worked at several lower-paid jobs, relocated to a new city and even declared bankruptcy. Then in December, she finally moved back into her parents' home at age 52. "I'm back living in the bedroom that I grew up in," she said. Taking shelter with parents isn't uncommon for young people, especially when the job market is poor. But now the declining economy is forcing some children to do so later in life---even at middle age. Financial planners report receiving many calls from parents seeking advice about taking in their grown children after divorces and lay-offs. Kim Erickson, a financial planner in California, said she has never seen older children, even those at 50, depending so much on their parents as in the last six months. "These are 40-and-50-year-old children of my clients that they're helping out. We have a hard time saying no as a culture to our children, and they keep asking for more," she said. Bauer's parents won't take rent money. She's trying to save several hundred dollars a month for a house while working as a meeting coordinator. Bauer would prefer to live on her own, but without her parents' help, she would "probably be renting again," she said. "Buying groceries for another person isn't stretching my budget too much," said her mother, Shirley Smith, aged 80. Parents usually feel guilty if they don't offer help. But a large number of well-meaning parents must delay retirement or scale back their dreams because they have to help their children, Erickson said. And the sliding economy might threaten their jobs. "I almost have to act like a financial therapist," she said to Shirley. "Here is the line I'm drawing for you. That's fine. You can do up to this point, but at this point, now you're starting to erode ( ) your own wealth." What is the main idea of the passage? A) American culture has an effect on the relationship between parents and children. B) Children's dependence on their parents is increasing. C) Sliding economy forces grown-ups to move to their parents' home. D) Supporting grown children may put their parents' financial freedom at risk.
A: C
Before we send humans into deep space, we'll have to find out just how long the human body can survive in a weightless environment. One problem is that in space there's no physical sensation to let you know when you're upside down and astronauts have to rely on possible clues from their surroundings. A few hours after reaching orbit , one in three of all astronauts will experience space sickness--a feeling rather like carsickness. There is also the problem of protection from the extreme hazards of space such as constant meteorite bombardment and radiation. It is going to take some clever technology to keep rockets and astronauts from these dangers. Even with a well-protected spaceship, space travel isn't going to be easy. No matter what you travel in, it is going to be a long flight in space! Science fiction writers often imagine using suspended animation , a kind of forced long-term sleep, as a way for astronauts to escape the boredom of long missions. An even stronger measure might be to freeze the astronauts. We already use cryogenic techniques to preserve dead bodies and store human embryos . Freezing living adults may not be so far away, but perhaps we don't have to do that. Perhaps we should use our existing technology and send frozen embryos to the far corners of universe. Hundreds of years from now, billions and billions of miles away, the embryos will be thawed and their hearts will start beating. These astronauts of the future will not grow inside a mother's body but will be produced in a machine. They will be brought up by robot. It may seem strange but one day it might just happen. In the future astronauts for extreme long journeys will grow up _ . A) before they go into space B) during the space trip C) when they are inside mother's body D) after they return from space
B