Q: The common Chinese greeting of "Ni chi le ma?" may soon be replaced by a new greeting: "Have you cleaned your plate?" Over the Spring Festival holiday there was a big effort to get people to curb their habit of ordering too much food in restaurants because a lot of that food ended up being wasted. Holiday eaters were urged to "clean their plates" and were asked to take leftover food home in "doggy bags." The impetus behind the campaign was the startling government statistic that over 200 billion yuan is spent every year on food that ends up in the garbage bin. And in the midst of all this waste, statistics show that 128 million people are living below the poverty line and going hungry. The "clean your plate" campaign is part of a worldwide effort to stop precious food from being wasted. The United Nations estimates that $1trillion (yes, that's a very big number) worth of food is wasted each year. Most of that is lost during food production and transportation, but a significant percentage is attributed to waste by consumers. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has launched a campaign called "Think. Eat. Save." to make people aware of the problem. Chinese actress Fan Bingbing is an ambassador for UNEP and she encouraged people to upload pictures of their "clean plates" to show their support for the program. Thousands of people responded and demonstrated that they had a clear conscience to go along with their full stomachs. Xi Jinping, the incoming Chinese president, is also urging people to be less wasteful and he told Party members to cut back on extravagant holiday banquets and to be more careful when spending the people's money. For some, though, Xi Jinping's and Fan Bingbing's admonitions don't go far enough. Yuan Longping, an agricultural scientist, caused a stir by saying that wasting food should be treated as a crime. (Jail time for leftover chicken feet!?) If not a crime, wasting food is certainly a sin and it goes against what Xi Jinping calls, "the Chinese tradition of being diligent and... What' the best title for the passage? A) Food is important. B) Have you cleaned your plate? C) Jail time for leftover chicken feet!? D) Wasting food is crime.
A: B


Q: Thanksgiving Day is a special holiday in the United States and Canada. Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing. Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is celebrated in late fall, after the crops are get in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On December 4,1619, the Pilgrims from England landed near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic. The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest. The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. They had a difficult time and the first winter was cruel. Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year, they had a good harvest. So Governor Bradford declared a three-day feast . The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food. In time, other colonies began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed the last Thursday of November in 1863 as a day of thanksgiving. Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbours. But the Canadian Thanksgiving Day falls on the second Monday in October. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated   _  . A) in spring B) in summer C) in autumn D) in winter
A: C


Q: For PS12 you can equip an entire classroom in Burkina Faso, for PS31 you can equip a school football team in Sierra Leone and for PS68 you can support the whole education of a Haitian schoolgirl. The educational presents are the latest way on the trend of charitable giving for Christmas. Plan UK, an international children's charity, has made its gift list focusing on helping the world's poorest countries to improve their education conditions. "Every year we rack our brains for the perfect present and too often end up with yet another pair of socks or a useless ornament," said Marie Staunton, Plan UK's chief executive. "This year we are offering people in the UK the chance to give twice. Buying an alternative gift for a loved one could likely save the life of some of the world's poorest children." Plan UK is working on projects in specific countries, such as Burkina Faso, which is one of the poorest countries in the world and has a primary school enrolment rate of just 36%. A present of PS12 will help equip a classroom in Burkina Faso with chairs, desks, books and pencils. The educational presents are the latest addition to a list of other charitable presents, including vaccinations and clean water systems. Football strips for schoolchildren in Sierra Leone are designed to help the children have fun while continuing with the psychological healing process following the country's civil war. The PS31 gift will supply the team strip, a football and a whistle to a school in Sierra Leone. Oxfam offers similar gifts. Its Back to School kits for five pupils is a bestseller in a catalogue which includes the PS24 Christmas goat, the PS30 lavatory and PS12 for school dinners for up to 200 children. The title for the passage would probably be   _  . A) A new way of Christmas shopping B) Give a helping hand to poor children C) Buy a child an education this Christmas D) Plan UK, an international children's charity
A: C


Q: The Internet has greatly changed the way people communicate. But some teachers think the changes are not all for the better. Eleanor Johnson, an English professor, thinks that text messaging has made students believe that it is far more acceptable than it actually is to just make terrible spelling and grammatical errors. And she says her students over the past several years have increasingly used less formal English in their writing. Words and phrases like "guy" and "you know" now appear in research papers. Professor Johnson supposes there is a strong relationship between the rise of informal online communication and an increase in writing mistakes. But she says there may not be much scientific information, at least not yet. David Crystal, a British linguist , says the actively changing nature of the Internet makes it difficult to keep up-to-date in studying its effects. But he believes its influence on language is small. The main effect of the Internet on language is the way it has added to the expressive richness of language, providing language with a new set of communicative tools that haven't existed in the past. Erin Jansen is founder of NetLingo.com, an online dictionary of the Internet and text messaging terms. She says the new technology has not changed existing language but has greatly added to its vocabulary. Basically it's freedom of expression. And what about those teachers who find these new kinds of mistakes in spelling and grammar in their students' work? What is her message to them? Erin Jansen said, "I am always on the students' side and won't get angry or upset about that. If it's helping the kids write more or communicate more, that's great. That's what teachers and educators want--to get kids communicating." But Erin Jansen and David Crystal agree with Eleanor Johnson on at least one thing. Teachers need to make sure students understand the uses and rules of language. David Crystal and Erin Jansen share the view that the Internet   _  . A) has changed our language system B) has influenced our language greatly C) makes language richer in expression D) makes language harder to understand

A: C