Plants are very important living things. Life could not go if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot make food from air, water and sunlight. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. So animals and man need plants in order to live. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us. If you look carefully at the plants around you, you will find that there are two kinds of plants: flowering plants and  _ plants. Flowering plants can make seeds. The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed, some have two, three or four, and some have many seeds. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit. Most non-flowering plants don't grow from seeds. They grow from spores. Spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as the seeds. When these spores fall on wet and  _ , they usually grow into new plants. In "shady" place there is   _  . A) a lot of sunshine B) a lot of water C) no water D) little sunshine
D

I ran into quite a few language problems while vacationing with my family last summer. The most embarrassing was when my Mom apologized to the people we were staying with because her "pants were dirty". They looked at her in amazement, not knowing how to react. You see, Mom had fallen over and gotten mud on her jeans. But in Britain, "pants" means underpants or knickers, not trousers as it does back home.                                                                                                              Katie -- From America I went to stay with a friend on the west coast last summer. Her flat was on the first floor of a high-rise building so I got the lift up. Then I wandered round for ages looking for her flat but couldn't find it. Fed up and tired, I finally had to go out to find a phone box. She explained that her flat was on the first floor, which for me meant the ground floor.                                                          David -- From Britain When I asked for the "restroom" in a big department store, people kept directing me to a room with seats where I could sit and "rest". It took me years to get through to someone that I only wanted the toilet!                                                         Tom -- From America Last summer we went on a two-week family touring holiday, so Dad hired a car over the Internet. This was an old vehicle and there turned out to be lots of things wrong with it. When he phoned the hire company and tried to explain that the lock on the boot was broken, they thought he was talking about footwear! He had no idea their word for "boot" was "trunk". In the end we went to a  _ and just solved the problem.                                                            Mary -- From Britain Hearing Katie's mother's words, Katie's friends were in amazement because   _  . A) Katie's mother got mud on her jeans B) Katie's mother's underpants were dirty C) they mistook "pants" in American for underpants D) they didn't know English
C

If you were to come up with a list of organizations whose failures had done the most damage to the American economy in recent years,you would probably have to start with the Wall Street firms that brought us the financial.From there,you might move on to the automakers in Detroit.     But I would suggest that the list should also include a less obvious nominee:public education.     At its top level,the American system of higher education may be the best in the world.Yet in terms of its core mission-turning teenagers into educated college graduates--much of the system is failing.     The United States does a good job enrolling teenagers in college,but only half of the students who enroll end up with a bachelor's degree. So identifying the causes of the college dropout crisis m the world's largest economy matters enormously, and a new book called Crossing the Finish Line tries to do precisely that.Its authors are economists William Bowen and Michael.McPherson,and a doctoral candidate Matthew Chigoes.The first problem they diagnose is something they call tender-matching. It refers to students who choose not to attend the best college they can get into.They instead go to a less selective one,perhaps one that is closer to home or less expensive.About half of the low--income students with a grade-point average of at least3.5 in high school and an SAT score of at least 1,200 do not attend the best college they could have.  "I was really astonished by the degree to which well--qualified students from poor families under-matched," said Mr.Bowen. In fact,well-off students attend the colleges that do the best job of producing graduates.Meanwhile,lower-income students-even when they are better qualified--often go to colleges that excel in producing drop-outs."It's really a waste,"Mr.Bowen said,"and a big problem for the country."As the authors point out, the only way to lift the college graduation rate significantly is to lift it among poor and working--class students. Instead,it appears to have fallen.     What can be... What is a big problem with American higher education? A) It is hard to enroll enough students into college. B) Many colleges are experiencing low rate of graduation. C) Many college students stay away from classes. D) It is nard for many colleges to get financial and from the government.

B