A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", saying the character best represents their love for the child, according to an official trying to standardize the national language. The unusual name stands out especially in Mandarin, which has no alphabet   and instead uses tens of thousands of multistroke   characters to represent words. "The whole world uses it to write emails, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming. While the @ symbol is familiar to Chinese email users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out. With a drawnout "t", this sounds something like "ai ta", or "love him", to Mandarin speakers. Li says the name is an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Mandarin, as commercialization and the Internet break down conventions  . Another couple tried to give their child a name that in English sounds like "King Osrina". Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals   and foreign languages. Sixty million Chinese face the problem that their names use ancient characters so uncommon that computers cannot recognize them _ , said Li, according to a report on the government website. One of them is the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name has a rare "rong" character that gives newspaper editors headaches. Why did the Chinese couple try to name their baby "@"? A) Because they wanted their baby to have a special name. B) Because they wanted their baby to have an international name. C) Because the @ symbol is familiar to email users all over the world. D) Because the @ symbol sounds something like "ai ta", which means "love him" in Chinese.
D


Tiangong -- 1(or.Heavenly Palace)space module is the first step toward China's plan to build a space station around 2020.Its launch by China has upset some countries,which are asking why China did not add on to the International Space Station that has been in place since 1998. After all, the Americans,Russians,Europeans and Japanese are using one platform to experiment in space. Questions have also been asked about China's final purpose in space and suggestions made that there is something as unpleasant as the theme in a James Bond movie,in which Chinese-looking enemies were at the root of some evil plot to control the world. Chinese don't see themselves that way, and never in history have they been flag-planting settlers.Most Westerners are educated in the adventures of the great European explorers,headed by Christopher Columbus and James Cook,and followed closely by the groups of culture egotists with a mix of guns,gold and the Bible in their hands. In comparison,Zheng He,the great Chinese sailing master,took groups of ships to Africa and the Middle East to promote goodwill, with gifts of chinaware and art.No flags claiming  possession of distant areas.But this is strange to Western society. In this century,it is clear that space cannot be claimed by one nation.Yet advantage of technology in space does seem to be on some minds.Former US president Ronald Reagan caused shocks and worries with his Star Wars program.So when China shot down its own satellite as a test in January 2010 there were anxieties in the West about Star Wars 1ike scenario becoming reality in the near future. It is most probable that the US,Russia,Europe and Japan   _  . A) are competing against one another in space wars B) feel anxious about China's setting up a space station C) are cooperating to compete against China in space D) have warned the world of China's final purpose
B


Q: The concept of solar power satellites, or SPS, first put forward in the 1960s, is still not widely known by the general public. For example, at many public exhibitions about energy, SPS is not even mentioned. This is mainly because very little money has been spent on SPS research There are people who claim that SPS is unrealistic - because launch costs are much too high today; or because it is too far away. So why do we believe that it is important to continue to do researches on SPS? The reason is very simple. Humans are going to need huge amounts of electric power in coming decades. Within 50 years the world population is expected to double, while economic growth will continue around the world, especially in the poorer countries. But existing energy sources already face serious problems. They are limited; they are polluted; they are dangerous. So 50 or 100 years from now, where is our power going to come from? Nobody knows. And so we believe that new large-scale possibilities should be studied further. We must remember that humans have some choices concerning our future. To some extent we can choose the direction in which our civilization develops. And choices that are made in the coming decades - such as the energy sources that we will or will not use, will have major, long-term meaning for human life on earth. We believe that if research continues to show that SPS is environmentally and economically attractive, SPS will open the door to a much more attractive future for human civilization than any ground-based energy source, and one that the public will support and that young people will find challenging and exciting. Furthermore energy from SPS can be readily used in developing countries, as the SPS 2000 project will show, thus aiding economic development worldwide. In addition, by creating large commercial fund for space engineering, SPS will open the frontier of space to economic development, thus creating a limitless new field for the growth of the world economy. Which of the following statements about SPS is TRUE? A) The research on SPS started in the 1960s is still not appreciated by the public. B) The research is showing SPS can benefit environment and economy at present. C) The energy from SPS is now being used in some developing countries. D) The public don't know about SPS because little time is devoted to the research.
A: A


*Question*
The financial crisis is reminding Americans of a lesson they first learned in childhood: Share and share alike. They are sharing or swapping tools and books, cars and handbags, time and talent. The renewed desire to share shows up in a variety of examples: A car-sharing service has had a 70 percent membership increase since the crisis occurred. Some companies encouraged his employees to take vanpooling. Governments are putting bikes on the street for public use. How-to-swap Web sites are increasing quickly. The economy reflects the way Americans have cut back, especially on daily items: Department store sales dropped 1.3 percent in June. People are not buying cars, and as a result, auto sales dropped 27.7 percent last month. They are not paying others to do what they can do themselves -- Home Depot reports increased attendance at in-store do-it-yourself clinics. And although paint sales are down in general, according to Sherwin-Williams, individual consumers are still buying. When Tom Burdett needed to cut some tiles at his home outside Annapolis, he refused to buy expensive tools. So he asked his neighbors and friends for help. Sure enough, someone had just what he needed. And when that friend needed help fixing a satellite dish, Burdett volunteered to help. The sharing mind-set is not new to the American culture, but many Americans give it up when the nation changed from an agricultural society to an industrial one, said Rosemary Hornak, a psychology professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C. They moved farther from their families and did not have time to connect with new neighbors because they worked so much, she said. Neighborhood conversations tell more of the story as the movement grows organically   in communities across the Washington region and the nation. On one street in Arlington, for example, neighbors are collecting their separate money for mulch   and dividing it among themselves. What is the text mainly about? A) Introducing a new way of life. B) Sharing in the financial crisis. C) How to reduce the living expense. D) How to handle the financial crisis.
**Answer**

B