Question: Decreasing grain prices along with growing costs of production means Chinese farmers are unlikely to see a significant rise in income next year. [:ZXXK] China's economic planning chief Ma Kai expressed the concern as the government undertakes an ambitious program to improve rural people's lives. Grain prices have been dropping since April; and prices of wheat, corn and rice fell 5 per cent from August to October compared with the same period last year, Ma, minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, told an annual meeting on development and reform held over the weekend. Meanwhile, prices of production materials rose 9.1 per cent year on year during the first 10 months. The situation makes it difficult to achieve a "new socialist countryside," which was last week highlighted as a new concept and "common action" of the whole Party and nation. Vice-Minister of Agriculture Yin Chengjie also said China's entry to the World Trade Organization also creates _ for income rises for the country's 780 million farmers. Farmers' income is expected to increase by 5 per cent this year, hitting the target set by the central government at the beginning of this year. Last year, per capita net income of Chinese farmers reached 2,936 yuan (US$362), up 6.8 per cent year on year, and the highest increase since 1997. Ma also said China would continue to seek fast, steady economic growth in 2012 but more efforts will be made to deal with the challenges brought about by overheating in some industrial sectors  . (from China Daily, December 5, 2011) The writer thinks it difficult to achieve a "new socialist countryside" because   _  . A) grain prices decrease and production costs grow B) "new socialist countryside" is a new concept C) prices of production materials rose 9.1 percent D) many farmers are working in industrial sectors
Answer: A

Question: Most teenagers in Britain receive pocket money from their parents. A report by the Bank of Scotland interviewed over 1,000 young people in Britain and found that 77% get pocket money. Different families give different amounts of pocket money. The average for eight-to-fifteen-year-olds in the UK is about PS6 a week. Children in Scotland receive slightly more than the national average and Londoners get the most. Teenagers, logically, get more money than younger children. Some fifteen-to-nineteen-year-olds receive more than PS100 a month. The report found that many children save at least a quarter of their weekly pocket money and that more boys than girls save their money. Lots of young people have to do housework to get their pocket money. They help at home with jobs like cleaning and cooking. A part-time job is a choice for teenagers who don't have pocket money or who want to earn extra money. About 15% of teenagers have a job. Popular part-time jobs for teenagers include delivering newspapers, shop work, and working in a restaurant or cafe. There are strict government laws about working hours. Only children over 13 can work (there are some exceptions, for example, for actors.) On a school day they can work a maximum of 2 hours a day but not during school hours. At weekends and during school holidays they can work longer hours. The national minimum wage for people aged 16-17 is PS3.57 per hour. 18-year-olds must earn a minimum of PS4.83. There isn't a national minimum waged for people under 16. In Britain some children and teenagers have a bank account. There is no legal age limit at which you can open a bank account but a bank manager can decide whether to allow a child or young person to open an account. Parents can put pocket money directly into their child's bank account and then children can use it to pay for things without carrying money. Saving or spending pocket money, working part-time and dealing with banks are all parts of the process of becoming a financially independent adult and having to earn... The pocket money for a child in Scotland per week may be   _  . A) PS4 B) PS6 C) PS8 D) PS10
Answer: C

Question: Many private institutions of higher education around the country are in danger. Not all will be saved, and perhaps not all deserve to be saved. There are low-quality schools just as there are low-quality businesses. We have no duty to save them simply because they exist. But many promising institutions that deserve to continue are threatened. They are doing a fine job educationally, but they are caught in a financial squeeze, with no way to reduce rising cost or increase income significantly. Raising tuition doesn't bring in more income, for each time tuition goes up, the enrollment goes down, or the amount that must be given away in student aid goes up. Schools are bad businesses, whether public or private, not usually because of mismanagement but because of the nature of the enterprise. They lose money on every customer, and they can go bankrupt either from too few students or too many students. Even a very good college is a very bad business. It is such colleges, promising but threatened, that I worry about. Low enrollment is not their chief problem. Even with full enrollment, they may  _ . Efforts to save them, and preferably to keep them private, are a national necessity. There is no basis for arguing that private schools are inherently   better than public schools. There are many examples to the contrary. Anyone can name state universities and colleges that rank as the finest in the nation and the world. It is now inevitable that public institutions will be dominant, and therefore diversity is a national necessity. Diversity in the way we support schools tends to give us a healthy diversity in the forms of education. In an imperfect society such as ours, uniformity of education throughout the nation could be dangerous, In an imperfect society, diversity is a positive good. Supporters of public higher education know the importance of sustaining private higher education. The author used the phrase "go under" (Sentence 3, Para. 3) to mean   _  . A) get into difficulties B) have low enrollment C) have low tuition D) bring in more money
Answer:
A