Has anyone been prepared for the possibility that unexpected poor visibility   will stop the pilot from landing? If your pilot is forced to turn back only for his lack of passing a certain test, you will be certainly shocked. This very thing happened to the passengers on Flight BE1431 on Thursday. Just minutes before landing on Charles de Gaulle Airport  , Paris, the pilot, a very experienced one, told his passengers, "Unfortunately I'm not qualified to land in Paris for the poor visibility. To do so a level II qualification is required, which I have not gained. We'll have to fly back." Then, you may guess how the passengers felt about their flight back to the starting airport.     A spokeswoman said the pilot was really experienced with more than 30 years flying a number of different passenger aircraft types. "But he has recently transferred from flying aBQ300 to aBQ400, so hehas to regain his qualification for landing in such conditions as the thick fog he experienced this time," she said. "The pilot, therefore, quite correctly turned the aircraft back, a decision 100 percent accepted by the aviation   officials in the company." One passenger said she had missed an appointment for an interview in prefix = st1 /Paris. "I might have had a nice chance to work inParis," she told the local newspaper. "The whole thing sounds hard to believe. If I had not been on the plane, I would take it as a funny story!" The British Civil Aviation Authority described the incident as one that was "quite unusual but probably not unheard of," because there are different classifications   of aircraft with different qualifications for landing in different climatic conditions and when an aircraft is updated, the pilots have to get retrained, even though they have enough skills to do the job successfully.  Poor pilot, it's not really his fault... Without her own experience, the passenger would consider the incident to be quite   _  . A) unsafe B) normal C) unbelievable D) acceptable
C


I attended a birthday party in 1991. My teacher was then 59 years old. But her fellow teacher said that we were celebrating her 39thbirthday! We were all surprised and puzzled. After the party I was told by the fellow teacher that American women have a special saying about birthdays. If a woman is over 40, or even if she is 80, her birthday is always the 39th. If she is in her thirties, her birthday will be the 29th. And in her twenties, it's the 19th. They usually have their "real" birthday when they are below 20. This shows that American women, especially elderly women, are very sensitive  about their ages. But my teacher always says, "We want to be younger," so about the age of Western women, my advice is that if you don't know it, don't ask about it; if you really know it, don't mention it. The writer wants to tell us  _  . A) that a Western woman always celebrates her 39 thbirthday B) not to ask a Western woman's age whether you know her well or not C) to ask a Western woman's age freely D) not to attend an old Western woman's birthday party
B


Q: Most people think that the capital of the movie world is Hollyhood, in the United States. However, the real movie capital is Mumbai, in India. Mumbai used to be known as Bombay, and so the film industry there is called "Bollywood." Bollywood makes twice as many movies each year as Hollyhood--more than 800 films a year. The movies from Bollywood are very different from Hollywood movies. For one thing, Bollywood movies are much longer than most Hollywood movies. Most Bollywood movies are more than three hours long, and contain singing, dancing, action, adventure, mystery, and romance (but usually no kissing). Because Bollywood films contain so many different features, this style of film is sometimes called a "masala" film. ("Masala" is an Indian word for a mixture of spices.) Another big difference between Bollywood and Hollywood movies is the way movies are made. It takes much longer to make a movie in Hollywood than in Bollywood. In fact, filming may begin on a Bollywood movie before the script even finished. The director and writers can make up the story while the film is being made. Sometimes they will even write the script by hand instead of taking time to type it. Bollywood actors are very popular and some are in such high demand that they may work on several movies at the same time. They may even shoot scenes for several films on the same day using the same costumes and scenery. Since most Bollywood movies follow the same kind of story, shooting scenes for several films at the same time is not a big problem for actors or directors. This also helps keep the cost of Bollywood movies lower than the cost of Hollywood movies. The average Bollywood film, with a budget of only two million U.S. dollars, seems very cheap compared to the average budget of sixty million U.S. dollars for a Hollywood film--thirty times as much! What is the main topic of the reading? A) famous stars in Bollywood B) how Hollywood movies are made C) the differences between two movie industries D) the history of movie-making in India
A: C


(Q).
Scientist Florence Wambugu works with farmers in Kenya, a country in East Africa. She helps them grow bigger and better crops. Wambugu is especially interested in finding simple ways to produce more food. In the past ten years, Wambugu has spent much of her time studying sweet potatoes, which are an important food in her part of Kenya. A virus   kept attacking the plants. It stopped the sweet potatoes from growing well. Because of the virus, some farmers lost three quarters of their crops. Wambugu went to war against the virus. Her research for a way to save the sweet potatoes led to a lab in St. Louis, Missouri. The lab mainly works on genes  , the chemical "computer programs" found in the cells of living things. Genes tell a plant to produce pink flowers or an animal to grow black hair. Now scientists have found ways to move genes from one living thing to another. That process is called genetic engineering. Wambugu spent three years in the lab. As a result, she created a sweet potato plant that could fight off the virus. Wambugu tested her research in Kenya, and her plants produced wonderful sweet potatoes. That's just the beginning, Wambugu believes. Genetically modified   foods, she thinks, could help farmers in poor countries grow badly needed crops, thus, fewer people will go hungry. The text is written mainly to   _  . A) tell us sweet potatoes are in danger of being attacked by a virus B) introduce Wambugu's contribution to genetic engineering C) introduce a new way of killing plant viruses D) tell how hard Wambugu worked in her lab for three years
(A).

B