*Question*
I came across quite a few language problems while on holiday 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, not trousers as it does back home. Katie -- From America 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 Last summer, I went to stay with a friend on the west coast. 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 Which of the following words is from British English? A) Pants B) Restroom C) Ground floor D) Trunk
**Answer**
C

*Question*
Ellen and Bill County are both teachers. They met in college and became good friends because of their shared love for children. Two years after the couple got married, Ellen saw a huge change in the life of one of her students, a 9 - year - old girl. Three years earlier both of the little girl's parents had died and there was no one to take care of her. She was taken away to live in a government office. But finally she was taken in and adopted by a family and became their daughter. Ellen said that she noticed the difference in the child's life after she was placed in a permanent home and thought that maybe she and her husband could help a child in a similar way. They decided to become temporary parents and to take a child into their home just on the weekends when the real parents could not take care of him or her. The pair planned to have their own children in a few years, but decided that this would be a way to give to the community in the meantime. The couple quickly grew to love one of the children they looked after. When he became legally available, Billy became the first child they took in permanently. Six months after adopting Billy, Ellen was told by her doctor that she was unable to have children naturally. Ellen says she knew then that adoption was the way she was meant to have a family. Since adopting Billy, now 17, Ellen and Bill have adopted five more children -- Rose, 16; Albert, 11; Joshua, 5 and in June 2003, they added biological brother and sister Tyler and Rylee to the County family. The County family has been recognized for their work on adoption, and has received many awards for their efforts.  Last June,  the family was even interviewed on  the television show, "Adoption Stories". Ellen says she would like to encourage other families to adopt children. She adds that the best part of being a mother of six is: "Giving Josh a bath, putting a band-aid on a cut knee or just the everyday Mom things, that makes motherhood such an honor and a privilege." Which of the children are related to each other by blood? A) Rylee and Tyler. B) Billy and Tyler. C) Albert and Joshua. D) Rose and Albert.
**Answer**
A

*Question*
Some people surveyed tasted the sweet, salty, and crunchy together with other tastes of food as they listen to different noises. It shows that louder noises reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness of food while increasing the measure of crunchiness . It may go some way to explain why airline food is widely complained about by both the workers and passengers. Andy Woods, a researcher, said, "It's a general opinion that plane foods aren't fantastic, but I'm sure airlines do their best, so we wondered if there were other reasons. One thought was that perhaps the background noise may have an effect. NASA gives their space explorers very strong-tasting foods, because for some reason, they can't taste food that strongly--again, it may have something to do with the background noise." In a study, 48 people were fed sweet foods or salty ones, while listening to nothing or noise through earphones. Meanwhile they rated  the foods. In noisier settings, foods were rated less salty or sweet than they were when it was silent, but were rated crunchier. "The evidence shows that if the background noise is loud, your attention might be drawn to that, away from the food." Dr. Woods said. "We are still at an early stage of progressing and this is a rather small study to really draw definitive  conclusions from," Dr Woods said, "but they suggest that restaurants could well adapt their choice of food for a given environment." Also in the group's findings there is the suggestion that the overall satisfaction with the food is also related to the degree to which people like what they are hearing. Why does NASA give their space explorers very strong-tasting foods? A) Foods become less tasty in space. B) The explorers lose their sense of taste in space. C) Loud noises in space may weaken the explorers' sense of taste. D) The explorers need tastier foods to keep energetic in space.
**Answer**
C

*Question*
A woman baked bread for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passer-by. She kept the extra bread on the window-sill  , for whomever would take it away. Every day, a hunch-back   came and took away the bread. Instead of expressing thanks, he said the following words as he went his way: "The evil   you do remains with you. The good you do, comes back to you!" This went on, day after day. Every day, the hunch-back came, picked up the bread and repeated the words. One day, the woman felt angry and decided to do away with him. She added poison   to the bread she prepared for him !As she was about to place it on the window sill, her hands trembled. "What is this I am doing?" she thought...As usual, the hunch-back came, picked up the bread and repeated those words. That evening, there was a knock on the door. As usual, the hunch-back came, picked up the bread and repeated those words. That evening, there was a knock on the door. As she opened it, she was surprised to find her son standing in the doorway. His clothes were torn. He was hungry, starved and weak. As he saw his mother, he said, "Mom ,it's a wonder I'm here. While I was but a mile away, I was so hungry that I fell down. I would have died, but just then an old hunch-back passed by. I begged of him for a small part of his food, and he was kind enough to give me a whole bread. As the mother heard those words, her face turned pale and red. She remembered the poisoned bread that she had made that morning. Had she not burnt it in the fire, it would have been eaten by her own son, and he would have lost his life! It was then that she realized the significance of the words: "The evil you do remains with you. The good you do,comes back to you!" How did the mother feel when she heard her son 's words? A) Frightened and ashamed. B) Frightened and excited. C) Relieved but ashamed. D) Relieved and excited.
**Answer**

A